Flannigan pressed the talk button. “This is Flannigan,” he said. “We’re on Ash between First and Naito. There’s two inches of water here, and rising. What’s going on?”

“There’s a hole in sector eight near the Burnside Bridge. You need to get out of there, sir.”

“Are they sending a team to fix it?”

“Roger. But you need to evacuate. We’ve been told that whole wall could give.”

“What happens then?” Archie said.

“What happens then?” Flannigan repeated into the walkie-talkie.

There was nothing but static for a moment. “You ever see a bug hit a windshield?” came the eventual reply. “It’ll be like that. Only you’ll be the bug, and the windshield will be a ten-foot wall of water.”

The two patrolmen glanced at each other.

Archie wasn’t sure if Carey and the others were even downtown. Maybe they hadn’t made it. Maybe the receipt was misdirection. Maybe Archie had misinterpreted it. Maybe Carey didn’t even have Susan or the kid. Maybe they were already dead.

Archie had cost Heil his life. He couldn’t risk any others but his own.

“You better get out of here,” he said.

Flannigan hesitated. “What about SWAT?” he said into the walkie-talkie.

“I’m sorry, sirs. But they’ve been ordered to stand down until we get the all-clear.”

A streetlight popped across the street and began to smoke and send sparks arcing into the night air.

“Don’t go back to the cars,” Archie told them. “Stay on foot. Head west.”

The patrol cops didn’t need their arms twisted. They backed away a few feet, turned, and started to run.

Flannigan didn’t move.

“I know how to swim,” he said.

Chapter 53

CHAPTER

53

By the time Archie and Flannigan got to Naito Parkway the black glass of the water was above their ankles.

The parkway was flooded, and beyond it Waterfront Park had all but vanished into darkness. It was all underwater, Archie realized. The vast expanse of grass. The promenade. The park benches. The monuments and fountains. Two helicopters hovered over a section of the seawall, shining their spotlights down, and Archie could see the cascade of black water spilling over a fifty-foot section where the emergency levee had given way. The churn they’d heard earlier was ten times louder here.

He could see the aquarium store four doorways up the street, a faint, now- familiar blue glow radiating from within—the tanks must have been powered by a backup generator. A row of sandbags was stacked along the seam where the sidewalk met the buildings, and Archie had to drag a hand along the top of them to keep his feet from going out from under him. Flannigan was close behind. Somewhere a car alarm started blaring.

The glass front door was broken.

“They’re here,” Flannigan whispered.