And then Dodd’s eyes caught upon something else, about twenty feet farther to the right and up a ways.
An indentation in the mud, not very large, a sort of cleft, as though something underneath was sucking at it.
Something underneath?
It was unlike anything else on the slope.
He decided on it.
Hackley adjusted.
The pipe, in a vertical position, was lowered precisely on target — the indentation. The pipe penetrated quickly, and, as Dodd watched it sinking, he had a second second thought. Maybe he’d chosen wrong again, before it was too late they should pull up and try elsewhere.… He was about to tell Hackley to do just that when the pipe, about six feet of it already under, stopped.
It remained straight up.
It must have settled on something.
Down inside, the seven survivors crouched. The mud poured in through the hole in the roof. It was like being in the bottom part of an hourglass with time running out. What little space remained was filling fast. The mud was nearly up to the platform. Not enough air. They breathed in rapid gasps, their hearts pounding. The more they breathed, the less they could breathe.
Lois closed her eyes.
Marsha hugged herself.
Spider hung his head and gritted.
Amy and Peter stared at each other.
Gloria pressed against Brydon, who felt done, finally, with nothing more to give.
But he was the first to notice the sudden decrease in the flow of mud from above. He didn’t mention it because he didn’t believe it and there was no use wasting breath. But he saw the flow was definitely less, reduced to a dribble.
And then directly below the hole, on the surface of the mud, appeared a circle of light.
Brydon crawled over to the hole, looked up.
He saw outside.
Air was pouring in.
He and the others tore at the gypsum, made the hole larger.
Peter climbed through first, through the hole and into the pipe. Made his way up the pipe in a crouched, horizontal position, keeping pressure with his shoulders and feet against the inside surface. He inched his way upward to the mouth of the pipe.
He was a complete surprise to Hackley and to Dodd, who was standing on the landing skids about to lower himself into, the pipe. It was as though a dead man had risen from the earth. Appropriate that he should be naked.
Dodd threw Peter a nylon rope ladder, which he fed down the opening. Peter helped Amy out.
Then the others came. Up, out and into the belly of the buzzard.
Lois Stevens. She was crying.
Marsha Hilbert hesitated, blinked, touched her hair, as though striking a pose.
Gloria Rand kept looking back for Brydon.
Spider had difficulty because his clothes were so heavily caked with mud. Odd the way his trousers were bound at the bottoms, and bulging. Of course, he wasn’t aware the man giving him a hand was a police captain.
Brydon was last. He was standing knee deep in mud when he stepped onto the ladder to go up the pipe.
Outside, the rain had stopped.
The clouds were disbanding.
With all aboard, the buzzard lifted itself away, a joyous, side-slipping swoop over the beach.
Brydon glanced down.
It was Sunday morning.
Two girls in bikinis already lay stretched out on bright towels, starting to bake once again in the good California sunshine.
About the Author
Gerald A. Browne is the New York Times–bestselling author of ten novels including 11 Harrowhouse, 19 Purchase Street, and Stone 588. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages, and several have been made into films. He attended the University of Mexico, Columbia University, and the Sorbonne, and has worked as a fashion photographer, an advertising executive, and a screenwriter. He lives in Southern California.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1976 by Pulse Productions, Inc.
Cover design by Jason Gabbert
ISBN: 978-1-4532-6840-7
This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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