Chapter 76

Above the Galápagos Islands

The eruption had ended by the time they arrived, less than five hours after they'd taken off from Hilo International, even faster than J. P. Brett had promised, aided mightily by a powerful Pacific jet stream.

As they flew over Isabela Island, where Volcán Wolf was one of six shield volcanoes, Jenny saw one of the most amazing sunsets she had ever seen, as bright orange as a lava waterfall. It was still in full force and view as they began their descent.

"So they did exactly what they wanted to do," Jenny said. She and Rick had watched the live stream of the event on her laptop.

"Turned the side of the volcano into a sieve," Rick said.

"More like they did a geologic cesarean," Jenny said. "They just took the baby early."

What they'd done here over the past month, under advisement from some Japanese scientists the Ecuadoran government had flown in, was depressurize magma chambers by guiding missiles deep into Volcán Wolf, as far down as ten kilometers. The passive degassing they'd implemented had relieved much of the pressure that had built up before the eruption, which they had pinpointed almost to the hour. The successful result had been a calculated, synchronized release of pressure through vents created by the short-range missiles.

The summit of Volcán Wolf disappeared as the pilot banked the Peregrine toward the airport.

"So our work here is basically done," Rick said.

"Not quite," Jenny said.

Lieutenant Abbott and his superior officer, Major Neibart, had plainly told Jenny there was no way, none, that they would allow them to fly to Isabela Island, even if the army had built an airstrip for its own use between the Wolf Volcano and one named after Charles Darwin.

"No way," Lieutenant Abbott, a hard-ass, had said. "Not happening."

But then Jenny had stepped outside Abbott's office and called Mac. Mac had contacted General Mark Rivers, who outranked pretty much everybody except the president of the United States. Now here they were on the island, having been flown over there by a young army pilot who pulled the four-seater nearly up to the front door of a Quonset hut that served as a subbase.

There were a couple of jeeps parked outside it.

"Does anybody live here?" Rick asked the pilot.

"Wolf Volcano giant tortoises," the pilot said. "They're pretty proud of the saddleback shells in these parts." Then he added, "I was told to inform you that if you're not back on this plane in an hour, you better hope you can get an Uber from here."

Jenny had the map of the island in her lap. She insisted on determining exactly where the magma chambers had been and how close to them the vents were located—that way they could see for themselves how the bombing had controlled the lava flow so effectively. Rick drove the jeep up the steep 5,580-foot mountain, the elevation changing rapidly as they made their way to the summit.

"Tell me again why we're doing this," Rick said.

"Boots on the ground," Jenny said.

"Great," he said. "I'm riding around near an active volcano with GI Jane."

They got as close to the eastern flank of Wolf Volcano as they safely could, close enough for them to see the lava streams. Even from here, they could tell that the streams were beginning to slow as they flowed toward the ocean.

"Damn, they figured out a way to make the lava go exactly where they wanted it to go," Jenny said when they were out of the jeep. "If they can do it, so can we."

"If we can figure out how to do it the way they did," Rick said. "In the day or so we've got left."

"Can we get a little closer?" Jenny asked.

"No."

"We've come this far."

"Yeah, too far," he grumbled, but he parked the jeep and followed her up the mountain.

Eventually they reached a small but solid promontory that provided the best view they were going to get of the holes that had been blown in the Wolf Volcano, which was a quarter mile or so from where they now stood. The smaller streams of lava were still flowing out of them, south of where the most powerful stream flowed from the summit.

Rick had brought a Canon camera with a telephoto lens from the base, and he was shooting away. After a short time, he told Jenny they needed to wrap this up because he was about to run out of light and space on his memory card.

"Just a few more," she said, "and then we're out of here, I promise. You know this footage is going to help Mac a lot."

"Oh, thank God," Rick said.

He got down on one knee to get a better shot. Jenny stood next to him.

The earthquake, sudden and violent and unexpected, hit Isabela Island with a force unlike any quake Jenny had ever felt, even in the run-up to the eruption back in Hilo; it was as if the whole world had exploded.

They looked around for cover, but there was no place for them to hide, no place for them to run. The sky suddenly went dark, as if night had fallen that quickly.

They looked back just in time to see much of Wolf Volcano falling toward them like a building collapsing; at the same moment the cliff on which they had been standing disappeared.

Then they were the ones falling.