Past the window, he stopped and pounded in another piton, then hung the
hammer on the accessory strap at his waist.
He returned, inch by inch, to where he had placed the first two pegs. He
snapped his safety harness to one of those pitons.
'What was all that for?' she asked.
'We're going to rappel down a few floors,' he said. 'Both of'us.
At the same time. On two separate ropes.'
Swallowing hard, she said, 'Not me.'
'Yes, you.'
Her heart was thumping so furiously that she thought it might burst. 'I
can't do it.'
'You can. You will.'
She shook her head: no.
'You won't rappel the way I've done.'
'That's for damned sure.'
'I've been doing a body rappel. You'll go down in a seat rappel. It's
safer and easier.'
Although none of her doubts had been allayed, Connie said, 'What's the
difference between a body rappel and a seat rappel?'
'I'll show you in a minute.'
'Take your time.'
He grabbed the hundred-foot line on which he had descended from the
twenty-eighth-floor setback. He tugged on it three times, jerked it to
the right. Five stories above them, the knot came loose; the rope
snaked down.
He caught the line, piled it beside him.
He examined the end of it to see if it was worn, and was satisfied that
it wasn't. He tied a knot in it, looped the rope through the gate of
the carabiner. He snapped the carabiner to the free piton that was one
mortar seam above the peg that anchored his safety tether.
'We can't rappel all the way to the street,' Connie said.
'Sure we can.'
'The ropes aren't long enough.'
'You'll rappel just five floors at a time. Brace yourself on a window
ledge. Then let go of the rappelling line with your right hand-'
'Brace myself on a two-inch sill?'
'It can be done. Don't forget, you'll still be holding onto the line
with your left hand.'
'Meanwhile, what will my right hand be doing?'
'Smashing in both panes of the window.'
'And then?'
THEFmm oFFEm 'First, attach your safety tether to the window.
Second, snap another carabiner to the center post. As soon as that's
done, you take your weight off the main line and then-'
'Tug on it,' Connie said, 'pull apart the overhead knot like you did
just a minute ago.'
'I'll show you how.'
'I catch the line as it falls?'
'Yes.'
