cut a
catch basin and then dropped a series of pumps into the basin, I think
we could save a lot of that water by getting back onto the surface."

Troy studied the sketch for a minute. "How are you going to sink a
bore that fast?"

"Laser," Alec replied simply.

"It would take one hell of a lot of industrial laser units," Troy
murmured thoughtfully, "but, if we could get them, it just might work.
What do we do if we can get the water back to the surface?"

"Same story," Alec pointed out. "If we can get the bores down behind
the old Grand Coulee Dam, then we cut a channel and drain it into the
old surface reservoir. Oh sure, we'll lose some surface evap until we
can get it back down underground again. But that would still be one
helluva lot better than letting millions of acre feet just seep out to
sea. And if we had to, we could use the lasers to cut a channel around
Grand Coulee and let it run down to the Okanogan where it would go
into the Lake Chelan reservoir."

Ten minutes later, Plumber and the two juniors were closeted with
Supervisor Wilson, going over Alec's plan. When Alec was through
talking, Wilson flipped a switch on his desk intercom. "Harbrace
here," the speaker sounded.

"Jim," Wilson said, "this is Morley. A couple of my harebrained kids
have come up with an idea that makes sense and looks like it might
salvage a lot of lost water. But we've got to move on it right now if
it's going to work."

"Get them over here," Harbrace snapped.

* * * * *

Six hours later, the first light of the cold winter morning began
competing with the batteries of floodlight tubes banked around a
rocky, gravel-based site in the dry bed of the Spokane River. More
than three hundred men had been thrown into the experimental project
and for three hours a steady stream of huge cargo carriers and
aircraft had been piling equipment around the site. A cluster of men
stood around a compact pole-beam laser unit aimed at the ground.
Upstream a line of metal poles extended up from the dry river bottom
for a mile.

"This should be the last one," Alec said. "Let 'er go."

The laser operator fired and the light beam shot down into the earth,
burning a narrow hole. "We'll set this one at one hundred and ten
feet," Alec told the operator. The man nodded and turned back to his
control panel. Two minutes later another metal pole was dropped into
the hole. Projecting from the bottom of the pole were