she were follow' g a long pathway to hell, the Butcher fulfilling the
role of the grinning hellhound that harried her ever downward.
The stale air was tool. Nevertheless, she was perspiring.
She knew they should be going faster, but they were hampered in their
flight by Graham's lame left leg. At one point she was almost overcome
with anger, furious at him for being a hindrance to their escape.
However, her fury vanished in the same instant, leaving her surprised by
it and flushed with guilt. She had thought that no pressure, however
great, could cause her to react to him so negatively.
But filled with-nearly consumed by-the survival instinct, she clearly
was capable of responses and attitudes that she would have criticized in
others. Extreme circumstances could alter anyone's personality. That
insight forced her to understand and appreciate Graham's fear to an
extent she had never done before. After all, he had not wanted to fall
on Everest; he hadn't asked for the injury. And indeed, considering the
dull pain he suffered when he tried to climb or descend more than two
flights of stairs, he was responding to this challenge damned well.
From behind her, Graham said, 'You go on ahead.'
He had said it several times before. 'You move faster.'
'I'm staying,' she said breathlessly.
The echoes of their low-pitched voices were eerie, soft and sibilant.
She reached the landing at the thirty-first floor, waited for him to
catch up, then went ahead. 'I won't leave you alone. Two of us ...
have a better chance against him ... better than one of us would.'
'He's got a gun. We've no chance.'
She said nothing. She just kept taking the steps one at a time.
'Go on,' he said, sucking breath between phrases. 'You bring back.....
security guard . . . in time to keep ... him from...
killing me.'
'I think the guards are dead.'
,what?'
She hadn't wanted to say it, as if saying would make it so. 'How else
... would he get past them?'
'Sign the registry.'
'And leave his name ... for the cops to find?'
A dozen steps later he said, 'Christ!'
'What?'
'You're right.'
'No help... to he had,' she said. 'We've just got ...
to get out of... the building.'
Somehow he found new strength in his left leg, When she reached the
thirtieth-floor landing, Connie didn't have to wait for him to catch up.
A minute later, a cannonlike sound boomed up from below, halting them
within the fuzzy circle of light at the twenty-ninth floor.
'What was that?'
Graham said, 'A fire door. Someone slammed it ...
down there.
'Him?'
'Sss,h,b.
