persons coming in and not allow anyone in who's not connected with the
division." He waved Alec ahead.

Patterson parked his car and walked quickly to Snow Hydrology. He
entered the offices to be struck by a bedlam of sound. Men were
scurrying from cubicles, hands loaded with papers. Others were talking
rapidly to distant vidiphone reporters. Alec skirted around one group
huddled over some topographical maps and headed for his office.

From across the room Plumber spotted him and shouted: "Alec, staff
briefing in the conference auditorium in five minutes."

Alec nodded and went into his office. He gathered a notebook from a
desk drawer and then walked around the partition and looked in to see
if Troy had arrived. Braden's coat was hanging from the back of his
chair, but he was not in the office. Notebook in hand, Alec headed
down the corridor for the big conference room in the adjacent wing.
People from every section in the headquarters were streaming towards
the same location and the outer doors along the corridor kept swinging
open as latecomers dashed in.

* * * * *

Alec joined the crowd squeezing into the auditorium conference room.
Inside, he looked around and spotted Troy against the side wall. He
worked his way to his side.

"Hi" Troy said. "How's Carol and Jimmy?"

"They're O.K.," Alec said. "I told her to fill up everything in the
house with water and I think she had time to get them filled before
the water shut down. How bad is it?"

"It's not good," Troy said. "At this point, I don't think anyone knows
just how bad or how good it really is. Spokima ruptured and is
spilling but it doesn't appear to be going out too fast. The worst
situation seems to be in the Columbia Riverbed System. Unofficially,
the grapevine has it that Moses Lake and McNary tanks have had it and
God only knows how many aqueducts have been fractured. We're in deep
trouble, buddy."

The babble of voices in the jammed auditorium stilled as the figure of
Regional Director James Harbrace and his staff of sectional
supervisors came onto the stage.

Harbrace moved quickly to the rostrum microphones.

"I won't waste words or time," he began. "As of ten minutes ago,
Regions Five and Six have been on Emergency One Condition. They will
remain on Emergency One indefinitely--certainly until we have had a
chance to assess full damages to the systems and have made what
repairs we can."

Emergency One con