AN HOUR AND A HALF later, they were drawing near the ocean, traveling along what remained of the narrow valley that held a dried-up river bed. The cleft was considerably shallower than it had been. The floor of the valley was choked with mud and sand and the hills were bare of vegetation. Recalling the distance the land lay above the ocean, Ethan was astounded by the visual evidence of the tsunami’s height. The wave hadn’t only reached to the top of the hills, it must have been even higher than them in order to rip out every plant and destroy the peaks.
Anticipation gnawed at Ethan as Garwin flew the flitter toward the gap where a waterfall had once tumbled hundreds or perhaps thousands of years previously. The smell of the ocean was strong through the open windows of the flitter, though
