Nomad (16 page)

Macey's face was ash-white, watching Logan swiftly ascend the rock face nimbly as a spider. Raven thought she was scared of climbing it herself, until Logan leaped from a narrow ledge and barely caught a handhold with the tips of his fingers, with the rest of his limbs swinging free. Macey gasped and covered her mouth, and Raven realized she was actually afraid for Logan, afraid he might fall.

Logan hung where he was, by his fingertips, and waved down at them.

"Don't try things like that," Logan advised them, hanging as casually as a monkey on a limb, though he was thirty feet above rocky ground. He finally grabbed onto another hold with his other hand, and Macey let out a small sigh of relief.

Logan ascended eighty feet to the top of the slab, where he wove webs of rope and carabiners around rocks at the peak. He built two separate climbing anchors, so that two people could climb side by side.

Raven watched Logan's friends. She had trouble distinguishing between Ethan and Chandler--not that they looked like twins, exactly, but they had similar haircuts and mannerisms that made them seem nearly identical.

Though the three boys seemed to come from similar backgrounds, Logan was like a wild weed among them, his eyes intense and focused where theirs had a dull, shallow look. The other boys moved in a leisurely fashion, as though sleepwalking through life, while Logan crackled with energy.

While they waited, Macey crept sideways toward Raven with her arms folded tightly against her, making Raven think of a timid mouse.

"I think I know why we're both doing this," Macey whispered. "It looks crazy to me. Can we both agree to call it off?"

"I don't know what you mean," Raven whispered back. "It looks fun."

"I'm scared." Macey gasped again as Logan leaped over the edge of the cliff. He rappelled from the top, skipping his way back down the cliff in a few wide, fast arcs.

"You can back out if you want," Raven whispered. "Nobody will think less of you."

"Oh, bullshit. Let's climb this stupid rock." Macey gave her a quick scowl before stalking away.

"Ready?" Logan beamed, fresh from his rapid climb and insanely fast descent. He was only a little sweaty after all of that.

"That took long enough," Raven said.

"Just bombproofing." Logan leaned in close to her and threaded a rope through her harness, his hands passing around her legs and hips.

"What does that mean?"

"Making sure you don't die." He gave the rope a tug. It ran all the way up the cliff, through one of the anchors he'd built at the top, all the way back down, and through a belay device on his harness. "You'll climb, and I'll be down here with your rope. If you slip and fall, don't panic. I've got you."

"That's so reassuring," Raven told him, but she smiled, wanting to charm him. She hid her fear and doubt, but couldn't help noticing how odd it was that she'd come back to kill him, and now she was trusting him with her life.

No
, she told herself.
I'm only trusting him if I fall.

She decided not to fall.

The boy named Chandler would be belaying Macey, controlling the opposite end of her rope while she climbed. The blond girl looked frightened as he escorted her to the wall.

"The top ropes will take you up two of the most fun routes on this face," Logan told them. "The handholds and footholds are there. If you need help, just scream." The other boys laughed.

Raven looked up along the rope that would be supporting her. After her practice time at the climbing gym, she felt ready. She identified some cracks that looked large enough for her fingers and toes, and she began to climb.

Several feet away, Macey began to work her way up the rock, too. She looked scared, but clearly seemed resolved to prove herself.

Raven moved up the rock at a fast clip, determined to leave Macey far behind her. She scaled her way up the first twenty feet of the route.

"Careful, Riley," Logan called up to her. "You're not racing each other."

"Who says we're not?" Raven called back. While Logan and the other guys laughed, Raven looked down at Macey, well below her, sweating and trembling in fear, but still forcing herself to reach ahead and climb. She had to respect the girl for that.

Raven continued on, pausing fifty feet up to take in the vista of low mountains and autumn forest spread out below her. She looked down at Logan. The sight of the sheer drop to the ground startled her, and her palms began to sweat.

"You're doing great, Riley!" Logan shouted up to her. "Just take it easy!"

A high-pitched scream bounced off the cliff. Raven looked at Macey, expecting to see that she'd slipped loose and now dangled helplessly on her rope. Instead, she saw that the girl had pressed herself against the rock, her eyes squeezed shut.

"I can't do it!" Macey cried. "I can't!"

"You're doing fine, Macey!" Chandler called. "Keep it up!"

"I don't want to go up any more! I want to go down!"

"You can't quit now!" Logan shouted. "You're almost there."

With a visible effort, Macey forced herself to look upward along the cliff. She quickly closed her eyes and pressed her face against the rock again. Raven balanced herself on a ledge and snapped a picture of her.

"I want to go down," Macey said. She looked ready to cry.

"What's that?" Chandler called up again. "I couldn't hear you!"

"I said I want to go down!" Macey screamed. "Help me!"

On the ground, Logan spoke quickly to Chandler, who then shouted up: "Okay! I can lower you. You just have to let go of the wall."

Macey cringed more tightly against the rock face. "No, no, no...."

"Macey, you have to let go!" Logan called. "The rope will hold you, I promise. You're safe."

Macey just shook her head and buried her face against the rock. She stood with her toes planted on a narrow ledge, trapped in place by her own fear.

"Lower me!" Raven shouted down to the boys. "I'll help her."

"Are you sure?" Logan called up to her.

"Hurry up!"

"Lowering you now!" Logan shouted. "Let go of the rocks."

Raven reluctantly released her handholds. The rope creaked and swayed as Logan paid out more of its length, and Raven dropped slowly along the cliff, trying not to look down or think about what might happen if Logan made a mistake.

When she reached Macey's level, Raven walked herself across the rock face, though the crevices were narrow and she could barely fit her fingertips inside. Macey was still pressed against the cliff, sobbing.

"You'll be fine, Macey," Raven told her in a soft voice. She touched the girl on the shoulder, and Macey's eyes popped open in surprise.

"What are you doing?" Macey whispered.

"I'm trying to help you."

"I shouldn't have looked down," Macey said. "I looked down and...now I can't move."

"You're just scared, but you're safe." Raven hoped that was true. She brushed her hand down Macey's arm. "Give me your hand."

"I can't."

"You can. I've got you." Raven placed her hand over Macey's. The girl's hand was clammy and trembling. "Just one hand for now, okay? Let go. I've got you."

Macey nodded, squeezed her eyes, and slowly raised her fingertips from the rock. Raven clasped her hand.

"See? The rope has you." Raven spoke softly, as though to a frightened child. "You can let go."

Macey took a breath and pulled her other hand free of the wall. Raven supported her while she leaned back and away from the rock face.

"Are you ready?" Raven asked her, and Macey nodded. Raven yelled down to the boys: "Lower!"

Macey dropped slowly along the rocks, keeping her eyes shut and clutching the rope with both hands. As she approached the ground, Ethan ran to catch her and set her on her feet. Macey clung to him in a tight hug, burying her face in his chest.

"Can I finish my climb now?" Raven called down to Logan.

"Go ahead. I've got you." Logan gave her a thumbs-up.

Raven scrambled back across the cliff face to her route, then continued onward and upward until she reached a smooth face of rock near the top, where she couldn't find even the smallest crevice for her fingers.

"That last part's tricky!" Logan yelled up at her. "You should just come back down. You're great, though, you're a natural..."

Raven looked up the smooth face of rock to the top of the slab. Logan had made it up there to set the anchors, though he'd used a different route than the one she was ascending. She grabbed onto her rope and climbed it hand over hand up to the ledge.

"Wait, don't do that!" Logan shouted from the ground, but she ignored him. The rope passed through a carabiner at the edge of the cliff, which was anchored by more ropes tied to rock formations at the peak of the slab. Raven grabbed one and hauled herself up and over the ledge.

She stood on top of the slab, next to the squarish formation that looked like a tower, and brushed herself off. From here, she could see across rolling, autumn-hued hills to a very distant horizon, and she snapped photographs of the landscape. She was hot and sweaty, but the breeze was cool and felt delicious on her skin.

Down below, Macey and Sophie sat on a boulder together, and Ethan and Chandler huddled close around it, eager to comfort the pretty girl. Logan ignored all of them, watching Raven instead.

"You just had to reach the top, didn't you?" he shouted.

She took pictures of the group on the ground.

"Logan, I'm afraid I'm trapped up here. Come up and rescue me!" Raven called back in a voice that didn't sound frightened at all. She stepped back from the edge, out of sight of everyone below, and laid back on a boulder to rest.

After a minute, she heard all their voices shouting up from below. Macey repeatedly screamed the word "Stop!"

Raven walked to the edge again. Logan climbed the rock face toward her, smiling as he ignored his shouting friends below. He was scaling a steep route with no rope, no protection at all, to join her at the top.

She felt a little frightened for him, too, but she smiled back. At this point, she certainly didn't want him to die. He would be the lever with which she could move the entire future, reshaping the history of the twenty-first century. For that to happen, though, he would need to be alive, in the right place, at the right time, decades from now.
The keystone event
, Audra had called it.

Decades
, she thought, watching him climb recklessly up the sheer cliff. Macey was on her feet now, shaking her head frantically, but she'd stopped yelling, possibly scared of distracting Logan from his dangerous ascent.

I have to take her place
, Raven realized. She'd focused on getting close to him, connecting with him so she could influence him. It was obvious now that she would have to burrow into his life as a deep-cover mole, waiting for the moment when she could change his course. She could prevent the overthrow of the President altogether, if she had Logan Carraway under her control.

A clear plan finally solidified in her mind, replacing vague thoughts about how she might change him from one kind of man into another. It was a plan that would take the rest of her life to complete. Knowing the future course of history, she also knew just where to throw up the critical roadblock, how to stop the megacorporations in their bid to seize direct control of the government of the United States through their chosen dictator.

I'm not returning to my own time
, she realized as she watched Logan scale the cliff toward her.
I have to stay permanently at his side. Until death do us part.

She took pictures of Logan climbing without a rope while his friends watched in fear.

When he reached the top, Raven helped him up over the edge, worried he might slip against the final smooth stretch of rock and fall to his death. He crawled up with her help, then turned and sat with his legs dangling over the long drop below.

"Why didn't you use a rope?" she asked.

"Ropes slow you down. I don't need one for a face like this. Not when I'm climbing toward a face like yours." He smiled, his live-wire green eyes seeming to glow. She raised her camera like a shield against his face.

"You're very sweet, aren't you?" she said, taking a picture.

"Sometimes," he said.

"And the other times?"

He shrugged. "Maybe you'll find out."

"Get up," Raven said. "I want pictures of you against the sky."

He stood and smiled with a thumbs up. She took the picture.

"Don't pose," she said. "Just walk around, be natural. Do whatever you would normally do here."

"So I should pee down the back of the cliff?" he asked.

"Sure." She kept taking pictures, enjoying the distance the camera gave her. She felt bold enough to pry into him a little.

"What do you want to do with your life?" she asked him. His smile was instant and radiant.

"The Vendée Globe," he said.

"The what?"

"The hardest sailing competition in the world. It only goes through the roughest waters of every ocean," he said. "They hold it just once every four years. I want to win that."

"Are you serious?"

"Why not? I'm pretty good. I need a lot more practice, though. We're talking about the ultimate race. You're out in parts of the world where there are literally no human beings for thousands of miles. Sailing solo. It's the ultimate danger, the biggest challenge, something most people would be too terrified to do. Think about it."

"Is that what interests you? The danger? The risk?" she asked.

"That's what it's all about! That huge risk, the one that sends the ordinary people away screaming. Taking that chance, pushing that boundary." He nodded. "That's it."

"Like...Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon?" she asked, thinking of her assassination book and Julius Caesar, stabbed to death by a gang of lawmakers on the Senate floor. "Taking control of Rome just because he could?"

"Sure, yeah, if you want to go all ancient Roman with it. You really get me, don't you?" He looked at her with what she hoped was deeper interest.

"I'm afraid I do," she said, and he laughed.