Extinction by Ray Hammond

Author:Ray Hammond [Hammond, Ray]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Venture
Published: 2017-08-17T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Ben Fairfax’s blue eyes widened as he stared down at the selection of hot toast and freshly sliced fruit that the flight attendant had placed on his tray table.

He lifted his wondering gaze from the food and the elegant place-setting, grinned at his father and slowly opened and closed his small fingers as if they were already sticky. Then he dipped his hand into the bread basket.

‘Oh man!’ he said with a huge grin. ‘Ciwomen toast!’

For some reason the whole family was flying first-class.

‘Don’t go too far inside the volcano, boys,’ said Lucy cheerily. She and Matthew were seated on the other side of the aisle.

‘Sir? Sir?’ A flight attendant was shaking him by the shoulder. Michael Fairfax struggled back to wakefulness, and with a wave of inner anguish realized that he had been dreaming yet again about his lost family.

‘We’ll be landing in Sacramento in ten minutes,’ she said. ‘Could you please straighten your seat?’

Michael was returning home to California, intending first to visit his elderly parents in Lake Tahoe for a few days. They were also grieving and he knew it would make them feel happier if they could fuss over him for even a short while. He now felt strong enough to be strong for them.

Then he planned to summon up his courage and drive back to the Bay Area, to take stock of local conditions and to test his own feelings about the stricken region. It had been his home for all his life, but now he wasn’t sure how he would react. Still, at least there would be practical chores to occupy him.

Before leaving, Michael had done his best to make his house secure from looters, but he suspected it might have suffered a break-in. While he had been preparing to fly to Europe, the local authorities had kept advising all residents to stay close to their homes, damaged or not, because the scourge of looting had escalated into such a problem that the army was permitted to stun-gun looters on sight. Michael had taken most of his portable valuables round to his elderly neighbours who, horrified by his bereavement, were only too willing to help.

On his arrival, he decided that his first task must be to find out from the authorities how long it would take before his house could be properly checked for structural damage. Then, if it was worth repairing at all, it would have to be re-roofed. He supposed that he could probably manage to camp out in one of the damaged rooms for a couple of nights.

He was also planning to contact – if possible visit – both Professor Robert Fivetrees and Dr Emilia Knight, to discuss with them when they could schedule some time to appear in The Hague as just two of his many expert witnesses.

Michael had now taken possession of a new office in Brussels, although he sometimes worried whether, in the aftermath of the world’s worst-ever recorded seismic catastrophe, others might think he was acting with unseemly haste.

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