Grant looked at his watch; they were running out of time. "All right, let's go talk to the mayor of Las Vegas. We'll find out what he's made of, see how he handles responsibility."
David couldn't believe how far the water had risen in the last hour. Could it be a hundred feet? He thought so. It seemed like ages ago when Afram and Sam were trying to lasso the rock outcropping. Thankfully, they succeeded, but the rope hold had only lasted maybe ten or fifteen minutes before the raft had risen up to the same level of the outcropping. Luckily, by then they found other handholds, and were able to hold the boat without anyone in the cold water. Over the past few minutes the water seemed to be rising a foot or two per minute.
Although the sun was still a few hours from going down, it was already getting dark deep in the Grand Canyon, and David had to look up to see where the setting sun still shown on the east rock faces high above them. Meanwhile the dark water of the Colorado River was making more noise as it rose. David thought he could hear a waterfall somewhere downstream, although that seemed unlikely. Either way, just looking out at the main channel scared him. The water was traveling so fast.
"Look how smooth the water is," David said. "It looks like a lake."
"Except it's moving." Judy motioned with her arm.
Afram pointed to the other side. "David's right. It's perfectly flat and spread out. If I didn't know better, I would think there was a dam just downstream."
Keller spoke. "There is, kind of."
Afram looked perplexed. "What do you mean?"
"Well, Granite Narrows is at mile 135, and we are probably a mile or less from there."
"What is Granite Narrows?" Judy asked.
David knew the answer. He had read about it. "It's where the Grand Canyon squeezes to less than a hundred feet wide. It's by far the narrowest place in the whole canyon."
"76 feet to be exact," Keller said.
"How is that a dam?" Becky asked.
"Think about it," Afram explained. He pointed to the other side. "The river is almost a half mile wide, and yet it all needs to fit through the narrows. It's like a dam."
Becky furrowed her brows. "But wouldn't the water just go faster through the notch?"
Keller nodded. "No question. The water has got to be blasting through the gap. But it would still back up, which is what we are seeing here."
Sam spoke for the first time. "The water level would be lower on the other side. It would be like a waterfall."
David cupped his hand to his ear. "That must be the sound I can hear."
"You know what this means?" Afram asked the group.
"What?" Becky said nervously.
"It means that we're lucky that we found this spot when we did. I don't want to even think about what would happen if we had tried to drift toward Granite Narrows."
David imagined the raft getting sucked through the gap and spit over a hundred-foot waterfall.
The group sat silent for a moment. An explosion echoed through the darkening canyon, making them turn their heads.
"There goes another one," Afram said, craning his head around.
Becky whipped her head around. "Was it upstream or down?" Becky had evolved from jittery to frantic over the last hour. Her voice was now a few notches higher than normal.
The explosive sounds of the rock breaking off and falling in the river was starting to occur every few minutes. Although they couldn't see most of them, one had broken off just across the river about a half hour before in an earsplitting bang that had reverberated off the canyon walls.
"I think that one was way upstream someplace," Keller said reassuringly. "It sounded like it was a long ways away."
"Not to me!" Becky argued, near tears.
Sam put his arm around her, a maneuver that seemed unnatural to David under the circumstances. David would have been more apt to slide away from her while she was being so hostile, and give her some space.
David considered their situation: water rising a hundred feet an hour, getting dark, raft being held by people's hands grasping the cliff in precarious holds, with no place to stand or hike in a rimmed canyon. David wondered again if they were going to make it.
"Heads up," Keller yelled. He grasped the rock for a better hold.
David felt the raft pulling away from the rocks and he renewed his grip. He thought about Granite Narrows downstream and gripped harder. Every now and then the current swirled under their raft and tried to pull it out into the channel and downstream. Sometimes these currents lasted a few seconds, and sometimes a few minutes. David's hands ached. He didn't think he could last much longer. After a while, the current let up and David relaxed his hold slightly. He looked up at the sky. Was there a God? He had always believed it, but now he wondered. If there was a God, would he help? David wasn't sure. But there was one thing for sure — it didn't hurt to ask. Without anyone else seeing what he was doing, David nodded his head slightly, then without making a sound he talked to his God. He thanked him that they were still safe, and then he pleaded with him to spare them through the rest of the night.
Greg pulled back on the throttle in response to a large houseboat cutting in front of them. He veered to the right and passed it.
"Look up ahead." He pointed off to the right.
Castle Rock could be seen miles in the distance. Julie noticed they were passing Padre Point on the left, which signified they were beyond the remains of Padre Bay, and were entering the narrows. The narrows did not look much different from before except now the walls were much higher. The waves in this stretch of the lake had always radiated back and forth between the cliffs, which sometimes capsized smaller boats. But, Julie had never seen it this rough and she held on as the Mastercraft rocked violently.
The narrows, from Padre Point to Antelope Island, was a four-mile straight shot with Antelope Island dead ahead. There were two choices at Antelope Island: the narrows veered left and wound for another 11 miles to the dam, or Warm Creek Bay, which opened to the right. Logically, the only decision would be to turn right into the safety of Warm Creek. As the water dropped, the boat would be stranded, but that was infinitely safer than continuing down the narrows, which would take them within a mile of the Glen Canyon Dam site.
"We need to talk," Greg said.
Julie faced her husband. "About what?"
Greg rotated so the other four passengers could hear him. "What do we do up there?" He motioned in front of the boat.
Julie felt confused. "What are you talking about?"
"Which way are we going? Right or left?" Greg was biting his lip.
Julie couldn't believe it. "I thought it was settled. We're going into Warm Creek." Julie saw nervousness on the two other couples' faces, as if this were her and Greg's argument.
Greg shook his head. "We haven't even talked about it."
Paul spoke up. "Going into Warm Creek would essentially be writing off your boat."
"Couldn't you come back and retrieve it later?" Darlene asked.
Max put his hand over Darlene's. "If the dam is gone, the lake will eventually drop another three or four hundred feet. By then, Warm Creek will be just a muddy wash. It would be basically inaccessible as far as retrieving a boat was concerned."
Darlene eyes bulged as the realization set in.
"I wouldn't abandon this boat if it was mine!" Erika said.
Julie was shocked that they were all talking this way. "So all of you are willing to risk your lives for this boat?"
Greg shook his head. "I never said we all have to go. I could drop the rest of you off at Warm Creek."
Julie pictured Greg leaving the five of them on the rocks someplace and taking the Mastercraft down past the dam by himself. She didn't like that idea any better. She remembered what she had felt like earlier in the day when they had been separated, and she didn't want to be separated again.