[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Calen beamed. "Precisely. That way you'll be able to fine- tune your tests and establish the exact area of this fissure, or whatever it is. Who knows, it might prove useful. Water storage or something. The GoD doesn't create space without good reason." "We could make an early start tomorrow," said Jenine eagerly. "Do all the tests in one day if we plan them properly. I'm dying to see the results. You'll cover for me at tomorrow's lectures, won't you, Calen?" "Only if you promise to clear up this dreadful mess first." 7. Ewen's and Jenine's explosive tour of Arama went smoothly at first. Following an itinerary planned by Jenine, they worked their way around the periphery of Arama on the chord-metro system, carrying out their tests at stations nearest those points on the plan that would give optimum results. By the tenth test they were so adept and well-co-ordinated in their use of the seismoscope that they could close a tunnel, take the soundings and be on their way in under ten-minutes. By late-afternoon they had visited 15 of their target sites. "Only five more to go," said Jenine enthusiastically, consulting her map. "We've made brilliant time." The couple were in the shopping concourse of Albron Station. The hurrying river of passengers parted around them and closed up again. Ewen checked the seismoscope. "Plenty of memory left - we've only used half. So what's the next station?" "Steyning." Ewen's face clouded with worry. "Jenine I really do think we ought to give Steyning a miss. Their chief of police wasn't too friendly towards us." "The stations either before or after Steyning are too far apart. If we leave out Steyning there'll be a large gap in our test sites. If we want to prove something as important as this, our methodology must be above reproach." She pushed the plan under Ewen's nose. They had had this argument before. The trouble was that Jenine was right: giving Steyning a miss would create an unscientific gap in the overall results of the survey. "I don't fancy coming face to face with the chief of police again. He Page 77 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html might do something that we'll regret," Ewen muttered. "We'll be in and out before he finds out that we've been back on his patch," Jenine reasoned. She swung a toolkit from shoulder. "Come on, Ewen. There's a train in three minutes." * * * * Steyning went wrong. Horribly wrong. If there was a scale of 1-to-10 for just how badly wrong things can go, Steyning would have bent the needle against the 10 stop. Whether the disaster was due to an incorrectly positioned transducer, or a flaw in the rock behind the pedestrian subway tunnel lining that prevented the safe dissipation of the shockwaves was academic because the result was the same. It happened after they had completed the test. The lining panel had been replaced so that not even Steyning's chief of police would be aware that the two troublemakers had returned to his manor making more holes. They shouldered their equipment and were about to reopen the tunnel to the patiently waiting pedestrians when Jenine heard an ominous creaking. She caught Ewen's arm and looked back anxiously along the subway. "Listen!" They both heard the strange noise. Suddenly the tunnel's roof lining panel that they had just replaced bulged down and popped from its clips. They watched it fall to the floor, their eyes round with horror. Adjoining panels did likewise. "I think-" Ewen began. But he got no further. He was interrupted by a miniature avalanche of fractured rocks that rained down into the tunnel with a thunderous roar and sent clouds of dust billowing around them. For seconds the couple were deafened and blinded. When the dust settled, they were able to see the full extent of the awesome disaster they had unwittingly unleashed. A wall of boulders and smaller rocks completely filled the narrow subway. Even the new chasm that had opened above was filled with fallen debris. Miraculously the lights remained on. "Don't move or say anything," warned Ewen when they had recovered their wits. "There might be some more loose rocks." "I wasn't planning to," Jenine answered. Beneath the layer of grey dust her face was pale with shock. She went back to assure the anxious pedestrians [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |