Higher Ground (11 page)

He looked at her with a worried expression, but Adam touched his arm, stepped close to speak in his ear. “She agrees with you. She’ll back you up.”

Zach sighed with relief and turned to go for the steps to the stage. Before he could, Morrison grabbed his arm.

“Benesh, if you do this, you’ll never work for the Terraforming Authority again. You’ll throw your career away. Think of your parents, man, all they’ve done for you. Are you going to destroy everything they and you have worked for?”

“If I have to, yes.” Zach pulled his arm out of Morrison’s grip and walked away. Adam and Korrie followed. Morrison seemed to recognize Adam and frowned but didn’t bother asking him not to throw his career away. Well, he barely had one yet. However this turned out, he had less to lose than Zach. He caught up with Zach at the back of the platform. Zach looked better than he had earlier, had managed to snatch a shower and a shave somewhere, though his clothes were still rumpled and limp.

“You’re all set up,” Simon Frane said.

“What about the video transmission?” Zach asked.

“Already started,” Visha said. “I’ve broken into the dome’s camera system. The whole colony could be watching right now.”

“We’d better go lie low for a while, before someone reports the distress signal and the sheriff comes looking for us,” Simon said. He shook Zach’s hand. “Good luck, see you tomorrow.” He and Visha took off, melting into the crowd.

“I have a chair up on the platform for you, Professor,” Zach said to Korrie. “Thank you for supporting me. Adam, are you coming up?”

“I think I’ll stay by the stairs,” Adam said. “Run interference if anyone tries to come up. And keep an eye on those.” He nodded at the power feeds for the video equipment. Someone getting at them could sabotage Zach’s evidence presentation.

“Good idea, thank you.”

Thank you
brought their earlier kiss to mind, and he wanted to repeat it, for luck again, but there were so many people here, and all of them paying attention to Zach, even Adam felt inhibited. Instead he made a thumbs-up gesture and said, “Knock ’em dead.”

Zach nodded and climbed the steps to the stage. Korrie had already gone up there and sat in the folding chair, appearing entirely oblivious to the hundreds of people watching. The crowd stirred when Zach came onto the stage. Most couldn’t know him, Adam thought, but those who did would have pointed him out, and the knowledge rippled through the crowd. Adam climbed a couple of the steps so he could see the knot of hostile councilors and academics at the front, the large crowd behind them, the uniformed cops by the doorway over at the back… Wait, he saw only two of them. Someone was on the move.

Voices still chattered away in the bar over to the side of the big open space. Plenty of people were crowding in there, some standing outside of it, drinks in hand, watching the stage. Glancing around, Adam made a note of the nearest exit. If he had to get Zach and Korrie out of here, he wanted to be ready.

Zach, carrying a microphone, stepped to the front of the stage.

“Good evening and thank you all for coming. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Dr. Zach Benesh. I sent the message today asking you all to be here. I apologize for any alarm I’ve caused. But this situation is so serious I had no choice but to use the strongest language.” He paused as voices stirred, but nobody shouted him down yet. Somewhere near the back, a baby wailed, the sound fading as it was taken outside. “I’m a geophysicist working in the Physical Sciences department of the Terraforming Institute.”

Adam almost expected one of the professors to shout, “not anymore,” but they didn’t—yet.

“I’ve discovered from seismic scans that the magma chamber under the sea floor directly below this island is about to empty rapidly. When this happens, the sea floor will sink and the island along with it. This will cause the interior basin to flood and perhaps even the mountains to sink beneath the surface of the sea. This event will occur within days. We have to leave the colony immediately.”

The place erupted, questions, shouts that Zach was crazy, general abuse, all hurled at the stage. Zach waited a moment, then raised his hand. Adam, watching him from behind, thought he should have been checking out Zach’s rather nice ass. But his attention was as riveted as everyone else’s on Zach’s words. He’d already heard it once, but here, in this atmosphere, to hear him say it to all these people, gave it a weight, a terror Adam hadn’t felt before.

“I have a short presentation about my evidence, if you’ll bear with me.” Zach poked a couple of buttons on his Link, and the screen behind him lit up. He began to go through the data as Adam had seen him do at Korrie’s home. He’d made it less technical this time, but nothing about it gave Adam any reason to doubt Zach. When Korrie stood up and gave her endorsement, Adam began to compose in his head a list of what he’d take with him from his place. He wouldn’t sit around and wait for rescue. If the island began to sink, he wanted to be somewhere high. They needed to get out of the basin and up a mountain.

Zach and Korrie took questions from the crowd, and from the academics at the front. The fact Phillips and Morrison were disagreeing with Zach caused ripples of doubt to spread through the crowd.

“Tell me why he’s wrong,” Korrie demanded of them after one such ripple. “Stop saying he ‘can’t’ be right and point to where his evidence is in error. Because I’ve tried to find an error, and I can’t. Not in the data, not in his interpretation. He’s right, and we have to act.”

“What are we supposed to do?” someone called from the crowd.

“A colony distress call is already being sent,” Zach said.

“You can’t do that,” Colleen Johnson shouted. “You’re not authorized.”

“It’s currently sending,” Zach said. “Authorized or not. Rescue ships will come from the outposts and from off-world, but we can’t simply sit here and wait for rescue.”

Johnson started to shove her way through the crowd. She’s going to find out about the distress signal, Adam thought. Or she’s going to get the sheriff. He hoped Zach and the Franes had anticipated this and found a way to keep the signal on.

“We have to get out of the basin and move to higher ground,” Zach went on. “The basin will flood when sea water comes in through the old lava vents. As the basin floor is below sea level, the island sinking only two meters will leave the basin under five meters of water. Our best chance to buy time for rescue to arrive is to climb out of the basin.”

“This is madness,” a councilor called. “You expect over one thousand people to abandon their farms, their homes, their work, and climb a mountain?”

“And what about our experiments?” a professor called. “You should know we can’t just leave them. And the quarterly reports—”

“We can’t leave crops and livestock unattended!” a farmer shouted.

“If you want to survive, then you have to.” Zach raised his voice over the objections. “We have to set off as soon as possible, I suggest tomorrow morning at eight, to allow everyone time to gather what they need. I’ve drawn up a list of items people should bring. I’m sending it to everyone now.” He tapped on his Link, and a chorus of beeps instantly burst from the crowd. At the same time, the list came up on screen.

“Essentials only,” Zach said. “But everyone should bring the largest backpack they have, even if they don’t fill it.”

“Why?” a couple of people shouted.

“Because eventually we’ll have to carry the children.”

A papoose, Adam thought. You could use a backpack like a papoose for a toddler. Those with babies probably already had carrying slings or papooses for them, and older children should be able to keep up. It was the toddlers who wouldn’t be able to manage alone.

The crowd were debating more among themselves, and many people were reading the list on their Links. Some still shouted questions out to Zach. The council and the academics were arguing, with people near them and with each other—something Adam was glad to see.

He wasn’t so glad to see the sheriff heading this way, Colleen Johnson in his wake.

“Zach!” Adam called, bringing him over to the side of the platform. “Trouble’s coming.”

“Yes, I see. They’ll want to talk to me about the distress call. Take Professor Korrie and get out of here.”

“You come too.”

“No. Running away would not convince people I believe in what I’m saying. Take her and go, quickly. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Okay. Good luck.” He grabbed Zach’s collar and pulled him down for a kiss, not caring how many people might be watching them. It could only last a second, felt even shorter, and he broke away and ran around the back of the stage to the other side.

“Ann.” She turned to him from where she crouched at the front of the stage, arguing with the academics, and he gestured frantically, bringing her over to him. “Come down, we’re leaving. The sheriff is coming.”

“What about Zach?”

“He’ll be fine. You and I are going.” He hated to go and leave Zach behind. Wanted to stand at his side, face whatever came, but he’d be more useful to Zach on the loose than locked up beside him. He reached up and lifted Korrie down as the sheriff climbed the steps to the stage, Johnson following.

Zach held up the microphone to make sure the crowd heard the sheriff arresting him for unauthorized use of the colony distress signal. Damn, but Zach was good, Adam thought. Maybe his intensity and charisma came from being a frustrated actor, because he’d beautifully set up a dramatic moment. The sheriff, a great bear of a guy, the big authority bully confronting the more slender Zach, arresting the underdog trying to save them all. As Adam made a break for the fire exit, Korrie at his side, he knew that whatever happened, everyone who watched that moment would never forget it.

Part of him hoped they’d remember it as the night the sheriff arrested that crazy guy Benesh over his crackpot theory about the island sinking.

Chapter Nine

Adam drove away from Korrie’s place. He’d arrived an hour ago, intending to drop her off and leave, but she’d insisted he come in to eat. He hadn’t objected, especially not when she’d taken out a couple of steaks, saying there wasn’t much point in saving them. They’d finished off with ice cream.

“I can’t take it with me,” she’d said. “We might as well enjoy it now.”

He’d left her packing her backpack and readying for the morning.

She’d be there for the rendezvous. But who else would be? Adam turned off the road when he spotted the glow of light on a gate ahead of him. He drove up the track to Eva’s farm and parked right by the door to her house. The windows were dark, but a light came on upstairs when he banged on the door. Behind the door, the dog began barking. Eva leaned out of the window.

“Who’s there? What do you want?”

“Eva!” He stepped back from the door and into the light so she could see him. “It’s Adam Gray. I’m sorry to call so late, but I have to talk to you.” Not so late, barely 21:30, but farmers retired early.

“Adam? Wait there, I’ll be right down.”

Adam paced by the door until a light came on behind it, and it opened to reveal Eva in a red dressing gown and bedroom slippers.

“Can I come in?”

“Adam, for heaven’s sake. I’m in my nightdress.”

He grinned, despite his agitation. “You know you’re perfectly safe from me, despite the obvious temptation.”

“Oh, come in, you terrible boy. What’s all this about?” She closed the door behind him as he walked into the still-warm kitchen. The dog, realizing he was a friend, went back to its basket in the corner of the room.

“Did you go to Dr. Benesh’s meeting at the dome earlier?”

“Yes. I saw you there, helping him out. You should be careful about hitching your wagon to his star. It won’t do you any favors at the Institute. Do you want some coffee?”

“No coffee, thank you.” Adam laughed, feeling as if he wanted to let go and laugh hysterically for an hour or so. “Eva, the Institute, that’s all over. This whole island is over. Didn’t you believe what Zach said?”

“Dr. Morrison and Dr. Phillips got up afterward and explained how it wasn’t confirmed yet and they had to do more tests. They said nothing could happen as quickly as Dr. Benesh claimed.”

“And you believe
them
?”

“Well, they’re so much more senior.”

“What about Professor Korrie? Isn’t she senior?”

“Ann Korrie’s always been a maverick who likes a bit of trouble.”

Adam groaned and rubbed his hands over his face. She couldn’t just stay here. She couldn’t.

“Eva, please, for me, come with us tomorrow.”

“You know I don’t have time for that nonsense. I have work to do. The crop—”

“The crop will be gone!” He bit his lip and flushed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to shout. Please, think it through. If he’s right, you’ll die if you stay here. If he’s wrong, well, so what? So you’re away for a few days? The crop will be fine for a few days. You can’t get into any trouble with anyone for leaving.” Unlike himself.

“What about the livestock? And Jess?” She nodded at the dog in its basket.

“You can bring Jess.”

“And the livestock? I can’t climb a mountain with a flock of chickens, Adam.”

Adam grimaced. No. How did he tell her she’d have to leave them to die? “Just promise me you’ll think about it. Please.”

She sighed and tucked her hands into the opposite sleeves. “All right, I’ll think about it. That’s all I can promise.”

“That’s all I’m asking. I’m sorry to get you out of bed. Get some sleep, and I’ll see you in the morning.” He gave her his most charming smile. Surely no woman could resist.

“No promises.”

He wanted to stay and argue for longer, to hustle her into packing tonight, but he didn’t have time. Adam had a lot of friends. He had to get around to all of them before morning.

* * * *

“Coffee?” Deputy Torres handed Zach a mug through the bars of the holding cell. She’d been guarding him all night and had been consistently polite, not even telling him to shut the hell up as he kept on trying to convince her about the threat and that she needed to come with them into the mountains.