Higher Ground by Becky Black (notion reading list txt) 📗

sea floor will sink and the island along with it. This will cause the interior basin to flood and perhaps even the mountains to sink beneath the surface of the sea. This event will occur within days. We have to leave the colony immediately.”

The place erupted, questions, shouts that Zach was crazy, general abuse, all hurled at the stage. Zach waited a moment, then raised his hand. Adam, watching him from behind, thought he should have been checking out Zach’s rather nice ass. But his attention was as riveted as everyone else’s on Zach’s words. He’d already heard it once, but here, in this atmosphere, to hear him say it to all these people, gave it a weight, a terror Adam hadn’t felt before.

“I have a short presentation about my evidence, if you’ll bear with me.” Zach poked a couple of buttons on his Link, and the screen behind him lit up. He began to go through the data as Adam had seen him do at Korrie’s home. He’d made it less technical this time, but nothing about it gave Adam any reason to doubt Zach. When Korrie stood up and gave her endorsement, Adam began to compose in his head a list of what he’d take with him from his place. He wouldn’t sit around and wait for rescue. If the island began to sink, he wanted to be somewhere high. They needed to get out of the basin and up a mountain.

Zach and Korrie took questions from the crowd, and from the academics at the front. The fact Phillips and Morrison were disagreeing with Zach caused ripples of doubt to spread through the crowd.

“Tell me why he’s wrong,” Korrie demanded of them after one such ripple. “Stop saying he ‘can’t’ be right and point to where his evidence is in error. Because I’ve tried to find an error, and I can’t. Not in the data, not in his interpretation. He’s right, and we have to act.”

“What are we supposed to do?” someone called from the crowd.

“A colony distress call is already being sent,” Zach said.

“You can’t do that,” Colleen Johnson shouted. “You’re not authorized.”

“It’s currently sending,” Zach said. “Authorized or not. Rescue ships will come from the outposts and from off-world, but we can’t simply sit here and wait for rescue.”

Johnson started to shove her way through the crowd. She’s going to find out about the distress signal, Adam thought. Or she’s going to get the sheriff. He hoped Zach and the Franes had anticipated this and found a way to keep the signal on.

“We have to get out of the basin and move to higher ground,” Zach went on. “The basin will flood when sea water comes in through the old lava vents. As the basin floor is below sea level, the island sinking only two meters will leave the basin under five meters of water. Our best chance to buy time for rescue to arrive is to climb out of the basin.”

“This is madness,” a councilor called. “You expect over one thousand people to abandon their farms, their homes, their work, and climb a mountain?”

“And what about our experiments?” a professor called. “You should know we can’t just leave them. And the quarterly reports—”

“We can’t leave crops and livestock unattended!” a farmer shouted.

“If you want to survive, then you have to.” Zach raised his voice over the objections. “We have to set off as soon as possible, I suggest tomorrow morning at eight, to allow everyone time to gather what they need. I’ve drawn up a list of items people should bring. I’m sending it to everyone now.” He tapped on his Link, and a chorus of beeps instantly burst from the crowd. At the same time, the list came up on screen.

“Essentials only,” Zach said. “But everyone should bring the largest backpack they have, even if they don’t fill it.”

“Why?” a couple of people shouted.

“Because eventually we’ll have to carry the children.”

A papoose, Adam thought. You could use a backpack like a papoose for a toddler. Those with babies probably already had carrying slings or papooses for them, and older children should be able to keep up. It was the toddlers who wouldn’t be able to manage alone.

The crowd were debating more among themselves, and many people were reading the list on their Links. Some still shouted questions out to Zach. The council and the academics were arguing, with people near them and with each other—something Adam was glad to see.

He wasn’t so glad to see the sheriff heading this way, Colleen Johnson in his wake.

“Zach!” Adam called, bringing him over to the side of the platform. “Trouble’s coming.”

“Yes, I see. They’ll want to talk to me about the distress call. Take Professor Korrie and get out of here.”

“You come too.”

“No. Running away would not convince people I believe in what I’m saying. Take her and go, quickly. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Okay. Good luck.” He grabbed Zach’s collar and pulled him down for a kiss, not caring how many people might be watching them. It could only last a second, felt even shorter, and he broke away and ran around the back of the stage to the other side.

“Ann.” She turned to him from where she crouched at the front of the stage, arguing with the academics, and he gestured frantically, bringing her over to him. “Come down, we’re leaving. The sheriff is coming.”

“What about Zach?”

“He’ll be fine. You and I are going.” He hated to go and leave Zach behind. Wanted to stand at his side, face whatever came, but he’d be more useful to Zach on the loose than locked up beside him. He reached up and lifted Korrie down as the sheriff climbed the steps to the stage, Johnson following.

Zach held up the microphone to make sure the crowd heard the sheriff arresting him for unauthorized use of the colony distress signal. Damn, but Zach was good, Adam thought. Maybe his intensity and charisma came from being a frustrated actor, because he’d