CRUSHED BONES AND UNBROKEN SOIL

Before the contractors could set a breaching charge on the steel bunker door, Nora kicked open the low drainage grate at the back of the station and crawled out into the dry irrigation trench that ran behind the building. She didn't look back as an explosion rocked the concrete structure, sending shockwaves through the soil that vibrated straight through her cracked bones.

She scrambled along the trench, using the thick pine cover to mask her movement toward the rocky ridge overlooking the creek. Below her, the scene had turned into utter chaos.

The core-drilling rig in the creek bed had struck something volatile. A geyser of black, foaming crude oil and high-pressure methane was erupting thirty feet into the air, raining dark spray over the limestone bluffs and the surrounding equipment. The contractors who had remained at the rig were running frantically toward their support vehicles, screaming over the deafening hiss of escaping subsurface gas.

Goliath, having escaped the burning barn, had somehow followed the creek wash up the canyon, drawn by the roaring commotion. The massive bull stood atop a shale mound just fifty yards from the out-of-control rig, his pale hide blackened with oil spray, bellowing furiously at the geyser as if challenging the earth itself.

Vance and his two armed men burst out of the rear of the bunker, their eyes locking onto Nora as she stood on the bluff edge above the erupting well.

""Stop her!"" Vance shrieked, pointing at the canvas bag still clutched in her left hand. ""She has the core survey!""

One of the armed men raised his carbine, taking deliberate aim at her chest. Nora didn't run. She looked at the methane cloud billowing around the drill head, then at the shotgun in her hands, and finally down at the massive bull pacing directly below them.