Fracked!

FRACKED is a suspense thriller blending scientific fact with heart racing fiction which takes the reader from the surface of a massive deep water lake into deadly caverns searching for the cause of geological nightmares which are rapidly escalating into what could be a regional apocalypse. Earthquakes, including the largest quake to hit Arkansas in nearly thirty-five years, have plagued the Ozark Mountains. This current outbreak is very possibly an after effect of natural-gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" being done within a hundred miles or so of scenic Bull Shoals Lake in northern Arkansas. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a four point seven magnitude quake and noted more than eight hundred quakes to strike the area in the last year in what is being called an Earthquake Swarm. Routine testing reveals small fractures in the Dam and area landslides have given local authorities significant concern that there is a geological disaster cresting in this usually safe, pristine mountain setting. A call for help goes out to the State Capital. Guy Fredricks, appointed by the Governor to head up the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, gets an anxious call asking him to help investigate sudden and unusual lake activities. Guy was the youngest Director in the Department's history. He had been a non-tenured professor at Arkansas State University for several years after getting his doctorate in environmental geology. While he was at the University he was used by the ADEQ frequently as a consultant. Now he was able put his knowledge to use in the real world nearly every day. Guy loved the White River and Bull Shoals Lake. When the call came in about the problems at the lake he decided to investigate it personally and told his secretary to clear his calendar for a couple of days. Guy's secretary could read his mind before he opened his mouth. She knew he would be the one to go especially since it was Bull Shoals and the White River. "Two and a half hours in the car and Mr. Fredricks would be sampling water alright, by floating a woolly bug on the end of a fly line down the White River below the Dam I'll bet." The secretary's thought was correct. Guy's investigation rapidly escalates... he realizes he needs help with deep water testing and enlists the help of a local diver - Jenny Simpson. Jenny was tough, an ex-Navy Underwater Demolition Team (UDT) saturation diver, very organized, and very beautiful. She had worked some unpublicized incursions near Basra and was later assigned to augment Army Special Forces when Baghdad was taken. She had seen combat, survived uninjured and was glad to get out of the chaos. Her first three years in the Navy found her following around a commander in the medical corps who was the military's only forensic pathologist. Jenny's two years of criminal forensics training in junior college before enlisting didn't go unnoticed and the recruiters took advantage of the special training to fill a tough position that no one else had been qualified to take. She traveled nearly full time, mostly to the war torn mid-east. After three years of handling dead people, or parts anyway, she decided she needed a change of pace and qualified for UDT. Somehow she thought it was a bit ironic that she went on to learn how to blow stuff up after having dealt with the after effects of stuff blowing up. Guy and Jenny investigate and struggle through a crescendo of deadly geological disasters. Barely able to save each other at times, they work together hoping to find answers and solutions to stop the deadly onslaught.

Author: Mark Dobbs
Publisher: Lake Front Publisher
Published: 02/01/2013
Pages: 306
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.99lbs
Size: 9.02h x 5.98w x 0.69d
ISBN: 9780615761787

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