He glanced nervously at the tower. No. He had devised the timer, but Cameron had helped with the explosives. Everett, who was inexperienced with explosives, thought they might have overdone it. He could probably get Brandon out of there, but would they be far enough away when the tower blew up?
He began walking quickly toward the office. He decided he’d take a few precautions, then grab his keys and head for the driveway at the front of the school. One of the vans was parked there, packed with his luggage and all the false paperwork he would need. The jet was waiting.
At least after tonight, he would be able to stop riding around in vans. He longed to get back behind the wheel of his Testarossa, parked in the garage at the house, but that would have to wait, too.
He began walking faster. He thought of the stupid screams Ciara had broadcast over the loudspeaker. And there had been gunfire. The sheriff’s department might already be on the way to investigate. After all, Kit’s home, just at the top of the cliffs, had experienced soldiers patrolling outdoors, on every part of the grounds. They were probably calling 911 right now.
He suddenly remembered that Ciara had been carrying Alex Brandon’s cell phone. Did Meghan have it now?
He began to run.
56
Malibu, California
Thursday, May 22, 9:27 P.M.
“How many of them are in there now?” Alex asked, looking toward the timer.
“Four. Almost half. But the time between each is decreasing.”
His feet were completely numb, his legs useless, but he managed to move to a sitting position. Alex’s legs and feet prickled with the burning needlelike sensation of returning circulation. As soon as he was able, he stood. “Let’s get Chase and Spooky out of here.”
“There’s a huge gap between them and the next platform. I haven’t been able to figure out how to get them down.”
“We don’t want to bring them down inside the tower,” Alex said. “You and I need to go up. I think we can do it, even if I can’t get out of these cuffs. If not, I’ll have to try to teach you how to climb up to them.”
He grabbed hold of one of the bell ropes. Seeing Kit’s glance, he said, “We may need it.”
Kit took hold of the other one. “A backup then. He planned to tie each of us to one of these?”
“Yes. The rappelling rope was just a way to get us in position.”
They moved with urgency now and made their way back across the sandbags, Alex following Kit’s steps. Once on solid ground, they anchored the bell ropes to the stair rail. Alex ran to the winch and turned it on, reeling the rappelling rope in. He then hurriedly gathered the rope off the winch, making a coil.
Kit searched for something to use to break him out of the cuffs. He paused by the timer. He studied it briefly, looking for a way to disconnect it. “It will make connection after connection to complete the circuit,” he said to Alex. “I can’t think of a way to stop it. If I stop the clock itself, it may release all the balls at once and open all the gates to the connectors.”
There was a loud banging at the door. They froze, then Kit readied the rifle. Then they heard Meghan’s voice calling, “Alex? Alex, can you hear me? It’s Meghan and Gabe.”
“Meghan?” Kit called back, running to the door.
“Oh, God, Kit! We heard gunfire, and thought…”
“We thought the same thing. Listen-Everett has this whole place rigged with explosives. You’ve got to get out of here now. Gabe? Please, take her away from here, and I’ll-”
“No way,” Meghan said. “Everett just drove off-we’ve got to try to get you out of there.”
Alex said, “Meghan, can you get Ciara’s keys? I need to get out of these cuffs.”
“I have them,” Gabe called to them. There was a thin gap at the bottom of the door, and they saw the handcuff key come through it.
“Any way to bust the lock off this door, Gabe?” Kit asked as he picked it up.
“I’ll try, but it doesn’t look good.”
Kit quickly freed Alex, who finished coiling the rappelling rope and placed it over his shoulder. As he worked he called to Meghan and Gabe, “Get my gear from the trunk of the car. Bring it to just below the broken window. And if you can find a phone, call nine one one. Tell them about the explosives. Use the loudspeaker system to yell to the neighbors if you have to.”
They heard glass breaking, then a victory cry. “She did it!” Chase called. “She kicked it out!”
“Great!” Alex said, relieved to hear Chase’s voice again. He was already on his way up the stairs, bringing the ends of the bell ropes and the rappelling rope with him. At the highest platform he could reach, he tested his weight on the nearer bell rope. It creaked but held. He looped and knotted it around the railing as Kit raced up to join him.
“Moriarty teach you how to climb a rope?” Alex asked.
“I don’t know anything about rock climbing or equipment or knots,” he said, “but I’ve climbed a rope in a gym, if that’s what you mean. Moriarty showed me how to shimmy up one.”
“Good. That’s all you need to know,” Alex said. Following Alex’s instructions, Kit put the coiled rappelling rope around his shoulders. “You’ll need to use it to pull yourself closer to the platform up there,” Alex said. “You climb first. Yell when you’re even with the platform. Go.”
Kit stood on the railing. They heard another chime, another rolling ball, another snap.
“One thing at a time,” Alex said, with a calm he wasn’t feeling.
Kit took the nearer bell rope between his inner thighs, then wrapped it around his knee and calf and across the top of his boot. This created a brake, one that could be used to allow him to support himself without using his hands and arms if necessary. As quickly as possible, he shimmied up the rope, using mostly the power of his legs-squatting, resetting the brake point, straightening his legs, and beginning again at the next point on the rope.
Because the other end of the bell rope was tied to the center of a beam, the higher Kit climbed, the farther he moved away from the walls and closer to the center of the tower. He was just about even with the bottom of the platform Spooky watched from. It was darker up here.
“Kit!” Spooky yelled.
“We’ll be out of here soon,” he said, climbing a little higher. “Okay, Alex!” he yelled.
“Toss one end of the rappelling rope to Spooky. Have her wrap it around the rail, then pull yourself closer to her.”
Spooky missed on the first try but caught it on the second.
“Wrap it as many times as you can,” Kit said.
When she had done so, Kit called to Alex again, who helped to control the bell rope as Kit pulled himself along to her and finally climbed onto the platform.
“You made it!” she said.
“You think I would leave you up here? Where’s Chase?”
Chase was already moving out toward him, his face and arms bruised and scraped.
“He’s doing better now,” Spooky said. Kit thought he looked confused. To his amazement, Spooky put an arm around Chase’s waist. Chase put an arm across her shoulders, leaning on her for balance. “Where’s my uncle Alex?”
Kit glanced down as he took the rappelling rope from his shoulders and said, “On his way up.”
But suddenly, Kit heard a loud snapping noise. “Alex!”
Alex had heard it, too-the breaking of hemp. He reached for the second rope and caught hold of it just as the first one gave way. He slid several feet, unable to stop, the friction of the rough rope burning off the skin of his palms. Spooky screamed as he fell, and for terrifying seconds he envisioned becoming a human detonating device on the sandbags below. But he managed at last to wrap his legs around the rope, stopping his descent. Although the rope swung wildly with his sudden weight, he kept his grip on it. He repositioned his legs around it so that he
