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By Root 916 0

speaking about it, Zak and Muldaur both stopped at one of the drainage canals cut diagonally across the road. He knew these mountains probably received 150 inches of rain a year; the shallow ditches were important for preserving roads that otherwise might be washed away by rainwater. Breathing heavily, they stopped and angled their bikes so they could see down the hillside. The sky showed some blue, but it was mostly a gauzy pale gray. Below, over the lake, a thick residue of smoke lay in the basin like a deformed cake. On the opposite side they could see fires burning on the far mountain. They had only one option, and the fact that they were on their way cheered Muldaur just a tad. The plateau behind them had acted as a buffer, but sooner or later the fires would be coming up this road. The most troubling aspect of this route was that if the fire sneaked up behind them, they would have no recourse but to race it to the top of the mountain.

“How far to the top of this?” Zak asked.

“You don’t remember?”

“Do you?”

“I was thinking thirty minutes from the lake?”

“I was going to say forty.”

“Ballpark.”

For a while the road was clear of loose rocks, and they were able to ride side by side. When a helicopter passed overhead, Muldaur said, “Too bad we don’t have a flare gun. We could signal.” Having a possible source of rescue so close at hand while finding themselves helpless to attain it was dispiriting.

Fire began approaching from below and to their left. They couldn’t see it, but they could see the smoke pushing up over the ridge in front of it, moving at twenty-five or thirty miles an hour, the smoke dark and heavy and carrying embers, some of which were large enough that Muldaur was worried about running over one and flatting a tire. Higher up, he could see the hurricane winds roiling the landscape. The more he saw, the more depressed he became. By the time he finally heard the Ford truck racing up the slope behind them, Muldaur was just about ready to quit.

58

Stephens knew he would eventually win out, and he had, because his three former riding companions were pedaling in the smoke while he was comfortably ensconced in the backseat of a vehicle costing, with the turbo option, full leather, and GPS, well over a hundred grand.

“So why did your friends kill my brother?” Sitting next to Stephens, Fred slapped the tire iron into his palm.

“Well, now, I don’t know that I would call them friends, Fred. They’re people I went on a weekend ride with. You know them as well as I do.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“Which question was that?”

“Don’t play dumb. Why did they push my brother off the cliff?”

Jennifer turned around in her seat and looked at Stephens with an intensity that seemed close to psychotic. He had always been able to charm women, particularly the ones who were dependent on him for raises and annual evaluations, and he wondered why he hadn’t been able to win over this young woman. She’d been as adamant as Fred that he not ride with them.

“I don’t know any more about it than you do. Just what they said. I was just waking up when they were chasing Scooter through the camp.”

“They were chasing him?” Kasey asked.

“That’s what it seemed like.”

“They wanted to get rid of him so there would be no witnesses, right? With no witnesses, they would have told us Chuck and Scooter both fell off, one of them trying to save the other.”

“All I know is they said it was an accident, and Scooter caused it.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it!” said Finnigan.

“Well, uh, yes…it probably…I’m just relating…because they’re saying it, doesn’t make it true. Hey, look. I barely know those guys.”

Suddenly Stephens was aware that the Porsche was pointed down the mountain. “We’re not going down, are we?”

“Take a look.”

“You’re making a mistake.”

“Who’s driving? Me or you?” Kasey stopped the Porsche in the middle of the road. Although the smoke wasn’t as thick or settled as it had been half a mile back on the plateau, they could see only 150 feet now.

“I don’t see any fire,” said Fred.

“Oh, it’s down there,” said