The New Madrid Run Read Online Free PDF Page A

green, depending upon his mood. His demeanor was calm and controlled. He was a large, powerful man with a deep voice that women were drawn by and men naturally paid attention to, but he seldom used his size to intimidate and rarely displayed anger. However, when Travis did get riled, there was an almost tangible aura of violence about him, and one look at those fierce eyes was generally enough to quell the ambitions of the most belligerent of antagonists.
    Cody, on the other hand, was about five-six, with long blond hair, a droopy “Custer” mustache, and luminous blue eyes. His personality was electric—his conversations were animated and filled with gestures, and it was rare that he wasn’t the center of attention at almost any gathering. William J. was so exhilarated with life that his effervescence was contagious, but his free and easy manner concealed a sharp, pragmatic mind that planned carefully and missed little. The man was everyone’s friend but nobody’s fool.
    What had jogged Travis’ memory about Cody was the catastrophic event his friend was always talking about—something called a “pole shift” —likely to take place sometime during the first part of the new century. Cody read a lot and, on that particular subject, he had studied everything that had been printed. He could quote passages from the research of professors Charles Hapgood and Albert Einstein, to recent writers such as Richard W. Noone. Cody explained how the ever-increasing six-trillion-ton ice mass on the South Pole could be catalyzed by the gravitational pull of a significant planetary alignment, a solar storm, or a comet striking or barely missing the earth. The planet would shift on its axis and the crust of the earth would grind around, establishing new poles. Tectonic plates in the earth’s surface would rupture, causing massive earthquakes, volcanic activity, and tidal waves. Landmasses would rise out of the oceans, while others would be radically altered. It was a frightening dissertation by any standard. Cody’s theory, based on his acquired information, was that there were safe places in parts of the U.S. and the rest of the world that would survive the majority of the geological alterations. There were also a great many areas that would just disappear. The Keys had been on the latter list.
    Cody had lots of money—a benefit of late night international flying with no respect to Customs. After he and Travis had become solid friends, and experienced a number of spectacular and profitable capers from the Caribbean to South America, he had talked Travis into buying property with him in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas. Cody had explained that Arkansas was one of those safe places in America.
    “When the smoke from the apocalypse clears, and everyone else is trying to find their ass with both hands, I’m gonna be alive and well on my own little mountain in Arkansas.”
    Travis had purchased forty acres and a home on a quiet mountain in Polk County, about twenty miles from Arkansas’ western border. He was within easy driving distance of the small town of Mena—a peaceful community of about 7,000 people nestled in a scenic valley, surrounded by the Ouachitas. He still owned the property, allowing an old man and his wife to live there as caretakers. At the time, Cody had purchased eighty-five acres and a considerably larger house about fifteen miles east of town.
    It had been a couple of years since he had seen Cody, and then only briefly. His old friend passed through the Keys every once in a while, but rumor had it that he was lying low and movin’ fast—that the IRS wanted to talk to him, not to mention Customs.
    There was a side of Travis that sorely missed Cody, even as nefarious as he was. It was the handful of fairly legitimate adventures the two had shared which had provided Travis with most of his financial security. The money he’d made with Cody had bought his plane, his business, and, of course, his place in