Page 22 of Tom Clancy Line of Sight
To his surprise, someone was already standing at the end of the platform. A woman in a green rainsuit stared up at thebridal veil of falling water tumbling from the lip high above. Strands of wet, blond hair spilled out from beneath her hood. A heavy daypack tugged at her shoulders, amplifying her curves.
Jack’s weight on the rickety platform caused her to turn with a start.
“Oh!” She gasped, her eyes wide like saucers.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to...” Jack held up his hands in mock surrender. “I mean,govoriš angleško?”—Do you speak English? He had to raise his voice in order to be heard above the thundering echo of the falls.
The woman sighed and smiled prettily, obviously relieved. “Yes, of course I speak English.”
Jack couldn’t place the accent. She didn’t sound like the Slovenians he’d been listening to for the last week. Obviously not a native English speaker, though. “Good. My Slovenian is terrible.”
The woman nodded up at the surging water tumbling from above. “Isn’t it magnificent?”
Jack turned to look, his irritation at not being the only person here soothed by the beautiful image in front of him and the gorgeous young woman beside him, now nearly touching his shoulder with hers.
“Wow.”
She smiled. “I thought I was the only one crazy enough to come out in the rain to see this.”
“It’s unbelievable, and we don’t have to fight the crowds.” He looked down at her, just a few inches shorter. She filled out her rainsuit pretty well, in all the right places. Her eyes were fixed on the falls, filled with childish wonder.
“Can you imagine being the first person to ever see this?” she asked.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen it, so I can sort of relate,” Jack offered clumsily.
She looked up at him, smiling. “First time here? Congratulations.” Her smile faded. “Perhaps you want to be alone, then?”
“Uh, no. It’s fine. I mean, please stay, if you want to stay.”
She smiled again. “Yes, I would. I just arrived.”
They both gazed back up at the falls. Jack lost himself in the moment, mesmerized by the natural wonder of the scene before him. The ancient rock and the endlessly flowing water felt pure and eternal in the dark, isolated cavern. It made him feel both small and finite, yet also alive and connected to the world around him.
Her voice broke his trance. “It’s getting late. I should be going.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Since Jack was closer to the exit, he led the way out, traversing the big corner boulder, then working his way back down the walkway. He felt her steps just behind him, sure and steady.
When they reached the trail, Jack turned to say good-bye, but the woman interrupted him.
“Perhaps since this is your first time here, we should celebrate a little?” She tapped one of the straps of her daypack. “I have a little wine and sausage, and some cheese, if you like. Nothing special, but it’s a kind of tradition, I think.”
Jack had never heard of such a tradition, but he wasn’t going to argue the point. He was hungry and a little wine wouldn’t break his heart, and the mischief in her smiling eyes suggested the promise of something very interesting in the near future.
“Yeah, sure. Why not?”
She beamed. “Excellent. I know just the place. Follow me.”
The shape of her amazing body was evident even in her rainpants, and she moved with an athletic agility. Jack felt a familiar hunger. The woman was ruggedly beautiful, and the situation unfolding felt refreshingly familiar.
In his sophomore year, he’d had a torrid sexual encounter with a girl in a forest like this one, though it was warm and spring. They both had quite a crush on each other after that, but a summer internship took him across the country, and the two of them lost touch. When he came back to school in the fall, she had a new boyfriend. Jack hadn’t thought about her in years. A pang of longing suddenly shot through him. Amy was awesome. Another one that got away.
The blonde led him off the public trail, which they still had all to themselves, and onto a narrow path that cut deep through the trees about twenty meters until they reached a small clearing. Jack felt a surge of lust and larceny welling up inside, and he tried halfheartedly to push it away. After all, she was just offering him a picnic, right?
In the middle of the clearing stood an old weathered park bench beneath an overhang of branches that provided a degree of shelter from the rain, which had suddenly stopped. Clearly there was no one else around and the woman felt comfortable enough with him to bring him to this place. A small plastic ice chest stood on one end of the table.
The blonde pulled off her pack and set it on the bench next to the ice chest, then motioned for Jack to take a seat.
