Wet Desert: Tracking Down a Terrorist on the Color

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Phil looked the way Grant felt. His eyes had rings under them and lacked the sparkle of when they'd first met. His hair looked oily and uncombed. His tie hung loosely around an unfastened top button. He slouched over the table and held onto the coffee mug as if it alone were holding him up.

Grant felt tired too. His lack of sleep was wearing on him. At least the Advil had dulled the aches and pains from Davis Dam.

Phil motioned at a seat with his coffee mug.

Grant sat, and his body thanked him. Two of the other agents, previously standing, sat at Phil's sides.

Phil spoke mostly to his agents. "Okay, as Mr. Stevens put it, we just got the third piece of our puzzle. So how does blowing the aqueduct fit in with the bombs at Glen Canyon and Davis Dams? What are these guys trying to accomplish and why?"

Although spoken to the agents, Grant knew the question was meant for him, even though he didn't have the answer they wanted. "Well, before, when it was just dams, you thought it might be aimed at boaters or vacationers. The aqueduct definitely doesn't fit in that scenario. The only thing we came up with is that one of the main results of all three bombings is more water is channeled downstream. It's like they want to flood somebody or someplace downstream." He looked up at them. "I know it's kinda flimsy."

"Can't that still be interpreted as going after boaters? What about the boaters downstream?"

Grant shook his head. "The vast percentage of recreation takes place in the big lakes: Powell, Mead, Mojave, and Havasu. There's not nearly as much recreation south of there."

"What's down there, then?" Phil's voice showed frustration.

"Not much; there's only a couple of hick towns and an Indian reservation before you get to Yuma, Arizona."

"Farmers?" Phil asked.

Grant nodded. "Yeah. The Indians farm a little. One of the small dams diverts irrigation water to them. But overall, the land's pretty barren."

"What about Yuma?"

"Yuma's small, less than a hundred thousand people. There's some farming around Yuma though. Why? Do you think they might be after the farmers?" Grant hadn't considered that.

"No, I'm just thinking out loud. Why else would they want to flood Yuma? What about Mexico?"

Grant laughed briefly. "The Mexicans would love to be flooded."

Phil didn't laugh. He didn't even smile. "Why? What do you mean?"

The thought sunk in and Grant wondered why he hadn't thought of it before. "The Mexicans don't get hardly any of the Colorado River, and what little they do get, they pipe over toward Tijuana in a big canal. The whole area south of Mexicali is barren."

"What do you mean, what little they get?" Phil asked. "The river's huge."

"Not by the time it gets to Mexico. We take most of it. The Great American Canal diverts most of it before the Colorado gets there."

Phil wiped at both of his eyes. "Most of the river? How can they do that? Isn't it regulated?"

"Every drop," explained Grant. "We have a treaty with Mexico that stipulates they get at least 1.5 million acre feet per year. But, that's not all — by the time the Colorado River gets to Mexico, the salinity is so high that the water's not drinkable and will kill most crops."

Phil looked surprised by this. "And they put up with this?"

Grant shrugged. "Oh, they've been complaining for years. Finally, the U.S. had to guarantee the purity of the water at certain levels, and one of Imperial Dam's main purposes at the border is to desalinate it before it gets to Mexico."

"Isn't that expensive?" asked Phil.

"It's the biggest reverse osmosis desalination plant in the world. I think I heard that the U.S. spent over a hundred and fifty million dollars to build it, not counting yearly operating expenses."

"So Mexico is still not happy with their allotments from the Colorado River?"

"I don't think happy would be the right word. They know they're at the end of the line. I'm sure they'd like to have a lot more. But they're probably happy that what they do get is guaranteed, both in quantity and quality. At least that's something."

"So could this be some pissed-off Mexicans? Could they be our bombers?" Phil didn't sound very convinced.

"I don't think so. Remember that both of our bombers were white, and had credentials," Grant pointed out.

"What about an American group that's sympathetic to the Mexicans?"

Grant shook his head. "I can't imagine a group of Americans being sympathetic enough to blow the Glen Canyon Dam for Mexico."

Phil stood abruptly. "Then what have we got?" He walked around his chair, and leaned on it from behind. "Motive?" He let the word hang in the air. "What's the motive here? Do we have any idea? How about objective? We don't even know that." He paced over to the wall and stared at it for a second, finally returning. "Glen Canyon, then Davis, then the aqueduct. What's next? Can we at least figure that out?"

Grant shrugged. "Well, we don't know for sure. But like I said this morning, all the other aqueducts and dams downstream have to be considered targets."

Phil motioned his hand at Grant. "I forwarded your National Guard idea, but I haven't heard back yet. However, my superiors liked it. The FBI is trying to set up a conference call with Mexico this morning to fill them in on what's going on. Hopefully it's not the Mexican government behind this, or we'll be feeding information to the perpetrators."

Grant didn't believe Mexico was behind this, and he didn't think Phil did either.

"What about boat accident data?" Grant asked. "You were going to try to find out how many people had been hurt in boating accidents on the lakes."

Phil scratched his head. "There were thousands of accidents on the two lakes, plus a ton more where car accidents involved trailered boats. It's going to take a long time for my people to filter the lists. Anyway, now that he's blown the aqueduct, I'm not sure this guy is after boaters."

They were interrupted by a knock on the door. Fred poked his head in. "Sorry to interrupt, but you asked for updates." He waited for objections before proceeding. "The employee parking lot is underwater and the level will be higher than the original concrete dam in a few minutes."

Grant smiled at Fred and nodded. "Thanks, Fred. I'll be out in a while."

Fred withdrew and shut the door. There was no doubt that Fred was restless, but Grant thought it was more than that. In addition to the fear and anticipation, Grant sensed that Fred was just plain excited, glad to be there, to be a part of it. His face had shown it at the spillways, just like his voice now. The funny thing was, to a lesser extent, Grant felt the same way.

Phil took a long swig on his coffee mug. "If you need to go, don't let me stop you. But if you have a minute, I need more info from you dam guys." He smiled. "No pun intended, of course."

Grant nodded.

"I need to know what's going to happen today. Where's all this water going to end up? When will it hit? Damage estimates, etc." He pointed casually at Grant. "Are you going to hang around here all day, at Hoover? If not, where are you going to be?"

Grant considered the question. "I have an assistant here with me from Denver. She has put together a timeline of what's going to happen downstream. It shows our estimates for when the water will reach each dam, all the way to Mexico and the Gulf of California. I'll get you a copy. As far as damage is concerned, if Hoover holds, we don't expect to lose any of the three major dams. But with Hoover's spillways at capacity, we're going to have just under 500,000 cubic feet per second going downstream."

Phil looked confused so Grant clarified. "That's almost fifty times normal for the lower Colorado River, basically twice the flow of Niagara Falls. Anything next to the river is going to be flooded, badly. Laughlin will be a total loss."

Phil frowned. "You said you don't expect to lose any major dams. What does that mean? Does that mean some small ones are going to fail?"

Grant nodded. "By far, the two biggest are Davis and Parker, which hold back Lake Mojave and Havasu. Both of those have spillways that, theoretically, should be able to keep up with Hoover. Downstream are two small dams, Head Gate Rock and Palo Verde, which have comparatively little storage. Their primary purpose is to divert water for irrigation. As a worst case, we expect both of these dams to fail. However, neither should substantially affect floods downstream. The one we're worried about is the Imperial Dam, just north of Yuma, Arizona. It'll definitely be breached and we'd like to figure out a way to minimize the damage. As I explained before, Yuma is where the United States desalinates the water going to Mexico. So we want to protect the desalination plant."

"Approximately how many hours will the flood last? How soon will you be able to get people in to access the damage and make repairs?"

Grant stared at Phil. "It's not hours, Phil, it's months. It'll be almost two months before Hoover drops below the spillways. If we're lucky, the people can move back in and start sifting through their stuff by September 1st."

Phil's jaw dropped and he walked over and sat down. "Two months of Niagara Falls?"

"Two months of Niagara Falls times two," Grant corrected.

"I had no idea." Phil looked around, then back at Grant. "What about Mexico? What's going to happen there?"