Page 115 of Eruption

Mac got him into a sitting position, wiped some of the blood away with his sleeve, helped him to his feet, and pulled him toward the jeep.

Rivers’s chest was heaving. In the jeep, he touched hisforehead, then looked at the blood. “Is this it?” Rivers said. “Is this the one we’ve been expecting?” He sounded dazed. “Good God.”

“Let’s hope He’s good to us,” Mac said.

He got behind the wheel, pulled ahead of the caravan of trucks—the ones still upright, anyway—and headed back to the base.

He gave one quick glance back at Mauna Loa, more afraid than ever of what was coming next.

And where.

Mike Tyson was right: Everybody had a plan until they got punched in the mouth. Mac drove faster, ignoring the bumps, sometimes feeling as if the jeep were flying, feeling as if the volcano were already chasing them.

Rebecca Cruz was in the war room alone when Mac and Rivers returned.

“Where are the others?” Rivers asked. “Brett and the Cutlers were supposed to be here too.”

“Brett and the Cutlers are gone, sir.”

“Gone where?” Rivers said. “I need them here, goddamn it!”

“I assume they’re in one of Brett’s helicopters,” Rebecca said. “He wants to film the eruption himself.”

“Why?” Rivers asked.

“Because he can,” Mac said.

“He’s crazy,” Rivers said.

“That too.”

CHAPTER 84

Summit Cabin, Mauna Loa, Hawai‘i

The army had taken over the Summit Cabin, on the rim of the large summit caldera, Moku‘aweoweo, with its sweeping view of the true summit. An army helicopter had just delivered Mac and Rebecca to this temporary command post so they could determine when and where to begin detonating the first of Rebecca’s explosives.

“To do it right,” Rebecca had told Mac and Rivers, “I need to have eyes on the target.”

The pilot told them to contact the Military Reserve to arrange for their pickup. “How soon?” he’d asked Mac before he left.

“Soon.”

Mac and Rebecca stared across at the summit when the pilot was gone.

“I need to get set up,” Rebecca said finally.

“And then we wait,” Mac said.

Mauna Loa was still at an uneasy rest.

But not for long.

Another quake hit. Mac had stopped measuring one quake against another. Today theyallfelt big, as if the volcano were firing a round of warning shots.

They took refuge inside the cabin. That was when they felt the walls and windows begin to shake and heard an unmistakable sound.

Eruption.