Douglas Preston - Impact

Abbey flattened herself on the mossy ground, watching. The man removed something from his waist and seemed to be checking it; she saw the faint gleam of metal and realized it was a handgun. He reholstered it and, with a quick look about, slipped into the darkness of the trees. He would be passing her way in a moment.

Abbey rose and sprinted through the woods, ducking branches and leaping fallen trees, and in a few minutes she arrived at the cabin, bursting through the door.

"Thanks to you, I burned the ham--"

"Jackie. We gotta go. Now."

"But the hamburgers--"

Abbey grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the door. " Now . And keep quiet--there's someone on the island with a gun."

"Oh my God."

She pulled her out into the darkness and cast about. He would probably be coming straight to the cabin.

"This way," she whispered, pulling Jackie across the meadow and into the woods stretching toward the southern end of the island. But the woods were too small and too obvious to be a good hiding place. On the other hand, the boulders and whalebacks at the southern tip of the island offered a better option, especially since it was low tide, exposing a range of giant, seaweed-covered rocks.

She motioned to Jackie to follow and they snuck through the trees to the bluff above the rocks. The Moon was still low in the sky and the tall spruces cast a shadow over the jumbled boulders, burying all in darkness. They slid down the dirt bluff and scrambled over the boulders, Abbey heading below the high-tide line to the long string of rocks jutting into the water.

"Tide's coming in," whispered Jackie, slipping and sliding over the seaweed. "We'll be drowned."

"This is only temporary."

At the far end, she found a dark hiding place between two steep-sided, seaweed-covered boulders with crawl spaces along their underside. The tide was coming in fast.

"Get in there."

"We're gonna be wet."

"That's the point."

Jackie hunkered down against the black, cold seaweed, wedging herself under the overhang of the rock. Abbey did the same, pulling and arranging the seaweed around and over her as much as possible. The strong smell of it filled her nostrils. She could see back up through the rocks to the spruces and, just barely, to the lighted cabin across the meadow five hundred yards away. Just beyond, the water lapped and gurgled among the rocks as the tide came in.

"Who is it?" Jackie whispered.

"The guy who's after us. Now shut up."

They waited. After what seemed like an eternity, Abbey saw the man's figure emerge from the forest into the moon-drenched meadow. Gun drawn, he slowly circled the cabin, crept up to a window and, flattening himself against the outside wall, peered inside. He spent some time looking, and then moved around to the door and kicked it in. The noise shattered the calm night air, echoing across the dark water.

He went into the cabin and came out a moment later, looking around. A flashlight appeared in his hand and he slowly circled the meadow, shining it into the trees.

Meanwhile, the tide came in.

The figure disappeared into the woods above their hiding place, the light flashing through the trees, back and forth.

He reappeared at the edge of the woods, on the top of the bluff above the rocks. Picking his way down, he stood on a tall rock, playing the light along the shore, the yellow beam licking about the rocks around them, probing here and there. Abbey put her hand on Jackie's arm and felt a tremor.

The figure began walking toward them, the loose cobbles dislodged by his feet making a rattling sound. The light flashed over the tops of the boulders again, probing briefly on either side of them. Meanwhile, Abbey could feel the tide crawling among the seaweed-covered rocks at their feet. What was the rate? Something like a vertical inch rise of water every two minutes, even more at the full moon.

As he got closer, she pulled her head back and down into the seaweed. She could feel the hiss of water now swirling around her feet, the gentle swell coming in and out. As the man got closer, she heard his hard breathing.

Once again, this time very deliberately, the yellow beam moved over the rocks. It passed by them with excruciating slowness. Once. Twice. Then came a grunt, and he began to move off. The beam flickered over a jumble of rocks to their right and moved on down the shore.

The water swept in around her ankles, stirring the seaweed, hissing back out. Darkness returned. Abbey waited for a minute, then two, and ventured another look. She could see him moving cautiously down the shore, a few hundred yards away, probing as he went, heading toward their dinghy.

"We've got to get off this island," Abbey whispered.

"How the hell are we going to do that with our dinghy out there in the open?"

"We're gonna take his."

Jackie was shaking. Abbey put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "You stay here. Move up a little with the tide. I'll go steal his dinghy, get our boat, and come to you. I'll pass as close to shore as I dare. When you hear me coming, start swimming. The current'll be with you."

"Okay," Jackie whispered.

Suddenly, Abbey noticed a flash in the sky, a rapid brightening. For a moment she thought the killer had found them, suddenly turning on his flashlight beam.

"Shit!" Jackie said, ducking and covering her head in an instinctual movement.

After a moment, Abbey poked her head up and stared at the Moon. "Oh my God! Jackie!"

A huge fireball blossomed on one side of the Moon, with a jet of glowing dust shooting laterally from the opposite side, extending itself as if in slow motion, becoming so bright Abbey had to shield her eyes. It was strange, weird, a spectacularly beautiful phenomenon, like the Moon had burst, releasing a string of glittering jewels spilling out of its interior, glowing with internal fire.

Meanwhile, the fireball on the other side of the Moon also expanded in size and color, from brilliant cold blue in the center to a greenish yellow, grading to orange and red at the edges, like a wedge expanding from the surface of the Moon.

"What the fuck ?" Jackie stared, her eyes wide.

The brightening light bathed the islands, the dark spruces, the rocks, the sea in a greenish yellow color, false and garish. The horizon came up, razor-sharp, the sky above it deep purple, the ocean below a pale green flecked with black and red.

Abbey turned her gaze back to the Moon, squinting her eyes against the brightness; a kind of halo was now developing around the disk, as if the Moon had been struck or shaken, lofting dust into space. A vast silence seemed to settle onto the seascape, the spectacle unfolding in absolute stillness which made it seem all the more surreal.

"Abbey!" came Jackie's low, panicked voice. "What is it? What's happening?"

"I believe," said Abbey slowly, "that the weapon on Deimos just took a potshot at the Moon--a much bigger one, this time."

69

Harry Burr walked down the shingled beach, semiautomatic pistol in one hand, probing the woods and rocks with his flashlight, searching for a glimpse of fleeting figures, a face crouching among the trees, something. He knew they were on the island--their dinghy was still up on the beach and burgers had been burning on the stove. He was also pretty sure Ford didn't have a piece--otherwise he'd have used it in the bar or at the parking lot. So he was the only man with a gun.

He swore under his breath. Somehow they'd gotten wind of his coming. They'd probably heard the sound of his boat engine, which at night carried across the water a long distance. Still, he was holding all the cards; he'd cornered them on a small island and there was no way they could escape--except by dinghy. They couldn't swim to their boat--the tide was coming in full bore and the currents were swirling past the island at several knots. They'd be swept past before they'd ever make it.