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.