The man darted away, running hard for the nearest outcropping of rock. Behind him, a length of black fuse ran along the ground, then up the sheer rock face. A tiny, sputtering tongue of fire puffed little clouds of white smoke into the air as it ate its way relentlessly along the cord. Nathan, positioned behind his own rock, watched until the flame reached the point just a foot or so from where the fuse disappeared into a neatly drilled hole in the limestone cliff. He dropped to a crouch, clasping his hands over his ears, his head down near the ground. Benjamin didn’t need that signal to follow suit. He was already hunched over and covering his head. For one brief moment, there was an eerie silence over the stone quarry, then whummph! The earth beneath Nathan’s face shook, and just in front of his nose small pebbles momentarily danced on the hard surface. The noise of the explosion was followed almost simultaneously by an earsplitting crack! Nathan straightened slowly, then stood up.
