The Storm nf-10

by Clive Cussler

  The supervisor stood silent. The major stood silent. Even Joe Zavala stood silent. They were powerless to do anything but watch.

  Ninety percent of Egypt’s population lived within twelve miles of the Nile. If the whole dam gave way, Joe could see a disaster counting its victims in the millions. Even as the water spread out over the valley, sparing victims downstream from the destructive force, the aftermath might be worse than the flood.

  Millions would be homeless. Half of Egypt’s farmable land would be flooded and at least temporarily destroyed. Dysentery, cholera and all the diseases that come with unsanitary conditions, and those spread by mosquitoes and other insects, would become epidemic.

  It would only add insult to injury that the dam provided fifteen percent of Egypt’s electricity. But when piled on top of the nation’s other problems and its precarious political state, Joe feared a governmental implosion. He could see a nation of eighty million people falling into anarchy in one fell swoop.

  “How long before total collapse?” he asked.

  “Difficult to say,” the supervisor replied. “It depends on whether the core can hold.”

  Joe noticed how the topside breach had widened substantially but hardly deepened at all. It was no longer a V shape, more like an extremely elongated U.

  “What’s the core made of?” he asked, remembering how it had appeared to be a different material in the cross section of the model.

  “Semiplastic, impermeable clay,” the supervisor said. “Concrete down below.”

  If Joe was right the rushing water had scoured down through the aggregate and reached the core. The erosion rate had almost stopped. “Does it run the whole width of the dam?”

  The supervisor nodded. “It’s dug into the rock on either side.”

  “Can it hold the lake back?”

  The supervisor thought about that for a moment. “The core won’t erode like the aggregate does, but as the back side of the slope is scoured away the amount of rock and stone keeping the core in place will be reduced steadily. At some point the weight of Lake Nasser will simply shove the core aside like a bus might push a small car.”

  Joe looked out past the breach. The water was cascading over the top, plummeting and spreading. But the gentle thirteen-degree slope and the stone covering seemed to be helping, the covering was holding its own at least for now.

  “I think the surface lining is holding up,” he said. “If the water level drops far enough, the core might save the day. And with the breach as wide as it is, that shouldn’t take more than a few hours.”

  The supervisor nodded. “It’s possible,” he said, sounding like he didn’t want to get ahead of himself.

  Major Edo pointed to something else, something Joe hadn’t seen before. A small geyser farther down below. All but lost in the greater flood, it was blasting outward like a water feature in some ornate garden. The spray soared and fanned into a fine mist that caught the illumination from the floodlights.

  “What about that?” Major Edo asked.

  Joe’s heart dropped. He remembered the mock-up in Yemen. The higher flood had come first, but the lower tunnel had caused the core to fail and the entire dam along with it.

  “That’s a bigger problem,” Joe said.

  “How did this happen?” the supervisor asked.

  Joe tried to explain about the microbots and how they burrowed through things, including concrete and clay. No one questioned him this time.

  “Could they still be down there?”

  “Possibly,” Joe said. “Maybe burrowing into the clay to widen the tunnel in ways the water can’t.”

  “If it widens too much …” the supervisor began. He didn’t need to finish.

  “Do you have any way to seal something like this?” Joe asked.

  The supervisor rubbed his chin. “There may be one way,” he said. “We have a compound known as Ultra-Set. It’s a polymer that bonds with clay, expands many times over to fill small gaps. It becomes impervious in a matter of seconds. If we could pump it into the tunnel that those things you’re talking about have drilled, it might block it up. If the topside holds and the water level drops fast enough, we might avert a total failure.”

  A new wave of tremors shook the building.

  “What’s the drawback?” Joe asked.

  “There’s only one way to get the Ultra-Set into the tunnel,” the supervisor said. “We have to pump it in under high pressure. To do that, someone has to find the entry point on the lake side of the dam.”

  Joe looked at the supervisor and the few others who remained at their posts in the shuddering control room. “You need a diver,” he guessed, finding it hard to believe his fate. He smiled anyway. “How lucky for me.”

  CHAPTER 54

  THE ELEVATOR DOORS OPENED TO REVEAL THE TOP FLOOR of Marchetti’s pyramid and a luxurious foyer. Three of Jinn’s men were stationed there and they turned at the sound of the elevator’s ping.

  It was a natural reaction. They had no reason to suspect any trouble. In fact, it looked to Kurt as if they were snapping to attention as the sound wave from the Pain Maker hit them and dropped them to their knees.

  One let out a grunt, another stumbled backward and knocked over a table with a vase on it that smashed to the ground, the third man just fell straight down.

  Kurt let go of the handle that powered the system as Paul, Gamay, Tautog and Varu bound the men in cuffs from the brig. The men looked dazed and confused.

  “I feel your pain,” Kurt said. “Or at least I did about ten hours ago.”

  The men were gagged with duct tape and stuffed in a janitor’s closet.

  “This way,” Marchetti said, heading to the right. They made it to the corner, where the foyer intersected the hall. Poking his head around it, Kurt saw it was empty.

  “Let’s go.”

  Halfway down the hall they came to a large set of double doors. Marchetti went to a keypad. As he pressed in his code, the sound of shooting broke out far below them. Little pops that sounded like cap guns going off.

  “Some of Jinn’s men must be resisting,” Gamay said.

  Kurt nodded. “Hurry.”

  Marchetti punched in the code as Paul and Tautog charged up the Pain Maker.

  Kurt kicked the doors open and flipped the switch. There was no one there.

  “Wrong room?” Gamay asked.

  Kurt shut the machine off and stepped inside, looking around. The bed had been slept in. He smelled the scent of jasmine. The same perfume Zarrina had worn. Apparently she was closer to Jinn than they thought.

  “Right room,” he said. “We just missed them.”

  As he stormed back past Marchetti, he mumbled, “Might want to change your sheets.”

  “Or burn the whole bed,” Marchetti said.

  Kurt was moving down the hall as more gunfire rang out. The others were rushing to catch up with him.

  “That explains why his men were snapping to attention,” Paul suggested. “They thought someone was coming back.”

  “So where did they go?” Leilani asked.

  “I can only think of one place,” Kurt said.

  JINN STOOD IN AQUA-TERRA’S control room shocked by what had occurred. Zarrina, Otero and Matson surrounded him, along with the radar operator and another one of his men. The rest were scattered, perhaps ten or less now, fighting Marchetti’s crew and what looked like U.S. Marines.

  “How? How is this possible?” he asked. “There are no patrol boats or helicopters here. Where did they come from?”

  “We have video from the detention level,” Otero said, studying a laptop. “I hate to say this, but it’s Austin.”

  “It can’t be,” Jinn said. “He’s dead. I’ve killed him twice.”

  “Then he’s come back from the dead,” Otero said, turning the laptop toward Jinn. “Look.”

  It was Austin. Jinn could not imagine how. It was as if Austin had appeared in his midst like a ghost. An appropriate thought as Jinn had been certain he’d
been sent to perdition.

  The shooting was growing closer. From the observation deck a few of Jinn’s men could be seen running toward Marchetti’s central park. They didn’t make it.

  “We have to get out of here,” Zarrina said. “This battle is lost.”

  Jinn studied the layout. They would never make it to the dry dock, where the flying boat was moored. Even if they did, a few well-placed bullets or the missiles he’d brought in would take them down.

  “We can’t run,” he said.

  “And we can’t win this fight,” Zarrina replied sharply. “There are only five of us.”

  “Silence,” Jinn snapped.

  He was trying to think, trying desperately to come up with a way to turn the tables. He looked to Otero. “Access the horde and energize the transmitter.”

  Otero began tapping away on his laptop and then pushed it across the table to Jinn.

  “You have access.”

  “What are you going to do?” Matson asked.

  Jinn ignored him. He began typing. Slowly at first, making sure he was in the right area of the system, and then faster.

  Gunfire in the hall spurred him on.

  He selected a command from the menu and hit enter.

  The door to the room flew open and shots were exchanged, with shells ricocheting around the room.

  Jinn took cover as Matson and the radar operator were cut down. A few seconds later Jinn’s other guard was killed as he tried to get off a shot.

  “Give it up, Jinn!” Austin’s voice called out.

  Jinn found himself behind an island in the center of the control room with many of the vital controls on its surface. Otero and Zarrina crowded in behind with him. “And if we do?”

  “I’ll put you in chains, deliver you to the proper authorities.”

  “You expect me to believe you won’t kill us?”

  “Much as I’d like to,” Austin replied, “that’s not my choice to make. Don’t count on going back to Yemen, though. I’m thinking the World Court or some American military base.”

  “I will not be put in such hands!” Jinn shouted.

  “Then show yourself and let’s finish this man-to-man.”

  Jinn could see Austin in a reflection. He was hidden around the corner of the steel bulkhead. Jinn had no shot. If he stood, Austin would cut him down. If he hid, Austin or some member of Austin’s team would soon flank his position.

  “I have a better idea,” Jinn said. “I will now teach you a lesson about power and its proper use.”

  He glanced at the laptop. A blinking green box on the screen told him his instructions had been sent and received. He could now take action.

  He slipped the pistol from his holster, pressed the safety with his thumb until it clicked and held it tight to his chest.

  “Time’s about up,” Austin informed him.

  Jinn knew it was.

  He placed the barrel of the pistol against the back of Otero’s skull and pulled the trigger. The muffled explosion blasted the computer programmer and what was left of his head out into the open space of the floor. Jinn’s second shot shattered the laptop, sending bits of plastic and microchips in all directions. He fired again just for good measure, destroying the laptop’s screen.

  He tossed the weapon away. “I surrender,” he said, putting his hands up.

  SHIELDED BY THE BULKHEAD, Kurt watched Jinn in the same reflection that Jinn had caught sight of him. Something didn’t add up. He’d seen Jinn pull the weapon and expected the man to go down swinging, but the bullet to Otero’s head and tossing the gun aside were suspicious actions to say the least.

  Zarrina tossed out her weapon and put her hands up. She and Jinn stood slowly and Kurt leveled the M1 carbine at Jinn’s chest.

  “You flinch, you die.”

  Kurt stepped in the room. Paul and Tautog came in next. They fanned out.

  Kurt sensed a trap. With his rifle still leveled at Jinn, he checked the dead men: Jinn’s guard, Matson, what was left of Otero and the radar operator.

  He found nothing out of the ordinary, but the smug look remained on Jinn’s face. Like he’d just palmed a card or gotten away with something.

  “What did you do?” Kurt whispered, waiting for a booby trap to spring or an explosion to go off. “What did you do?”

  Jinn said nothing. Kurt noticed the shattered laptop. He realized that Jinn had just executed Otero, the programmer. The two things had to be connected.

  Shouts drifted in through the open door from down below. They came from Tautog’s men on the zero deck.

  “Something’s happening,” one of them called out. “The sea has come to life!”

  Kurt stepped outside. Through the fog of the night he could see the water churning.

  “Marchetti, get the lights on!”

  Marchetti ran to the control panel and started throwing a bank of switches. All around the island, sections of the ocean lit up as Marchetti switched on floodlights both above and below water. Instantly, Kurt saw what was happening.

  The water was stirring almost as if it was boiling over. The horde surrounding them had come to the surface and was surging toward the island.

  “He’s called them in,” Marchetti whispered fearfully. “He’s called them home.”

  Jinn began to laugh, a deep laugh that was sinister, sadistic and utterly filled with an egomaniac’s pride.

  “You will now understand what I mean by power,” he said. “Unless you release me, the horde will consume you all.”

  CHAPTER 55

  KURT AUSTIN HAD KNOWN THEY WERE IN DOUBLE TROUBLE as soon as he heard the madman laugh. He stormed back into the control room and jammed the barrel of the carbine against Jinn’s face right between the eyes.

  “Call them off!”

  “Let us go,” Jinn said, “and I’ll do as you wish.”

  “Call them off or I’ll splatter your brains all over the wall.”

  “And what will that get you, Mr. Austin?”

  Kurt pulled back. “Marchetti, find a computer, you’re going to have to do your code-breaking thing again.”

  Marchetti raced over to another laptop, docked on the main console.

  “He’ll never break it,” Jinn insisted. “He’ll never even get in.”

  Marchetti looked up. “He’s right. I was able to reverse Otero’s last trick because I could access the files, but we’re locked out of everything.”

  “Can’t you hack it?”

  “It’s a nine-digit code protected with top-level encryption. A supercomputer couldn’t break it without a month or so to work on it.”

  “You’ve got to be able to do something.”

  “I can’t even log on.”

  Now Kurt understood why Jinn had blasted Otero and the laptop. It was Otero’s code. No chance he would give it up lying dead on the floor and no chance Marchetti could check the laptop for any type of keystroke memory or temp file.

  Leilani eased up beside Kurt. “What’s happening?”

  “Those things that made us sparkle, they’re all around the island, a lot thicker than they were when we saw them. Jinn’s sent them into a frenzy. They’ll come on board like a horde of locusts and eat everything in sight, including us.”

  “What are we going to do?” Leilani asked.

  “Is there any way to stop them?” Kurt asked Marchetti.

  Marchetti shook his head. “There are too many, fifty miles’ worth in every direction.”

  “Then we have to get off the island. Where are those airships of yours?”

  “In the hangar bay by the helipad.”

  “Take that laptop and get everyone to meet us there,” Kurt said. He looked at Tautog. “Get your men up here. We’re leaving by air.”

  “Not to the boats?” Tautog asked.

  “The boats won’t help us now.”

  Tautog went to the balcony and began yelling to his men, waving for them to come up. Marchetti grabbed a microphone and began an island-wide broadcast through a ser
ies of loudspeakers.

  Kurt noticed two small radios on the flat part of the control console. He grabbed them and then shoved Jinn toward the elevator doors. “Let’s go.”

  Moments later Kurt and his growing entourage stood on the lighted helipad suspended between the two pyramid buildings. From this vantage point the sea around Aqua-Terra looked more like solid ground covered with millions of beetles. They reflected the glare of Aqua-Terra’s floodlights in a smoky charcoal color. Streams of them could be seen coming inland like long, probing fingers.

  “They look thick enough to walk on,” Paul mentioned.

  “I wouldn’t try it,” Kurt said.

  A hangar door opened in the side of the starboard pyramid, and Marchetti’s men began rolling one of the airships out. Two others waited behind it.

  “How many people can each one hold?” Kurt asked.

  “Eight. Nine at most,” Marchetti said.

  “Dump out everything you don’t need,” Kurt said. “See if you can lighten the loads.”

  Marchetti went to supervise. Paul and Gamay went with him. Leilani stepped over to Zarrina, who was standing against the edge of the helipad with Jinn.

  “So you pretended to be me,” she said.

  “I wouldn’t get too close,” Kurt warned.

  “You’re a weak little woman,” Zarrina said. “That was the hardest part to play.”

  Kurt grabbed Leilani as she went to slap Zarrina, pulling her away a safe distance.

  “She’s baiting you,” Kurt said. “Go help the others.”

  Leilani pouted but did as he asked.

  “It’s too bad you didn’t try more to comfort me,” Zarrina said. “You might have enjoyed it.”

  “Don’t flatter yourself,” Kurt said.

  Beside her, Jinn fumed.

  Tautog greeted the last of his men and shepherded them toward the hangar. “What about the prisoners?” one of them asked.

  Kurt looked at the sadistic leader. “What’s it going to be, Jinn? Are you going to leave your men to be eaten alive?”