Iswander could only stare at the horrific beauty from his tower windows. The harpy song of alarms shrieked from dozens of systems as if his entire facility had gone insane. Rlinda Kett put her hands on wide hips. “I know shit hitting the fan when I see it. You have an evacuation protocol?” Iswander forced calm resolve as he dove into the problem. He hadn’t been able to study the cautionary report Pannebaker had prepared, and he needed more time to develop an emergency response plan. “Captain Kett, we may need your assistance—and your ship. The situation might be beyond the scenarios we modeled.” Robb spun, looking at him in astonishment. “You live in … this and you aren’t ready to evacuate on a moment’s notice?” Iswander was scanning the reports on the screens, the stranded smelter barge with the imperfect hull allowing magma to leak inside. He forced down panic. “Let’s not go overboard. Everything here was built to withstand the heat.” The structure of Tower One began to groan.
