Chapter 100

U.S. Military Reserve, Hawai‘i

Animals knew enough to run and try to find cover. Nēnē geese, the state bird of Hawai‘i, fled first. Then came many domesticated dogs, cats, birds. Even bees deserted their hives.

But few people on Hawai‘i knew how bad things had really gotten.

Colonel Briggs came back to supervise the last of the probably futile digging effort while Mac and Rivers raced to the base.

"With the story the sensors are telling," Rivers said, "I have to think about evacuating this compound."

"You have to do it in the next hour or so," Mac said. "Maybe even sooner than that."

"I can send people to Hāwī on the north tip," Rivers said, "if we don't think we can save the base."

"General," Mac said, "right now, saving this base is the least of our worries."

They found Rebecca and her brother huddled together in a conference room surrounded by monitors.

"How's the ankle?" Mac asked.

"Sucks a big one," she said with a grin that came and went. "But thanks for asking."

Mac studied the monitor closest to him, reviewing the data from the sensors one more time; it hadn't changed since Rebecca had asked him to interpret it. The amount of lava pooling underneath the summit would send voluminous flows from Mauna Loa toward Mauna Kea. That might prove impossible to divert. Even if the trenches held.

"Mac, that shit just keeps pouring out of the center of the earth," Rebecca said.

"We need eyes on it," Rivers said and made a call. The vog had cleared enough that he could order a reconnaissance plane into the air.

Mac walked to an easel propped against the front wall. He drew a crude map: the Ice Tube, Hilo, Waimea, and Saddle Road.

"The lava from the first eruption mostly ended here," he said, pointing. "That's the Saddle Road area. The volcano gods willing, we want it to go over there."

He pointed first at Waimea, then farther to the west at Waikōloa Beach.

"What if it doesn't?" Rivers asked.

"If it doesn't, and the new holes in the ground get overtopped, it's like I told you before," Mac said. "Hilo gets hit. I don't see any way around it. And that's probably the best case."

Mac cursed as his satellite phone rang again, this time with an incoming call from HVO. For a moment, he imagined that he'd hear Jenny's voice.

But it was Kenny Wong, who'd quit him to work for Brett. Bad career move.

"You lost?" Mac asked.

"Mac, we can talk about what an asshole Judas I was another time, or maybe never," Kenny said. "But I came back because I felt like shit for what I did to you. And also because I couldn't sit this out."

"So what you got?"

"I'm sure you know the lava is well past that unfinished road to Kona," Kenny said.

"And more coming hard behind it, right?" Mac asked.

"General Rivers needs to get people off that base, Mac," Kenny said. "And whatever you're going to do, you need to do it now. The lava is on a collision course with that freaking cave."

"The new digging might still do its job," Mac said. "If not, we're planning a second wave with the jets."

Kenny suddenly shouted, "Mac, listen to me! The pictures in front of me aren't changing! Those people need to haul ass out of that base and off the mountain before it's too late!"

Mac hung up. He told the general and Rebecca what Kenny had said. Rivers walked into the hall to make the call.

"What are we going to do, Mac?" Rebecca asked.

"We're going to do our best to bury that shit with air-to-ground bombs once and for all," Mac said. "Your explosives have done as much to help us as they can. But once the lava has passed Saddle Road, the bombs are going to be the whole ball game."

He took one last look at the map he'd just drawn, then glanced at the monitor showing the latest pictures of the lava that the reconnaissance plane had just sent them.

The lava was still heading north. If it kept going, that would mean the end of everything. The end of the world. What a concept.

Rivers came back into the room. "They're evacuating the base," he said.

"Got a question," Mac said. "If you decide to use bombers, do you have any besides Raptors?"

"What do you mean, if? I've got a squadron loaded with GBU-32 attack munitions ready to go."

"What else do you have?"

"Just a couple of F-15EX Eagle IIs, that's it," Rivers said. "Two-seaters. They're at Hilo International."

Mac knew the plane, an upgraded model of the F-15 fourth-generation fighter jet equipped with AMBER StormBreaker smart weapons that could see through fog and, hopefully, vog. He knew a lot about fighter jets, had studied them since he was a kid and watched Top Gun on what sometimes felt like an endless loop. As a high-school senior, he'd even considered applying to the Air Force Academy until he'd become more fascinated with volcanoes.

Lucky me.

"Perfect," he said to Rivers.

"Why perfect?"

"There needs to be a seat for me if we're going to do this right," Mac said.

"Define right," Rivers said.

"We don't need a squadron of bombers," he said. "We just need the one I'm in."

"What else do you need?" Rivers asked.

"Your top gun," Mac said.