Death is Forever

said simply. “Even with its hellish climate.”
    “Like the arctic in winter.”
    She nodded slowly.
    “Be careful,” he said in a soft voice. “If you fall in love with this land, there’s no substitute, no second best. There’s a whole Arctic Circle, but there’s only one Kimberley Plateau. There’s nothing like it anywhere else. The Kimberley will haunt you no matter where else on earth you go.”
    “You love this place,” she said, surprised.
    “Except during buildup, yes. And sometimes even then.”
    “Why did you leave?”
    “I was searching for diamonds the color of your eyes. Until a few weeks ago, I thought Brazil was the best place on earth to find them. I was wrong.”
    “Are there diamonds here?” she asked, waving her hand at the empty land.
    He smiled ruefully and pulled her to her feet. “There’s nothing in that gully but dirt. If there are strata made by paleo-riverbeds or beaches, they’re not showing.”
    They walked to the Rover in an easy kind of silence.
    “Would you mind driving?” Cole asked, handing her the keys. “I want to spend some time with the binoculars.”
    “I don’t care if you want to sleep. I love driving.”
    “Have at it. The brake pedal is a bit soft, so leave enough time to pump once or twice.”
    Eagerly Erin got in, winced at the heat of the seat, and fired up the engine. The station road ascended in a leisurely fashion. The long, gently sloping ridge allowed her to take the Rover out of low range and all the way into third gear. The balky gear box gave her problems, but nothing she couldn’t manage. She shifted up through the gears, bringing her speed up gradually, enjoying the temporary breeze through the window.
    “Too fast for you?” she asked Cole.
    “Go as fast as you want. I’m not seeing anything but sandstone.”
    The track continued to climb gradually until the Rover crested yet another small ridge. Abruptly the road descended into a gorge that looked more than a thousand feet deep.
    “My God,” she said, downshifting quickly into second gear. “We climbed to the top of a mountain and I didn’t even know it.”
    “Actually, we just climbed the leading edge of a very minor range. In Alaska, it wouldn’t even qualify as foothills.”
    “No problem. I’ve finally figured out I’m not in Alaska.”
    Erin looked ahead to the track snaking down in a series of long, steep switchbacks. If she didn’t want to ride the brakes, she’d have to go back to low range to slow the Rover. Getting into low range meant slowing down. She touched the brake pedal with her right foot.
    It went straight to the fire wall.
    She tried to pump the pedal, but there wasn’t enough pressure in the brake lines to make any difference.
    Cole put the binoculars down.
    “No brakes,” Erin said tightly. “I’ll try for first gear.”
    The Rover was going too fast for first gear and they both knew it. They also knew it was their best chance of slowing the Rover’s descent.
    She threw in the clutch and tried to grab first gear. In neutral the Rover picked up speed like a runaway roadtrain. There was a rending metal sound from the gear box. Quickly she double-clutched. Metal clashed against metal. She double-clutched again, and again metal screamed.
    “Go back to second,” he said.
    She’d already reached the same conclusion. Before the words were out of his mouth, she slammed the gearshift back into second and dumped the clutch. The engine roared, the Rover lurched, then steadied.
    They were still going too fast for the steeply dropping track.
    A quarter mile ahead, the road turned back on itself in a tight hairpin curve. At their present speed, the Rover would overrun the curve and go flying off into the gorge to crash hundreds of feet below. Erin and Cole both realized it at the same instant.
    Even as he reached for the wheel, she yanked it to the right, where ghost gums grew in elegant array among the sandstone boulders. The Rover shot off the track and broke one gum at the base. The tree went flying over the bull bar. A second gum raked along Erin’s side of the Rover with a high scream. The third gum was bigger. The Rover hit it and bounced aside into a boulder.
    She wrenched the wheel again and sent the battered vehicle careening between two more gums. By then she’d scrubbed off enough speed to grab first gear, slowing the Rover even more.
    The last gum they hit shuddered and held. Dust, twigs, and leaves exploded around the Rover as the engine