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CHAPTER 2

The first three minutes on the turnoff weren’t bad. If anything, the road improved, changing abruptly from hard-pack dirt to actual asphalt. This had seen better days; the road was chewed up here and there but was still real pavement, nonetheless. Which made sense. The place would see traffic. The springs were a destination. Given that this place was so high in the mountains, though, he doubted anyone was prepared to hang out year-round, waiting for visitors who likely wouldn’t come. From what he remembered of Parviz’s map, the nearest village was well to their south.

He was just starting to relax when, all of a sudden, the road vanished into clouds so dense, the van’s headlights penetrated only a few feet before being gobbled up.

Beside him, Matvey gave a squawk of surprise.

“Yeah, that’s thick, all right,” he said, slowing the van to a veritable crawl, the better to study the veil of thick, dense fog hanging across the road. The fog gobbled up the beams from the van’s headlights. It was as if someone had drawn a set of blackout curtains across the road, except the curtains were bright: orange in some places, bright yellow in others or a muddy beige. He couldn’t see more than a foot or two into the stuff.

Matvey let loose a volley of rapid-fire Russian of which John got just a single word: What .

“Fog,” John said taking a stab at trying to answer the kid, trying to stay casual and matter of fact, working at not letting any of the acidic panic suddenly bubbling in his gut seep into his voice. Fog was a setup for black ice. “It’s just a big fogbank.”

The kid replied, and John nodded as if he understood. “Well, sure, when you consider how fog’s made.” Lightly goosing the accelerator, he eased off the brake until he felt the engine bite. “Fog’s just a low-lying stratus cloud and clouds are moisture,” he said as the van nosed into the fog. This particular low-lying stratus cloud was so dense he could make out less than ten feet of the road ahead.

“We’re probably getting pretty close. The fog means there’s water nearby, and that’s exactly what we want. We’ll just take it nice and slow. Nothing to worry about, kid,” he said. “Everything will be just fine.”

And everything was. For about ten seconds.