CHAPTER 1: THE ICE BENEATH THE IRON SHOE The winter twilight descending over the Arts Quad was thick with the silent, heavy fall of fresh lake-effect snow, draping the gothic limestone buttresses and slate roofs of the university in a shroud of pristine white. At twenty-four degrees, the air off the Cayuga Lake gorge was…
CHAPTER 1: THE COLD CLATTER ON SLIP FORTY-TWO The glacial mist rolling off the dark surface of Lake Pend Oreille was cold enough to numb bone, drifting in thick, ghostlike curtains through the towering western red cedars along the Sandpoint shoreline. At thirty-six degrees, the morning air smelled of wet cedar heartwood, decaying tamarack needles,…
CHAPTER 1: THE HOOK IN THE FROZEN DARK The sub-zero gale howling off the Nebraska sandhills tasted of iron filings, frozen corn stubble, and the bitter sulfur of heavy diesel exhaust. At four minutes past three in the morning, the vast expanse of the Prairie Star Travel Plaza was a deserted archipelago of cracked asphalt,…
CHAPTER 1: THE SQUEAL ON THE GLASS The dawn fog rolling off the forested ridgeline of Massanutten Mountain was thick as uncarded sheep’s wool, curling in cold, damp tendrils through the yellowing hemlocks along Virginia Route 340. At thirty-eight degrees, the air smelled of wet slate, decaying hickory leaves, and the sharp, sulfuric tang of…
CHAPTER 1: THE SNAP OF THE TOW CHAIN The violent screech of hardened alloy steel tearing through plastic air dams echoed across the wet asphalt of the Prairie Gateway Truck Stop with the force of a gunshot. Marcus Bell sat motionless behind the steering wheel of his gray Toyota Camry, both hands resting flat at…
CHAPTER 1: THE WET BENCH AT CEDAR HILLS The damp November chill hanging over the suburban parking lot of Cedar Hills Plaza smelled of wet fir needles, cedar bark mulch, and ozone from the neon pharmacy sign that hummed in pink and turquoise above the empty storefronts. At twenty minutes before midnight, the wide expanse…
CHAPTER 1: THE CHAIN ON THE ASPHALT The biting Panhandle wind off the high prairie tasted of alkali dust, frozen cedar, and the sour, pervasive reek of feedlot cattle. At three o’clock in the morning, the vast commercial parking lot of the Panhandle Star Travel Plaza—forty miles west of Amarillo along Interstate 40—was an island…
CHAPTER 1: THE FROST ON THE HOOD The November wind cutting across the cracked asphalt of the Muskingum County licensing bureau smelled of woodsmoke, wet dead oak leaves, and sulfur from the distant coal-fired power plants along the Muskingum River. It was thirty-four degrees, the sky a flat, unbroken ceiling of Appalachian slate gray that…
CHAPTER 1: THE STRIKE ON THE ROOF The violent crack of a heavy polycarbonate baton against sheet metal sounded like an artillery shell detonating directly over Marcus Bell’s head. Rain spray exploded off the glossy black roof of his sedan, misting through the driver’s side window that Marcus had lowered exactly two inches—just enough to…
CHAPTER 1: THE HEAT MIRAGE ON ROUTE SEVENTY The midday sun beat down upon the caliche flats of Doña Ana County like a blacksmith’s hammer upon an anvil. At one hundred and four degrees, the heat rising from the concrete lanes of Federal Checkpoint Fourteen created an oily, undulating mirage that made the distant limestone…