The Alex Cave Series. Books 1, 2, & 3.: Box set by Corkill James M

Author:Corkill, James M. [Corkill, James M.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: James M. Corkill
Published: 2014-09-13T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

THE CABIN:

Wesley stared at the television, but it might as well have been off. After the call from Jamie last night, he knew the incident at the campground was a warning that things could get much worse. He heard a beep from his computer and walked to his desk as the printer shoved out four large colored photographs of his mountain into a tray. He smiled and grabbed them from the tray. “Thanks, Alex.”

He spread them out on the desktop, matching two sides on each to form one large image of his mountain. Someone had circled two large orange areas, indicating significant heat. “Oh, crap.” he said softly.

He grabbed his personal map of the mountain and matched the locations of the heat blooms in the photographs. He was familiar with one area and knew he could use his modified Humvee to get there without disturbing the ecological system. The eighteen-inch-wide tires were gentle on the vegetation and the high-rise suspension allowed him to travel over small trees with little damage to the foliage.

He grabbed his map and the photographs, went into the kitchen to put on his hiking boots, then walked out the door and climbed into his Hummer. The engine roared to life, and he backed up to the front of the barn and climbed out.

He opened the padlock between the two large doors, ignoring the complaining squeal of the overhead rollers as he shoved one side open. He entered the barn and went over to the metal shelving attached to the wall.

He had worked for the Hughes Corporation as an electronic engineer, designing specialized seismic sensors for twenty years. He just happened to have acquired a few test models before retiring. Each custom made sensor was twenty-inches square by eight-inches thick, with a flip up antenna on the side. Each unit was capable of sensing motion and temperature and transmitting the information to his receivers in the barn. He hefted a pair of them. The thirty-pound weight in each hand attested to the large capacity of the self-contained batteries.

He carried two units over to the Hummer and set them in back behind the rear seats. After closing the barn door, he climbed into the cab and drove away, following an old logging road behind his cabin up the side of Mount Baker. Twenty minutes later, he followed another abandoned dirt logging road for another half hour before turning off the road and continuing through virgin forest.

Fifteen minutes later, he recognized the exposed thirty-foot area of flat granite protruding from the ground, but something was wrong. Wisps of yellow vapor swirled across the grey granite surface before vanishing into the air.

He shut off the engine and climbed down from the Hummer, walking over for a closer look. A yellow liquid substance was boiling up through a fresh fracture in the granite and he knew it was a new fumarole; a place where magma was close to the surface. “Oh, crap.”

He pulled a pocketknife from his front pocket and knelt down beside the fracture, and the stench of rotten eggs assaulted his nostrils.

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