"I'm so sorry," she said to Quilliam as she shifted in her seat in the limo, glancing at the officer through moist eyes. She turned her face fully toward the window, letting her red-turning-auburn hair fall next to her eyes to preserve some dignity.
"I didn't mean to pry," said Sergeant Quilliam "There's no need to finish if it bothers you. I was only 10 or 11 when the dam blew up."
She could have easily used his misunderstanding as an out. But she didn't.
"You didn't pry. My pain is part of my journey and every time I repeat it, it provides some healing." She reached in her purse for a tissue and wiped her eyes and her nose and took a short quick breath before continuing. "Actually, this part of the story starts before Grand Coulee."
"Daniel – my husband – and I had planned a weekend at the beach with our 10-year-old twins and they had looked forward to it all summer long. The plan was to head the to Fort Canby State Park, at the mouth of the Columbia, that he had grown up loving, maybe you've been there?" He shook his head no." "Well, anyway, I'm sure you know this from your history but it was used as a defense against the Japanese and had concrete bunkers and these huge 15" guns and all that to defend the shore if they ever got close. Of course, the Japanese never got close to our Western shores and the whole installation was decommissioned after the war. Oh I'm sorry, that's probably too many details."
"Are you kidding me?" Quilliam said excitedly. "Remember I work for Uncle Sam and those weren't small potato guns! Go on."
"Anyway, these concrete bunkers are really popular with the youth groups and kids who come down and play capture the flag and stuff."
"Sweet! I would be all over that!"
"Well, I hate dark places and caves and stuff and I get claustrophobic in small spaces, but I was willing to go along just to see Daniel come alive with the twins. Unfortunately, an 'incident' between one of my employee and the 22 year old intern he supervised came up and threatened to interfere with the trip. Daniel said they could postpone to another weekend, but I knew that getting a new reservation for camping spots at this time of year at that state park was not going to happen. So I told them to gone on without me."
She still savored the memory of that Thursday morning when she gave them quick hugs and kisses and told Daniel she had something special for him when he returned. His eyes got big and she spun around on her high-heels towards the front door, casting a knowing look and a wink over her shoulder before rushing off to the personnel disaster she'd spend the weekend cleaning up. The tears started to come now.
"They left Thursday morning and it was the last time I saw them alive. On their way back from the beach, a semi-truck's load of timber came loose in front of their car on I-90, two miles east of the Snoqualmie Summit.
"I am so sorry ma'am. I didn't know." Silence settled over them as she gazed out the window vacantly thinking back to the six months of intense grief that eclipsed even her campaign. She had lost her ability to keep cool under pressure and would break down unexpectedly in city council meetings. She choked up at more than one ribbon cutting ceremony and completely choked her state of the city speech. With another fourteen months to go to complete her term, Alice's friends convinced her she needed a break to process her grief and to their great surprise she listened.
"I quit my position after four months because I couldn't handle myself in public very well anymore. The grief was too much." She looked down into her shredded tissue, wondering why she was baring her soul to a stranger. "Nine months later, that's when the dam terrorists struck," she said bitterly.
She had no need to explain what most people in the nation, certainly everybody in the military, knew by now. For years, environmentalists had been frustrated with the government's answer for Pacific salmon recovery on both the Columbia and Snake Rivers. Fanatics within the movement, decided to a send a message the government would never forget. Two weeks after the anniversary of 9/11, they ripped the same play from the Al-Qaeda book. A couple of young men who had grown up in the region had been radicalized by a Northwest environmental group in their twenties. Biding their time, over the course of a decade, they did everything necessary to to become unquestionable candidates for flight school, working first at the Portland International Airport throwing luggage and getting small aircraft pilots licenses.
When the time was right, they successfully enrolled in a commercial flight school just outside Moses Lake uses the former Army base's runway to practice touch-and-goes with Boeing 737's. By the time they had taken out their instructor and were clearly off-route, there was really no time for any interception from the Air National Guard out of Spokane. The Grand Coulee Dam was only a 10 minute flight in an airliner and they downed it into the northern wall of the dam.
The results at Grand Coulee weren't as spectacular as the Twin Towers: it was a smaller jet and it wasn't fueled for long distances so the dam was nowhere close to being demolished. But enough of the North wall was breached to send about twenty-percent of Lake Roosevelt down the Columbia River, washing other reservoirs over their dams. The tiny cities below each of the next four dams downstream - Bridgeport, Brewster, Pateros, and Azwell - were all completely destroyed with almost total loss of life. The bigger cities of Wenatchee and the Tri-Cities much farther downstream had more forewarning so fewer people died but significant destruction occurred all the way to The Dalles Oregon. "How much do you know about the Grand Coulee Dam?" asked Alice.
"Oh, probably about what the average citizen does - was built during the Great Depression I think.. I grew up in Germany and Japan. Army brat. And I haven't lived stateside all my life except for the past three months. Fill me in. I could probably use a history refresher," said Sgt. Quilliam.
"OK. Well, you seem to be a sucker for details so tell me if I'm boring you. Grand Coulee was a project of the FDR administration, started in 1933 and completed in 1942. It remains to this day one of of the largest structures built by man. It stretches nearly a mile across the mighty Columbia River and stands 550 high. Appropriately, they named the reservoir it created Lake Roosevelt and it holds more than 9.4 million acre feet of water. It was the primary reason for Central Washington's agricultural boom took hold."
Alice went on to explain that Grand Coulee was the largest power-producing plant in the nation (actually 4 plants fed directly from the dam) and the sixth largest in the world. The entire Columbia Basin project accounted for 44% of the nation's hydroelectric power production and supplied the cheapest power in the nation which Pacific Northwesterners had grown used to. Overnight, power generation was cut by two-thirds. Farmers also lost access to cheap irrigation and the economy of Central Washington completely collapsed.
"As you know, National Guardsman are posted in almost every city in the area and most people - even though they're Tea Party Republicans and don't like Federal presence - well, they welcomed the sense of order they offered," said Alice. "Then came Roger Noam."
"Councilman Noam is an able administrator and a decent CPA and was the presiding chair of the City Council when I was mayor. When I stepped down, he stepped up. The only thing was, and there's no need to be discreet here, he's a lousy politician. He hated doing the public part of the public office stuff, and was shell shocked by the disaster. He fumbled his way through countless meetings with federal officials pushing their way into town offering emergency help."
"Noam couldn't hack it and within three months, he threw up his hands and tendered his resignation, caving to the pressure of a job he didn't ask for and couldn't perform. None of the other council members were brave enough to step forward so they voted to hold an emergency mayoral election in 30 days. I think the disaster was shocking enough to snap me out of my grief and I put my name on my ballot. Guess what, nobody else was stupid enough to do the same so at the age of 48, there I am taking the oath of office again as Moses Lake Mayor."
She let out a long sigh before going on to detail the next ten years. "With no family obligations other than an ailing mother to slow me down this time I threw myself at the immense task of rebuilding a local economy with unbridled passion and energy. I suppose there was an unspoken rage behind it all, just under the surface, but nobody complained and most I had plenty to be angry about with the loss of my family and the betrayal of the environment by idiots.
"The flood down the Columbia killed millions of fish, the ones that the terrorists thought they were saving and it pretty well pissed off the real environmentalists. I'm sure you've seen pictures of the co-conspirators that were dumped unceremoniously in downtown Portland - in the city square - right across from the courthouse."
"Dipped in tar and fish guts if I remember right," said Quilliam and both he and Alice burst out laughing at the images of three other men tied up naked in Pioneer Square with fish scales and entrails stuck all over their black gooey bodies.
"They deserved it, and more. But the attack didn't stop the fighting with the feds over the dams and pretty soon, everything was at a stalemate over rebuilding plans again. My town couldn't wait for those answers to play out so I quickly got to work our region's issues. Most mayors, smaller towns mainly, had no idea what the next step was so I talked with federal officials and international experts and Washington State University, the land grant college, and we got a plan together. Figured out new crops that didn't require as much water and industry that didn't depend on cheap electricity. And it worked. Then the temperature started going up precipitously every year and that totally changed the nature of what we grow too."
Alice went on to describe how summers began to lengthen into fall and winters warmed up on both ends. Forest fires in the Northwest, which had already consumed millions of acres for many summers before, became the state's largest annual challenges. One year, more than a third of the Evergreen State's national forests burned down in a single season. This, accompanied by shifting jet streams that tended to keep weather patterns swirling above the region, caused the air to fill with smoke for the better half of six months after the fires died down each year. Some likened it to Mount St. Helens in SW Washington which blew its stack in 1980, sending an ash cloud that reached all the way around the world, except that this one never really dissipated. Kids were especially susceptible to the smoke in the air and an epidemic of asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia and related disorders nearly collapsed the health care system. Similar regional eco-disasters of different types and orders dotted the hemisphere.
Alice reached up and brushed a tear away from her face with a sniffle. She'd done alright as mayor given the circumstances, and although she hadn't told anybody yet, she was ready to be done after her ten years. She was tired and it was time to let somebody younger than her have the reins. And that's about when a certified letter from the Department of Defense showed up on her desk giving her an excuse to get out of the rat race.
Quilliam spoke up gently, giving her some space to breathe: "I don't think I've ever met somebody that I could say I respect so much, not even my commanding officer who fought in both Afghanistan and Iraq. For a civilian, no offense, to jump back into that mess when you've lost…." he dropped the rest of sentence awkwardly. "Well, everything important. I just have to say I feel so honored to meet someone like you. I really am." His words were genuine and poured a needed boost of encouragement into Alice's heart.
"Thank you. Well, like Frodo said, 'All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.' So that's what I did. Oh!" She exclaimed suddenly as she looked out the window," We're on the outskirts of Spokane.
The Sgt didn't tell her it was actually Gandalf's quote and just smiled, ready for a change in the conversation. "Where did you say you went to school?"
"Gonzaga."
"Good school," he said. "That's right across from the National Guard Armory. We're headed there now."
"Really! Well it will be fun to see campus again." she replied. She threw her tissue in her purse, fingering the envelope she received three months ago that had brought her here today and ingloriously ending her career. She stepped down with the excuse of a sudden and emergent health issue and was travelling elsewhere to receive treatment. She pulled it out and read it again, wondering exactly what she was ending her public career for.
CONFIDENTIAL – OFFICIAL DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE BUSINESS
Mayor Harken –
It is my pleasure to inform you of your selection by the Department of Defense for an assignment I think is custom made for you. In light of ecological disasters that you are well familiar with, the federal government has prepared and secured facilities in case the climate worsens and the general health of our citizenry plummet with it. These will be populated with US adults and children mainly from your region. Facilities are equipped to provide for many years of self-sustenance with internal power generators and food production. They will be sealed and secured to protect from outsides forces, both natural and human.
Should you choose to accept it, you have been selected to serve as the civil administrator for the DOD because of your excellent reputation and ability demonstrated in Moses Lake for the past two decades. You may submit the names of three trusted associates of yours to assist you in setting up your government with these exceptions: they are subject to DOD background checks, must be single and unattached, and may not come if they have any children under the age of 18 or dependents. You may not consult with them in advance, but please understand, both for yourself and for them: this is likely a lifetime commitment.
You have 48 hours to respond to this offer and if you choose to decline, are sworn to strict confidentiality about this letter….
She had never heard of the General Henry McIntosh that signed the letter. He certainly wasn't one of the many in military leadership she'd met during her time as mayor. How her reputation had gotten the attention for a national issue was beyond her. Still, she had accepted the offer three months ago,, which meant she was either too tired to resist or too proud to recognize it as a fool's errand.
They rolled through Downtown on Division Street and headed north towards the river. She could see the Zags university clock tower and as they drove by, she looked longingly towards it. "I wish I could walk around campus."
Quilliam didn't answer her. "I'm sorry. We're here, ma'am," he announced moving back into stoic military mode as they pulled up to the machine-gun guarded fence which quickly swung open for them and quickly swung shut. As they rolled to a stop, another officer approached the car door, opened it and Sergeant Quilliam exited the vehicle, saluting him. After a couple of brief words that she couldn't overhear, Quilliam motioned for Mayor Harken to join him. He escorted her into a small building, which sat adjacent to a larger one.
Thankfully, she was allowed to use the facilities, after which the sergeant led her down a hallway into a conference room with a long table. As she entered, three men stood from the other side of the table, one in a general's uniform and the other two in plaid shirts with loosened ties.
"Mayor Harken…." the general said and came around the table to greet her, his hand warmly extended. "I'm so glad you made it safely. I'm General Henry McIntosh and I'm sure you have a lot of questions."