Chapter Two
In Hot Water
When Harry Montgomery had taken the job as Chief Engineer on
the bridge and tunnel project, he hd expected difficulties, but
nothing like the things he was running into.
As he knelt with a workman in the service shaft of number two
tunnel he put his hand in the water coming up through the cracks.
"My God!" he muttered, "You're right! When this
leakage started that water was ice cold! Now it's warm to the
touch!"
"And getting warmer," the older man commented. "I
don't like this, Harry. I've been a gofer for years. I've worked
in more tunnels than people have driven on roads, and I'll tell
you, when water coming into a tunnel starts to get hot there's
somethin' bad wrong somewhere. You know what kind of rock this
is, don't you?"
Montgomery sighed. "Yes," he answered, "it's
volcanic. But this entire region has been silent for
two-hundred-thousand years. Just because we build a couple of
tunnels isn't going to make these ancient volcanoes active
again."
His companion shook his head. "Ground's risin'," he
commented, "that's what's makin' the tunnels crack, and the
bridge cables go slack. You know it as well as I do, Harry. That
idiot mayor doesn't want us saying anything because he won't have
the investors scared off. I tell you, man, you're responsible
here, and God knows who'll get the blame if one of these tunnels
collapses or floods, or if one of these bridges falls."
"Well, rather the mayor likes it or not," Harry
commented, "I'm calling the capitol tomorrow, just as soon
as the offices at the transportation ministry are open.
Something's hell awful wrong here! And I'm not taking the blame
when it goes bad."
Harry hurried to his quarters on Tonomi. It was two a.m. and he
wanted to get some sleep. Hopefully nothing would awaken him
again. He wanted that very much. He would get what he wanted.