Sandra’s suit was even more rumpled. Her hair was sticking to the back of her neck. She was dozing again; when one or her assistants jostled her awake.
“The critical incident response team has just arrived.”
“Oh…. send them in, and we have another update due to the director in 25 minutes.”
“We are on it, we might get some assets in from the CIA.”
Sandra did not have time to ask what the CIA had to offer when in walked a 12-man and women group dressed in black jumpsuits and pushing wheeled cases of equipment.
“Am I glad to see you. I am agent Sandra Parker, and you are…”
“Agent Thomas Young.” Mr. Young then introduced each of the other members of his team.
“Sounds like you have a real predicament. We have been training for years now to deal with a major terrorist incident, but not for getting in the middle of a pitched battle between two groups with modern firepower. We have a total of 60 FBI SWAT trained agents on their way. They have been having some trouble finding things like Light Anti-tank Weapons, AT4s and such.”
“I have a report due in less than 25 minutes, I will let agent Freeman brief you on what we know so far. How soon will you be able to set up a command center?”
“Is 10 minutes fast enough? Although the satellite uplink might take 15 minutes.”
“That is the first good news I have heard all day.”
Joe spent the late morning setting up cases of the wine he would be pouring, preparing these for loading into El Zin the following morning. He was very tired from having been woken up in the early morning hours by the earthquake. He probably would not be able to park El Zin next to his pouring table at the Jack London Square Wine Festival. For this, he pulled out the rolled up banner that had the Gambaro hat logo.
The morning earthquake really intrigued Joe. The Zinfandel Rosarium Divinatio combined with the Zinfandel Rosarium Clarivoyance seemed to allow him to have predicted the earthquake, if only he had recognized the signs.
Joe decided to take a nap. Elise was watching the tasting room with the help that decided to show up for this Friday, and from the cars in the parking lot, business was good. He was going to have to get everything ready for Saturday.
Walking back to the den to snooze in his favorite chair, he had an idea. Perhaps drinking a larger quantity of the mixture of the two wines would have let him see the coming earthquake more clearly? What else might he see? Joe walked over to his wine refrigerator and poured himself a glass with four tablespoons of each wine blended together. This, he sipped at while he sat and reviewed photos of his Great Grandfather’s notes, now sealed off by the tunnel collapse. Soon, he found his head getting heavy and he leaned back in his chair for a catnap.
Continued