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Broken by an altogether different—and more horrifying—sound.

Her eyes, and her companion’s, cut fast to the Hinowah levee.

Whose midsection blew outward under the force of powerful explosives.

A huge U-shaped portion from the top to the river bottom gave way, sluicing downward, tumbling into town, an avalanche of black mud and rock and water.

“Shit,” Mrs. Petaluma muttered.

Mary Dove looked for cover, and finding none, turned her eyes back to the earthwork. She couldn’t help it—she marveled as the huge thing collapsed, dissolving, a mythical animal dying.

And at the wall of water that cascaded out directly for them.

There was nothing to do.

Nowhere to hide.

The flood would strike them in fifteen seconds.

Snap their necks probably, so powerful would be the force.

Certainly, if that was not their fate, it would slam them into any number of the blunt objects that sat behind them.

She had a fast memory of Ashton Shaw lecturing the children on surviving shark attacks. “It was simple,” he said. “Never go in the ocean.”

Ah, as troubled as the man was, he certainly had a sparkle from time to time.

How she missed him…

She glanced toward where Dorion and Colter were, hoping for a last look at her children.

No. she couldn’t see them.

Ah, well.

She braced for the impact.

Then something odd happened.

The wall of water deflated.

As it surged into town, the depth dropped fast, from ten feet to five to three to one.

The flood became an inch-deep pool, the sort that might ease into your backyard after an ordinary rainstorm.

They regarded each other, and then Mary Dove scanned the scene in front of them.

She understood what had happened.

There had beentwosets of explosions. The first had destroyed the levee and started the flood. But almost simultaneously another explosion had brought down a wall of rock upstream, filling the narrow notch the Never Summer flowed through just north of Hinowah. It effectively created an impromptu dam, cutting off the current entirely before it even got to the levee.

No time for elation, though. After only a moment, the gunfire began again.

63.

From cover near the command post, Colter Shaw nodded to his sister.

Dorion’s plan had worked.