chapter 1
Something was wrong.
He must have fallen asleep in a strange position.
He opened his eyes slowly ,concentrating for a moment . Rocks,from the size of a pea to the size of man's fist . Ragged and round, all colours,ivory and gray .
A confetti of rocks . . .
And the nearby thunder of falling water .
But there was something else .
Nausea washed through him as he raised his head, but he kept pushing until he'd dragged himself into a sitting position,wincing as the torn flesh on his hands grated against the rocks.His vision wasn't so good .He gingerly patted his face,felt the puffy skin around his left eye and the tear across his chin .his fingertips came away strained with red blood .
He was dressed in a suit, but he was sitting on a rocky beach .The swollen waters of a river washed his injured feet ,but he was numb he couldn't feel it .He pulled his legs clear of the water with the same sluggish sense of unreality with which he took in his surroundings.
Mountains and trees and a rocky riverbank. Rushing water boulders .The sun was low in the sky.where was he ?how did he get here ? He looked upriver and saw the waterfall and then looked down at his torn gray suit and the cuts bruises on the skin that showed .
Had he fallen down from that waterfall?
Who was he ? Quick now ,what is his name?
Wait he must have a wallet with identification of some kind .
He patted is soggy suit pockets but found nothing except a few dollars .A tight strap across his chest produced a holster under his jacket and it still craddled a semiautomatic pistol.
what was he doing with a handgun out here of All places? working on instinct,he pulled back the slide and ejected the clip .He was loaded and ready for -
Ready for what ?
He snapped the gun back together and peered down the shoreline .A small bird perched on the tip of a rock.He moved ten feet to the right and targeted a knot on the piece of drift wood .five seconds later ,he pulled the trigger .the wood disintegrated as the startled bird flew toward the trees.
The gun worked .
But the shot echoed along the river bank ,and it came to him with a jolt that he'd just announced his exact location as though issuing a challenge. The hair on his neck stood .
Head spinning, he stumbled to his feet and once again glance at the sun .it was not only lower in the sky but drifting behind darkening clouds .He'd been going from one chore to another at a slow and steady pace .There couldn't be more than an hour or two of daylight left ,and once the sund went down the temperature would drop .There was already a bluish cast beneath his finger nails ,and if he didn't make a point of forbidding it ,his teeth clattered together.
But which way did he go ?
His guy said he'd come on top of the bluff . No way he could could get back up there in the dark .There was no point in following the river and there was no hope of crossing it .He turned towards the the forest and started walking .There wasn't a part of him that didn't hurt .
As he limped under the evergreen cover he tripped ,falling heavily onto the needled floor His intention was to get up ,keep going . Instead he closed his eyes and sank gratefully into oblivion .
