by Bobby Akart
“Dr. Donovan, I think it’s important you share your research with Younger and vice versa. Mr. Director, I want you to see that my request is adhered to.”
“Yes, Mr. President,” replied the director of the USGS.
“Now, I have a couple more questions for Dr. Donovan since I don’t have the benefit of a written briefing from her.”
“Yes, sir. I’m ready.”
“I’ve been repeatedly assured by the people on this call that we’d receive adequate warning signals of Yellowstone erupting. Why has that changed? I mean, two million years ago, or seven hundred thousand years. I get that those are long stretches of time. What makes you think this could happen right here, right now, and on my watch?”
Ashby paused and inhaled deeply. In that moment, she wondered if she’d get out of the building alive. “Mr. President, scientists have long been unsure about what triggers violent super eruptions. Technically, we look at a combination of temperature influences and the geometrical configuration of the magma chamber.
“In the case of Yellowstone, I believe the signs, the warning signals as you called them, have been occurring for nearly seventy years. Because the changes in the caldera are slow in developing, scientists have concluded that they’re normal. I disagree.
“The pressure being exerted by the magma chamber, and the spreading of the newly discovered one, is exerting upward pressure resulting in an uplift of the surface. Eventually, faults trigger a collapse of the caldera. Look at it like baking a loaf of bread. At the end of the baking process, the top of the loaf becomes crusty, and it cracks. The same thing is happening at Yellowstone now, and I believe it is part of the natural evolution of the caldera.”
The president stopped her. “But couldn’t you agree that this is open for reasonable debate? I understand you’ve uncovered some new, potentially damning information about where the evolution, as you call it, stands. Is there something more?”
She didn’t hold back. “Mr. President, I was a very vocal opponent to Project Hydro from the beginning. It was my opinion that drilling into the magma chamber could cause the cap to become more brittle and prone to fracture. Further, volatile gases would be released into the atmosphere, which would normally be contained. We have evidence of that already.”
“You said prone to fracture, am I correct?” asked the president.
“Yes, sir. Seismic activity at Yellowstone is not out of the ordinary. But if a series of midsize to large earthquakes occur, as they are now, this brittle cap could release the energy beneath.”
Younger couldn’t help himself. “But, Mr. President, we explained all of this to Congress. While it is true that an eruption on a much smaller scale might occur, the super eruption envisioned by Dr. Donovan isn’t necessarily a natural consequence.”
Ashby countered. “Sir, one thing leads to another. The Yellowstone Caldera should not be trifled with. A midsized eruption, like Mount St. Helens, would trigger a complete collapse of the caldera and a super eruption of Yellowstone.”
“I couldn’t disagree—” began Younger.
“Enough!” shouted the president. “Dr. Donovan, I want to hear your recommendation. If you were in my seat, what would you do?”
“Mr. President, at a minimum, I would raise the alert level from normal to advisory, or even a watch,” she replied. The advisory level alert indicated the volcano was exhibiting signs of elevated unrest above norm. A watch indicated there had been increased unrest within the Yellowstone Caldera with a potential of eruption although the time frame was uncertain.
“You do realize, Dr. Donovan, we’d get substantial pushback from the governors of Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. Frightening off visitors during the height of tourist season at Yellowstone could have an economic impact in the billions of dollars.”
“Yes, sir, I understand that. But those visitors would be alive.”
The president shrugged and pursed his lips again. “What about airline travel?”
“For aviation traffic, Mr. President, I would suggest a VONA code of yellow or orange at the moment. Both of these would correspond with the change to advisory or watch.” VONA stood for the Volcano Observatory Notification for Aviation.
The president waited while his aide took notes of Dr. Donovan’s suggestions. “Obviously, conditions could change, which could raise these alert levels much higher. What do you need from us to assist you in preparing a detailed analysis of this threat?”
Ashby managed a smile, but inwardly, she was jumping up and down. “Mr. President, I mentioned the access to the YVO data. That’s important. Also, access to a helicopter to give me a different perspective of Yellowstone and allow me to quickly expand my points of study.”
The president leaned into his chief of staff and could be overheard saying, “Make it happen.” His chief of staff nodded. The president wound up the videoconference.
“All of the experts whom I’ve heard from tell me the eruption of Yellowstone has a potential for devastation that is near extinction level. Some of you say we will have adequate warnings, while this bright, young woman makes a plausible argument the time may be upon us. I need all of you to get on the same page with this. The White House press secretary will be asked for an official comment on this at some point. We can’t be all over the board in our response. Thank you all for your counsel.”
Then the president looked directly at Ashby and gave her his signature smile and a thumbs-up.
Chapter 51
YVO
Yellowstone
“Clear the room, please!” hissed Younger. His entourage scampered out without bothering to take their coffee mugs or push in their chairs. Younger stared at Ashby. “You, however, can stay.”
Ashby’s mind raced as she fought the urge to blast the pompous, demeaning fool or continue playing the game as Jake suggested. Kill them with kindness. The words echoed in her head and fortunately reached the part of her brain before she let him have it. Instead, she decided to tweak him a little bit.
“Well, that went well, don’t you agree?” Ashby couldn’t look at Younger because she feared she’d burst out laughing. The president loved her, and it was probably killing the new scientist-in-charge.
“No, it most certainly did not,” he barked back at her. “That’s a BS move to blindside me like that. All of us, including the director, too. Very disrespectful.”
“I tried to tell you yesterday about the lava, but you told me to save it, if I recall correctly. So, I saved it for today, per your request.”
“You should’ve insisted. You should’ve told me anyway. You should—”
“No, Mr. Younger,” interrupted Ashby as she walked toward the door, which had been left open by the quickly exiting aides. Ashby saw that the YVO staff had stopped working and were listening to the two of them fire words back and forth at each other. She turned around briefly to face Younger. “You should’ve treated me with respect from the day I arrived here. Respect goes both ways.”
Ashby walked out and smiled. Younger shouted after her, “Where do you think you’re going? I’m not done with you yet!”
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Mr. Younger. I look forward to perusing your data.”
Ashby continued to walk through the cubicles. When she was about to pass the woman who’d been friendly the day before, an arm stuck out of her cubicle and it was holding a plain manila envelope. She waved it slightly so only Ashby would see. Without hesitation, Ashby slyly took it from her and stuck it into her own file folder. The two never made eye contact, but Ashby noticeably picked up the pace to leave—happy to be alive and ecstatic to have a potential ally on the inside.
Chapter 52
Jake’s Cabin
Yellowstone
In Ashby’s euphoric state of reliving every second of the teleconference with the president, delivering a recap of the blow-by-blow scrap with Younger, she’d forgotten to look at the manila envelope and its contents. Dusty and Rita arrived back at the cabin early from their day of r
ecording water temperatures and noxious-gas-emissions levels. They’d popped open their second round of beers when Ashby remembered the secret envelope.
She examined the contents, and after she covered her mouth, the group’s chatter died down. “This is unbelievable. No wonder Younger was so nervous!”
She began handing reports and printed graphs to Dusty and Rita. Jake sat back and watched the scientists as their eyes grew wide in amazement.
“This is criminal,” muttered Dusty, who traded documents with Rita. “Doc, could these have been forged or photoshopped to send us chasing our tails?”
“I suppose anything is possible,” replied Ashby. “If they’re authentic, a lot of what we’ve discovered around Yellowstone can be attributed to it.”
Finally, Jake had to ask what they were talking about. “Guys, would you mind cluing me in here?”
Ashby reached over to Jake and patted his arm. “Jake, I’m sorry. This envelope was passed to me by a woman at the YVO. I have no idea who she is, but I think she’s a friend. The documents contain status reports and updates from the Project Hydro field office.”
“I know where it is, although I’ve never been inside,” added Jake.
“Well, I’m surprised it isn’t under armed guard,” Dusty quipped.
Ashby continued her explanation. “Jake, it’s no wonder Younger is so protective of his precious Project Hydro. Their drill rate is ten times what was initially proposed and approved by Congress. Also, they’ve gone much deeper than the original six miles.”
“Doc, did you notice this?” asked Dusty. He folded over an Excel spreadsheet so the columns were exposed at the top half of the page. “Notice the column designations.”
Dusty had a concerned look on his face when Ashby took the report from him. “Are you kidding me? Four? They’ve drilled into the magma chamber four times.”
“And all of them are in excess of eleven miles,” added Rita. “They’ve skewered the crust. Are they out of their minds?”
Ashby stood up and tossed the spreadsheet back to Dusty. She paced around the firepit, rubbing her temples as she went. The group became quiet as Ashby weighed what to do next.
She stopped and became animated with her arms. “Okay. Okay. Let’s think this through. First off, we can’t say anything yet.”
Dusty was unusually dire with his words. “Doc, they’re poking the beast—the devil himself. No wonder the caldera is falling apart.”
“I know, I know, Dusty. But what’s done is done.”
“Is it?” asked Rita. “Maybe we can stop the bleeding, so to speak. If we cut off the water injections and prevent deeper drilling, Yellowstone’s plumbing could repair itself.”
“You’re most likely right, Rita. However, we need to find out more. If I run into the YVO waving these reports, Younger will lose it, despite the president’s directive to give me access. Furthermore, I’ll be persona non grata with the staff, the very people I need to uncover the truth.”
Jake intervened. “Could you learn more with a couple of days inside the YVO?”
“Yes,” replied Ashby.
“If this is as bad as you say, one more day won’t make a difference underground, but it sounds like it will in terms of how you stop it from continuing,” said Jake.
“As always, Jake is the voice of reason,” said Rita with a laugh.
Dusty piled on. “I hate that. Before Jake got involved, we could fly by the seat of our pants, wreak havoc in the scientific community, and stay in the doghouse. He’s such a buzzkill.”
Jake laughed. “Hey, Dusty, I’m standing right here.”
“Oh, yeah. Oops!” Everyone got a good laugh, and then Ashby gathered up all the reports.
“I wanna look at these in the morning when my mind is fresh,” she said to the group as she stuffed all of the documents back into the manila envelope. “Let’s enjoy the progress we made today. I’m afraid this might be our last opportunity to kick back.”
She was right.
Chapter 53
Grant Village
Yellowstone
The next morning, Jake fixed everyone a breakfast of pancakes and venison sausage. Coffee fueled this bunch, so one pot was consumed, and another was poured into thermos containers for the road. For a second straight day, Dusty and Rita were off to the Norris Geyser Basin while Jake escorted Ashby into Grant Village. With a newfound confidence, and a million questions on her mind after reviewing the contents of the manila envelope in detail, Ashby intended to be at the YVO when they opened.
Jake still had several days left of his vacation, but he wanted to attend this morning’s roll call and briefing of the law enforcement rangers. He needed to do damage assessment in case Younger contacted his superiors in an attempt to tie Jake to Ashby.
Also, he wanted to quiz a few of his fellow rangers who regularly patrolled the south end of the park regarding unusual seismic activity, or anything else that seemed out of sorts, for that matter. Ashby had concentrated her efforts in the Norris Area, but it was south and west of Yellowstone where the drilling was taking place. It was hard for Jake to fathom that underground activity near the southernmost part of Yellowstone could trigger an eruption almost sixty miles away.
He wheeled the truck near the entrance to the YVO. “Break a leg,” said Jake with a smile as he reached across the Expedition’s wide armrest to give Ashby’s hand a squeeze. “I picked up that little ditty during my Hollywood days.”
Ashby laughed. “Did you now? What else did you pick up, mister TV star? Any sexually transmitted diseases or other forms of creeping crud?”
Jake frowned. “No, of course not. I wasn’t wild like the rest of them.”
“Who are the rest of them?”
“You know, the so-called reality stars. Once you were on one of those shows, you became part of this big fraternity. First, you’d start hanging out with other cast members from Survivor. Then your clique would expand to the CBS reality shows Big Brother and Amazing Race. Before long, you were drinking buddies with the casts of virtually every reality show there was.”
Ashby sat quietly for a moment. “You know, shame on me, Jake. I’ve never asked you about your life. I’ve been so consumed with all of this, and myself, at times, that we’ve never talked about your family, growing up, past lovers.” Ashby said that last part while batting her eyes and swishing her hair from side to side.
Jake, who was unaware he was still holding her hand, let go and shooed her away. “Well, there’ll be plenty of time for that during the apocalypse.”
“There’d better not be an apocalypse!” said Ashby jokingly. “The eruption you’re gonna hear today is me when Younger gets in my way. I’ve got the power, courtesy of the President of the United States.”
“Use it, baby,” said Jake with a chuckle as he and Ashby exchanged high fives. She hopped out of the truck and marched into the YVO. Jake watched her for a moment, like a proud parent seeing his kid off to school for the first day of class.
Then a wave of sadness overcame him. He’d never talked with anyone about his past, especially his lovers.
*****
Ashby entered the YVO with trepidation. She expected Younger to be a jerk, as she was convinced the man didn’t know any other way. Despite the exuberant rah-rah speech he’d given to the YVO staff when she first saw him, Ashby’s observations of the man in dealing with his staff, and the overall meekness they exhibited while working, indicated the real Rick Younger was a tyrant.
She was greeted by the receptionist, who remembered her from yesterday. Younger had left a note for her indicating he’d be in the field and unavailable. It was short and sweet. Talk to anyone you want but don’t touch anything. RY.
Ashby studied it for a moment and then dropped it on the receptionist’s desk. “Well, that doesn’t help me much. Miss, is there an assistant scientist-in-charge? Someone that Mr. Younger gives responsibility to when he’s gone?”
“Not officially, no,” she replied. “I can i
ntroduce you to Maureen Burger. She’s been around the longest and frequently works on special projects for Mr. Younger. You know, like preparation for yesterday’s meeting.”
Ashby thought about the three people Younger had brought into the conference room yesterday. The two scientists were men, and the assistant was a young woman. She shrugged and asked the receptionist to lead the way.
They walked halfway into the large room full of cubicles and stopped at Ashby’s new friend—the undercover operative as she had thought of her this morning while reviewing the reports on Project Hydro.
“Maureen, excuse me.” The receptionist interrupted Burger, who was navigating through several spreadsheets on her computer. “May I interrupt for a moment? This is Dr. Donovan with NASA. Mr. Younger has given her access to the YVO. Here’s the note he left.”
Ashby gave Burger a knowing smile. She extended her hand to formally meet her undercover operative. “Hi, Maureen. I’m Ashby. It’s far less formal than Dr. Donovan.”
“Well, Ashby, it’s my pleasure. I don’t know how I can help, but I’ll be glad to do whatever Mr. Younger allows.” Ashby detected a wink from Burger. This was working out perfectly.
“Great, and I’m sorry for the sudden intrusion. Perhaps we can go in the conference room and talk where we won’t disturb everyone else.”
“Sure,” said Burger. She thanked the receptionist, who hustled back to her ringing telephone. Burger, who was in her early sixties, gently touched Ashby’s elbow and led her into the conference room, where she closed the door behind her. She turned to Ashby and smiled. “Well, wasn’t this a stroke of luck.”
Ashby looked around the room and asked, “Is it safe to talk in here? I mean, could Younger have it bugged?”
