Book 2 The Gods of Light and Liars

Chapter Two: Protocol

The four of them (and don't think for a moment Hawk was comfortable with Kaiser standing in for Alex) were walked to the rooftop command center. Glass energy seemed to cling to the ground, completely bypassing skyscrapers and other, tall edifices. This information was being passed around through the news crews—if you're in a Glass Event and you can't out run it, climb. They were already rescuing people from radio antennas and rooftops. Hawk had spent most of last night sleepless, watching the carnage as it spread across Massachusetts. Three days, and thousands dead, and many, many more displaced, and there was no sign of stopping.

Why is it spreading so fast this time? She'd wondered then, and she wondered it now, as they approached the command tent. It was surrounded by people in incomprehensible uniforms (at least, as far as Hawk was concerned. She'd left things like political rank to her husband. It wasn't an ant, so she wasn't much interested) and overwhelmed civilian authorities. Three firemen stood to one side in a circle with two cops, and tears were streaming down all their faces. Another firefighter stood inside the command tent, with Commissioner Thomkirk across the base of his uniform. They were talking about ways to stem the tide of Glass flooding across the counties...and from what Hawk overheard, they had no good ideas.

The soldier who had brought them here stepped forward in a salute. The soldiers, fire chief and chief of police did not seem to notice. They were saying something about dropping buildings, which wouldn't work—

"Excuse me?"

She blinked, and realized the entire command tent was staring at her.

"Who the hell are you?" said a man in military fatigues. He had stars on his shoulder, two of them. Maybe he was a General. She was struck by a wave of fatigue and embarrassment, and she realized she was so exhausted that she had said "It wouldn't work" out loud.

"Who the blue hell are you, lady, and what are you doing at my command post."

"I'm Hawk West. I'm going down that hole in a few minutes. And dropping a building to contain the Glass won't work. It goes right through most substances. Ironically enough, the only thing we've found that works is glass."

"You're the scientist who's raising hell because your husband's in the hole, aren't you?" he sighed. "You look soft. Softer than I'd like."

"I can assure you, General, the Wests are a lot of things. Soft is not one of them. And it'll be a lot easier letting Dr. West in from the beginning, than trying to peel her off your ass when she decides to become your new barnacle." Kaiser said.

It was, she thought, the first time he'd called her Doctor. Which was her title, and it should have made her feel better. It didn't. Manipulative kindness is still manipulative, and Kaiser had seemingly spent a great deal of time belittling her. Which she was playing along with. A Kaiser that assumed she wasn't assertive or strong enough to stand up to him would be a Kaiser unprepared. But his disrespect rankled.

The General turned his attention to the elderly man beside Hawk. "Which makes you Kaiser Willheim. I'm assuming candy-hair there Yung, and the little guy is Dyson. There's a protocol to giving answers, but I'll cut you some slack." He paused. "When the hell was the last time you people got sleep?"

She ignored it, mostly because he wouldn't like her answer. She hadn't really slept since before Alex vanished. "How soon can we get to the Rift? We need to get started ASAP."

"Well, there's a problem with that. Twenty minutes ago we were told that the entirety of the hole became blocked, shortly after it opened. It happened suddenly, we got nothing on the seismographs or any of the other monitors, but the whole thing is blocked off."