Garrett would have liked to have sent the machine over into Oakland and Berkeley, but his previous explorations along the Embarcadero had shown that the Bay Bridge had collapsed, so instead he headed down toward Pacifica. For a long time the scenery was much like that he had already seen, though the ankle- and knee-high shells of buildings whose rubble all had been blasted away gave way gradually to the rusting skeletons of taller structural girders here and there, then eventually even actual recognizable structures, collapsed though they were. Excited, Garrett from the telemetry of the robot’s inertial navigation system marked several potentially promising dig sites, but for the moment he simply pressed on, curious to see where his patient treads might take him. Yes, he reassured himself,
