At Fault

by Beth Martin

“Thank you.” Peter accepted the glass and took a long sip. Now that he had finished his presentation, there was no reason to abstain.

  Blake and Katherine started chatting about the next few galas they would be attending. Peter walked up to the railing next to Grace and stared off into the city with her.

  “Where are you going after this?” she asked.

  “Back to my office.” They continued to watch the city lights below as Blake and Katherine excused themselves and went back inside.

  “I’m not going to discuss Last Chance. At least not here.”

  “Is there somewhere we can talk?”

  She turned to look at him. “I have a loft near here.”

  He nodded and held out an arm to escort her. She placed a hand on his arm and followed him back through the ballroom and outside to the waiting town car.

  ···

  Peter was excited to tell Grace all about the link between the earthquakes’ centers and the wells drilled along Highway 71, but she looked positively sullen the entire drive home. Only after the car stopped in front of a tall, newly constructed building did she say anything. “I’m glad you accepted my invitation to the gala. I wanted to talk to you about something.”

  He was relieved she was finally ready to chat. “Me too,” he said. “In Last Chance―”

  She held up a hand. “Let’s just try to enjoy one evening without talking about work or earthquakes,” she said before getting out of the car. She led the way inside and they took an elevator up to the thirtieth floor.

  Instead of an overly extravagant loft, he was surprised to find that her place was modest, with just enough space for one person to live comfortably. It was clean and the plain white walls were sparsely decorated. The bedroom was separate from the living space, there was a small kitchen, and that was about it.

  “I like your place,” he said, taking a seat on the sofa.

  She dropped his jacket on a chair. “Oh, thanks.” She went straight to the kitchen and rummaged through the fridge. “I actually just got this place. My old apartment was right next to SLAU, and being there really got me down. My therapist recommended getting a fresh start. Champagne?” She peeked around the door of the fridge and held up a bottle.

  “Are we celebrating something?”

  “Nope, this is the cheap shit.” She shut the fridge and uncorked the bottle.

  “Sure, I’ll have a glass,” he said.

  She came into the living room holding two glasses, handing one to Peter as she sat down next to him on the sofa.

  “To surviving the renewable energy gala,” she said.

  “Cheers.”

  After only a single sip, Grace set her glass down and stood up. “This dress is horribly uncomfortable, I’m going to change.”

  While she was in her bedroom, Peter started to feel uncomfortable. If she didn’t want to talk about the earthquake, what exactly did she want to discuss? He looked around the room, trying to take in all the details of the few pieces of art on the walls and the pattern of the rug on the floor.

  She returned with her hair loose, wearing an oversized sweatshirt and leggings. “This feels much better,” she announced before plopping back on the sofa and grabbing her glass for another sip.

  “What have you been up to since you’ve been back in LA?” Peter asked, making an attempt at small talk.

  “I got a job temping at Synergy Power Systems in human resources.”

  “Do you enjoy it?”

  “Sort of. It’s exactly what I’d end up doing with my sociology degree, and I like working with the variety of people.”

  He had been sure that she would switch to geology after the way she had thrown herself into his research. He was certainly surprised that she, or anyone, could enjoy temping in HR. “Is that something you want to do long term?”

  “Yes. Although my dad is thrilled I’m working for SPS and plan to return when I finish my degree, he still wishes I’d take a more managerial role or make my own startup.” She drank the rest of her glass before asking, “Would you like some more?” He nodded, and she went into the kitchen and returned with the bottle. After refilling both their glasses, she left the bottle on the table.

  “I thought you’d want to pursue a career in research,” he ventured.

  She shook her head. “Oh God, no! If Last Chance has taught me anything, it’s that I’m not cut out for that lifestyle.”

  “It’s not always like that.”

  “Sure, it’s not always camping in the cold or working in a lab in a desolate town. But it is balancing on the edge of human knowledge, grasping for the next idea. It’s all a little too cutthroat for me.”

  The last term Peter would use to describe himself was ‘cutthroat.’ However, he was all too aware of the feeling of despair associated with focusing on one subject, trying to come up with something no other person had thought of yet. It took a strong person to stick with research, but he knew Grace had what it took.

  She took a deep breath before continuing. “I’ll go back with you to Last Chance. I know that’s what you came here to talk about. I intend to finish what I started, but after that I need to focus on my degree program and work toward graduating.”

  He wasn’t sure what to say, so he just watched her as she drank down her second glass, refilled it, and topped off his own.

  “Please don’t take this the wrong way,” she continued, “but I’m glad we came back to LA. It’s given me a chance to get over you.”

  “Get over me?” he asked.

  “Yeah. Any time I spend a lot of time with someone―especially men―I start to kind of get obsessed with them. I always think that if I take on a guy’s hobbies and interests, then he’ll like me more. But that’s not how it should be, you know? I need to be me and focus on doing things I enjoy. I mean, if I hadn’t met you, I would have never given geothermal energy a second thought.”

  Peter began to feel ill. He thought she had genuinely admired him and his work. His disappointment must have been clear on his face.

  “I still think geothermal energy is great and that geothermal habitation will one day be a thing, it’s just not my thing.”

  He glanced down at his full glass of cheap champagne and the half- empty bottle on the coffee table. He couldn’t look at Grace’s face, even as she stared at him, waiting for him to say something.

  “Please don’t look so fucking sad. Say something,” she pleaded.

  “You needed to ‘get over’ me?” he asked again. He covered his face with his hands, trying to collect his feelings and somehow express the million thoughts zipping through his head. “I know research is hard and isn’t for everyone, but I was under the impression that you were really interested in geology.”

  “That’s my point,” she jumped in. “I was so focused on impressing you that I pretended to be interested in your research. It was all a lie.”

  He didn’t bother raising his voice, or standing to look physically imposing, or even smashing the fragile glass. “I thought we had a personal connection. Was that a lie, too?”

  “Yes, that’s what I’m trying to say. None of it was real.”

  He stood up. “It felt pretty real to me.” He grabbed his jacket and slipped it on, then walked out the door. “I should go.”

  “Peter, please don’t be all dramatic about this. I’m just trying to finally be honest.”

  He clenched his jaw. “I’m not being dramatic—I feel hurt. I need to spend some time alone. Goodbye.”

  He left before Grace could protest and further. He made his way as quickly as he could out of the building and to the cold air outside on the street.

  ···

  Peter couldn’t help but reflect on Grace’s words from the previous evening as his flight to Denver lifted off the tarmac. He could still see her charging ahead in the snow, pushing him away, determined to complete her mission. He saw her anxious face as she stripped away his wet clothing. He recalled running in the snow, trying to reach her, trying to protec
t her. It had all felt incredibly real. For him, it was real. Even if Grace denied it, he knew what he had felt was genuine.

  His flight was the first one in the morning, and he hadn’t slept at all between leaving Grace’s loft the previous evening and showing up at the airport. He had to apply for the airline’s credit card to purchase the ticket and had no idea how he’d afford the payments. Leaning his head against the window, he shut his eyes.

  The soft chime of the seatbelt light flickering on woke him up. Glancing out of his window, he could see the mountains give way for the Denver skyline in the distance. They would land soon.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  “You just can’t stay away,” Autumn said, smiling at him through the rear-view mirror as Peter put his luggage in the trunk of her jeep. He used to pride himself on being able to pack all of his worldly belongings in two suitcases and a duffle bag. Now he only had the duffle bag.

  “Thanks for picking me up, especially on such short notice,” he said as he slipped into the passenger seat.

  Autumn sped off, leaving the airport behind. “Of course. I’m your friend. I’ll always be here for you. I’d even pick your ass up out of a blizzard in the middle of an earthquake. Oh, wait, I already did.” She gave a light chuckle, while Peter just solemnly nodded his head in agreement. She glanced briefly at his sullen face. “Okay, I’m not sure which I should tackle first. Why the gloomy mood, why you felt you needed to come back to Colorado already, or why your sexy intern-sidekick isn’t here?”

  “I believe Dr. Hall caused the earthquakes.”

  “Whoa!” Autumn said, looking over at him as long as she dared before looking back at the road. “Why would he cause an earthquake? And how? We were pretty damn close when the second one hit. It would take something like an a-bomb to do that.”

  He nodded. “Yes, a nuclear bomb could cause an earthquake of that size. It would probably take a ten-megaton blast to create that kind of destruction.”

  “Even if someone stockpiled TNT over their lifetime, there’s no way they could get their hands on that kind of blasting power unnoticed. And that still doesn’t answer why.”

  “He had a theory that the North American plate would split in two. I think he’s trying to make that happen.”

  Autumn gripped the steering wheel tightly. “Okay, that’s just crazy. His plan is to, what, destroy the United States so he can write an article about it?”

  “Actually, he asked me to write a paper. And when I did, he forwarded it to Journal of Earth and Planetary Science.”

  She shook her head. “Let me get this straight. He faked a couple earthquakes to convince you the ground is tearing up and asked you to write the paper so that he could… debunk you?” She turned onto the lonely highway that would take them the rest of the way to Last Chance.

  “I think it’s for money. Geothermal energy can be incredibly profitable, but it’s most effective near a fault line. The United States only has one on the West Coast, but if there were another fault, say, running down the middle of the country, building geothermal generators would be quite lucrative.”

  “Then tell me how a professor makes money on power plants.”

  “He has an agreement with Synergy Power Systems. They’ve been funding his work for a long time. I wouldn’t be surprised if they provided the explosives to cause the earthquakes.”

  “Peter, let me stop you right there. You sound pretty crazy right now.”

  “Yes, well, a tectonic plate spontaneously breaking in two is even more far fetched.” When Autumn didn’t respond, he stared out the window at the desert landscape whizzing past. The snow from before was completely melted.

  They drove along, not saying a word for a while. Autumn finally broke the silence. “Why didn’t Grace come with you?” she asked.

  Peter sighed. “I didn’t tell her I was coming.” He rubbed his hand through his beard, frowning in concentration. “She said she needed to get over me.”

  “Ouch. Well, like I said, if you need anything, I’m here for you.”

  “Actually, I’m going to need a place to stay.” He looked out of the windows on both sides of the car. They had made it to the chasm, and both the campsite and RV weren’t there. He hadn’t seen his dilapidated lab building either. It was all gone.

  ···

  This time they were prepared. Sunflower frequented a local art studio which had large-scale printers, and she made an enlargement of the map Grace had gotten from Synergy Power Systems showing where all the test drilling sites were located. Peter added the spots where the two larger earthquakes were centered. He went back and plotted the epicenter of all the smaller tremors, but none of those seemed to align with the test sites. The two big quakes, however, could have originated from one of the wells.

  “You didn’t need to take the day off,” Peter insisted as Autumn drove him yet again to Last Chance with all of Jared’s camping gear in the backseat.

  “It’s not a big deal,” she said. “I just emailed all my students to let them know the lecture was canceled for the day. We were going to review blocks on ramps. Their TA can fill in the gaps. And it takes me two hours to drive here and back, so my morning was already shot. Why not just take the whole day?”

  He wasn’t paying attention. Instead, he studied the features outside his window. When they passed the location where his lab had been, all that remained were the concrete footings the structure had sat on.

  The safety rail around the well which had held the generator still poked up above the landscape. As they passed it, Autumn turned to the left and they drove across the rough, rocky ground toward the first laser-drilled test site.

  She slowed the car to a stop. “Holy shit.” Both she and Peter jumped out and tentatively walked up to the side of the hole. It was huge. Peter knew from the scale of his printed map that the hole would be big, but now that it was directly in front of them, it was hard to fathom.

  The other side was hardly visible. He could see the edge perfectly curve on each side. The hole itself was easily larger than a football field. It was probably larger than the SLAU football stadium.

  Autumn stepped right up to the edge. “The sides are all blackened. Do you think that’s from an explosion?”

  “Could be.” He leaned down to examine the precisely cut ground. “It might just be charring from the heat of the laser when it was cut.”

  “So how can you tell if there was an explosion down there?”

  “Ever go rock climbing?”

  She stepped back and laughed. “Once, at a Dick’s Sporting Goods.”

  “Then this will be no problem.” He returned to the car and got his duffle bag full of gear from the trunk. He helped her get strapped in a harness and put on his own. After securing some rope and grabbing a couple helmets, they carefully rappelled down into the immense well.

  “How big of an explosion did you say it would take to make these earthquakes?” she asked.

  “Basically a nuclear bomb.”

  “Okay.” She nodded, the flashlight strapped around her helmet bobbing with the motion. “So it should be pretty obvious.”

  As they continued descending, less and less sunlight made it down to their depth. Peter was ready to call it once they had climbed down about a hundred feet.

  “Peter,” Autumn said. “Look over there!” She pointed to her right, another fifty feet down. A gaping hole blemished the otherwise perfectly curved wall. “Do think that’s big enough?”

  “Let’s get closer.” Climbing to the side was harder than normal since there weren’t many handholds in the perfectly cut earth.

  She dropped into the blasted-out side of the well. “I’ll take some picture with my phone. Is there any way to survey this cavity?”

  “Sure. There’s all kind of fancy equipment to survey ground density and find water tables and caves underground. I just can’t afford them and don’t have any at my disposal.”

  “You’re lucky you’re so far behind,” she shouted. “I’
d really like to punch you right now.”

  He chuckled as he finally caught up to her and could finally plant his feet at the edge of the cavity. Looking around, he tried to estimate the size of this cavity and the amount of force it might take to displace that amount of earth. “If this was caused by a bomb, I doubt it was enough to cause the first big earthquake.”

  “Maybe not, but it could have caused one of the smaller tremors.”

  “This is where the first large earthquake was centered,” Peter said.

  “There could have been several explosions equidistant from here, coordinated to all go off at the same time.”

  “Although possible, that’s highly unlikely.” He pointed his light over every surface of the cavity, looking for anything that stood out. He examined the well, then slowly moved his light left to right, studying the walls around him. He turned his light up, then down.

  When he directed his flashlight straight down along the wall, he saw it. Every hundred feet, at regular intervals, was another cavity in the well wall. They went down as far as he could see. He attempted to count them, but after eleven, he couldn’t be sure. “Autumn, look at this,” he said, waving his hand to have her come to his side.

  “Shit, Peter. That can’t be from a natural disaster. That looks intentional.”

  ···

  Since Peter didn’t have the right survey equipment, Autumn’s photographs would have to be enough for now. They had visited the other test site, which served as the epicenter for the second big earthquake. That one was similar to the first, with regular blasts blemishing the otherwise perfectly smooth walls.

  Autumn convinced him that there was nothing else he could do here without another geologist and millions of dollars’ worth of equipment. As the sun set directly in front of them over the road, they slowly drove back to Autumn’s house.

  “Are you planning on staying in Denver?” she asked. “You know you’re welcome to crash with us as long as you need. Mi casa es tu casa.”

  “No, I should get back to LA.” Even though his mind was reeling, trying to figure out what their discovery meant, his body was tired from all the climbing, making it hard to stay awake.