units were lowered to the bottom.Additional video monitors together with portable lights followed themdown into the hole. The lasers were aimed upstream and began burning afan-shaped cut into the solid rock. The other three lasers werelowered down to join them and the great catch basin began to takeshape.
If the geological survey was correct, the basin would be a good tenfeet below the water-bearing gravel strata that should be carrying thebulk of the lost water from the ruptured underground Spokima Reservoirfifteen miles upstream. The river bed lay in a slight natural faultand the water should follow beneath the old river bed without too muchside loss.
In a half hour the six units had carved out a cavern in the solidrock fifty feet high and extending six hundred feet upstream from thevertical bore. The engineers divided the units, three to a side andbegan widening to each side of the old stream bed and then workingback down towards the surface bore.
While the work was going on beneath the ground, technicians maintaineda constant monitoring of the moisture gauges upstream. The first ofthe four huge, sealed nuclear sump pumps had just touched the floor ofthe basin at the vertical bore when the tech at the gauge farthestupstream yelped, "It's wet!"
Harbrace and the hydro engineer jumped for the communications phone.
"How deep is it?" the engineer snapped.
"Forty-two feet," came the reply, "now it's forty-seven. Moisturecontent increasing. This is the head and it's coming fast."
"Get those lasers outta there," the engineer roared, "and get thoseother pumps down, fast."
More cranes were clustered around the grate hole and the three otherpumps went quickly to the bottom. Down in the cavernous basin, thelaser rolled quickly back to the bore hole where crews slammedmagnaclamps on them and lofted them to the surface.
By the time they were starting to rise, three more closer gauges werereporting underground water flow.
As soon as the first two lasers reached the surface and were swungonto the gravel bed, they were sent waddling on their tracked carriersa hundred feet upstream beyond the upper end of the undergroundemergency cavern. The beams were set on angle and seconds later thelight lanced out and down into the earth, smashing down through thestrata and punching two great holes into the roof of the upper end ofthe cavern. Clouds of superheated steam gushed out of the twinpunctures as the beams shut off. The beams had burned through the headof the seeping waters. Now the other four lasers were on the line andin rapid order, a dozen more holes were on punched down through thebed and into the catch basin. The upstream roof of the cavern fell infor forty feet and a torrent of mud cascaded into the basin.
The instant the last beam closed down a roar arose from the workersclustered about the lip of the vertical pump bore. A wall of watercame surging down from the upstream end of the cavern and smashed intothe bore hole wall in a muddy, seething maelstrom. The strata-bornewater had found the hole and were pouring down into the cavern andcatch basin. The water began rising in the walls of the hole, sealedinto a shining shaft of fused rock and silicon by the laser beams.
"It works," Troy yelled, pounding his partner on the back, "youharebrained son of an engineer, it works."
Alec's face was wreathed in smiles as the two of them hurried down thebank to the edge of the bore. By the time they reached the lip, the waterlevel had risen past the underground upstream mouth of the catch basin andwas boiling steadily upwards past the sixty-foot mark towards thesurface. Despite the vent holes and the volume of water seeping throughthe strata from the ruptured Spokima Reservoir, there still wasn't enoughpressure to raise the water level much above the fifty-foot mark, once thecatch basin filled. That was the purpose of the four nuclear pumps in thesump hole. Their great million-gallon-a-minute jets forced the bore holewater up to the surface and kept sucking up the waters cascading now intothe cavern.
"Get back," Harbrace yelled at the men still near the edge of thehole. "When it comes over it's going to blow and backwater."
* * * * *
Troy and Alec joined the workmen and technicians hurrying back to thesafety of the riverbank. Two minutes later a deep-throated gurgleechoed in the cold morning air and huge bubble, then a geyser of watershot up into the air in a cloud of moisture and vapor spray. It fellback to the dry river bed, spread once again upon the gravel that hadknown only the gentle touch of rainfall for three-quarters of acentury and then boiled and roiled in a gathering head downstreamrolling loose boulders and logs in its teeth.
The water level in the river bed continued to rise and a backwaterbegan forming, extending nearly a quarter of a mile upstream before itstopped. Now the bore hole was visible only as a muddy boil ofturbulence churning in the center of the newly-flowing river.
The regional director came over to Troy and Alec and slapped the pairon the back. "You two have done a terrific thing here," he said with abroad smile.
"Not me," Troy protested. "This was all Alec's idea. I never thoughtthe thing would work."
"Where's the water going?" Alec asked.
Harbrace pointed downriver to the hidden wall of the old Grand CouleeDam around the curve in the river bed. "We're dumping into the GrandCoulee until we can get it back underground, probably into Chelan.Meanwhile, we're going to see if your idea can be used at Moses lakeand McNary."
The great convoy of equipment and men was already on the move to jointhe other task forces of similar equipment already on site at the twoother major damage locations.
"Nothing more for us to do here now, and the hydraulics people cantake it from here," Harbrace said. "I'm heading back to Spokane. Youtwo want to ride back with me?"
They turned and walked towards Harbrace's personal copter waitingbeside the road a couple of hundred yards away.
Without warning, the earth began to shift beneath their feet and thetrio staggered on the rolling surface. From deep within the groundcame a brief but ominous rumble. Harbrace stumbled and would havefallen as the ground shook had not the two younger men caught him. Theshock was over in less than a minute.
"My God," Harbrace breathed, "not again."
He spun and looked towards the river. A wash of waves from the flowingcurrent lapped against the bank but from the center of the stream thewaters continued to boil. All three men silently watched for a fullminute. From the south where the tail of the convoy was still visible,a light survey car came racing back down the road towards the river.
It slid to a halt beside the bank and Hall, the senior hydro engineer,leaped out and came running towards the director and the two juniorengineers.
"Is it still pumping?" he panted anxiously as he surveyed the waters.
The four men eyed the boil for another half minute. Now it was just achurning pool in the middle of the waters, no longer bubbling higherthan the surface of the waters. "It's still pumping," Hall muttered,"but something's wrong."
He jumped for his car and grabbed the radio. "Swenson, Baker," hecalled, "hold it up. Get that pump-monitoring rig back here on thedouble. And get the rest of that gear turned around and headed backthis way. We've got more trouble."
The other three men had walked to the survey car. "What do you think'swrong," Harbrace asked.
"I dunno," the hydro engineer said. "Maybe the shock triggered thepile dampers on one of the pumps. Maybe something else." He squintedat the barely churning waters over the bore hole. "Can't say until weget a monitor on those pumps. If it's just a malfunction in one of theunits, I can dump another one down there. If it's something else,we'll have to see then. One thing's sure, they aren't all pumping."
* * * * *
The pump section vehicles had been hauled out of the convoy and werealready pulling up along the riverbank before the rest of the convoyof heavy equipment was turned around.
In the big monitor van, technicians already were running remote checkson the underwater pumps. The engineers and the director climbed intothe van to wait the word.
"Number One's O.K.," the section chie
f reported, "so's Number Two."The three technicians at the monitor panel punched and re-punchedbanks of buttons and switches and watched the patterns onoscilloscopes.
"Something sour on Number Three," the chief said. "Can't say whatyet."
"Skip over to Four," Hall ordered. "Let's see if that's O.K., then youcan go back to Three."
In two minutes Number Four had been checked out in working order. Theanalysis concentrated back to Number Three pump.
"I'm getting a steady pile reading," the board man reported, "as amatter of fact, it's running a little hot. But no response to dampingeffect. She's running wide open."
"Yeah," the section