Track of the Beast: A Brock Stone Adventure

“That was close.” Alex closed his eyes and threw his head back. The motion caused the truck to tilt downhill.

“Hold still!” Stone warned. “We’re teetering on a knife’s edge here!” He assessed the situation. The truck was partway off the road. At the moment, they were perfectly balanced. But too much of a shift one way or the other and they would be in trouble. They would need to proceed with caution.

“What do you want me to do, Stone?” Moses shouted.

Stone glanced back to see his friend lying splayed out across the truck bed.

“Carefully pull yourself toward the uphill side.”

Moses did as he was instructed, shifting his full weight to the uphill side of the truck. Stone felt a slight shifting of the weight distribution, but their situation remained precarious.

“Constance, you climb onto my lap.”

The young woman’s cheeks went scarlet. “I absolutely will not!”

“We need to get your and Alex’s weight on this side of the truck.”

Constance appeared to debate this for a moment. Then she gave an affirmative nod. “Alex can sit on your lap.” Alex sputtered and protested, but Constance shushed him. “You are heavier than I. It will make for better balance.”

“Don’t you dare say she’s right,” Alex warned Stone. “Matter of fact, just don’t say anything at all.” His face as red as his hair as he clambered, crablike, over Constance, then shifted onto Stone’s lap. Alex was much too tall for his legs to fit below the steering wheel, so he settled for lying across Stone’s lap with his knees pulled to his chest and his head and shoulders stuck out the driver’s side window.

Finally, with the weight better distributed, Stone was able to get the truck back onto the road. Alex wasted no time scrambling back to his seat where he stared balefully out the passenger window. Stone was also eager to forget the entire incident.

“It’s a good thing you saw that landslide coming,” he said to Constance. “Without your warning, we would have been swept away.”

“Yes, that was well done,” Alex said, obviously relieved to have something else to talk about. “You really saved our skins.”

Constance looked down, bit her lip. “I have a confession to make. I didn’t actually see the avalanche. I cried out because I saw a huge, hairy man moving in the trees.”

Interlude 4

May, 1927

Five Years Ago

Stone and Gideon took shelter in a small cave. The sun was setting, and the air was growing frigid. It must have been a regular stopping place for people traversing the mountain because a small store of firewood had been laid aside. Stone built a small fire, then shared his trail rations with his new companion.

Gideon took out a small flask and took a sip. He closed his eyes and let out a small sigh of contentment. The corners of his mouth twitched in a tiny smile. Finally, he held the flask out to Stone.

Stone caught a whiff of strong liquor, minty with a hint of juniper. He seldom imbibed but didn’t mind taking a drink when courtesy demanded it. This seemed like one of those times.

He took a sip. It burned on the way down but filled his stomach with a pleasantly warm sensation. He felt his stiff, sore muscles relax.

“What did you mean when you said you ‘needed something to believe in again’?” Gideon said.

The subject was an uncomfortable one but if Stone expected Gideon to help him, he owed the man an explanation.

“I am… was a soldier. I enlisted from a desire to protect people.” He paused, gazed into the flames. “Soon they began sending me on special missions. Sometimes I was required to kill people, and I had only the assurance of those above me that my targets constituted a threat to our national security. Sometimes the danger the person posed was obvious. Most of the time I had no idea how my actions fit into the larger picture. That was difficult for me. But recently…” He couldn’t put his thoughts into words, so he took another sip of liquor.

“Allow me to speculate.” Gideon took the flask from him and capped it. “You discovered that in practice, what is good for the country often means what is good for the bank accounts of politicians and their donors.”

“Spot on,” Stone said. “I realized I was a weapon fired by others. Some of us used that as an excuse to rationalize our actions, others simply didn’t care. But I can’t deny that I have a conscience and free will. I had no control over the decisions my superiors made, but the decision to reenlist was mine alone.”

“I take it you did not?”

Stone shook his head.

“I need perspective. These days I have a hard time telling the good guys from the bad.” He barked a rueful laugh.”

“In the womb, we are all sightless,” Gideon said. “It is only at the moment of our birth that our eyes are truly opened, and our view of the world begins to take shape.”

“Does that mean I’ve been in the womb all these years?” Stone took another drink. Fatigue was creeping up on him.

“In a way. But it is possible to be reborn with all of your eyes opened.”

“What does that mean?”

“It is the first of the Five Treasures.”