A little more than 33 kilometers below the earth's surface, two massive sheets of solid rock strained to move in opposite directions. Beginning deep in the Olympic Mountains, the jagged and deadly fault line stretched beneath the town of Bremerton, under the waters of Elliott Bay and directly below the City of Seattle. For centuries the mammoth walls remained quiet and in place, with thousands of tons of pressure prevented from shifting by the slanted ledge of the southern wall locked tight against the slanted ledge of the Northern. Week after week, month after month, year after year, and decade after decade, the tension increased -- until at last, a tiny crack appeared in the northern ledge.

Sunday Afternoon, July 7

From a small landing pad in the foothills of the Olympic Mountains a Sikorsky CH-54A Sky crane slowly lifted into the air. At first glance, its royal blue bubble face resembled a mutant dragon fly, with two dark tinted windows set in silver frames for eyes and a wide, threatening silver slit for a mouth. Long rear legs with hydraulic joints extended from the round, thin body and the tail sloped upward. Duel, free turbine Pratt and Whitney engines powered the matching blue blades, whipping the air with the sound of a hundred stampeding horses and generating enough shaft horsepower to lift twenty five tons. Originally designed to hoist cargo off ships, the air crane belonged to an unlikely trio, had a modified body and housed a sophisticated, satellite linked tracking system.