Part of the release agreement was that she hand over her hacking program she called “Jordy.” He was among the elite of programs, something she developed only for the satellites. But his basic commands could be easily altered to add or remove items from a victim’s computer, an invisible worm whose presence could not be detected, at least not by anyone else. To prevent anyone from having it, she’d given them a placebo, the failed prototype of Jordy. Not even her father knew.
“If you want me to find out how this is going to impact the other plates, I need to access the SDL over the Sunda,” she said. “It’s the only way, Dad.”
Her father didn’t answer. The Seismic Depth Locator was his invention, a monumental stride in technology with an amazing seventy percent successful rate in predicting earthquakes. Every ocean trench had one floating above it and she needed the orbiting satellite, Gemstar II, to get the information concerning the Sunda.
Her desk phone rang. Rina recognized the number and grunted. It was General Bauman. Justin tapped the speaker button.
“Mr. Secretary,” he said, his concentration still on the monitor. “I’ll have to get back to you. Right now we have an emergency.”
“Don’t bother,” said Bauman, his voice raspy and loud. “You will not allow your daughter access to any, I repeat, any of the satellites. You got that, Young?”
A heated anger rose up in Rina. “Lis—”
Justin covered her mouth and shook his head. “So you know about the quake?”
“I know everything that’s happening.”
“This shift may affect the other plates. We’re going to check all angles.”
“Just keep your daughter out of the satellites.” A click ended the conversion.
Justin released her mouth. “Can you not irritate him now? We have more important things to do.”
“He’s a snake and you know it,” said Rina. “Why was he so quick to make the call? The quake isn’t even five minutes old. He’s got eyes on us.”
“I’m sure he does,” said Justin, “but right now, I don’t care. My concern is for what just happened, so let’s stay focused.”
She faced the monitor again, trying to push the creep out of her mind, but her emotions kept rattling on. Bauman was a devious, malicious man who enjoyed power too much, something he couldn’t hide from her. Four weeks ago, she was sitting at this very computer when someone hacked in and, before she could turn off her system, they’d stolen the real Jordy. Someone had to know about the fake Jordy. Bauman had an entourage of hacking goons at his command and, unfortunately, she wasn’t on to him until then.
Sadly, two weeks later, four senators who’d repeatedly opposed Bauman’s issues were indicted for downloading child pornography. Eventually, they would be cleared of all charges, but the stain would remain, ruining their lives and careers. Her own investigation revealed the hacks had all the traces of Jordy. So, like any good citizen, she took care of the matter. She waited until Bauman broke into her system again, then sent him a virus that spread to all the computers containing Jordy’s program, blowing their hard drives to smithereens. There was no way any of them survived.
She glanced down at the PDA resting beside the keyboard. The thin red device held all the hacks she’d created and downloaded off her system as soon as Jordy was stolen. A wide smile crossed her face. Bauman had lost. She stuffed the PDA into the pocket of her khaki-colored shorts.
Suddenly, seismic alarms began blaring. She hurriedly typed on the keyboard. Hundreds of earthquakes were rumbling across the planet. Africa, Chile, Japan, California, every continent was being affected by the anomaly.
The OSRI building began to shake. A deep rumble grew louder. Rina was momentarily stunned.
This doesn’t happen in Florida, she thought. This place is all sand. We’re going to sink.
She felt Justin grab her arm and lift her off the seat. “We have to go now!” he shouted.
They ran up the stairs into the windowed hallway. There was a sharp jerk and the building seemed to bounce. Rina lost her balance and fell into Justin. He pushed her back up on her feet, when suddenly there was a loud snap and the windows shattered. Flying shards raced towards them and they hit the floor for cover. Her father kept his face pressed against the floor as he shouted to her but the deafening roar blocked any sound. Justin grabbed her hand and began pulling her up when chunks of sheetrock came falling down. They stumbled out of the way trying to keep their balance.
From the third story, Rina watched the Atlantic Ocean drive powerful waves inland, smothering everything. Down on the streets, cars swerved off the road. Buildings collapsed like paper cards. Water lines ruptured. Gas mains exploded into plumes of fire.
Just then, the ground movement ceased. All was quiet. The two stood motionless, waiting with their arms out sideways and ready to run again. Nothing happened. Gray dust clouds floated in the hallway. They relaxed.
“Are you hurt?” asked Justin, gently touching her face.
She reached up and wiped a trickle of blood off his forehead before it reached his eye. “I’m okay,” she said, eyeing the debris. “At least the building held.”
“Yeah, but nothing else in town did.”
The small town of Indialantic had been leveled. The ocean claimed four blocks, stopping less than a fifty yards from OSRI. Palm trees, boats, and broken homes bobbed in the dark water, remnants of a once beautiful beach town. People were wandering about dazed. Power was out everywhere.
“Shiro!” she said anxiously. She hadn’t seen her friend of over seven years since breakfast.
“I just talked to him,” said Justin. “He was down at the generators.”
A crackle came from her cell phone and she unclipped it from her shorts.
“It’s him,” she said. “I can’t believe AT&T is still working. Shiro,” she said into the phone, “are you all right?”
“Yeah...wet my pants...fine...okay.” The phone went dead.
“No service,” she said and returned the phone to its holder. She glanced out across the demolished town. “We need to find out what happened.”
“Let’s go,” said Justin, taking her arm.
They walked back into the MCC. The walls had rippled and cracked open, exposing bunches of banded wires. Scraps of sheetrock lay scattered on the floor. A few chairs were lying on their sides beneath the wall screens, which remained intact. A low hum sounded throughout the building and the lights flickered then came on.
“Shiro must have started the generators,” said Justin.
They carefully went down the stairs, stepping over broken ceiling tiles. The five computers came to life. The four LED screens lit up the far wall. She picked up her chair and sat at her terminal.
“It was a jolt from what just happened,” she said. Her fingers zipped across the keyboard. “Every single plate is feeling the effect. So far eight thousand earthquakes have registered at over 7.0.” She spun her chair around and faced Justin. “How could this have happened?”
Justin said nothing as he stood with his arms folded across his chest, staring at the wall screens. The door at the top of the steps banged open and Shiro came stomping down, out of shape and winded.
“It was a quake,” he said, dusting off his black jeans and white tailored shirt in quick motions. Sheetrock dust covered his round face and straight black hair. “Is everyone okay?” he asked, shaking the gray powder from his hair.
“We’re fine,” said Justin, sitting down at the computer next to Rina. “Shiro, get on a terminal. I want a full spectrum analysis of the Sunda and I want to know about aftershocks. Rina, I’m punching in my code so you’ll have access to Gemstar II. Tell me exactly what happened.”
They nodded and their computers whizzed into action. “I’m picking up a news broadcast from Orlando,” said Rina. “I’ll put it on screen four.”
A red-haired woman with sharp, delicate features came into view. The broadcast had already begun.
“...From WFRT in Orlando. To the b
est of our knowledge, Orlando has experienced its first real earthquake. We don’t know the size of it yet, but we do know there is substantial damage throughout the city. We’ve contacted our traffic helicopter flying over International Drive. What you’ll see is live. Take it, Frank.”
The picture changed to a young, spike-haired man in a white shirt and red tie, strapped in and sitting beside the windy, open door of a helicopter, pressing his earpiece tightly to his head.
“This is Frank Belco reporting live from the WFRT helicopter flying over International Drive in Orlando. We were up here giving a traffic report when the earth below began shaking. And folks, what’s happened is unbelievable. It seems the ground below Wet ‘n Wild has turned to sand.”
The camera shifted to the surface. Rina slowly stood up, horrified at the sight. Many of the twisting water slides—the Blue Niagara, the Black Hole, the Storm—had either toppled over or were leaning at forty-five-degree angles. Both the Surf Lagoon and the Wake Zone, a half-mile-long lake, were empty of water; thousands of gallons had just disappeared, their hard beds now a sandy brown color and simmering like a pot of oatmeal.
In the center of the park, the camera zoomed in on a building-sized mound of sand boiling up like a volcano. Rina judged it to be over five hundred feet in diameter, and growing in height. The camera panned to numerous smaller mounds popping up throughout the softened ground, undulating like thick quicksand.
“I’m not sure what’s happened,” said Frank, “but I know the park was at full capacity. So where are all the people?”
Not a single person was seen.
“It’s liquefaction,” said Rina, hoping someone would refute her.
“Get me the mayor of Orlando,” said Justin. “Everyone within fifteen miles of that park has to be evacuated.”
Shiro grabbed a phone and began dialing.
“What’s happening now?” asked Rina, unable to stop staring at the screen, her stomach in a knot.
The soil beneath the park began to shudder violently. Although the engines of the helicopter drowned out any sounds, something similar to a sonic boom vibrated the air, shaking the flying craft.
“Whoa!” yelled Frank, who clutched a handle on the sidewall. “I sure don’t want to do that again. Jack,” he said, looking beyond the cameraman. “Can we get a little lower? I want to show the folks here what real quicksand looks like.”
The helicopter flew down and hovered a few hundred feet above the volcano of sand, its wide-angle lens capturing the rapid deterioration as the sand dispersed itself over most of the park, a thick sludge unable to sustain any weight. The earthen floor was altering its state again.
“Somebody tell that idiot to get out of there!” shouted Justin.
Suddenly, there was a high-pitched swoosh and within moments, everything sank into a thin liquid like rocks in a glass of water. The helicopter began spinning out of control. Terrified screams from Frank and his crew came through the speakers while the craft swirled about wildly, distorting the picture.
The static sound of a lost image along with a snowy picture filled the wall screen.
Then there was silence.
The screen flickered a few times before the female reporter came back on, her face pale and her eyes teary.
“We don’t know what just happened, but we can only hope everyone at Wet ‘n Wild got out safely and Frank”—she sniffed back her tears—“and his crew are still alive...I can’t—” She broke down crying, covering her face.
The OSRI building trembled for a few seconds, the wall screens wavering as the three held onto their desks. Rina sank down into her seat, her hands shaking as she tapped the keys again. The view on wall screen three changed to encompass all of the United States.
Half of California was under water.