Travers took Houndstooth’s moment of distraction as an opportunity. He hit the hilt of the knife with the heel of his hand, shoving it farther into Houndstooth’s side. As Houndstooth roared in pain, Travers scrambled for the detonator. Houndstooth tried to reach for him—tried to stop him—slipped in Travers’ blood, and fell hard.

Travers had the detonator.

He raised it over his head, and pressed the button.

Houndstooth half expected to die right then and there. He half expected the entire Harriet to blow up. What he didn’t expect, not even for a moment, was for the detonator to fail, because Hero had made the detonator, and Hero was the smartest person Houndstooth had ever met.

And he had been right. The bombs didn’t fail.

A rumble like thunder sounded in the distance. Houndstooth looked out of the ranger’s outpost, and saw a cloud rising through the pink morning light in the distance. He yanked the blade out of his side—it was a short one, too short to have done serious damage, but it hurt like hell. He threw the knife over the side of the tower as Travers laughed. When he looked, Travers was clutching his face, holding the flap of his lip in place with one bloody hand.

“You’ve done it,” Houndstooth whispered. “You crazy bastard, you’ve done it.”

“I’ve done it, and there’s not a damn thing you can do to stop those hippos from filling the Mississippi.”

Houndstooth looked over the edge of the ranger’s tower and into the rippling water. His heart stopped for a moment.

“Travers, open the Gate.”

Travers remained on the floor, laughing hysterically.

“Open the Gate, damn you, open it!” Houndstooth made for the large lever that would start the Gate opening, but Travers grabbed his leg.

“Don’t bother,” Travers gasped through his laughter. “I’ve disabled it. Cut the cable. It won’t open. The hippos can only go North, now.”

“Look outside, Travers,” Houndstooth urged the bleeding, cackling man. “Look at the water.”

Travers rolled to one side. He was close enough to the edge of the platform to look over. His laughter stopped abruptly.

“Do you see that?” Houndstooth asked, pointing down at the debris that was rapidly collecting against the Gate, battering Archie and the hippos. “That’s the front of the wave. You blew the dam, Travers. All the water that was behind that dam is headed our way, and it’s going to carry everything with it.”