a landslide. Probably a river up there somewhere that overflowed.’ The road itself was covered in debris, rocks and thick reddish-brown soil dumped on the already rough surface. Even though the locals had made the obstruction passable by simply shovelling much of the stuff over the cliff, the way forward was still worryingly narrow.
The soldiers in the Jeep also had misgivings, three of them hopping out and leaving the driver to traverse it alone. Nina drew in a sharp breath when the Jeep reached the waterfall and slipped sideways – the constant flow from above had turned the soil to a soft, muddy slush – but a quick burst of power pulled it free, muck spraying from its wheels. Once it cleared the landslip, the soldiers hurried after it.
‘Well, us next,’ said Eddie cheerily. ‘Everyone out. Except you, Nina.’
‘What?’ she protested as the others exited. ‘Why do I have to stay in the car of terror?’
‘’Cause of that whole “till death us do part” business – it might not be too far off. Nah, I’m just kidding,’ he added, at her unamused expression. ‘I need you to look out of your side and tell me how close we are to the edge.’
‘Too close,’ she said, even before he started moving. ‘Way too close!’
‘Ha fuckin’ ha. Okay, here we go . . .’
The Patrol was considerably wider than the Jeep, the wheels on Nina’s side coming within inches of the edge – which sagged alarmingly as the truck’s weight was put on it, clods of earth falling down the steep slope. Somehow, a stunted tree had managed to cling to a rock outcrop below while everything around it had been washed away, the lone sign of life a silhouette against the clouded abyss. She looked away from the vertiginous view to the sliver of road between the tyres and the long drop. ‘About six inches, six inches, three inches – whoa! Minus an inch.’
Eddie turned the 4×4 in as far as he could, trying to keep it in the ruts made by previous traffic. ‘That better?’
‘Yeah. Relatively speaking.’
They reached the waterfall, the stream drumming off the roof. Nina, still leaning out of the window, gasped as spray washed over her. But the Nissan rolled on, soon clearing the landslip.
‘Piece of piss,’ Eddie said, cracking his knuckles. ‘And we even stayed dry! Well, I did.’ Nina glared at him from under damp strands of hair.
The Nissan’s passengers caught up, then the last off-roader made the crossing, Zender chivalrously abandoning the passenger seat and allowing Cruzado to act as Juanita’s navigator. But she too cleared the landslide safely, and the convoy continued. There was an awkward moment when a pickup truck coming the other way took a ‘first come, first served’ attitude by swerving to the inside of another tight, unprotected bend marked by more crosses, forcing the three vehicles to creep around it on the outside, but they soon reached the first piece of actual infrastructure along the road: a short wooden bridge across a narrow gap.
‘We’re getting close,’ Nina said into the radio as she found the landmark on the map. ‘About another mile.’
The news produced a renewed sense of anticipation, even as the clouds closed in. The road narrowed again, the hillside so steep that a short section had actually been carved out of the rock itself to allow it to continue, thousands of tons of stone hanging above the vehicles. Beyond that, though, the way ahead began to widen out. Another couple of turns . . . and their destination came into view.
‘Now that’s more like it,’ said Mac admiringly. The broad waterfall ahead was much more impressive than the one they had passed on the road, plunging down a vertical cliff for over two hundred feet. Its base was hidden by jungle; the falling water had cut a deep bowl out of the hillside, every square inch packed with plant life. Above the cliff, tall peaks loomed through the clouds, the river feeding the falls flowing through a narrow valley between them.
‘This is the place,’ said Nina. She passed word via radio to the other vehicles. The soldiers turned off the road and led the way into the little forest, crunching the Jeep up a slope for a few hundred yards, winding between the trees, before the sheer density of vegetation blocked their path. The other 4×4s stopped behind them.
Everyone climbed out, glad the bumpy ride was over. Nina stretched and looked round. The waterfall was now obscured