ion-gallon-a-minute jets forced the bore hole
water up to the surface and kept sucking up the waters cascading now into
the cavern.

"Get back," Harbrace yelled at the men still near the edge of the
hole. "When it comes over it's going to blow and backwater."

* * * * *

Troy and Alec joined the workmen and technicians hurrying back to the
safety of the riverbank. Two minutes later a deep-throated gurgle
echoed in the cold morning air and huge bubble, then a geyser of water
shot up into the air in a cloud of moisture and vapor spray. It fell
back to the dry river bed, spread once again upon the gravel that had
known only the gentle touch of rainfall for three-quarters of a
century and then boiled and roiled in a gathering head downstream
rolling loose boulders and logs in its teeth.

The water level in the river bed continued to rise and a backwater
began forming, extending nearly a quarter of a mile upstream before it
stopped. Now the bore hole was visible only as a muddy boil of
turbulence churning in the center of the newly-flowing river.

The regional director came over to Troy and Alec and slapped the pair
on the back. "You two have done a terrific thing here," he said with a
broad smile.

"Not me," Troy protested. "This was all Alec's idea. I never thought
the thing would work."

"Where's the water going?" Alec asked.

Harbrace pointed downriver to the hidden wall of the old Grand Coulee
Dam around the curve in the river bed. "We're dumping into the Grand
Coulee until we can get it back underground, probably into Chelan.
Meanwhile, we're going to see if your idea can be used at Moses lake
and McNary."

The great convoy of equipment and men was already on the move to join
the other task forces of similar equipment already on site at the two
other major damage locations.

"Nothing more for us to do here now, and the hydraulics people can
take it from here," Harbrace said. "I'm heading back to Spokane. You
two want to ride back with me?"

They turned and walked towards Harbrace's personal copter waiting
beside the road a couple of hundred yards away.

Without warning, the earth began to shift beneath their feet and the
trio staggered on the rolling surface. From deep within the ground
came a brief but ominous rumble. Harbrace stumbled and would have
fallen as the ground shook had not the two younger men caught him. The
shock was over in less than a minute.

"My God," H