The Wall

ONE

When God throws angels down, it starts like this.

A breeze stirs. It carries the slightest distraction, a scent of trees perhaps, or a hint of evening chill, or a song on a radio in a car passing three thousand feet below. In some form, temptation always whispers.

High above the earth, toes smeared against the stone, fingers crimped on microholds, the woman turns her head. Not even that: she turns her mind, for an instant, for even less. That's all it takes.

The stone evicts her.

The wall tilts. The sky bends. Her holds...don't hold.

She falls.

By now, eight days high, her body is burning adrenaline like common blood sugar, one more fuel in her system. So in the beginning of her fall, she doesn't even register fear. She is calm, even curious.

Every climber knows this rupture. One moment you have contact, the next it's outer space. That's what rope is for. She waits.

Her mind catches up with her body. A first thought forms, a natural. My hands.

All our lives, from the cradle to the grave, our hands ... read full excerpt from: The Wall: A Thriller ebook