She peered into the light.

“I’ve got him,” she said. She scooped up the boy and carried him forward, following the light to Archie. “We’re okay. I don’t know where Carey is.”

At the intersection with Naito, the water was mid-thigh-high and moving fast. Susan had to fight against it to stay upright. Archie took her face in his hands and held it, not saying anything.

He put an arm around her shoulder. “Come with me,” he said. They started wading north. He was leading them toward the Burnside Bridge, she realized. There were rescue crews up there. She could see their emergency lights.

Archie waved his flashlight skyward, signaling them, then toward Flannigan fifty feet ahead, his own halogen glow bobbing in the dark.

They only had a block to go, but the strength of the current made it hard.

Archie tried to take Patrick, but the boy clung to Susan, refusing to let go, and she was secretly pleased not to give him up.

The two helicopters buzzing in circles over the river sent out rings of concentric ripples.

She turned back to look for Carey, half expecting to see him come splashing up behind her.

There was no differentiation between park or street or sidewalk. It was all underwater now. It would take months for the city to recover from this. Maybe years.

“Listen,” Archie said.

She didn’t hear anything but sirens and helicopters. And then, somehow, she did. Low, almost subsonic at first, like a stomach growling, and then, all at once, a vast white noise that seemed to bleed into all five senses. Every hair on Susan’s body stood up.

She couldn’t hear the helicopters or sirens anymore. Only the oncoming water. But she didn’t turn to look. She didn’t want to see it.

There wasn’t any point.

There was no time to run.

Archie wrapped his arms around her in a bear hug, and she put her forehead against the crook of his neck, the boy sandwiched firmly between them. Susan could feel the boy tense.

“Take a breath,” Archie said.

Susan braced herself.

Chapter 55

CHAPTER

55

He lost them immediately when the water hit. It was like being swallowed, forced down a tube by peristalsis. There was no staying on the surface. Archie was sucked under, tumbling, the water thundering in his ears. He had no sense of direction, no clue which way was up. He managed to get his flak jacket off, and when he slammed against something hard he somehow had the instinct to grab hold of it and grapple his way to the surface.

It was a streetlight.

The water seemed to draw back, like the undertow of a great wave breaking shore, and Archie had to hug the streetlight with all his strength to keep from being sucked off toward the river.

And then it was over.