Excerpt from Cold Fury (RC #9)

The Abyss

Interstate 55 near Cape Girardeau, MO

She glanced from the speedometer to the rearview. With no one behind and nothing in front, I-55 seemed deserted, impossible even at three a.m. Taillights appeared, far ahead, but closing quickly. She swung left, coming abreast of a northbound ABF convoy running fifteen miles above the posted speed but twenty miles slower than she. Compacted air buffeted the Camaro, tugging at the steering wheel as she broke successive slipstreams. The next to last trucker flashed a warning as she passed.

Radar? Or just, “Slow down?”

“Or what?” she mumbled as she rocked her foot, bleeding velocity until she matched the speed of the lead truck. The high whine of its tires filled her mind. Glancing right, she saw the maw yawning just back of the fifth wheel.

How easy. Just a quick tug to the right.

She tensed—and hesitated.

The spell was broken.

“Not that way,” she said, as she mashed the accelerator.

An exit.

She braked hard going up the ramp, slid past the stop sign, finally stopping on the far shoulder just short of a rubble heap. She reversed onto the road, swung around, and drove slowly in and through a nameless collection of houses. A few minutes later she parked beyond them where the pavement played out hard against a railroad embankment.

The odor of burned oil and evaporating coolant thickened the air as she got out. The abused engine pinged away heat while radiator fluid gurgled softly in the dark. Leaving her keys in the ignition, she climbed up to the tracks and then descended through heavy brush.

Finding a stone ledge sparkling in the moonlight with liquor bottle shards, she sat. A chugging came from below and to her right. A tug pushed a triple line of barges through reflected moonlight.

She sat with legs dangling over the stone and lingered until all that remained of the tug was the fading sound of its engine. Gradually she became aware of the burble of the current below.
She cocked her head as if something had suddenly become clear.

She stood, looked down, and then she stepped into the void.

Cold Fury