"Yes, Sir. We have moved the alert up to a level three. We have strong evidence to support the possibility of a major eruption within the next two weeks."
She glanced up at her partner, Sean, who was on the telephone, probably dealing with some other big wig. Too bad he couldn't handle this one as well. The man on her screen was powerful; too powerful. People with that much power rarely had to stop and listen to science. Unfortunately, this was one of those situations.
"General Parker, I'm telling you that you have to start evacuating these people. Everyone within five miles should be out by nightfall. It's not worth the risk."
"How old are you, Dr. Tifton?"
"Thirty."
"Look, I've been doing this since before you were born. Do you know what it takes to evacuate a town?"
"I know what's likely to happen to the people if they stay."
"When was the last time you spent millions of dollars on a worthless venture, my dear girl?"
"When was the last time you got burnt to death by pyroclastic flows?"
"I will not evacuate the surrounding area until you and the rest of your team are 100% sure of an eruption."
"Let me say this clearly, General. We took three surveillance trips over the caldera this morning. It's going to erupt. Now it's just a matter of time. Either you spend the time and money now to evacuate these people while they're still alive and can move themselves, or you spend the money later, moving and disposing thousands of petrified corpses that are covered in lava. You don't have a choice."
She looked up when Sean tapped her on the shoulder. "Phone's for you."
"Are you sure?" Who would be calling her now, knowing that this had been the most stressful week of her life?
"Unless one of the guys has been hiding something from us all, yeah."
"What?"
"He asked to speak to his wife, and seeing as you're the only female around here..."
"Got it. Take over for me, will you?"
She was going to kill him. No way around it. She was going to toss him into the caldera personally, and watch him melt. Never mind that it would leave her children fatherless. How many times did someone have to learn how to turn on the washing machine?!
"Hello."
"Skye!"
"You guessed it."
"How are you?"
"Stressed, on edge, possibly about to be burnt to a crisp. What do you need, Jeffrey? Because I swear if this is about the washing machine again..."
"No, finally got that, I think. Look, what do you do for a fever?"
"Your's or someone else's, because at this moment my treatment would be very different depending..."
"It's Jed. He came home from school with it."
"How high?"
"99."
"That's less than half a degree above normal!"
"Is that a lot?"
"No. Look, Jeffrey, I don't have time for this right now. We're trying to make decisions that could save or kill hundreds of thousands of people."
"And I'm trying to save the lives of our children!"
"A fever of 99 degrees doesn't kill people!"
"And how was I supposed to know that?!"
"Well, you might have tried Google before you called me halfway around the world at 3:00 in the morning!"
There was a pause, laden with tiredness and resignation.
"Well, I figured you'd be up..."
"I know..." She sighed. "I'm sorry I'm such a brat. It's just I've hardly slept in three weeks..."
"You've hardly slept in six years. That's the downside to having twins..."
She chuckled. Once. It was all she could manage at this point, but it was better than nothing.
"Look, Skye, when you decided against astrophysics, I was thrilled because I thought it would keep you home and not force you to be up in space every six months. This wasn't part of the agreement."
"I know."
"Who knew volcanology was such a time commitment?"
"I do love it, though."
"I know you do. Come home soon, okay? And please don't get blown up or burnt to death or anything. I don't think I could explain that to the kids..."
"Hopefully, you'll never have to."
"I love you."
"I love you too. Thanks for calling."
"Sure thing. See you soon."
"Okay, bye."
She hung up slowly, not at all eager to lose the temporary serenity he always gave her and turn back to the matter at hand.
Sometimes she couldn't help but wish she could just click her boots together and be home, just for one night. But there was hell to prevent, and she had volunteered to do just that.
Oz would have to wait.
(End.)
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