Page 68 of Eruption

“Get fired from the U.S. Army?” she’d asked.

“Have a nice life,” Murray had said, and he hung up.

A few months later Rachel was back on the mainland, vowing never to return to Hawai‘i. She took an associate’s job at the Bellevue Botanical Garden in Washington State. Got married; got divorced. Moved to Portland, got a job at the Hoyt Arboretum. But she was still full of regrets and anger about the way her dream job in Hawai‘i had ended.

And still full of questions about what had happened that day in Hilo all those years ago, even though, according to public records, nothing had actually happened that day.

But a month ago, she’d made a spur-of-the-moment decision.She announced to her boss at Hoyt that she was taking all her vacation time, then she booked a flight to Hawai‘i. She was staying in the hotel nearest to the botanical gardens.

The moment she arrived at Hilo International, the earth began to shake. She knew about quakes from when she’d lived here. But this was different.Thesewere different—more powerful and more persistent than anything she remembered.

But she hadn’t come this far to turn around and head back to the mainland.

She went to the botanical gardens and walked all the way out to where the poisoned banyan trees had stood. She saw only a wide expanse of beautifully manicured lawn—it was as if the army’s scorched-earth assault had never happened.

Almost as if the trees had never been there.

Almost as if I were never here.

Standing there, she felt the most powerful quake yet. It nearly knocked her to the ground and made her wonder if coming to Hawai‘i had been an even bigger mistake than she’d feared.

Back in her hotel room that afternoon, she had a couple of glasses of wine to settle her nerves and told herself she would leave tomorrow, that it really had been crazy for her to come back in the first place.

Then she’d seen the announcement on social media about what sounded like a combination press conference and emergency town hall meeting. Rachel was curious enough to drive over to the Edith Kanaka‘ole Stadium. She’d arrived just in time to see the by God chairman of the Joint Chiefs step up to the microphone. Dr. John MacGregor, whom she’d recently seen on television talking about the coming eruption at Mauna Loa, was on the stage with him, as were the Cutlers, the two divas dressed like comic-book heroes.

Then J. P. Brett had arrived, and that’s when she’d stepped out for some air.

When she returned to auditorium, MacGregor was talking about lava flow and the speed of it and trenches and pits. But Rachel found herself wondering what Dr. John MacGregorwasn’ttelling them, her mind flashing to what might happen if an epic lava spill somehow combined with the incident she remembered at the botanical gardens.

Rachel wondered if the by God chairman of the Joint Chiefs was here for something more than an eruption.

And she wasn’t just angry now.

Rachel Sherrill was scared.

CHAPTER 46

Rivers and Brett, trailed by Colonel Briggs, left the stage in animated conversation.

Rivers’s exit through the door behind the stage indicated that the press conference was over. Oliver and Leah Cutler, who had made only brief remarks earlier, stepped off the stage and into the auditorium, where, as Mac assumed they’d expected, they were immediately surrounded by reporters and cameras.

With Rivers and Brett gone, they now had the spotlight to themselves.

The object of the game,Mac thought. He leaned against the side of the stage, out of sight but close enough to hear what they were saying.

“Welcome to this week’s episode ofVolcano Chasers,” Oliver Cutler said. “As usual, my lovely wife and I will be your hosts.”

The line got a laugh, but it stopped abruptly when Edith Kanaka‘ole Stadium was rocked by another quake, the kind that had been occurring on what felt like an hourly basis all week.

Then another quake.

And another.

The crowds had already been moving toward the exit doors atthe other end of the hall. Now people began to push one another. Mac heard a woman scream and shouts for the people closest to the doors to get the hell out of the way.

The Cutlers and the members of the media around them stayed right where they were.

“I’ve heard of drumrolls,” Cutler said, without missing a beat, “but this is ridiculous.”

---