Maybe they kept somebody in the recovery room for a long time, then moved her here. What do we do now?'
'Go back up.' Jane took her back up the stairs to the fourth floor, then went into an unoccupied room and looked out the window. 'See? We're right above the room I wanted.'
'What do you mean?'
'We don't have much choice. We've got to climb out this window and lower ourselves down.'
'How?'
'Go to the next room and bring the sheets from the bed.'
Christine went out, and Jane stripped the sheets from the two beds in the room. When she finished, Christine came back with another set. 'Six sheets. We can roll them instead of tying the corners.' Jane rolled each of the sheets and then tied them together. She looked up and saw Christine frowning. 'What's the matter?'
'I'm not going to be good at climbing.'
'That's the beauty of it. We're going down, not up. I'll tie you in and lower you.'
'But what if—'
'No what-ifs. Either way you'll get down. All we're doing is slowing the trip.' Jane folded the last sheet and wrapped it around Christine's body so the pressure was spread evenly. 'Here's what you do. You go out the window and turn around to face me. Put your feet out and walk your way down. When you get to the third floor, push hard off the wall with your feet. When you swing out, I'll give you slack and you'll land on the roof of the pharmacy. Got the theory?'
'Yes.'
'Then make it work.'
'Jane, before I go, I want to say—'
'From here on, no sound.'
She tied the loose end of the rope of sheets to the bed frame, tugged it tight, pushed the bed to the wall, and opened the window above it. She helped Christine climb from the bed to the windowsill, and then turn to go out on her belly. She had a pained expression on her face, which Jane hoped was only fear. Jane let her down slowly for a dozen feet, then looked over the edge at her. Christine still had her feet against the wall, and she was looking up expectantly, so Jane let her down at a steady rate, the muscles in her back and legs straining. When Christine seemed to be barely above the level of the pharmacy roof, Jane waved.
Christine bent her knees and pushed off from the wall. When Jane could see she had swung out above the pharmacy roof, she let out most of the remaining sheet quickly, and Christine landed on her feet. She waved, then stepped out of the sling Jane had tied.
Jane climbed to the windowsill. As she turned to rappel down, she saw a man's face appear in the little window on the door to the hallway. Someone must have seen Christine descend past the third-floor window and called security. Jane let the sheet slide through her hands, going downward as quickly as she could. She felt something tugging on the upper end. He was untying her. She was still ten feet above the roof of the pharmacy, but she pushed off the wall to swing outward. As soon as she felt her momentum slow she let go.
A half-second later, the rope of bedsheets came free at the fourth-floor window. As Jane dropped to the pharmacy roof, the long white rope snaked down like a streamer and fell to the ground between the two buildings. Jane picked herself up. 'Go.'
'Where?'
'Over here.' She pulled her to the edge of the roof. 'See? That's the ladder. Grasp the two sides with both hands, then lower your feet to the first rung. Get down as fast as you can.'
Jane looked up at the window, but the man was gone. She looked at Christine and saw she was making her way down tentatively, right foot down a rung, then the left foot to the same rung, then right foot down again. Jane could see she was having a hard time keeping her left hand from letting go.
Jane heard running feet coming along the street side of the pharmacy, then rounding the corner. Jane looked around her on the roof. All she could see near her was a small pile of five-foot two-by-fours that had been stored up here for some future improvement. She lifted one and stepped to the edge of the roof. She saw the guard running toward the back of the pharmacy where Christine was on the ladder. Jane held the piece of lumber like a spear and threw it straight down at him. The end of the two-by-four grazed the back of the man's head, hit his right shoulder blade, and knocked him to the ground, where he lay still.
Jane went down the ladder as quickly as she could, then grasped Christine's hand and ran the other way around, between the two buildings toward the next street.
When they emerged, they could see Jane's SUV parked on the street, but there were three men in their twenties leaning against it, smoking cigarettes and talking. Jane said, 'They may be harmless. Just stay out of sight for a minute while I find out.'
Jane walked toward her vehicle with her keys in her hand. She pressed the button on the key fob, and the driver's-side door clicked to unlock. The men heard it and looked up to see Jane approaching. Two of them seemed to understand and stepped away from the car to the other side of the sidewalk, but the third, who had thick dark hair and a handsome face with big dark eyes, stayed where he was, leaning against the car, and grinned to reveal unnaturally white teeth.
Jane didn't smile back.
He stopped leaning, opened the driver's door as though he were helping her in.
Jane took a step toward it, but he quickly spun around and sat in the driver's seat. His two companions laughed. Jane reached into her jacket and produced the Beretta M92 pistol. She held it at waist level, so the man in the car was the only one who could see it. He was still smiling, but this time his mouth and his eyes didn't seem to belong in the same face. The smile was frozen. He said in English, 'Just a joke.'
'Get out of my car.'
The man carefully got out of the driver's seat and stepped back across the sidewalk to join his two friends. He muttered something to them in Spanish, and they all backed away a few steps. Jane used those seconds to get into the vehicle, lock the doors, and start the engine. When she saw Christine emerge from the passageway ahead, she pulled forward and stopped in the street long enough to let her climb in.
As Jane pulled away, the uniformed security guard from the clinic arrived on foot, having run along the street instead of between buildings. His face was a mask of rage. He pulled his pistol out of its holster and appeared to take aim at Jane's back window, but then he seemed to recall that this was a very busy street even at this hour, with plenty of tall buildings to stop the bullet if he missed, pedestrians for witnesses, and probably policemen and soldiers listening for gunfire. Before Jane lost sight of the guard, a new white pickup truck arrived, and he climbed into it.
Jane made a quick turn and then another, then drove down Boulevard Agua Caliente toward the bullfight ring, the racetrack, and the golf course, and away from the medical zone.
'You're going away from the border,' Christine said. 'San Ysidro is back that way.'
'They're going to try to catch us,' Jane said. 'Most people cross at San Ysidro, don't they?'
'Yeah. It's the busiest border crossing in the world.'
'Then it's where they'll think we're going. I'm going to try to cross at Otay Mesa.'
'Okay, but I'm not sure if it's open at this hour.'
'I drove almost to the crossing today while I was waiting for it to get dark. There are signs in English on the way. It closes for trucks at ten o'clock, but the passenger lanes are open twenty-four hours.'
Christine was gripping the dashboard with both hands, staring ahead. Jane could see she was shivering.
'Believe me,' said Jane. 'I saw the signs.'
'I'm just so scared,' said Christine. 'They're going to follow us.'
'I'm sure they'll try. Do you remember what I taught you about firing a gun?'
'I think I do.'
Jane took the Beretta out of her belt and held it so Christine could take it. 'This one is different. See the little switch near your thumb?'
'This one?'
'Yes. It's the safety catch. If you slide it this way, the gun will be ready to fire. If you don't, it won't. It has fourteen rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber. You just keep pulling the trigger over and over until nothing happens. The brass casings eject to the right, and they come out hot.'
Christine looked over her shoulder at the road. 'I don't see the security guard.'
