“Crazy bitch…” Lynn begins to say.
“I said be silent,” the night runners screams, interrupting.
Lynn hears a menacing growl from the one just behind her and feels its grip tighten around her arms. She halts any further statement and, instead, glares at the female night runner standing in the murky shadows of the room.
“I’m back on the roof,” I radio.
“What happened, sir? Are you okay?” Gonzalez asks.
“I’m fine. I don’t really know how, but they found me,” I answer. “Robert, I’m going to need a hundred feet of nylon rope. Fly it up to the roof and kick it out.”
“I’ll be there shortly,” he replies.
“Gonzalez. I’m going to need Horace around on the back side of the building. On my command, I need her and her team to shoot out some windows as a distraction. Have her team remove their suppressors. We’re going to need all of the noise possible.”
“Copy that, sir. Break. Horace, did you copy that?” Gonzalez says.
“On our way. We’ll be waiting,” Horace responds.
I hear the Kiowa approaching, and before very long, it swoops in with Robert at the controls and Drescoll in the empty seat. As Robert brings the helicopter into a semblance of a hover, Drescoll opens his door and tosses a coil of rope out. He then gives me a quick nod and they accelerate away, the noise fading into the distance. A hushed quiet descends.
I take the rope to one side of the roof. Looking over, I see several sliding office windows on the tops floor. The front of the building has the larger paned windows which would make getting in through them much more difficult and noisy. That’s the exact opposite of what I want. I secure one end of the rope to one of the many pipes and test it to make sure it will hold. I then toss the rope over the side so that the length is adjacent one of the windows.
Looping the rope twice through my D-ring and holding a lower length at the small of my back, I reverse and step backward on the edge, letting the rope play out as I lean back. I then begin to rappel down the brick wall. I don’t have to go far to reach the window on the fourth floor. On the inside, horizontal, slatted blinds have been pulled down over the window preventing me from seeing inside. Anchoring my feet firmly on the wall, careful not to cast a shadow across the opening, I hold on to the rope above me. I then bring a measure of the lower length and tie it off just above the D-ring. This will allow me to use both hands and keep me in place.
I attempt to raise the window but find that it’s locked. I kind of figured it would be. The day has just been that way, and I hope that I’m using up all of my bad luck early on. I’ll need to have some of the good kind if I make it farther in. I’d rather have it more difficult now and easier later than the opposite…unless this IS the easy part. I really hope not.
I tape the glass in place. Taking my knife out, which is sticky with night runner blood, I begin to slice into the wooden slat holding the pane of glass in. It’s slow going initially due to my wanting to keep the noise down, the optimum being none. I manage to get a piece removed and it’s easier going from there. The glass pane is finally free.
Removing the tape, I wedge the pane out. I think about just dropping it to the ground as I’m not concerned about noise on the ground level — and it may actually help — but I have Horace on the other side who will provide that soon. Instead, I hold on to it and ease my hand in, slowly pulling the blinds open. Light streams inside, revealing a small room with two desks, cluttered with stacks of paper, near each side wall. A door in the middle of the inside wall leads out. Aside from the clutter, it’s empty. Being an outside room, I wasn’t expecting any night runners within. I inch over to the sill and ease the pane of glass inside.
“I’m in on the south side, fourth floor. Horace, go ahead with your distraction,” I say, removing the rope from my D-ring.
Automatic gunfire drifts through the open window as Horace and her team opens fire on the hapless windows. I step over the carpeted floor to the door and take out the fiber optic snake camera, sliding it under the door. The low light image shows an empty hallway stretching in both directions with wooden doors placed at intervals. The hall dead ends to the left after a short distance but continues for some length to the right, with intersecting hallways branching leading deeper into the building. The floor is linoleum, typical of most hospitals — I’ll have to move slower in order not to make any noise on its harder surface. Most importantly, though, the hall is clear of night runners.
Replacing the camera, I ease the door open. Light flows from the room casting a rectangular beam on the floor and opposite wall but only for a moment. I quickly enter the hall, softly closing the door behind and crouch in the hall with my hand on the knob, waiting to see if the intrusion of light was noticed. The hall remains quiet in the chilly gloom.
I have an idea of where I need to go — where I sensed the one stronger presence. I’m not sure if that means Lynn will be there, but it’s a place to start. I don’t have the exact location locked in my mind like I did pinpointing the hospital. It’s more like a small, centralized area. I don’t know why this is but it’s all I have.
Dust covers the entirety of the hall and is clear of foot prints or trails. That’s a good sign as it shows this place isn’t being used. I don’t know how long the night runners have used this place as their lair, but I’ll take good signs where I can find them. It also lets me know that Lynn isn’t in this part of the building, if she’s here at all. That is still a possibility.
I mark my entrance room’s location, both in my mind and by drawing an ‘X’ on the door and the walls beside it with my knife. I inch away from the door in a crouch, heading silently for the first branch leading farther into the interior. I pass several closed office doors. I’m not concerned about having to check them as there aren’t any prints in the dust.
Crossing the hall and crouching next to the corner, I slide my mirror around the edge near ground level. The hall stretches long past my vision, fading away into darkness. I hear the soft padding of feet. At another intersection down the corridor, a pack of night runners pass by from left to right. The last two halt at the crossing and peer in my direction. I tense, thinking I’ve been found in some other way not known to me. One bends slightly to peer closer as if the few extra inches will gain it additional sight. It straightens and sniffs the air. The others that passed by return.
I make ready to turn and bolt back to the room. If I am indeed found, I don’t know how else I’ll be able to penetrate the lair and find Lynn. Without using the teams in an assault, which would be doomed to failure before it really began, I’d be out of options. The one straightens and looks down the hall in the other direction. After a moment, they start walking, vanishing from the hall in the direction they were originally heading.
I take a deep, calming breath. It’s not that I thought this would be easy but I never thought I’d have to do it handcuffed. With a last look, I replace the mirror and scoot across the opening. I want to keep to the outside as much as possible in case I have need of one of the outside offices. If I do have to use one to escape, I hope I pick one with an outside window associated with it. I’d be plenty fucked if I was being pursued and ran into a janitor’s closet.
The other reason for using this outside hall is that it remains bare of tracks. I’ll keep to it as long as possible. I stop after a few steps and press against the wall. I pick up the sound of panting seeming to come from just up ahead. The hall remains empty so it’s probably coming from the next branch leading away. I listen closely thinking it might be the group that passed just moments earlier. From what I can hear, it’s only one; but relatively nearby. And one might as well be a hundred.
I pause, tensing for flight in case it rounds the corner. If it does, this then becomes a fight and flee scenario. Time passes, measured by thoughts and plans rather than seconds. I could go back and began traversing the interior via the first corridor. That will make it riskier as I will have to leave the protection afforded by the outside offices. There is still a ways to go to reach the area I have set in my mind. I’ll have to start inward soon but the longer I can be near an outside escape, the better.
The panting gets neither louder nor fades. The night runner is stationary and shows no sign of leaving. I
