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“I’ll save them until you’re finished.”
“Almost there,” Cutler said. “Obviously, we want to drop the bombs near where the lava is coming out, opening vents in the process, with the goal of making the lava exhaust itself faster. Then we come in withmoreplanes to spray down the entire area with seawater, tag-teaming that effort with hoses extending from the tank trucks on the ground. And all ofthatwill be supported by tankers in the bay pumping the seawater to the trucks.”
“Whosetankers?” Rivers asked.
“J. P. Brett’s tankers, sir.”
“You’re telling me they’ve already arrived in Hilo?” Rivers asked.
“On their way,” Cutler said. “J.P.’s philosophy in just about any endeavor in which he’s involved is to get out ahead of things.”
“He can begin by having a conversation with me,” Rivers said.
“I’ll make that clear to him.”
“You do that,” Rivers said. “Now wrap this up, please. I want to hear Dr. MacGregor’s plan.”
“Our ultimate goal is to wage a two-front war—in the air and on the ground.” Then Oliver Cutler added, “A war that we are here to help the United States Army win.”
Should I applaud?Mac wondered.
Instead, he raised a hand.
“I don’t want to be the one making assumptions,” Mac said, “but I trust you’re aware of the potential risk of aircraft-engine failure when there’s ash and gas in the air.”
“Naturally, we’re aware of the risk,” Cutler said. “But experienced pilots will know how and when and where to pick theirspots. And I trust thatyou’reaware, Dr. MacGregor, that you need to weigh risk against reward in an operation as complicated as this one is shaping up to be.”
“I am.”
“May I ask what you think of my plan?” Cutler said.
“As a matter of fact, I find it very sound,” Mac said.
He could see the surprise on Cutler’s face. He glanced across the table and saw the same looks of surprise from his team.
“You’re saying you like it?” Cutler asked.
“I’d be crazy not to, wouldn’t I?” Mac said. “After all, most of it is mine, Ollie.”
CHAPTER 42
Mac saw he’d offended Cutler and quickly said, “Come on, lighten up, Ollie. I was just making a joke—a clunker, apparently—about great minds thinking alike.”
“I frankly like the suggestion that my work isn’t my own about as much as I like being called Ollie,” Cutler said.
“I wouldn’t either if I were you,” Mac said, grinning at him.
Mac and Rebecca stood up and breezed through their own presentation, hitting the same PowerPoint slides they had in front of their teams. Mac noted that he and Rebecca were basically in agreement about the need to blow substantial holes over an area spanning a full square mile on the east side of the mountain, not the south side, which would push the lava toward Kilauea and Route 11. And he stressed how much manpower would be required, especially since they would need to switch crews almost hourly because of the sweltering heat of the black rock, the volcano, and the sun.
“I can’t state strongly enough that the whole ball game here is controlling the lava as much as humanly possible,” Mac said. “Everything else is just noise.”
“And if we can’t effectively stop the lava?” Rivers asked.
“General, I’m a scientist,” he said. “I deal in facts, even when we’ve got as many variables as we have here. In the end, what we’re ultimately trying to do is redirect a tidal wave of lava and make a long-shot bet pay off.”
“And what bet is that?” Rivers asked.
“That we can impose our will on the fury of the natural world,” Mac said.
