They crested another rise in the road. Taylorscanned the ink-washed world. “No.” He returned to studying the mapby the light of his BlackBerry. “If he avoids the main highways —and he will because he thinks we’ll be looking for him to take thefastest route possible — it should take him over four hours to getto Albuquerque. Probably more in this weather.”
“Assuming he thinks as logically as you.”
They were both silent as the car seemed to sway,buffeted by a gust of rain, before Will corrected. Visibility wasincreasingly bad.
Taylor said evenly, “So once we find West SmokeyBear Boulevard, we’ll follow it for about twenty miles.”
“Jesus Christ.”
Taylor’s head jerked up. He stared out thewindshield, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. A treeseemed to be flying out of the darkness and down the road towardthem. The next instant, he realized the uprooted tree was in frontof a wall of brown water rushing their way.
Flash flood. He’d read about them, seen theiraftermath on the nightly news, but he’d never witnessed that sheerdestructive capability firsthand. The little he knew was enough tofreeze his brain.
In what felt like slow motion, he watched Willwrench the wheel to send the car skating off the road and slidingacross the shoulder, heading for the tree-studded hillside. Theearth was soft and muddy on the shoulder, and Taylor felt the fronttires sink, felt them spinning. Will swore, cut the gas, gunned themotor, then took his foot off the accelerator again. Miraculously,through that alternating on and off of gas and neutral position,they gained traction.
Where the hell were they going?
The car shot forward, bumping and grinding up thegrassy slope, ripping out saplings and brush as they went.
They were traveling at a diagonal, the hillsidegrade too sharp to permit a straight approach.
“Come on, baby.” Will gritted the words out as theyplowed through a dense thicket of coarse shrubbery.
Taylor realized he hadn’t taken a breath sincethey’d left the main highway. He looked past Will and saw a brownriver tumbling just a few feet below them — where no river hadpreviously existed.
The car’s chassis slammed down on what felt likesolid rock. The transmission screeched. The tires spun. Theydragged forward another yard and lurched to a stop. The carbalanced precariously, the left side tilting downhill. A pine conehit the windshield and bounced away. It was followed by a treebranch.
“That’s not good.”
Taylor wasn’t aware of speaking until Will, staringdown the hillside at the rapidly rising water, released a startledchoke of laughter and turned back to him. “You think? We’ve got toget to higher ground.”
“You can’t drive any farther up this slope.” Itseemed to Taylor that Will had defied gravity to get this far.
“No. We’ll have to climb. Move it.” Will pointed.“Your side.”
Taylor shoved the door open against the wind andrain beating down. He crawled out, then held the door, reachingback for Will. Will scooted gingerly across the gearbox and thenfroze, his knee planted in the passenger seat.
Did the car slide a few inches? Taylor couldn’ttell, but it was only too likely. “Hurry the hell up, Brandt.” Hishand locked on Will’s, and he hauled with all his strength. Willscrabbled out to stand beside him, breathing hard.
The muddy water was steadily rising. Taylor couldmake out the murky tide through the pelting rain. He stared,fascinated, as the water crept still higher. How could it move sofast?
“Climb.” Will punched him on the shoulder.
Taylor obeyed, turning to climb.
His boots slipped in the pine needles and mud. Hegrabbed for a low-hanging branch, used it to support himself tillhe could wrap an arm around a narrow tree trunk. Will was right onhis heels.
They left the trees and clambered up a fewunsheltered feet. Taylor leaned into the wind and half crawled,half staggered forward. The wet stung his face and knocked thebreath out of him. This was July? It felt like December.
A tree branch slapped him in the cheek as theyreached another stand. His skin was so numb he barely felt it. Whathad happened to all that sultry, sodden heat?
Another branch hit him, and he swore. The windsnatched his words away.
Taylor trudged on, slithering every few feet,clutching boulders, branches, jutting roots, anything to keepmoving. A quick glance over his shoulder showed the paved roadbelow submerged beneath maybe sixteen feet of water that seemed toboil through the canyon curves like a soup of boulders and treetrunks and pieces of house siding.
Their car had slid back a few feet and was leaningstill more alarmingly. It wouldn’t take much to send it topplingdown into that flood.
Vaguely, he wondered if Will had bothered to takeout insurance on the rental. It seemed a trivial concern at themoment, merely a point of curiosity.
“Keep moving.” Will threw the words at him.
Unnecessarily. Taylor might be a city boy, but hewas survivalist enough to know that even six inches of water couldknock a man off his feet. A foot of water could float a car. Thewater he saw below them? That much water could wash a small townaway.
He continued up the wet hillside, grateful as thetrees grew denser, offering a little respite from the wind and wetat last. By then his muscles were burning and he was drenched insweat, a sobering reminder that if they weren’t in peak physicalcondition, they’d probably be dead.
After what felt like an eternity, Taylor reached thetop of the hill, huddling beneath the dripping branches. He droppedback against the rough trunk of a pine tree and closed hiseyes.
Will, shaking with cold and exertion, crawled besidehim. Taylor opened his eyes, acknowledging Will’s presence, thenclosed them again and concentrated on catching his breath.
“Too close,” Will huffed, sounding equally out ofbreath. “That was too…damned close. You okay?”
Taylor coughed, nodded, and wearily raised hiseyelashes. “You?”
Will nodded.
“That was…” Words failed him. He stared at what hecould see of Will’s face. “Among other things, that was the bestgoddamned driving I ever saw in my life.”
Will laughed shakily, acknowledging what a closecall they’d had. Not like their jobs weren’t plenty dangerousenough without Mother Nature getting into the act.
He reached out, hauled Taylor awkwardly into hisarms. For a few seconds, the world narrowed down to the hardbreaths, to the
