Deluge (The Best Thrillers Book 2) by James Best (top romance novels txt) 📗

“Jon’s partly right,” Wilson said. “The federal government will make a show of it … but it’ll be short term and far less than enough to salvage the entire state. The national government has never had to deal with an economic crisis of this magnitude, and it’s not like they put aside anything for a rainy day. Besides … there’s not much love for California in flyover country.”

“I’m confused. Why are we discussing this instead of getting some sleep?” Baldwin asked. “Is there something we can do tonight?”

Everybody just looked at each other. Baldwin was hoping she would finally get some sleep, when Ashley piped up.

“I have an idea. Bob Mandel mentioned it. He asked if we could blow a path through the mountains to open drainage through Salinas. Maybe we could.”

“Use explosives? Are you crazy?” Smith started laughing. “I mean, come on, do you have any idea how much explosive material it would take? It’s a damn mountain, for god’s sake.”

“No, it is not, not a mountain, at any rate,” Ashley said. “I checked. We need to move only five hundred feet of earth.”

“Five hundred feet?” Smith said. “For how long of a distance?

“Three or four miles,” Ashley answered.

“Do you have any idea how much dirt that is? Or more correctly, rock.”

Ashley waved dismissively. “This isn’t new. The government once toyed with the idea of using atomic bombs to excavate geological obstructions, like widening the Panama Canal or creating a manmade harbor. And according to Smithsonian.com, they considered using nukes to carve a path for a railway line through the Bristol Mountains. In 1962, a test explosion displaced twelve million tons of earth. They even attempted to use nukes for what we call fracking. In 1973, the Atomic Energy Commission tried to release trillions of cubic feet of natural gas a mile deep under the Rocky Mountains.”

Smith popped to his feet. “You’ve got to be kidding me. You want to nuke California? If we broach that idea, they’ll put us in the Stockton State Insane Asylum.”

“I think we’re safe,” Wilson said. “The Stockton State Insane Asylum has been closed for decades.”

“They’ll reopen it just for us.” Smith plopped back into his chair.

“What if we did not go nuclear?” Ashley said. “Maybe we can use those monster conventional bombs.”

“You mean MOABs?” Smith grunted. “The Mother of all Bombs?”

“Yes. Only for your information, the acronym really stands for Massive Ordnance Air Blast,” Ashley said, seemingly proud of knowing this factoid. “The blast is equivalent to tons of TNT.”

“You’re still talking about bombing our own country,” Smith said. “Don’t you see how crazy that makes you sound?”

“May I make a suggestion?” Baldwin interrupted.

“Please,” Smith responded.

“Let’s get a few hours’ sleep and reevaluate in the morning. It’s near four am. No one who answers a phone will listen to us right now anyway.”

“Yeah, right,” Smith said. “Like this is going to look like a bright idea in daylight.”

They grabbed blankets and throws and staked out sections of rug for the night. They were dry, warm, and in San Francisco. They had all survived.

Surely the worst was behind them.

Chapter 35

As he hunkered behind a table, Evarts called the Santa Barbara Police dispatcher to ask who commanded the police outside. He learned that Sergeant Brad Curren had taken leadership of the pick-up team sent to Solvang. Evarts got Curren on the phone and told him that the inn’s night shift had holed up in the breakfast room off the lobby. He instructed him to secure the area around the lobby before giving away their location. Curren explained that most of the officers had chased the gang members, who had dispersed like gulls pounced at by a barking dog. Evarts breathed a little easier knowing that his own force wouldn’t aggressively breach the door at any second.

Evarts looked at the stern woman who’d claimed to have killed more birds than she could count. She, on the other hand, kept her attention on the door.

Evarts thought a moment and then said, “You only succeeded in scattering the guard force.”

“What do you mean?” Curren asked.

“There are a bunch of gangbangers inside this hotel … going room to room … robbing and molesting people. Worse, I suspect. The ones with the automatic weapons were securing the grounds for them. Listen, this hotel is filled with evacuees from the flood. They grabbed their valuables and ran. The gangbangers discovered that. Easy pickings. Brad, this is organized.”

“What do you want me to do?” Curren asked.

“Stop running after the fleeing gangbangers. They’re a diversion ... or worse, they’re setting up your men for an ambush. I want a police perimeter around this hotel fifteen minutes ago. No one leaves without a search. All luggage, all bags. Confiscate every weapon and all valuables. Arrest anyone holding contraband or even looking suspicious. When you have the perimeter secure, assign teams of three to ferret out these assholes floor by floor, room by room. Got it?”

“Chief, we got six dead cops out here in the parking lot. Some were executed after they went down wounded. Those guys running … they did this.”

“Okay, listen, we’ll get revenge, but it’s got to come later. Right now, we need to protect the people in this hotel.”

There was a hesitation. “Okay, chief, but we only have ten officers. Six are chasing bad guys.”

“Get them back. Ten more are on their way. Let’s be careful. After killing cops, they won’t come quiet. Get the message out.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll call when the perimeter is secure.”

Evarts twisted around and leaned his back against the table. Six dead officers. Damn it all. Evarts believed that there were only nine actual law enforcement officers on the Solvang force. Prentice made the tenth plus an administrator. Prentice said two were wounded breaking out of their own station. These assholes wiped out nearly the entire force. He didn’t have enough troops to handle the situation. Then an awful thought came to mind. This was probably only one of