she would insist that he wear it-because it was insulated with one him
EL dred percent goose down. That made it the warmest garment, for its
size and weight, that she could have worn.
over the parka, each of them was wearing a Klettergiirtel, a climbing
harness, for protection in the event of a fall. This piece of equipment
was a great improvement over the waistband that climbers had once used,
for in a fall the band sometimes jerked so tight that it damaged the
heart and lungs. The simple leather harness distributed the pressure
over the entire body trunk, reducing the risk of a severe injury and
virtually guaranteeing the climber that he would not turn upside down.
Connie was impressed by the Klettergiirtel. As he strapped her into it,
she said, 'It's perfect insurance, isn't it? Even if you fall, it
brings you up short.'
Of course, if she didn't just slip or misplace her foot, if instead the
rope broke, and if she was on a single line, the harness would not stop
her fall. However, Connie didn't have to worry about that, for he was
taking extraordinary safety measures with her: she would be going down
on two independent lines. In addition to the main rope, he intended to
fix her to a second which he would belay all the way to the street.
He would not be so well looked after as she was. There was no one to
belay him. He would be descending last-on a single line.
He didn't explain that to her. When she got outside, the less she had
to worry about, the better her chances were of coming out of this alive.
Tension was good for a climber; but too much tension could cause him to
make mistakes.
Both harnesses had accessory loops at the waist. Graham was carrying
pitons, carabiners, expansion bolts, a hammer, and a compact
battery-powered drill the size of two packs of cigarettes. In her
harness loops, Connie had a variety of extra pitons and carabiners.
Besides the equipment hung on their harnesses, they were both burdened
with rope. Connie had hundredfoot lengths of it at each hip; it was
heavy, but so tightly coiled that it did not restrict her movements.
Graham had another hundred-foot coil at his right hip.
They were left with two shorter lengths: and these they would use for
the first leg of the descent.
Last of all, they put on their gloves.
At every floor, Bollinger got off the elevator. If the entire level was
occupied by one business firm, he tried the locked doors at opposite
ends of the alcove. If it was an 'open' floor, he stepped out of the
alcove to make certain there was no one in the corridor.
At every fifth floor, he looked not only into the corridor but into the
stairs and the elevator shafts as well. On the first twenty floors,
four elevator shafts served the building; from the twentieth to the
thirty-fifth floors, two shafts; and from the thirty-fifth to the
fortysecond, only one shaft. In the first half of his vertical search,
he wasted far more time than he could afford, opening the emergency
doors to all of those shafts.
At ten-fifty he was on the fifteenth floor.
He had not found a sign of them. He was beginning to wonder if he was
conducting the search properly.
