Rise of the Phoenix novel · Chapter 16 of 24
Chapter 16: The Pass
We took Hedda's truck up the east road with the heater off and the windows cracked.
Garth drove.
His hands were warm on the wheel, and every few miles he flexed them.
Quill's contact had given us the stretch: a mile of switchbacks below the crest.
Where the plows pile the snow into a wall higher than a van.
We parked below the last bend and climbed the ridge on foot.
Dawn came up thin and grey behind the peaks.
From the top I could see the whole road, a black ribbon pinned to the mountain.
Three white vans crawling up it with their headlights on.
"Middle one," I said.
"I know."
"Rook's in the first."
"I know that too."
Garth crouched beside me in the snow, scanning the road through Hedda's binoculars.
"You still want to do it the loud way?" he said.
"The quiet way is how I spent fourteen months."
"Then I'll hold the ridge."
He kissed me once, fast and hard, and then he stood up and walked out along the rock with his hands bare.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of Rise of the Phoenix are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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