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With the cave shaking so badly they could barely stand, both Watterson and the general looked up A dark fissure snaked across the ceiling It went from wall to wall and then spidered in different directions

The ceiling collapsed all at once and a million tons of rock dropped toward them

Death came instantly, and neither Watterson nor General Cortland would ever know the fury they’d unleashed or the utter devastation that the ensuing earthquake caused in the city of San Francisco

ONE

December 2009

In thetempest, Patrick Devlin stood on the aft deck of the Java Dawn, an oceangoing tug linked by a singlehulk of a cruise ship known as the Pacific Voyager

Huge swells caainst the hull with the sound of a shotgun blast The rain fell in diagonal sheets, though it was hard to distinguish from the hipped spray

Surrounded by towing and loading equip a fifty-foot crane and a powerful winch array, Devlin looked positively small In truth, he stood nearly six feet tall, with broad shoulders that were hunched against the cold

With gray stubble on his cheeks and folds of burnished flesh hooding his eyes, Devlin appeared every bit the wizened old sailor he was Taking stock of the deteriorating weather, the increasing strain on the cable, and the condition of the sea, he carave conclusion: they’d made a ruinous choice to leave port, one they’d be lucky to survive

As Devlin grabbed the ship’s phone, another swell rolled the tug severely The captain picked up on the other end

“What’s our heading?” Devlin yelled into the receiver

“Due south,” the captain said

“It’s no good,” Devlin replied “We’ll never survive this side-on beating We have to turn into the swells”

“We can’t, Padi,” the captain insisted “That’ll take us into the teeth of the storm”

Gripping the bulkhead to keep fro, Devlin watched a wave crash over the deck “This is madness,” he said “We should’ve never left Tarakan”