Выбрать главу

The BlackBerry, he realized. He took it from a pocket and set it to vibrate mode so a noise from it wouldn’t give away his position. Then he started up the slope. He was relieved that he didn’t feel any of the jitters, sweaty palms, and nervous breathing of the post-traumatic stress disorder he’d suffered for so long. After Amanda disappeared, he’d expected that his weakness would come back to torture him. Instead, his determination to save her so filled him that there wasn’t room for conflicting emotions.

He climbed past more aspen trees, but despite their shade, sweat slicked his forehead and stuck his shirt to his skin. Finally, he crested a ridge and came to a shelf of rock that protruded from the aspens. After taking off his knapsack and rifle, he sank onto the shelf, did his best to conceal himself, and studied the valley below. Morning sunlight reflected off a lake, making its ripples glisten. The lake was wider at one end, reminding him of a long triangle.

He removed his binoculars from his knapsack. Using his hat as a shield to prevent the sun from reflecting off the lenses, he focused on the water. An embankment of rocks resembled a dam. At once, he understood it was a reservoir, not a lake. Movement caught his attention.

Redirecting the binoculars, he saw tiny figures on the embankment and wondered excitedly if Amanda was one of them. They were doing something to the embankment. Throwing rocks away, he realized. That didn’t make sense. What were they trying to do, breach the dam? Why?

He put on his hat and shoved the binoculars into the knapsack. After he crawled back into the aspens, he hefted the knapsack onto his back and reslung the rifle over his shoulder. To his left, the ridge descended until it reached the narrow entrance to the valley. That was the obvious route the Game Master would expect him to use. But he couldn’t convince himself that the Game Master would rely on the obvious. In Iraq, he remembered, he couldn’t take anything for granted. Any street could provide an ambush. Any object along the road might be a bomb.

It’s the same here, he thought. Nothing’s what it seems.

Making sure that his boots were solidly placed, he started down the uneven slope toward the valley, scanning the trees and rocks for signs of a trap.

6

Amanda threw another rock to the side. It was as big as a football. She ignored the cuts on her hands and grabbed yet another. It seemed she’d been doing this forever. She, Ray, and Viv were fifteen feet below the top of the spillway. Last night’s storm had flooded the reservoir. Water cascaded over the edge, pouring down the rocks, throwing up spray that chilled her face. To see what was in the reservoir, they needed to breach the dam and drain the water.

“Be careful!” Viv yelled amid the water’s roar. “Remember to watch for the snakes!”

Amanda didn’t need reminding. Twice already, she’d seen water moccasins slide past her, the force of the water carrying them over the rim and down the slope.

“This rock’s too heavy!” Ray shouted. “Help me tug it free!”

Amanda stumbled to him and gripped the rock. The blood on her hands made them slippery, but she squeezed as hard as she could and tugged. The rock came free, throwing her and Ray off-balance while it rumbled to the bottom of the spillway. She fell, banging her right arm.

“Are you all right?” Ray asked.

Amanda ignored the pain and reached for another rock.

“I finally see dirt,” Viv told them. “Four layers of rocks until I got to it.”

Amanda studied the embankment. “A lot more to do.” She stooped and pulled and threw. Her chest heaved. “This is taking too long. We need to reach into the water. If we expose the dirt there, the current’ll wash it away and undermine the other rocks.”

“The snakes,” Viv warned.

“No choice.”

Spray washed grit from Amanda’s face as she put her hands in the water and pulled at a rock. The force of the current helped tug it free. She yanked at another rock, and it, too, went with the current. She reached again and suddenly jerked her hands back. Something that looked like a piece of rope sped past her.

For a moment, she couldn’t move. She stared at the water, feeling as if the snake was inside her, writhing. When she mustered resolve and reached for another rock, the current pushed at her hands. She needed to brace herself to keep her footing. Then the rock came loose, and the roaring water carried it down.

Ray followed her example, but Viv concentrated on rocks away from the water, too phobic about the snakes.

The cascade sucked dirt from under a rock. It spread in the current.

“Yes!” Ray shouted.

Amanda found the energy to work harder. The icy water numbed her fingers. She pulled another rock. A moment later, another snake sped past.

Ray shouted, “More dirt’s flowing!”

A large plume of earth spread into the current.

“If we can make the hole deeper and wider…” Ray tugged.

Amanda helped him, pulling out another rock. And another. The plume of dirt widened. A rock moved on its own. The current became earth-colored, more rocks shifting.

“Get back!” Amanda shouted.

The old embankment hadn’t been maintained in more than a hundred years. Amanda realized that she was standing on the site of what amounted to a chain reaction. A half-dozen rocks toppled free. Earth washed away behind them, dropping more rocks, which in turn freed more earth. The force of the current was relentless. The top of the dam settled, opening a channel, more water roaring down the slope, taking away more earth. As the rocks beneath Amanda threatened to give way, she turned and tried to hurry across the uneven surface. But the slope moved as though something alive was under it, and she needed to struggle for balance, working toward the embankment’s edge. Ray was ahead of her, Viv behind.

She heard Viv scream. Pivoting, she saw Viv teeter on a section of collapsing rocks. Amanda lunged for her, caught her left hand, felt the jolt of Viv’s weight, and started to topple with her.

Ray’s arm snared her waist, straining to pull them to safety. The slope kept collapsing, the rush of water sucking at Viv’s boots. Viv twisted, the torque of her hand prying Amanda’s fingers open. As Amanda lurched back, Viv dropped, vanishing into the current.

“No!” Amanda wailed.

The top of the dam collapsed, a wall of water hurtling toward the bottom. Amanda glimpsed Viv’s brown jumpsuit in the plummeting current. A churning pool enveloped her.

“We’ve got to pull her out!”

Amanda raced toward the side of the spillway and charged toward the bottom. Hearing Ray’s urgent steps next to her, she saw Viv struggle to the surface, breathe, and get sucked under again.

“Her boots!” Ray yelled. “She won’t be able to swim!”

But Viv tried. Breaking the surface again, she stretched her arms, clawing at the water. The flood carried her along.

Amanda and Ray hurried along the water’s edge, trying to keep pace with its speed.

“Don’t fight the current!” Amanda shouted. “Let it take you! Where it’s slower downstream, we’ll grab you!”

She dodged sagebrush and rocks, desperate to stay next to Viv. She rounded a curve, lost sight of the brown jumpsuit, moaned, then saw it, and kept running. Viv got her head above the water, breathing frantically.

The flood rushed over the banks of what, until five minutes ago, had been a stream bed. The water made two sounds, one on top of the other, a hiss and a rumble. It picked up debris. It dragged Viv under. Her brown jump suit was hard to distinguish now in the earth-colored water.

As the flood spread over level grassland, Amanda charged into it, only to find that the current almost knocked her over. Ray pulled her to solid ground.