The Storm

CHAPTER 61

BY HIGH NOON IN EGYPT THE DANGER AT ASWAN HAD nearly passed. The water level in Lake Nasser had dropped twenty feet. A six-foot wave continued to pour across the crest and through the four-hundred-foot-wide gap, but it was a smoother, more controlled flow now. With the spillways, turbine gates and the diversion canal remaining wide open, it was hoped that a point of equilibrium would be reached by the middle of the next day.

Still, tragedy had not been completely averted.

As Joe stared downstream, it looked entirely different than what he’d seen the night before. The buildings were gone—not damaged, not flooded out, just gone. So were the docks and the boats and even some of the sandstone cliffs. The banks of the river remained flooded and instead of looking like a narrow river, it looked like a lake.

Above that lake, helicopters circled by the dozens like dragonflies over a pond. Small boats had been brought in and were zipping here and there. Power remained on at the dam, though there was nowhere to send it as all the transmission lines had been swept away.

Joe turned and slumped down by an Army trailer. At Major Edo’s insistence, a nurse checked on him. He could have used an IV, but he refused it. Medical supplies would run short rather quickly, he guessed, and others would need them more than him.

She handed him a bottle of water, threw a blanket over his shoulders and moved away.

Major Edo sat down and offered him a cigarette. Joe refused it, and the major stuffed them back in his pocket. “Dirty habit,” he said, trying to smile.

“How many?” Joe asked.

“At least ten thousand,” the major said sadly. “Probably twice that when we’re done looking.”

Joe felt like he’d gone twelve rounds with a heavyweight, survived, thinking he’d won, only to find out the judges had scored it the other way.

“It could have been millions,” the major said firmly. He put a hand on Joe’s shoulder. “Do you understand?”

Joe looked up at him and nodded.

A helicopter landed nearby. A private ran up to the major. “We’re loaded with wounded.”

“Where are you taking them?” the major asked.

“Luxor. It’s the nearest hospital that has power.”

“Take him with you,” the major said.

“Who is he?” the private asked.

“His name is Joseph Zavala. He is a hero of the Egyptian people.”