Chapter 14 - The Echo Below
The truck rocked violently as Marcus’s weight left the frame. David hit the brakes instinctively, the tires screeching on the wet steel grating, stopping just three yards from the far side of the riverbank.
In the rearview mirror, David watched the horror unfold in the glare of the chasing car’s headlights.
Marcus had rolled across the wet deck, coming to a stop directly in front of the narrow entrance to the bridge. As the black sedan slammed on its brakes to avoid running him down, Marcus pulled his revolver from his belt. But he didn't aim at the driver.
He raised the weapon and fired three rapid shots directly into the steel cable winch of the bridge's counterweight system at the southern tower.
The cables, weathered by half a century of rust, snapped under the tension with the sound of cannon fire. The counterweight plummeted, dragging the central truss downward into the roaring river below.
The black sedan tried to reverse, but the collapsing steel buckled the roadway beneath its front axle, tipping the vehicle violently forward into the open maw of the river.
With a deafening groan of twisting iron, the entire southern span of the bridge tore free, plunging into the dark, churning water, carrying the chasing car, the wreckage, and Marcus into the abyss.
A massive splash echoed up through the canyon, swallowed instantly by the roaring rain.
David sat in the idling truck, his hands frozen to the steering wheel, his chest heaving. The passenger door swung loosely in the wind, creaking on its hinges.
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Elena let out a ragged, trembling breath, pulling Maya so tight against her chest that the baby squirmed.
Across the ruined expanse of water, nothing remained. Only the rain beating against the severed iron stumps.
