No Place to Run by Mark Edwards

Author:Mark Edwards [Edwards, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Published: 2022-06-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

‘What’s the deal with Birches Rock?’ Aidan asked as he drove out of Fortuna.

‘It’s the kind of place my mother warned me about. You know what that waiter said about the Emerald Triangle? The weed farming? Birches Rock is the most notorious part of it. The way my mom went on about it, it’s like the Wild West.’

‘This is California. Cannabis has been legal for, what, three years? It can’t be that bad, surely?’

‘I guess we’re going to find out.’

They were headed south on the 101. Just after they passed the town of Rio Dell, Lana took the guns out of the glovebox and checked them over. They were both loaded.

‘You ever used one of these things?’ she asked.

‘You must be joking.’

She sighed and put the guns away. ‘You Brits.’

‘You were pretty badass back there,’ he said.

She laughed. ‘Aidan, I feel like I’m right on the edge. Do you know what I mean? Right. On. The. Edge.’

‘Well, try not to tip over it.’ He concentrated on the road for a minute. ‘Would you really have shot Zach?’

‘If I’d thought he was involved in Samuel’s death, yeah. Maybe.’ Her voice cracked on the final word.

‘You don’t know for sure that he’s dead.’

She had her face turned towards the window so he couldn’t see her expression. ‘I don’t think there’s much point torturing myself with hope right now.’

‘I’ve been torturing myself with hope for the last two years.’

‘Yeah? And how’s that been working out for you?’

‘It’s better than the alternative.’

They drove by the entrance to the Avenue of the Giants, with its mighty redwoods.

‘You know,’ Lana said, ‘some of these trees are almost two thousand years old.’

‘Wow.’

‘These are the last of their species. All it would take is one intense wildfire and boom. Gone forever.’

Living in a city, even one as close to the water as Seattle, made Aidan feel cut adrift from nature and the plight of the planet. But here, so close to the redwoods, he could feel it. Their fragility. The responsibility of the people who lived here now to protect the parts of the earth they hadn’t yet destroyed.

‘What is it?’ Lana said.

‘Huh?’

‘You were smiling to yourself.’

‘Oh, I was just thinking about how Scarlett’s had an influence on me. She’s really into green issues. We got sucked into this big eco-protest the first day she was in Seattle and she loved it. I had to drag her away.’

‘It is pretty terrifying,’ Lana said. ‘I had a friend at college from Houston and she was there when Hurricane Harvey hit. Her house was destroyed. She said a third of the city was flooded at some point.’

‘Shit.’

‘Here, it’s fire. I mean, California’s always had a wildfire season, but now it’s two months longer than it used to be, and twice as much burns now than fifty years ago. You heard about the Thomas Fire a couple of years back? It burned something like fifty thousand square feet in one day. And that happened in December, when it’s supposed to be the rainy season.

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