He slipped the safety line knot at his harness.
Whump!
The shot was so close that he cried out involuntarily. The slug plucked
at the sleeve of his parka. He was unbalanced by the surprise, and for
an instant he thought he would fall off the ledge.
Whump!
Whump!
He plunged forward, through the broken window, expecting to be stopped
at the last second by a bullet in the spine.
In the unlighted office on the thirty-eighth floor, the glass crunched
under their feet.
Connie said, 'How could he miss us?'
As he patted the sweat from his face with the palm of his glove, Graham
said, 'Wind's near gale force. Could have deflected the bullets
slightly.'
'In just thirty feet?'
'Maybe. Besides, he was firing from a bad angle. Leaning out the
window, shooting down and in. Light was bad. Wind was in his face.
He'd have been damned lucky if he'd hit us.'
'We can't stay here as we planned,' she said. 'Of course not. He knows
which floor we're on. He's probably running for the elevator right
now.'
'We go back out?'
'I sure don't want to.
'He'll keep popping up along the way, trying to shoot us off the side of
the building.'
'Do we have a choice?'
'None,' she said. 'Ready to climb?'
'As I'll ever be.'
'You've done well.'
'I'm not all the way down yet.'
'You'll make it.'
'Are you the clairvoyant now?'
'You'll make it. Because you aren't afraid anymore.'
'Who? Me?'
'You.'
'I'm scared to death.'
'Not like you once were. Not that bad. Anyway, there's good reason to
be afraid right now. It's a healthy fear you've got this time.'
'Oh, yeah. I'm brimming with healthy fear.'
'I was right.'
'About what?'
'You're the man I've always wanted.'
'Then you haven't wanted much.'
In spite of what he said, she detected pleasure in his voice. He didn't
sound as if he were seriously denigrating himself; at worst, he was
poking fun at the sort of inferiority complex he'd displayed before
tonight. Already, he had regained some of his self-respect.
He pulled open the second half of the window and said, 'You wait here.
