kept up with Nick’s career so she’d know how not to run into him. After he became a volcano junkie and was out of the country for most of the year, she continued to attend professional meetings with antennae out, ready to turn on her heel if she so much as saw him.
She never had … but in her imagination, in dreams when he came to her, he was always the same shining youth who had wakened at dawn and scaled the highest peak before noon.
Lying with her head on her desk, Kyle felt like a fool for being hung up over a thirty-year-old affair. If she saw Nick again, she would simply meet a fellow traveler, someone else whose bright hair had faded and whose lips had thinned.
Surely, she could find equipment elsewhere.
The IRIS/PASSCAL Instrumentation Center in New Mexico provided field equipment for people with grant money, but you couldn’t just call and order seismographs like carryout pizza. The National Earthquake Center in Boulder was an option, but they indicated Hollis had already requested assistance and it was being taken care of. The same thing happened at other research centers, where they politely assumed she was helping Hollis with his calls.
When she got to the end of her list, Kyle hung up and stared at a geologic map of Yellowstone on her office wall. Though the surface had been mapped and even the floor of the lake, there was no truly reliable picture of what went on beneath the earth. Everything geoscientists did—seismic, gravity-oriented, and magnetic surveys—all were forms of remote sensing. Each piece of data was only an inexact piece of a larger puzzle.
Kyle feared time was running out to solve it.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
SEPTEMBER 18
W yatt looked at the laptop display from the portable seismograph he and Helen Chou had just placed in Mist Creek Canyon. “Looks like we’ve got tremors now.”
The snowy creek bottom was cold where the mid-morning sun did not reach. Helen brushed a lock of black hair back under her knitted cap, unzipped her pack and pulled out a thermos of coffee. Her nose cherry red, she poured for herself, and pulled out another stainless steel cup for Wyatt.
“Is Kyle coming back with more equipment?” she asked in her characteristic direct manner.
“When she left Sunday, there wasn’t time to make plans.”
“Speaking of plans,” Helen’s voice softened. “I guess this is as good a time as any to tell you.”
Wyatt was hunkered down on his heels, but some nuance in her tone made him straighten up. “What’s that?”
She studied the steam off her coffee. “I’ve given my notice.”
Wyatt felt that little shift he always felt when the world changed. Helen was one hell of a partner. Brilliant, as well as a hard worker, she was the kind who came to Yellowstone to intern, then moved on. “Where to?”
“The University of Seattle.”
“Where Bill…?”
“Yes. I hate to let you down.”
Wyatt tried to swallow his disappointment. “People move,” he said. “We’ll manage.”
“I’d stick around and help you out with”—she gestured at the seismograph—”all this, but Bill insists I get out of here right away.”
Maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea. If Wyatt had a family, he’d probably find an excuse to send them to the in-laws until things settled down.
While they finished their coffee, Wyatt tried to tell himself Helen’s loss would be somewhat offset by Xi Hong, but even so, her absence was one more blow at a time he and Kyle could ill afford it. Come to think of Kyle, she had suspected this might happen when he mentioned Helen’s relationship with Bill. Maybe woman’s intuition was better.
Wyatt and Helen hiked back to the Park Service Bronco they’d left at dawn in Pelican Valley. In the sunny meadow, the day was warming, droning insects the only sound in the silence.
However, when they climbed into the vehicle, the dispatcher broadcast a message to all units. “We need a wilderness first response in the Pelican Creek basin, up the
She never had … but in her imagination, in dreams when he came to her, he was always the same shining youth who had wakened at dawn and scaled the highest peak before noon.
Lying with her head on her desk, Kyle felt like a fool for being hung up over a thirty-year-old affair. If she saw Nick again, she would simply meet a fellow traveler, someone else whose bright hair had faded and whose lips had thinned.
Surely, she could find equipment elsewhere.
The IRIS/PASSCAL Instrumentation Center in New Mexico provided field equipment for people with grant money, but you couldn’t just call and order seismographs like carryout pizza. The National Earthquake Center in Boulder was an option, but they indicated Hollis had already requested assistance and it was being taken care of. The same thing happened at other research centers, where they politely assumed she was helping Hollis with his calls.
When she got to the end of her list, Kyle hung up and stared at a geologic map of Yellowstone on her office wall. Though the surface had been mapped and even the floor of the lake, there was no truly reliable picture of what went on beneath the earth. Everything geoscientists did—seismic, gravity-oriented, and magnetic surveys—all were forms of remote sensing. Each piece of data was only an inexact piece of a larger puzzle.
Kyle feared time was running out to solve it.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
SEPTEMBER 18
W yatt looked at the laptop display from the portable seismograph he and Helen Chou had just placed in Mist Creek Canyon. “Looks like we’ve got tremors now.”
The snowy creek bottom was cold where the mid-morning sun did not reach. Helen brushed a lock of black hair back under her knitted cap, unzipped her pack and pulled out a thermos of coffee. Her nose cherry red, she poured for herself, and pulled out another stainless steel cup for Wyatt.
“Is Kyle coming back with more equipment?” she asked in her characteristic direct manner.
“When she left Sunday, there wasn’t time to make plans.”
“Speaking of plans,” Helen’s voice softened. “I guess this is as good a time as any to tell you.”
Wyatt was hunkered down on his heels, but some nuance in her tone made him straighten up. “What’s that?”
She studied the steam off her coffee. “I’ve given my notice.”
Wyatt felt that little shift he always felt when the world changed. Helen was one hell of a partner. Brilliant, as well as a hard worker, she was the kind who came to Yellowstone to intern, then moved on. “Where to?”
“The University of Seattle.”
“Where Bill…?”
“Yes. I hate to let you down.”
Wyatt tried to swallow his disappointment. “People move,” he said. “We’ll manage.”
“I’d stick around and help you out with”—she gestured at the seismograph—”all this, but Bill insists I get out of here right away.”
Maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea. If Wyatt had a family, he’d probably find an excuse to send them to the in-laws until things settled down.
While they finished their coffee, Wyatt tried to tell himself Helen’s loss would be somewhat offset by Xi Hong, but even so, her absence was one more blow at a time he and Kyle could ill afford it. Come to think of Kyle, she had suspected this might happen when he mentioned Helen’s relationship with Bill. Maybe woman’s intuition was better.
Wyatt and Helen hiked back to the Park Service Bronco they’d left at dawn in Pelican Valley. In the sunny meadow, the day was warming, droning insects the only sound in the silence.
However, when they climbed into the vehicle, the dispatcher broadcast a message to all units. “We need a wilderness first response in the Pelican Creek basin, up the
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