"Good idea. He's on his way, Lieutenant."
He got through to Group, the officer of the day first and then the sleepy executive officer. The exec carefully avoided commenting on his action but said, "We'll send you a meteorologist pronto. I'll message First Army about the engineer officer. Meanwhile, keep at it—and don't forget your primary mission, Lieutenant."
He would not forget. One of the girls at the plexiglas scribbled a symbol, but nobody at the table picked it up; they were too busy twittering and tutting over the grim picture shaping up along the rivers of their state. "Get that intercept!" he snapped at the girl who was responsible for the sector.
"Sorry," she said, burning red, and picked out a marker to shove carefully to the right spot on the map. Multi-engine, approximately angels ten, bearing 280. The lieutenant checked his list; it was CMA Flight 24 a little off course.
And the girls kept calling; from some alert watchers they got unbelievably exact information relayed from local police or newsmen—normal river depth, present river depth, rise during the past 24 hours, condition of phone and power lines. From others they got only brief impressions that there was trouble, and how much. From many they got nothing at all. Down the river valley towns on the map table crawled the menacing symbol F, over and over again.
CHAPTER SIX
The man in the winterized jeep unzipped a window, leaned out and yelled: "The burgess around here?"
The four soaked men working around the tow truck didn't even answer. One of them gestured down the road with an arm and they went back to trying to get a line to a car that had gone off the road. It was now roof-deep in the torrent that had once been a drainage ditch, and up to five minutes ago it had looked as though something was moving behind the windshield.
The man in the jeep spat into the rain and drove on. He finally found the burgess's car parked with its lights on, along with a couple of others, a few yards from the edge of the river. That was crazy, he thought, why didn't they park them up on the highway, twenty-five feet above the water? Then he remembered that he was on the highway.