Nature's Fire and Water

By Charles Hawley Jr

Chuck Springer, once the head of International Applied Hydrogen, is asked to come back out of retirement after a major eruption of Mount St. Helens. Chuck reluctantly agrees and decides to tame Mount St. Helens by using the heat of the magma under the volcano to make hydrogen and oxygen from water.

This further enrages the rogue oil company that has been trying to kill Chuck.

After a request by Chucks daughter to tame an active volcano on Grand Comore, Dr. Ned McKnight from the World Heath Organization suggests the use of melting water from an iceberg to supply water for irrigation of the Kalahari Desert. Then horticulturist Dick Mackinaw asks for help to combine a process for growing switchgrass with a geothermal project. Overwhelmed by these requests Chuck talks to his brother, Dennis, about hiring Kurt Banning. Kurt helped save Chucks life after a plane crash and impressed him as a born leader.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Nov 15, 2008
• ISBN: 9780595627370

Charles Hawley Jr

I have been in the heating and air conditioning business for over forty years with a strong interest in geothermal energy, volcanos, synthetic fuels, and hybrid cars. My wife and I have been blessed with two great children and two fantastic granddaughters and we live in Kansas City, Missouri.

Book preview

1

Millions of years ago, as the earth began to cool, tectonic plates were formed over the top of the molten rock we call magma. A few million years later, as the earth continued to cool, these tectonic plates moved, one over the other, creating hot spots of intense heat in localized areas of the earth’s mantle, Debby Miller said to herself with a look of concern as she quickly looked at her instruments again. She also remembered her favorite college physics teacher, Dr. Joel Franks, telling his students on their first day of class. Today these tectonic plates continue to slowly move over each other, and, sometimes, punch holes through the crust of the earth forming volcanoes.

As Debby, a seismologist at the National Earthquake Monitoring Center, studied the seismograph’s charts she knew that volcanoes could erupt at any time, but that eruptions were usually preceded by a warning of some kind, usually an earthquake that would show up on her instruments.

The signs were all there.

There had been a low rumbling picked up by her microphones. The west side of the volcano was showing signs of movement that she could measure from the satellite photos. She saw the graphs made on the seismograph’s charts of small earthquakes, maybe point two on the Richter scale.

Should she issue a warning?

If she did, and the volcano didn’t erupt, then her peers would say that she was just getting cold feet and crying wolf. But, if she didn’t issue the warning, and the volcano erupted, hundreds, maybe thousands, of people could be killed.

There was another small earthquake, this time a little over one on the Richter scale.

That’s it, she decided, I’m going to issue the warning.

As the area sirens went off she called her boss, Brad Herman, and told him about the warning and what she had seen.

Brad told her that he would be right there, but before he arrived, there was a massive explosion with an estimated energy release of over thirty megatons that could be heard for thousands of miles. Rapidly moving mudflows started down the side of the volcano as steam, ash, and superheated gases were sent thousands of feet into the stratosphere. Boulders as big as cars were hurled in excess of eighty miles an hour for over two hundred squares miles. There were massive earth quakes and aftershocks that measured more than six on the Richter scale. Some area people believed this was the Armageddon predicted in the Bible. The area temperature quickly dropped ten degrees. As the lava started to flow, a seismic wave headed towards Hawaii, the Philippines and Japan. The volcanic ash soon covered most of the United States and parts of Canada. Air travel in the United States came to a complete stand still, stranding thousands of people. Worldwide temperatures dropped as volcanic ash completely circled the earth.

Mount St. Helens had just had another major eruption.

*        *        *

The President sat in the Oval Office reading the latest unemployment report when his energy adviser, Jill Olson, a short woman with dark red hair wearing thick glasses walked in and sat in a chair across from him without saying a word.

When the President finished reading the report he looked up and said, What’s the latest, Jill, on world oil production?

It’s down another percent from last week.

Any chance it’ll bounce back? The President asked with a worried look.

No, none at all, Jill answered. In fact I’m sure it’ll continue to decline.

The President leaned back in his chair and tried to think. Then he said, Are you sure the Saudis or the Iranians can’t increase production?

Yes sir, I’m quite sure, Jill said. Both countries are getting more and more water with their oil everyday.

We have to do something, The President said as he leaned forward. The public is starting to panic. He sighed. The price of oil products just keeps going up.

Yes sir, I understand. All of our allies are reporting major shortfalls of oil imports.

I understand the public hysteria around the world is getting worse. The President took a jelly bean from a jar on his desk. The Strategic Oil Reserve is getting low. I can’t keep using it.

The President stopped to think for a moment. We have got to get the public calmed down, he mused, until we can figure a way out of this mess I was left with by the former President.

Sir, we are running out of options, Jill said. You have already instituted mandatory gas rationing. A price freeze might help, if it’s temporary. We’re already using all of the conservation measures I can think of. The Alaska Pipe line is only operating at fifty percent because the North Shore oil fields have a reduced output.

There must be some options we haven’t considered, The President said, getting another jell bean. There just has to be.

I’m sorry, sir, there is very little we can do, unless …

Unless what? The President sat up straight in his chair. You do have an idea, what is it?

Well, sir, we have already seen major work stoppages and layoffs, Jill said. What if we talk to Chuck Springer at International Applied Hydrogen in Kansas City, and see if he can help. Maybe they can increase production of hydrogen in Antarctica or maybe Springer can come up with some other ideas.

How much time have we got before the recession gets worse? The President looked Jill squarely in the eyes.

It’s hard to say, sir. If we can get the markets to calm down, get the price of oil to hold at current levels and show the American people that we’re doing something …

"How much time do we have?"

Maybe … well, just maybe, thirty days.

The intercom on the Presidents desk buzzed and his secretary said, Sir, I’m sorry to bother you but CNN’s reporting that Mount St. Helens has just erupted. Also Admiral Brown just called and said that our ocean sensors indicate that a tsunami is headed to Hawaii. He’ll call you back later when he has more information.

Has the alarm gone out about the tsunami? the President asked with a look of deep concern.

Yes sir. We’ve also alerted the Philippines and Japan.

Thank you. Please see to it that I’m kept informed, the President said as he turned on his television set.

Jill, I’m sorry, but this energy problem will have to wait, the President said as he got up and walked Jill to the door. Come back tomorrow and we’ll talk about it some more.

I understand, sir, Jill said, turned and left.

For the next hour, the President watched reports on CNN about the eruption while handling calls from around the world.

*        *        *

Just minutes before the twenty foot wave hit Honolulu, the sirens sounded and the police told everybody to leave the beaches and go to higher ground. Admiral Brown reported to the President over the telephone just before midnight. All over Hawaii the same scene was repeated over and over. There was millions of dollars of property damage, but, thanks to the early warning, nobody was killed.

Thank God, the President said.

The Philippines and Japan were not as lucky, Admiral Brown continued. The Philippines had a thousand people die from a thirty foot wave. Japan had two thousand die from a forty foot wave, and, at last report, still had six hundred missing,

Make sure they get all the aid they need, the President said. Let me know if there is anything we can do to help.

Yes sir, I’ll keep you informed. Goodnight, sir.

*        *        *

While soot and ash from Mount St. Helens traveled around the world, the President sat in the Oval Office with seven of his top energy advisors. The three men and four women batted around different ideas on how to handle the oil shortage and global warming problems. Each option was debated and then rejected by the President.

"What can we do now?" The President said as he locked eyes with each person in the room.

Sir, what about asking the car manufactures to start producing more cars that use natural gas, the Secretary of State, Stan Richardson, said. Maybe we could get Congress to approve a tax incentive for natural gas conversion kits.

Natural-gas powered cars, trucks, and buses. That’s not a bad idea, the President said. At least it’s a fuel we have that’s readily available and North American-produced.

Yes sir and it’s almost pollution-free, Secretary of the Interior, Carrie Williams, said. It’s not as good as hydrogen, but its close.

Motorists could even fill the gas bottles in their own garages every night just like the plug-in hybrids recharge their batteries, energy adviser, Jill Olson, said.

What’s the down side? The President asked.

Sir, there aren’t enough filling stations selling natural gas to make it practical for cross-country trips, Stan said, and they don’t have the driving range, but they could be used for local drives.

And their fuel tanks take up most of the trunk space in most cars, but that is also a problem with some hydrogen-powered cars, Carrie said. It seems that every alternative-energy vehicle has disadvantages.

Sir, another advantage with natural gas is that a company called FuelMaker makes a home unit so that people can refill their car overnight from their home’s natural-gas supply, Jill said. Right now, the home unit, called Phill, mounts on a garage wall and is about the size of an old pay phone. It costs about four thousand dollars, but is eligible for a thousand dollar federal tax credit and some states offer additional incentives.

Of course natural gas isn’t renewable, like ethanol or hydrogen, and it is a fossil fuel, Stan said. I know people don’t want to change, but, sooner or later, they’ll have to.

Sir, natural gas can help us in the short term, but, for the long haul, I’m afraid hydrogen is the answer, Jill said.

Maybe hydrogen is the best way, the President mused.

The intercom on his desk buzzed and the President’s secretary said, "Sir, CBS is showing the movie about former Vice President Al Gore’s slide show on global warming called An Inconvenient Truth?"

I’ve seen that movie, but thank you anyway, the President said as he got up and paced back and forth. If the American people and Congress had just listened to Al in 2007 we wouldn’t be setting here talking about these problems. We would already have them fixed.

The President stopped pacing, looked at Jill and said, What’s Chuck Springer’s phone number?

*        *        *

Jim Starr dressed in Islamic clothing and wearing sunglasses sat in a Mosque in Cairo, Egypt. He knew that he was being hunted by the KGB, CIA, and others, so any hiding place must have many different avenues of escape. After dropping off Noble at the airport, but before leaving Huston, he’d managed to empty all of his accounts held for his agents operating in the West. He had enough money to live on for at least a year. A year would be all the time he would need to regroup and get Chuck Springer for what he had done.

*        *        *

Kurt Banning turned and saluted the flag at the entrance to Fort Benning one last time. At six foot three, two hundred and ten pounds, with blue eyes and blond hair, the forty two year old looked like someone from an Army recruiting posters. He was officially out of the Army now after twenty years of service. It had been a rough twenty years, with the last five as a sniper specialist in both Afghanistan and Iraq. The doctors taking care of him since he was shot in the back from ambush in Iraq said that all he needed was rest and he would be okay, but he knew the time had come to quit. He was looking forward to retirement. All he wanted to do now was buy a boat, sail the Caribbean and forget about all of the killing.

A cab pulled up beside Kurt and the driver said, Need a ride, buddy?

Kurt noticed that a man was already seated in the backseat but didn’t think much about it when he said, Yeah, if you’re going to the bus station in Columbus.

Then Kurt looked at the man in the backseat and said, I hope you don’t mind sharing.

Not at all, the man said. But you’ll have to put your duffel bag in the front seat, the trunk is full.

No problem, Kurt said as he put his duffel bag in the passenger side of the front seat and climbed in the back.

Harry Connelly’s the name, the man said as he offered to shake hands and the cab left the base.

Kurt Banning, Kurt said as he shook Connelly’s right hand.

Then Kurt saw the knife in Connelly’s left hand as the cab picked up speed.

With lighting quick reflexes Kurt used his superior strength to turn Connelly with his right hand and pin Connelly’s knife hand to his side. With his left hand he locked his fingers together and jammed them into Connelly’s throat breaking his neck and shattering his larynx.

When the driver saw in his rearview mirror what was happening he pulled a gun with a silencer and, with his right arm extended over the back of the front seat, took aim at Kurt. But Kurt was too fast for him. He grabbed the gun by the silencer and bent it backwards, breaking the gunman’s wrist just as the gun went off. The bullet went through the seat and into the gunman’s heart.

Kurt calmly reached over with his right hand and turned off the ignition. With his left hand he took hold of the steering wheel and guided the cab over to the side of the road, thankful there was no traffic.

Once the cab came to a complete stop, Kurt tore off a piece of the knifeman’s shirt, opened the door and wiped off any of his fingerprints. He retrieved his duffel bag from the front seat and wiped off his fingerprints from the inside and outside of the front door.

Kurt put his duffel bag over his left shoulder in order to block his face from the view of any passing traffic and calmly walked down the side of a small hill to the railroad tracks below. He broke off a tree limb and dragged it behind him wiping out his tracks as he walked along the gravel roadbed for three blocks. Then he returned to the highway and hitchhiked to the bus terminal in Columbus, Georgia.

Inside the bus terminal Kurt went to the restroom and changed clothes. Wearing a Jacksonville slugger’s T-shirt and cap plus a fake mustache he went to the ticket counter and bought a ticket to Miami, Florida.

2

Chuck, you just wouldn’t believe it, my brother, Dennis Springer, said on my satellite phone. People all over Kansas City are wearing dust masks to protect themselves. Volcanic ash is everywhere. Hundreds of people are dying everyday from respiratory and heart problems caused by the ash. Health officials are telling everybody to stay inside if they can.

How’s our family doing? I asked.

There’re doing okay, but as you know I have asthma, Dennis said. I’m doing alright with the use of a positive pressure mask with Hepa filter. Please tell Vicki that her family is okay.

I will, I promised

Chuck, I just got a call from the President of the United States. He’s getting ready to ask Congress for one-hundred-billion dollars to finance a project to tame Mount St. Helens. He wants to make sure this won’t happen again. He’s going to setup a panel of experts to see what can be done, and wants us to meet with him and his panel in Washington, D.C.

Dennis, I can’t leave now. The airlines are grounded.

I know, I know. You’ll have to wait until the ash settles and the airlines start flying again. It will take the President a few weeks to get the panel of experts together anyway. What do you say? Are you willing?

Not really. I’m just not interested in talking to anymore experts on geothermal energy. They’re all talk and no action. That’s just not my style. They did everything they could to stop us on the Mt. Erebus project.

Chuck, come on, that was under the old President, Dennis pleaded. The FBI has caught most of the people responsible for trying to kill you. The rest are on the run or keeping a low profile. Our new President seems to be quite interested in what we’re doing. It won’t hurt that much to go to Washington and talk to him.

Alright, alright, I’ll go. I sighed. But I don’t think it will do much good.

Chuck, that’s not all, Dennis continued. It’s bad here now, and getting worse. As the cloud layer of smoke and ash encircles the world weather forecasters have started talking about 1816 - The Year Without a Summer – and the thousands of people around the world who died from starvation. This is causing a world-wide panic. People have started buying and storing frozen and canned foods. As a result of this massive run on food around the world, food prices and general inflation have started going up at an alarming rate. With the increased sales of home freezers and refrigerators manufactures just can’t keep up. Governments around the world are trying to calm their people, but with each new set of satellite pictures they see on television, the people just panic again. Restaurants and other food service companies can’t buy food fast enough. The herds of cattle, pigs, and sheep around the world are being slaughtered at a frightening rate in an attempt to keep up with demand. The worldwide stockpiles of grains are dropping. As these reports come out on television and in the newspapers the world-wide panic gets worse.

Well, there’s not much I can do about that now, I said, sighing. We’ll just have to weather this storm like we have all of the others. In time the people will come to their senses.

Chuck, you do remember what happened in 1816, don’t you? Dennis asked.

If I remember correctly, I said as I tried to remember the details. From April 5 to April 15, 1815 there was a massive volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora on the island of Sumbawa, in what is now Indonesia. This eruption shot over a million and a half tons of volcanic ash into the upper atmosphere.

Yes, Dennis said, and, just like this eruption of Mount St. Helens, the volcanic ash in the upper atmosphere caused the temperatures around the world to fall due to the reduced sunlight. Because of the cold temperatures many crops were destroyed in Northern Europe and the American Northeast. Frost killed most of the corn in New England and in many other areas around the world corn couldn’t ripen. The cold temperatures also caused smaller than normal wheat harvest across most of the United States and Canada. Some historians believe this caused a famine which lead to a typhus epidemic that killed millions from 1817 to 1819.

I thought for a moment and then said, I remember now, food riots broke out in Britain and France where grain warehouses were looted. There was famine in Switzerland that caused violence to be so bad that the government declared a national emergency. There was even frost in August 1816 with huge storms which caused flooding of many major rivers in the United States and Europe.

Chuck, we’ve got to do what we can to help.

Okay, okay, I said. Just give me a few more weeks. When the airlines start flying again I’ll come back to Kansas City to see what we can do.

*        *        *

My wife, Vicki, and I were in Oaxaca, Mexico, with Sister Alvarez, a Catholic nun I had met last December at the International Applied Hydrogen office building in Kansas City, Missouri. Because it’s so cold in Kansas City in January, Vicki had decided to go with me to Oaxaca. On the ninth of January we had flown to Mexico City where we rented a car and drove on highway 190 to Oaxaca and met Sister Alvarez. We were looking over a hydrogen project Sister Alvarez had told me about when I got the call from Dennis and he told me about the eruption of Mount St. Helens and the problems it was causing.

After I told Vicki and Sister Alvarez what Dennis had said, Sister Alvarez looked from Vicki to me and back again and asked with a look of concern, Mr. Springer could it happen again?

Even though I had asked Sister Alvarez to call me Chuck she still called me Mr. Springer for some reason. Yes it could, a volcanic eruption could possibly even cause another Ice Age, I replied. There’s some evidence that suggests that it may have been a volcanic eruption that caused the extinction of the Dinosaurs here on Earth instead of a comet or meteorite. In any case, Benjamin Franklin blamed the unusually cool summer of 1783 on volcanic ash coming from the eruption of Laki in Iceland and he may have been right. Now we have this problem with Mount St. Helens.

*        *        *

The loudspeakers of the mosque throbbed with prayer chants as the voice of the Muezzin blared from the speakers high above the streets in the minarets, calling the faithful to prayer.

Starr slowly stood and walked to the entrance of the mosque. He knew the Muslims in the area would close up their shops and head there for evening prayers. Silently he scoffed at the notion of a God that demanded prayer so many times a day. But he knew the strength the rebels derived from their religion. The Mujahedeen called their resistance a Holy War, and whipped the Bedouin tribes into an amazing fighting force that possessed the power to resist the largest, best equipped armies in the world, as the Russians had already seen in Afghanistan and the Americans were just beginning to learn.

He knew that because of his dark complexion and knack for languages, he could join a rebel band and act as one of their own while gathering information on Springer and making plans to kill him. But he had to get back in contact with the people at the oil company supplying him with money.

When the loudspeakers grew quiet after the evening prayers, Starr stayed in the back of the Mosque waiting for his contact. He knew he had to change his name and get new passports.

Looking out the door he recognized a young boy of about fourteen walking towards him. As the boy entered the Mosque he told Starr in Arabic to follow him.

Starr followed the boy down the street to a small ally behind a building where a smiling obese Arab waddled up to them. The body fat under his white Thobe waggled with every step. His round face had a childlike appearance, but his handshake was firm and Starr knew that he was nobody’s fool. He had been a major arms dealer for the Mujahedeen, al-Qaida, and other terrorist organizations for many years and would kill if necessary.

Follow me, the obese Arab said as he turned and started waling down the ally.

As Starr followed he knew that he could show no weakness to this man as he explained what he needed in Arabic. Finally Starr said in Arabic, I need to hire an assassin for a special job in America. Do you know of such a person?

The Arab smiled and said in Arabic, For one million American dollars?

Yes, of course, Starr knew he was in no position to argue.

She is a specialist, the Arab said as he stopped and looked at Starr like he was wondering how much he should tell him. Then he shrugged his shoulders like he had made a decision, started walking again and said She has distinguished herself in the wars with Israel and has a relationship, if you know what I mean, with most terrorist organizations.

When they paused by a door Starr looked around and saw that the street was now empty. The Arab eased a pistol from its holster under his jacket and waited as he looked around. Then he knocked three times, waited, and then knocked three more times before he opened the door and entered the darkened room with Starr and the boy behind him.

Starr smelled dust mingled with fish and dried fruit as they remained motionless to let their eyes adjust to the darkness. A bell rang as the front door of the shop opened and closed. When the shot from the silenced pistol hit the Arab in the chest he staggered back several steps, turned and fell face first on the floor. Starr felt a knife press against his spine by the boy behind him as a young woman, maybe thirty five, with wavy dark hair cut above her shoulders, dark greenish eyes, and a slender, athletic build walked up to him. Holding the silenced pistol in her left hand she put a knife under his chin with her right hand.

He was going to betray you for the reward, she said in English. Tell me why I should not do the same.

A million American dollars, Starr said in English.

*        *        *

How much longer will it be before the volcanic ash starts to clear? The President asked Jill as she entered the Oval office.

The weather forecasters are saying it will take another month before the airlines can start to fly again.

When the President got up and walked over to a side window, Jill said, Sir, this will buy us a little more time to solve our energy problem.

The President turned around, faced Jill, and said, "That’s not the answer I was looking for."

Sir, I know, but we need all the help we can get, Jill said and then changed the subject. Sir, have you talked to Chuck Springer?

No. He’s in Mexico. I talked to his brother, Dennis.

The President returned to his seat and said, Dennis called back an hour ago. He said that he had just talked to Chuck and, when the airlines start flying again, they’ll come here to see what they can do to help. Dennis is going to try to increase hydrogen production at the Mount Erebus project, but he said they are still years away from full production.

*        *        *

When Kurt arrived at the bus station in Miami he went to the restroom and removed the fake mustache and put it back in his duffel bag. Then he walked four blocks before hailing a cab. He gave the cabdriver the address of a boat dealer he had gotten from the internet and set back