Chapter 109

Since the second eruption of Mauna Loa, only army personnel were allowed close enough to the base of Mauna Kea to see the construction work that had been going on there for the past week.

Three days before, the USS George Washington had left the Port of Hilo with little fanfare. There had been no fanfare at all for the building of this one last wall, which completely covered the entrance to the cave formerly known as the Ice Tube.

When the last truck pulled away, the base of Mauna Kea looked the same as it had for centuries.

The effect was largely the same as when, years before, an incident at the Hilo Botanical Gardens, now forgotten, had briefly closed that park:

It was as if nothing had ever happened here.