"Easy on the cholesterol," Fred said, smiling.
Grant picked up one of the links with his fingers and took a bite. "Hmm… That was worth at least a year of my life."
Shauna smiled. "Don't laugh. It may have cost you a year."
Grant looked over at her. "Since it was my last year, I probably saved myself a year of cancer and chemotherapy."
"Pass the sausage," Fred said, laughing.
With no large table, everyone found wherever they could to sit. Grant's group found three chairs over by the wall. The whole lobby was surprisingly silent as they ate. Grant had to force himself to eat slowly enough to chew. He noticed that even Shauna ate like she didn't know where her next meal would come from.
About half way through breakfast, the governor stood. "Ladies and gentlemen, attention please. I've just received word that phase one of Hoover-Two is officially completed."
The crowd erupted with clapping and some yells. Grant couldn't believe the governor used the "Hoover-Two" nickname.
When the noise settled, the governor continued. "As you know, without Hoover-Two, there would be a waterfall all the way across Hoover Dam right now." More cheers and a couple of playful boos could be heard.
"If all goes well today, the Bureau," Grant noticed that the governor motioned to where he sat, not to where Roland's team sat, "the Bureau expects Hoover Dam and Hoover-Two to be holding back Lake Mead at an elevation of twelve hundred forty four and a half feet, which would be twelve feet over the top of the original Hoover Dam." More applause.
"And some time in the next sixty days, we expect the lake to have dropped back below the concrete, after which Hoover-Two will be torn down again." Grant could tell by looking around that not all had expected it to take that long.
The governor continued. "So, since this is a historic moment, I need everybody to walk out right now," he motioned, "and we're going to take a picture in front of Hoover-Two. Come on. Your breakfasts will wait."
With many still chewing, the group headed out the doors of the visitor center.
Almost an hour later, after the photos were taken and the breakfast was cleaned up, Grant inquired of Shauna as to what was happening downstream. He felt satisfied with what they had accomplished at Hoover and was starting to worry more about downriver.
She pushed her glasses up on her nose and paged through a bound notebook, stopping on her latest entry. "A little before 7:30 a.m., the levels stabilized at Davis Dam. We think the spillways have caught up to Hoover."
Grant considered the information. "Caught up?"
"Yeah. Davis handled the flood, and passed it on, just as we hoped it would."
"Any damage?"
Shauna hesitated. "Well, the level of Lake Mojave didn't rise that far, so ―"
Grant interrupted, "I meant downstream."
Shauna read from her notebook. "They're reporting major flooding in the casinos in Laughlin along the river, including the Edgewater, Colorado Bell, Golden Nugget, and the Riverdale Resort." She looked up briefly. "Basically, anything on the edge of the river is getting inundated. They said that the Colorado Bell has four feet of water running through the lobby."
Grant shook his head. "Ouch. Two months of that and some of those hotels will be floating down the river."
Shauna continued reading from her notebook. "The cities of Laughlin and Bullhead City spent quite a bit of time sandbagging in preparation, and except for the buildings near the river, they've held. So there are a few wet places in the cities, but the major flooding has been contained to the river."
"Well, I guess that's good news."
Shauna continued. "However, just south of Riverfront Drive…" She motioned around with her hand."… where the river curves east, it overflowed and flooded out the Needles Highway."
"Any damage farther down?" Grant asked.
"Maximum flow hasn't got to Needles yet, but we expect it during the next hour. I-40 and the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railroad's main lines go right next to the river there. The railroad's been trying to build dikes around the tracks for the last 18 hours, but they're afraid it's hopeless. It's their main east-west corridor out of the shipyards in Los Angeles. They average over 25 trains a day through there. A flood would shut 'em down."
Grant rubbed his eyes. "What's next downstream?"
"South of Needles, the river flows into Lake Havasu. Havasu's already rising fast, but it's going to double when maximum flow hits at around…" She turned the page and searched with her finger."… 11:00 a.m. The lake will then quickly fill and top out sometime between 11:30 and 11:45 a.m."
Grant looked confused. "That doesn't sound right. The lake fills up less than an hour after peak flows get there?"
Shauna looked up. "It's right. Havasu is pretty small comparatively. Only 18,000 acres, compared to Hoover, which is more than ten times bigger. Plus, ever since Davis Dam opened its spillways early this morning, Havasu has been getting a full 500,000 cubic feet per second."
Grant thought about the damage being done in Laughlin to the casinos and the flooding by Needles. He wondered what kind of damage the railroad would sustain. He wanted to be at Parker Dam and make sure everything was done correctly. He looked at his watch. Here at Hoover, water levels would not peak until later in the evening. Today was going to be a disaster downstream. He had already written off two dams that he thought would fail downstream in the afternoon, not to mention the desalination plant at the Imperial Dam that they needed to protect. They might need him downstream. It was someplace where he could help out. Besides, the terrorists seemed to be moving that direction anyway. Grant made a quick decision. He was leaving.
"We'll be there when Havasu fills," he said. He noticed her head come up abruptly from her notebook. "You can come too. We need to be at Parker Dam when the spillways reach capacity." He hesitated, then added, "In case something comes up."
"What about Hoover-Two?" she said, almost pleading. "Who'll monitor the rising water levels?"
Grant motioned to Fred. "Fred'll take care of it. His guys can forward you the numbers. I want you to stay with me. I may need some quick calculations." He waved at Hoover Dam. "It's too late to do anything here. Hoover-Two is going to either hold or fail this afternoon, and it's too late for us to make a difference either way."
She hitched her glasses up on her nose and casually paged through her notebook, but Grant knew she wasn't really looking for anything.
"Don't worry," he said. "We can't be everywhere. Downstream is where we need to be. If there's anything to be done it will be down there."
Grant pointed at Fred. "I need another helicopter. See if you can reserve it for the whole day. And I'd better call the FBI and tell them I'm leaving."
Fred smiled. "Aren't you forgetting something?"
Grant shrugged. "What?"
"Don't you need to tell the commissioner?"
CHAPTER 31
"You're what?" The commissioner looked shocked.
"I'm going downstream to the other dams, to make sure everything gets done," Grant replied.
Roland motioned out the windows toward Hoover-Two and the monumental effort in process to complete the second phase of sandbags in time. "What about that?"
Grant shrugged. "My part is done. They can handle it from here."
"You are not done!" the commissioner yelled. "This project is far from finished, and we are far from being out of the woods, and you are responsible."
Grant held out his palms. "I'm not doing anything. They don't need me anymore."
The commissioner yelled, "Then start doing something. Go make sure they are doing everything right. Make sure we're not going to run out of sandbags. Make sure we are building it fast enough. Make sure we have enough volunteers. Who is doing all that?"