The Thousand Dollar Chase by J. T. Brannan

Author:J. T. Brannan [Brannan, J. T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grey Arrow Publishing
Published: 2018-07-18T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Trying as best I could, I ignored the rush of the wind that threatened to tear me from the metal and started climbing the rear of the train, using the rails and the hinges for grips and handholds as I made my way up.

Climbing was a big thing during Ranger training, due to us needing the ability to launch cliff-assaults, and I’d become something of a specialist during my days in the RRD. Hard though climbing the back of this beast was, at least there were handholds – on some of the rockfaces I’d come across, you were lucky to get a few cracks to shove the tips of your fingers and toes into.

I pulled myself up onto the top of the train, and was almost blown right off just a moment later. I gripped hold of the upper railing that edged the train’s roof and held tight, just managing to stay on.

I breathed out slowly and let myself grow accustomed to the feel of the wind as it passed over me, until I reached a certain level of stasis and felt I could start to move.

At first I just edged along, keeping my body in close contact with the roof and using the rail to pull myself forward. Eventually, I made it to the end of the rear carriage; and then I climbed down into the gap between that and the next one, stepped over to the second carriage, climbed back up and started the slow, painful process once more.

It was tortuously slow, and as I moved further down the train, I began to gain in confidence; I moved up from the roof into a low crouch, and began moving forward in a kind of monkey crawl that sped things up considerably. I even stopped going down between the carriages and began to just step-jump over to the next one. And by the time I was somewhere in the middle of the vast metal behemoth – having in the meantime sailed past businesses and highways, shops and houses, parking lots and warehouses – I was so used to the motion of the train, the flow of the air around me, that I was nearly walking upright; and it was about this time that I heard a high-pitched keening sound that travelled even above the tremendous, but lower-pitched, noise of the train.

Kane.

My clever friend must have heard me on the roof. Or maybe he’d smelled me, I considered; I’d had a hard day, after all, and was probably a little ripe.

But I knew I’d found the right carriage, and I slowly, carefully, levered myself back down the side of the car, resting next to the door I’d thrown open earlier. I pulled it open once more, and saw the fearful face of Lorna there, peering out at me in barely-concealed terror; but that look changed to one of relief when she saw it was me, and Lorna reached out and grabbed hold of me, and helped to pull me inside.

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