Ezra didn’t give him time to think about his fears. “Push, but hold on, okay? We can’t let this thing get away from us.” He didn’t think it would, since there were handholds and the ladder, but he wanted to prepare them both in case an emergency situation came up. He looked upriver, wondering if he’d doomed them by suggesting fate might send them another runaway wave, but the wide river remained relatively calm in the new day’s light.
They pushed together for a few minutes before both pontoons began to drag in the mud. They had about a hundred yards to go.
“Hang on a second,” he said while climbing the ladder. As expected, he was able to see some of the shallows ahead, even through the brown murk. He tried to project where it was deeper, then jumped back in with Butch. “Turn it my way a little. We have to push this through right now. The flood waters are definitely draining off the field.”
“Aye, aye, skipper,” Butch replied, only looking over long enough to establish how far he had to turn the boat. Then he dug in and used his huge body to shove as best he could.
The rocks and dirt of the field reverberated through the hollow pontoons as they pushed the boat. It sounded a lot like wet sand being drained through a rain downspout. It continued to get louder as they neared the final barrier next to the new river channel.
“Push!” Ezra called out. “We’re almost there!” He did the best he could, but was under no illusion who was doing the bulk of the heavy lifting. Butch was braced against the main deck of the boat since the water was so shallow. He leaned into it like he was a contestant in the world’s strongest man competition.
“Tell me when to jump in,” his friend replied. “Remember, I can’t swim!”
There was no chance of him forgetting. The journey through Kentucky dam had beaten that fact into him. He didn’t even have any remaining life vests to give him. One of those would probably have done wonders for Butch’s confidence.
The dragging sound intensified, the boat slowed to a crawl, then it stopped.
“Can I climb in?” Butch asked, breathing heavily, evidently out of gas.
Susan’s Grace rocked a little as it sat on the high ground, but it was definitely stopped. After miraculously surviving being tossed by a massive wave, then getting flushed back out into the lake, and finally making it through the two raging rivers, the tough boat had been bested by some dirt.
“Let me think,” he replied, not sure what he could say.
Chapter 2
Billings, MT
“Why do you want us, Officer?” Grace asked, aware that others in the church were waking up, looking at the loud-mouthed policeman at the door.
He waved her over. “Please. I’ll share what I know when we’re outside.”
She wondered if she was in trouble for any of the illegal activities she’d done over the past few days. During their brief phone call, Mom had mentioned how the news had falsely accused her and Asher of being vandals back at Yellowstone. Maybe someone in authority had figured out where she was and wanted to ask her questions about it.
Asher gathered his things, perhaps assuming she’d go with the officer to see what he wanted. She put on her police belt, threw on her hat, and led Asher to the door of the church. The officer ducked outside once he was sure they were moving, which gave her a moment to talk to Asher in private.
“Ash, if we’re in trouble, I’ll take the blame, okay? That will give you a chance to get out of here. Get wherever you’re going.”
He laughed. “I’d like to get back home to Denver eventually, but not by ditching you. We’re a team, right?”
She sighed, desperately wanting to agree, but sure it would only cause problems. “Just follow my lead. One of us has to get back on the road. No one in this town appears to be going far.”
Asher pushed out the door, decidedly noncommittal regarding her plans.
The police car had been parked in the handicap spot, lights rolling, though the sirens were off. The officer waved them over as he leaned against the deep-blue paint of the cruiser’s hood.
“How can we help?” she asked, praying his visit was professional.
The officer stood his ground. “We got word the two of you were holed up inside the church. Came in last night, did you?”
She nodded cautiously, afraid to give away too much, lest it was a more personal visit. Would they need to have a lawyer present?
“Brought in a convoy of people from Yellowstone, right?”
Again, she signaled he was correct, but it began to feel more serious.
The man looked around, then waved them closer. When they approached, he spoke like he didn’t want to be overheard. “What did you do to my plainclothes deputies out there? None of them will tell me how a pair of park rangers managed to get through a blockade I set up myself, with orders to refuse absolutely everyone.”
She re-appraised the man. His hairline had receded, so he was almost bald. His face was wide and round, though she couldn’t see his eyes behind his dark sunglasses. Grace assumed the big man was glaring at her, waiting for the answer he wanted to hear. In the moment, she decided there was nothing to be gained by lying.
However, Asher answered before she could. “I pulled a gun on them. Made them let us through.”
“No!” she replied immediately. “That’s not what happened.”
“I did,” Asher deadpanned. “I wanted to be sure those people made it to safety at all costs. It was my sworn duty.”
“One hundred percent not true,” she insisted. “There was a hitman after us. He tried to kill me and Asher because we knew about TKM’s plans to drop the asteroid on the Earth before the rest of the world did. He’s been chasing Asher for days, and me for about the same amount of time. When we all reached the roadblock, the assassin felt like he owed us for saving his life, so he and his goons held up your men and sent me and my convoy through to Billings.”
The officer stood up and took off his glasses. His blue eyes carefully studied her, obviously searching for the truth of her story. After ten or fifteen seconds he seemed to come to a decision. He looked over to Asher. “So, you pulled your sidearm believing it was the right thing to do?”
Asher nodded his head vigorously.
“I guess I can see why you made that choice. It explains why none of my people would admit to it. This whole city has soiled its drawers and everyone is making poor choices. However, if we have to take in a few more refugees to get two more law enforcement people, I’ll let the iregularity slide. Right now, I need you two to keep the peace at the mall. The fact I’m not kicking you out or throwing you in my jail should tell you how far against the wall we are.” He looked around. “You have a vehicle, I assume?”
“I do. We parked it around the corner so Misha, uh, so we could keep it safe.” She didn’t think it was necessary to explain she’d parked it away from the church on the off chance the hitman came searching for them again.
“Good. I’ll give you a ride to your wheels, then you’re going to follow me downtown. I just hope it isn’t already too late to hold things together.”
Grace gulped at the gravity of the situation, but Asher’s face looked even more grave. Neither of them was actually with cuff-on-the-wrists type of law enforcement, but at least she was a ranger. He was almost as far from a policeman as one could get.
Yet, he was the one who tried to take the blame for what had happened at the roadblock. His attempt at chivalry as a fake officer impressed her in a way she was unable to share with him at that moment. Not when they were being called for duty in their fake jobs.
“We’ll do our best,” she rallied.
South of Cape Girardeau, MO
“We have to keep pushing!” Ezra insisted. “Rock it, like this.” He jumped up and down, each time pulling and pushing the deck of the boat.
Butch tried the same behind his pontoon, getting a lot more play than Ezra. Together, they managed to shake the boat in its place, which he hoped would make it possible to slide it forward w
hen he gave the word.
“Push!” he yelled.
The boat went about ten feet before it skidded to a stop. Ezra hopped up on the ladder to get a better view. “We’re almost there. Not more than a few yards, now.”
The next attempt got them a couple additional yards, but he estimated there was less than two feet of water under the boat. Ezra worked his way toward the front of his pontoon, kicking at the mud below the aluminum cylinder when he got near the end. When it gave way, he kicked at it even more.
“Hey, Butch, do this! I’m kicking the soft mud. It might be enough.”
Butch came to the front, looking around the pair of pontoons to see where he was kicking. When Butch began doing the same, Ezra saw some movement again.
“This has to work,” he said to himself. Louder, he shouted over to his friend, “I think one more good push and we’ll have it.”
They timed it to push together, which did indeed lurch the boat forward. It went over a last bit of the soft ground, and then it cleared the field. Ezra grabbed the ladder and held out his hand for Butch.
“Can’t swim!” his friend reminded Ezra as he pulled him toward the ladder.
They held on for half a minute as the boat gained speed, breathing heavily from the exertion, but he didn’t want the boat to drift too far downriver. The high spray and vortex of energy where the rivers merged were almost gone, but there was still a considerable amount of chop over there. It would be dangerous to revisit the intersection.
“Come on,” he advised as he climbed up. “We’re getting out of here for real.”
Once back in the boat, they took their spots. Ezra dropped the prop into the deep water and fired up the motor. It caught on the first try and sounded healthy as he got it up to speed.
Butch carefully placed his black Stetson back on his head. Ezra sensed the man’s anxiety behind his calm façade, but he was proud of him for doing what was necessary to save the boat. He was glad to have a way to get out west to reach Grace. He’d already had a taste of being on the highways and they weren’t somewhere he wanted to revisit until he was positive society was back to normal. Butch’s help ensured their journey would continue.
A bit later, far from the churn of the colliding rivers at Cairo, Illinois, he pointed to his gas gauge. “There is one downside to taking a boat all the way to Yellowstone.”
Butch leaned over. “We have to be on the water?”
He laughed. “That’s your downside, sure enough. Mine is we only have a twenty-gallon fuel tank. It means we have to gas up about every sixty miles.”
“Sheesh. We only get three miles to the gallon?”
Ezra turned serious. “We get maybe four miles to the gallon, but we have to find fuel before we get too close to running out. If we see a gas station, no matter how many miles we’ve gone, we have to top off again. The good news is this is a major river system with lots of little towns along the way. We should have no problem getting gas.”
“Can we carry extra?” Butch asked.
He smiled. “Keep your eyes peeled. If you see gas cans floating by, let me know.” They could carry as much as they wanted, but getting a gas container would be a challenge. He didn’t expect it to be easy, though thousands of items of junk floated down the dirty river.
About ten minutes later, Butch shouted. “There! I think I see one!”
Ezra stood up to get a better look. Sure enough, a cherry-red five-gallon container floated on the water a few hundred yards toward shore on their right. When he swooped in and grabbed it, he wasn’t even disappointed it was empty.
It gave them options.
“Today is our lucky day,” he declared. “I can feel things turning around already.”
Denver, CO
Petteri Tikkanen started his day with a press conference. He’d come in at the same time as the transport plane full of relief supplies sent by his company, but it took the entire night for the convoy of goods to reach his location near the center of the city of Denver. He wanted the supplies close to his prized dig site, but he didn’t want them too close.
After getting set up with a lapel microphone and sharing some necessary small talk with the network’s eye-candy reporter, she indicated it was time for his on-air announcement.
“In 3, 2, and—” the camera guy pointed at the woman.
“This is Mile-high Action News reporter Angel McAdams on location in downtown Denver. This morning, I’m incredibly honored to be talking to Mr. Petteri Tikkanen of Tikkanen Kinetic Mining.” She gestured toward him. “Thank you for being here.”
Petteri was forced to plaster a smile on his face, despite how wrong it felt. His mind wasn’t the least bit interested in the relief aspect of his operation, though he knew full well how necessary it was. A fake smile was a small price to pay for what he would get out of the encounter. “Thank you for having me on your show.”
“Please, the honor is mine. You are obviously doing your best to get helpful assistance into Denver, and you seem to have gotten the drop on city and state officials. Neither has provided any aid, as of this interview. Can you tell us your secret?”
Without missing a beat, he answered. “Organization. Unlike the messy and lazy layers of useless government officials necessary to run every bureaucracy, I’m able to pick and choose my teams with the sole purpose of executing my mission. In this case, I rounded up all the supplies I could find on day two, loaded them onto a plane, and had them where they needed to be by the end of day three. I’d wager the federal officials in FEMA are still picking out what kind of toothpaste will be preferred by residents here on the ground. It goes without saying, I get around those delays quite easily.”
He was being uncharitable to Mr. Stricker, his bought-off Secretary of Homeland Security, who was working at that moment to back him up, but every made-up story needed a clearly defined enemy. Stricker would understand.
“Can you tell our audience members, at least those who still have power, where they can come to get these relief supplies?” The babe flashed her pearly whites at the camera, then batted her lashes at him. He’d obviously done well bringing her to his side. Not even any questions about his role in allowing the Tuonela asteroid to fall in the first place. Such things were yesterday’s news.
“Of course. There are four dispersal stations. One at…” He explained where each site was located, though he had Dorothy to thank for picking them out. She said he needed to put one at each corner of his dig site. The official reason was to keep people safe and away from the dangerous space rock, though the real explanation was more basic: he needed those people out of his way while he collected the valuable asteroid fragments.
Overnight, he’d contracted with every dump truck he could find in the Denver region, as well as brought in blasting teams and excavation equipment. The union men were happy to have jobs while the city was otherwise paralyzed, and his advanced care packages for the locals helped keep the politicians off his back. No one asked questions about what he was doing with the rock he was clearing out.
Exactly how he liked it.
The microphone-wielding babe gave him one more smile, then turned back to her cameraman. “Action News will have much more as this develops. For now, this is Angel McAdams wrapping up with my good friend, Mr. Tikkanen.”
He grinned at the camera, anxious to ditch the lady and get back to his multi-billion-dollar prize.
Chapter 3
Billings, MT
“You call that a truck?” the officer scoffed when they reached Grace’s beat-up Chevy Suburban.
She laughed it off. “She’s been burned, peppered with rocks, shot at, and been dumped on with black snow. Yeah, she looks terrible, but I wouldn’t trade her in for anything.” The white truck appeared to bleed black dye down its sides. The snow had stopped overnight, and it warmed up, leaving streaks of melted black snow worse than any road grime she’d ever experienced.
The man seemed impressed. “Well, as long as it can get you around town. You�
��re not going to want to be on foot without a way to get mobile again. The crowds are testing us everywhere.”
“Crowds?” she said at the same time as Asher.
“Yeah,” the officer replied carefully. “I’m assigning you to Big Sky Mall. It’s at the center of town, with some police protection, so it hasn’t been affected like some of the retail stores on the edges of the city. But it will…”
“So, we can expect trouble? How many other police will be there?” She figured any mall was going to be huge, so protecting it would take more than two rookies like them.
The officer put his car in park, clear she and Asher should transfer over to her truck. “Trouble is everywhere. Your job is to slow it down. Don’t get yourself killed doing it, but do all you can short of that, okay? Other officers are already there, waiting for you to back them up. Not sure how many, but definitely not enough.”
She had a million questions, but any of them might reveal they were only pretending to be officers of the law. There was already a black mark next to their names for getting through the roadblock. Dumb questions would only doom them. There was one she could safely ask, though. “How do we get to the mall? We’re not from around here.”
He nodded ahead. “You’re already pointed in the right direction. Go about twenty blocks that way. You’ll run right into it. My name is Officer McCracken. You have a radio?”
“We do,” she replied.
He gave her the frequency to reach him, then gestured for them to get moving.
“We’ll do our best,” she said with bravado as she hopped out.
Asher followed her to the truck, though they both peeked through the broken rear windows to ensure no one was hiding in the back compartment. It was empty, much to her relief.
“Are you sure we should do this?” Asher asked skeptically.
Impact Series Box Set | Books 1-6 Page 41