Prelude to Mayhem (Mayhem Wave Book 1) by Edward Aubry

Author:Edward Aubry
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781620072080
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Published: 2016-11-26T00:00:00+00:00

ver the next half hour, Harrison made some progress by cutting the power. He couldn’t shut it down completely, but he persuaded the system the magnetic rail needed to be deactivated for maintenance. Without the constant pull, every corner bled a tiny bit of momentum from the Worm, and the speed gauge descended from 305 down to 299 meters per second.

Glimmer, meanwhile, had returned with bad news. The train did indeed have bays to hold several small escape vehicles, all of them, unfortunately, empty.

By this time, they had passed well into Canada. With the rail already deactivated and no means of escape, he turned to the only other thing he could influence, the air pressure in the tube.

“I think I’ve got it,” he said after a few minutes of digging through menus.

“Tell me.”

“It’s here in the maintenance options. Every section of tunnel is peppered with hundreds of hatches to snorkel tubes leading to the surface. They’re for emergencies or repair problems or any reason you might want to flood the tunnel with air. I’ve already got the system alerted to a maintenance problem, so it should be possible to pop all the hatches between Milwaukee and Green Bay.”

“Are you doing that so you can breathe when you get out?” she asked.

“Partly that,” he said. “But more to the point, if I’m right, having air in the tube will slow us down more, and if I vent the tunnel only ahead of us, it should send a pressure wave down the tube. Basically, a big wall of air which will swat the train. Maybe stop it.”

“Swat it how hard?”

“Pretty hard. It’s going to be coming at us at the speed of sound.”

“Sound has a speed?” She started to look lost.

“Yes, it does,” he said patiently. “It moves a little bit faster than we’re going right now. If the pressure wave hits us that fast, we’ll feel it, and it probably won’t be fun.”

“Do it. We’re almost out of time.”

He did. There would still be some lag time between opening the hatches and feeling the difference. “You should wake Mitchell up. It’s about to get shaky in here.”

A couple minutes later, Glimmer returned with the boy, bleary eyed, and still in his pajamas.

“What’s going on?” He yawned. “Are we there yet?”

“Not yet,” said Harrison. “But almost. We’re about to hit a bump, and I wanted to be sure you were ready for it.” Harrison escorted him back to the lounge and found a secure, well-cushioned seat facing the rear of the Worm. He planted Mitchell in it and then covered his lap with throw pillows. The boy started to nod off again.

“Hey, sport,” said Harrison, “I need you to stay awake for a few minutes. Once we get over this bump, you can go back to sleep, okay?”

Mitchell nodded, eyes half open. That would have to do.

They sat and waited. “What happens now?” Glimmer asked.

“If I timed it right, we should run into some serious drag right about halfway between Sault Ste. Marie and Green Bay.

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