BooksBarbecue
Back Whirlwind
Chapters (95)
  1. Title Page
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. 8
  10. 9
  11. 10
  12. 11
  13. 12
  14. 13
  15. 14
  16. 15
  17. 16
  18. 17
  19. 18
  20. 19
  21. 20
  22. 21
  23. 22
  24. 23
  25. 24
  26. 25
  27. 26
  28. 27
  29. 28
  30. 29
  31. 30
  32. 31
  33. 32
  34. 33
  35. 34
  36. 35
  37. 36
  38. 37
  39. 38
  40. 39
  41. 40
  42. 41
  43. 42
  44. 43
  45. 44
  46. 45
  47. 46
  48. 47
  49. 48
  50. 49
  51. 50
  52. 51
  53. 52
  54. 53
  55. 54
  56. 55
  57. 56
  58. 57
  59. 58
  60. 59
  61. 60
  62. 61
  63. 62
  64. 63
  65. 64
  66. 65
  67. 66
  68. 67
  69. 68
  70. 69
  71. 70
  72. 71
  73. 72
  74. 73
  75. 74
  76. 75
  77. 76
  78. 77
  79. 78
  80. 79
  81. 80
  82. 81
  83. 82
  84. 83
  85. 84
  86. 85
  87. 86
  88. 87
  89. 88
  90. 89
  91. 90
  92. 91
  93. 92
  94. Also by DAVID KLASS
  95. Copyright Page

P.J.’s voice is shrill and desperate, but also, even at this horrible moment, tender. “Jack, tell him what he wants! I want to see my parents again. I don’t want to die here. Whatever it is, whatever secret you’re protecting, it can’t be worth this. I beg you, please …”

“I don’t know anything,” I shout back.

“Jack, he’s holding me out over the pool!”

“I swear I don’t.”

The colonel’s command booms over our panicked voices: “Walk to me or I drop her, Jack.”

“I can’t. It’s too dark.”

“Walk!”

I force myself to take a step. The plastic beam is an inch wide now—silhouetted against the purple pool below, it looks like a string. I’m doing a high-wire act over the most painful death imaginable. “I’m coming.”

“Be careful, Jack!”

I remember Eko’s training. Once I bent sand grain by grain. Once I ran at top speed through a dark marsh, avoiding branches and holes by sensing their presence. I use that extra sense now. Step by step. Seeing the wire in my mind’s eye and moving across it in measured steps …

“Where is Kidah? Tell me and this will all be over. Otherwise I drop her!”

“Jack! For God’s sake tell him everything!”

“Kidah came back over the centuries to stop you.”

“He can’t stop me!”

“They believe he can. But they lost track of him.”

“Why did they need you?”

“They think I can help find him. But I don’t have a clue. I don’t know if he’s in a town or out in the rain forest. I don’t know if he’s in a cave or on a mountaintop. I swear—I don’t even know where to start looking!”

It’s not going to work. I can feel the bridge narrowing from a string to a wire, and then to a hair.

And he’s going to drop P.J. in the pool. I’m close enough to the colonel to sense it. P.J. feels it, too. She’s too terrified to scream out a warning, but I can hear it in her gasping breaths.

I start to tumble off the strand of plastic at the same moment he drops P.J. Time freezes.

I’m on the Outer Banks, on a beach, at sunset. Eko is teaching me to fly. “Steer with your whole body,” she says. “You are a point of light, moving in the darkness.”

I am a point of light now, above an abyss. I spread my arms and dive forward, and somehow grab P.J. as she screams and starts to plummet. My momentum carries us back over the edge of the pit to the stone floor.

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