Precipice: The Beginning by Kevin J. Howard Page B

liberty to discuss anything further than the location, sir,” the young man snapped, sounding well rehearsed.
    Wilburn spent the next several hours with his forehead pressed to the cold glass, looking out at the city as it gave way to nothingness. Just long stretches of desert. He felt the desert was a beautiful place, geographic features that had been shaped and twisted over time, dunes moving with the wind. The early morning sun had been incapable of penetrating the dark cloud coverage. It loomed above them and made the asphalt look so deathly black, as if it’d just been laid. Water came down in buckets, pounding on the car like a million little fingers. Wilbur yawned, shaking his head. Three in the morning was far too early for him to get out of bed and get moving. He closed his eyes and fell asleep, letting time and the road pass by without paying them attention. The sound of the rain soothed his agitated mind. So many drops falling from the sky to create a beautiful melody, lulling him to sleep. He fell hard, slipping down into the depths of his subconscious. Just as he had when he was a young boy, always out like a light on long road trips. Some things never changed.
    “Sir?”
    “What!?” Wilbur nearly fell from his seat. When he saw the driver looking back from the front seat he calmed himself, pressing a hand to his heart. “Don’t startle an old man. Don’t you know better?”
    “We’re here, sir.”
    Wilbur looked out the window, squinting to see through the dark. He saw some white tents fluttering madly in a strong breeze, maybe forty yards away. There were bright lights stretching off into the distance for as far as the eye could see just beyond the tents. The military presence was thick. Hummers and jeeps parked in packs. Soldiers dressed in ponchos stood stiff and alert before the tents, many others set up more tents or hurried to cover equipment as a tarp gave way. It was hard to make out any specific details under the cover of night. “It took you all day to get to Provo?”
    “It’s only eleven thirty, sir. That’s AM.” The driver motioned with his head toward Wilbur’s window. “They’re waiting for you in that first tent.”
    Wilbur furrowed his bushy brows and opened the door, his clothes soaked almost instantly. He cursed loudly over the rain as he hurried as fast as he could across the muddy terrain. More than once he’d had to slow himself in fear of slipping. Whatever this was, he wouldn’t be much help to them laid up with a broken hip.
    “Thank you so much for coming.” Dr. Andrea Saccucci held out her hands to welcome him.
    “It’s been such a long time.” Wilbur took hold of her hands and gave them a good squeeze. “But I must say this is not my idea of the perfect location for a reunion.”
    “I feel this is the perfect location,” Dr. Katrina Ludwig said with a single nod. “We must go where the work is.”
    “Is there work to be had?” Wilbur raised an eyebrow.
    Andrea and Katrina shot each other a glance as they pulled open the flaps that led from the first tent into a much longer tent. In the tent’s center was a long table lined with monitors and core samples, chunks of rocks with detailed labels taped to the many containers. Wilbur stepped forward and eyed the monitors, not really sure what he was looking at. Just a long black void it seemed.
    “You’re looking at the five mile crack running through the earth, located just a few feet outside this tent.” Andrea crossed her arms about her chest, enjoying the bewildered look across her mentor’s face.
    “Are you suggesting this formed from the earthquake yesterday?”
    “There’s no question about it,” Katrina added, pointing at the first monitor. “This crack is an exact duplicate to the ones in Hong Kong, Vienna, Galveston…the list goes on and on.” Katrina tapped the screen. “This is more than just a mere crack in the Earth’s crust. We’re here to see if there’s been any change to the