Дэвид Балдаччи - Long Road to Mercy

“Carol,” panted Pine. “The window. The... seal.”

Blum looked confused for a moment, but then lurched over, gripped the red lever at the bottom of the window, and pulled it free.

Chung, seeing what they were trying to do, struggled to free himself. He rammed his head backward, catching Pine hard on the chin. Pain rocketed up her face and she winced. But she managed to hold him firmly against the broken glass as Blum pulled the rubber seal free from around the perimeter of the window.

Once that was done, Blum gripped the edge of the glass and tugged hard. It broke free from the wall of the train, slipped sideways, and then fell out of the opening. Air whipped inside the compartment, blowing the curtains straight out.

This was the moment of truth, Pine knew. With the window gone, so was most of her leverage holding him against it. Chung jerked and pulled and bucked, but without his feet being on the floor he couldn’t gain the necessary traction, and without that he lacked the ability to strike out.

The interior train lights started to flicker on and then off.

Pine continued to slowly lift the far shorter man, inch by inch, at the same time keeping his limbs pinched to his sides. Her torso, arms, and legs were like a tube, a tube that she was slowly, inexorably forcing Chung through by moving her arms and legs millimeters at a time. The horrific image of a constrictor working its victim down its gullet popped into her head, and it was not far off the mark. Except Pine wanted to cast off Chung, not swallow him.

As she leaned forward, his waist was now resting on the edge of the window.

That meant Chung was halfway out of the train window.

But so was Pine.

The train was only going about twenty-five miles an hour now. But it was accelerating.

The wind whipped into them. They were both facing downward. Aside from her views of Chung’s back, Pine could see the landscape sweeping past. The terrain was pancake flat. Lawrence, Kansas, was far behind them now and receding faster and faster.

Pine was reaching the edge of her safety zone. Another few inches and she would not be able to stay in the train compartment. Chung’s weight and the angle she was holding him at were straining every muscle she had to its breaking point. Then they would both go flying out the window. And though the train wasn’t going that fast yet, the collision with the ground could very well send them bouncing under the train wheels. And that would mean certain death for them both.

Panting for breath, she suddenly felt Blum behind her, gripping her belt and then leaning backward, serving as the extra ballast that she needed.

Pine readied herself. Even as she could feel Chung working his right arm free, her limbs too spent to contain it much longer, she counted to five in her head.

Hold it, Atlee. Hold the lift. Just another few seconds. Another few seconds and you got the gold.

She grunted and then screamed as the Southwest Chief leapt forward with a burst of power from its twin engines. The sudden jolt of acceleration nearly carried all three of them outside, but Blum had quickly leaned back so far that her weight provided enough of a counterbalance to offset the increase in speed.

Three...

Pine had to time this exactly right. She could not afford to allow Chung to cling to her arms or legs. She was so tired that if the Korean managed to remain in the compartment, they were both dead. She wanted Blum and herself to keep their vertebrae right where they were.

She was leaning out so far now that she could barely breathe with the wind hitting her in the face.

Two...

She tensed every fiber, every ligament, in preparation for the release. She could feel the throb of Chung’s heart against her chest. She could hear his gasps. She could smell his fear.

As she could her own.

One...

She pushed against Chung’s back at the same moment that she let go of the death grip around the man’s arms.

She felt his freed limbs flailing in the air. The Korean managed to somehow turn to the side, his hands groping for the now-empty window frame.

They were nearly face-to-face as the lights on the train came on and this time stayed on.

She could see his features, as the wind sliding off the racing train pounded them both. She supposed they mirrored her own:

Terror.

He suddenly reached out and gripped her windswept hair, right as Pine let go of his legs.

His fingers pulled out some of her hair by the roots, even as his feet danced frantically against nothing.

She leapt back as he tried to kick her in the face.

And then the wind caught him, and he was fully out the window, unable to regain any sort of equilibrium.

For a moment, he seemed suspended in the air, and then, like a passenger sucked out of a depressurized plane, Chung was jerked violently to the right and in a flash disappeared from view.

Then Pine was falling backward and into Blum’s outstretched arms.

The two women lay there on the floor for several minutes, shaking and gasping.

Finally, they slowly rose as the lights in the train went off once more before again coming back on.

A few seconds later the door slid open and a steward looked in. When he spied the missing window and the curtains being blown around the compartment by the force of the wind, he cried out, “Oh my God!”

Pine dropped into a sitting position in the lower bunk and said, “We need another room.” She drew a deep breath. “This one’s broken.”

Winslow, Arizona.

Not Flagstaff.

Pine and Blum alighted about an hour behind schedule at the station, which was part of a hotel complex. Pine had figured someone might be waiting for them at Flagstaff, someone whom they really did not want to meet.

Contrary to the song lyrics, they were not here to take it easy.

Yet in keeping with the Eagles’ theme, they did spy a woman cruising by in a flat-bed Ford.

Pine waved her hand, and Jennifer Yazzie pulled the truck over to the curb.

Pine and Blum put their bags in the truck bed and climbed in, sitting shoulder to shoulder in the cab.

“Thanks for picking us up, Jen,” said Pine after introducing her to Blum.

“No problem. What’d you do to your face?” she asked, looking at Pine’s swollen chin and cut lip.

“Hit a door.”

“Why do I not believe that?”

“How’s Joe Jr.?”

“Still giving us fits.”

“Sorry to hear that.”

“You want to go to your home, or office?”

“Neither one. And I was hoping that Carol here could stay with you and Joe for a while, if that’s okay.”

Yazzie glanced at Blum quizzically and then back at Pine. “That’s fine. I was surprised to hear you were taking the train here. I didn’t even know you’d left town. Where were you?”

“Back east. And, if it’s all right, I need to borrow some of your hiking and camping gear.”

“Heading out again?”

“Going to hike the Canyon.”

Yazzie said, “What, solo?”

“That’s the plan.”

“Why?”

“Got some time off. Haven’t been down there in a while. Want to stretch my muscles.”

“I could go with you.”

“What, in all your free time?”

“Well, Joe could.”

“He has even less free time than you.”

“It’s not smart to hike by yourself, you know that.”

“I wanted to go with her,” said Blum. “But, well, I’m not sure I’m up to it anymore. My knees and my hip. I’d just hold her back.”

Pine said, “I’ll take it nice and easy. It’s not like I’m going rim-to-rim in one day. I plan to spend a few days down there.”

“This have anything to do with the mule that was found butchered down there? And the missing person?”