Title: Shifting Ground

Author: Zubeneschamali

Rating: T (PG) (language, violence)

Summary: Charlie and Don end up on opposite sides of the case when a CalSci student is accused of eco-terrorism in conjunction with a Southern California landslide.

Author's note: I am not a geologist or a mathematician, nor do I play one on TV. That being said, I've tried to make the science as realistic as possible. Place names are made up, but they do approximate actual locations. The prologue is, as they say, inspired by actual events, based on The Control of Nature by John McPhee.

Thanks to Winter, Vikki, and Lee Ann for their excellent beta reading.

Disclaimer: If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine, but the property of the nice people at CBS. I'm just using them for my (and hopefully, your) entertainment.

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Landslides in the United States:

$2 billion in damage per year

25-50 deaths per year

Occur in all 50 states

Maximum velocity: 100 miles per hour

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Prologue

Sunday, March 6, 2005

It hadn't been forty days and forty nights, but it was close enough. Near-record rainfall throughout the winter had saturated the ground, turning the concrete ditches that crisscrossed the Los Angeles area into wildly rushing streams that threatened to sweep away anyone who got too close. People who lived on the sides of the mountains looked up at them nervously, understanding that their anxiety was payback for the gorgeous views and elevated position they enjoyed the rest of the year. County officials checked the integrity of debris dams and the level of gauges in the rivers, and suggested that now might be a good time to visit relatives in flatter or drier places. Some people left; most stayed.

If there had been anyone on the south face of Mount Cresta, overlooking the Cresecenta Valley and the eastward sprawl of Greater Los Angeles, just before 10 P.M. on the night of March 6, they might have noticed something strange about the ground beneath their feet. It was no longer solid ground. It wasn't a few inches of mud from the rain that was coming down in torrents. It was something deeper. The days of rain had accumulated below the surface, loosening the particles of dirt enough that they could no longer hold together. With a loud roar that could barely be heard over the pouring rain, 300,000 cubic yards of mud and rock gave way to gravity and flowed down the mountainside.

At a rate of 35 miles per hour, the landslide covered the 3,000 feet from the top to the bottom of Mount Cresta in only 60 seconds. If there had been a football stadium at the base of the mountain, it would have been filled about a third of the way. As it was, those 300,000 cubic yards of material first encountered the small subdivision of Crescenta Court. Enveloped by a warm ambience amidst a secluded setting, Crescenta Court was a beautiful community highlighted by a mountainous backdrop. At least, that's how the realtors put it. It certainly was secluded, up a narrow valley just outside the town of San Morento. The mountain, however, was no longer a backdrop.

Fortunately, although all ten units had been sold, only one residence was occupied. Unfortunately, the three occupants were home. Even if they had heard the landslide coming at them, sixty seconds wasn't enough time to get out of the way. Their house, and they, became part of the debris flow that slammed into the next street down, knocking over a house that had been stuccoed only two days earlier. The mud filled up four more houses and covered six backyards before losing its velocity and settling down to a quiet ooze, with the occasional rock rolling down as the flow progressed another quarter mile towards the main road.

By morning, the aftermath of the natural disaster would be apparent. But as is often the case in California, there would be questions over how "natural" the disaster was. Landslides could be inadvertently caused or worsened by human activity. But they could also occur after more deliberate actions. Once the warm Los Angeles sun finally came out and started drying up the land, investigators would get to work assigning cause -- and blame.