The Rising Sea (NUMA Files 15)

Paul leaned forward. “That’s two hundred miles down.”

“Water under intense pressure,” Gamay said, reading and summarizing. “Z-waves caused by the water being released from a mineral known as . . . ringwoodite.”

“Ringwoodite?” Paul said.

“Did I say that correctly?”

“Perfectly. It’s just . . .” He hesitated. “Read on.”

Gamay gave Paul a sideways look. He was holding back. But instead of prodding him to spill what he knew, she scanned the next few lines, again summarizing as she went. “Attached you’ll find our evidence and calculations, along with two separate presentations to use. One is highly technical, the other is done in generalities. Due to the vast amount of ringwoodite and the nature of the ongoing fractures, total hydraulic release cannot be calculated at this time. But if left unchecked, it would likely result in a seawater rise of two thousand feet by end of decade.”

“Two thousand feet?” This from Melanie.

Gamay double-checked to make sure she’d read it correctly. “That’s what it says.”

“Read on,” Paul said calmly.

“Other calculations become speculative,” she said, picking up where she’d left off. “Including a theoretical doomsday scenario, according to which the entire surface of the planet is covered in water within fifty years. Despite the extreme nature of this scenario, the possibility cannot be ruled out. For reasons that remain undetermined, the fractures of ringwoodite seem to be self-perpetuating and accelerating. Branching in all directions and spreading. Each new fracture releases more water. Which, in turn, causes additional fractures.”

The three of them were crowded around the computer now.

“And I thought I was the one who came up with crazy stuff,” Mel said. “Doomsday scenario? Entire world covered with water?”

“I know it sounds irrational,” Paul said, “but if the water is coming from that far down, it could be a real possibility. Believe it or not, there’s more water trapped in the deep layers of rock than in all the oceans of the Earth. Three or four times as much. It’s trapped in the minerals and held under incredible pressure. But if that pressure was released and the water began forcing its way to the surface . . .”

“You know about this?” Gamay said.

“Of course,” Paul said. “It’s deep-earth geology.”

“Why didn’t you bring it up when we were first exploring the rise in sea level?”

Paul shrugged. “I considered it early on

but ruled it out as a possibility. The only process known to bring water up from that depth is a large magma plume, followed by volcanic eruptions. And volcanic activity was down for the past year.”

Gamay turned her attention back to the data put together by the science team. A graphic showed the fissures created by the Chinese mining operation. “The crustal fractures extend downward beyond any existing measurement. They appear to be branching in all directions.”

“That’s where that field of geysers came from,” Paul said. “We couldn’t see to the end of the field. Who knows how many there are. Hundreds, maybe thousands. All pumping water up from the depths.”

Gamay had overcome the shock of discovery and was quickly flipping through the other files.

“What are you looking for?” Paul asked.

“Anything that mentions getting us out of here.” She came to a file labeled Instructions. “Rudi has given us an address to proceed to.”

“Safe house?” Paul asked hopefully.

Gamay typed the location into the computer. “Not sure.”

Melanie leaned over to look at the map. “That’s not a safe house,” she said. “That’s the Shanghai bureau of the Ministry for State Security. Local headquarters of the secret police.”

Paul leaned back. “And I thought Rudi was on our side.”

“Maybe he thinks it’s the last place anyone would look for you.”

“He’s not asking us to hide there,” Gamay told them, reading on. “He wants us to turn ourselves in. But only to a man named Zhang. Make that a general named Zhang.”

Paul sighed. “Well, that ought to speed up our trial and make it easy to get a firing squad together.”