by R. J. Blain
“I’m aware,” I snapped, and because of my paranoia, I went through the effort of checking over both of our harnesses again. “The hard part is going to be securing the anchor to the other building.”
“Colby?” Rob asked.
“Mommy!” Without hands, I wasn’t quite sure how Colby managed to adhere itself to one of my anchors, but it gave a tug and lurched in the direction of the ledge. I pressed on the winch’s controller to let out sufficient line to reach the other building.
“Colby, you’re going to have a maximum of fifty feet to work with. I’ll set up my anchor on the frame on this side. When you’re in place, I’ll activate the electromagnets on your anchor. Don’t get between the disc and the building, and make sure the anchor is over the framework between the windows.” I leaned against the barricade, glancing down at the street below. It was more of a broad access alley for commercial vehicles, which suited me. The early-morning delivery folks wouldn’t begin work for a couple of hours, which would give us plenty of time to rappel down.
I drew in a deep breath, clapped the disc to the side of the building, and activated the anchor. It gave off a faint buzz, and a tiny blue light flashed from the center of the disc. After Monica’s warning, I took my time testing the device, and still doubting my strength, I turned to Rob. “Give this a tug, would you?”
Rob came up beside me, grabbed the line, and gave a jerk. His eyes widened when he couldn’t move it. “That’s strong.”
“Strong enough to hold our combined weight and then some, though I wouldn’t want to test just how strong they are.”
If the harnesses were set to my specifications, mine had a lower grip strength than Rob’s, but it would be enough to get me and my gear down intact. Rob’s could probably stop a car in its tracks, although it wasn’t something I had ever tried.
“I have the master control unit. I’ll cross first, get your anchor set, and help you over. We’ll be going down together, so I’ll control both our discs at one time. Your harness does have a control unit as well.” If anything did happen to my unit, Rob would have the ability to activate and deactivate our discs, and I took a moment to show him how the device worked. “Don’t touch your controls unless there’s a problem with mine.”
“And if there’s a problem with yours?”
“Let’s just hope that doesn’t happen.” If Rob hadn’t figured out any problems would likely result in my death, I wasn’t going to enlighten him. I gave the disc a tug, sighed, and nodded to Colby. “Be careful.”
With a delighted squeal, my casserole backed away from the ledge, got a fast, hopping start, and lunged off the skyscraper. Once again, my roommate glowed, allowing me to see it on the opposite building. I counted to twenty before activating the second disc. Colby hopped away from it, bounced on the glass, and dove across the alley to splat into the side of the Ivory Tower.
“Mommy!” it announced, climbing onto the ledge.
“Great job, Colby.” I grabbed the cable with both hands and jerked with all my might. It held. Without me needing to ask for his help, Rob also tested it.
“Doesn’t look like there are any problems,” he said.
“I’ll take your anchor with me and set you up once I’m across, but I’ll test both discs here first,” I said and went through the same testing process on Rob’s discs.
They both held.
“It seems your concerns were unfounded.”
“Don’t jinx us, please,” I begged, giving the line enough slack I could crawl over the building’s ledge. I eased my feet over first, all my weight resting on my elbows. There’d be no chance of gripping the glass with the heeled boots Rob had bought for me; the only type of shoes capable of doing it cost a fortune, required special ordering, and were individually fitted.
I’d never owned a pair and doubted I ever would. Aware my left hand and wrist probably wouldn’t hold my weight, I used it to control my winch, cutting the slack in the line until I felt the pressure on my harness.
“Be careful,” Rob hissed at me.
“Give me your disc and as much slack as you can,” I ordered, reaching up with my left hand. When I had a good grip on the disc, I clipped it to the front of my harness. “Other disc.”
Rob handed it to me, and I clamped it into place on the Ivory Tower above mine.
“Pay attention, Rob. See the red flip switch on the side of your control remote?”
“Yes.”
“If something goes wrong before I get your anchor on the other side attached, flip it.”
“What does it do?”
“It’ll release your cable from your harness. There’s no point in having both of us hit the asphalt,” I replied, and with my heart drumming a frantic rhythm in my throat and ears, I lowered all my weight on to the cable. Colby had gotten the anchor fairly level, and as a result, I was able to pull myself along hand over hand.
I focused all of my attention on the flashing blue light of my anchor so I wouldn’t make the mistake of looking down. My awareness of the fact I dangled hundreds of feet above the ground intensified as I worked my way across.
At the faint slackening in my cable, I jerked my hand down to the winch to check it was still locked. It was. I jerked my head up; the anchor was fifteen feet away, and the blue light was blinking at the appropriate interval. I gripped the cable and twisted to check the anchor behind me in time to watch its light flash red.
It popped off the Ivory Tower.
I dropped the fifteen feet until Rob’s anchor disc jammed in my harness, which brought me to a bone-jarring halt. The laws of physics took over, swinging me on a collision course with the office building neighboring the condominium complex.
I smacked into the glass, and everything went black.
The rappelling harnesses weren’t designed to handle deadweight; the straps cut into me, rousing me enough I realized I was still alive. My ears rang, which made it harder to concentrate and figure out what had happened—and why.
My entire body throbbed, which didn’t surprise me. An uncontrolled collision with a thick glass wall wasn’t ideal under any circumstances. One of my anchors had ceased functioning, and I had hit the window face first. While aware I needed to at least try to brace my feet under me, I couldn’t force my body into motion.
I hung limp, swinging in the gusting autumn wind. With my head bowed, I got a very good view of the asphalt some four hundred feet below. The lamps marking where the alley met the main road illuminated pinprick-sized patches of street.
The failed disc, secured to the same mechanism I had attached Rob’s cable, was jammed against the dae’s anchor. Something was wrong about the angle of the lines, but through the throb in my skull, I couldn’t identify what. I frowned, trying to puzzle out why there was an angle at all instead of a vertical line between me and my functional anchor.
One of the lines cut over my shoulder, digging into the side of my neck. The other stretched straight above me to my single functioning anchor. I blinked, struggling to lift my head.
Rob’s line should have dangled loose over my back, if he had flipped the switch as I had instructed. The cable from his harness would have released, which should have also deactivated his anchor at the same time. Rolling waves of vertigo crashed over me, and I closed my eyes to ease the dizzying way everything spun around me.
I must have whacked my head into the glass when I hit the skyscraper, which didn’t surprise me. The memory of striking it remained a pain-filled blur, but I hadn’t had time to control my plummet.
“Mommy?” Colby cried somewhere in the general vicinity of my head.
Cracking open an eye, I caught a glimpse of orange in my peripheral vision. The first noise I made was an incomprehensible groan. I swallowed in an effort to control my stomach.
Throwing up while dangling from the fortieth or so story wasn’t my idea of a good time.
The cables keeping me from dropping to my death jerked, and several moments later, two thumps heralded Rob collid
ing with my back. His hands slapped to the glass on either side of my head.
“Mommy!”
Rob worked one of his arms under mine to grab the front of my harness. “Colby, make me a handhold,” he ordered.
Sliding into my limited range of vision, my roommate left a smear of cheese, which dissolved through the glass, leaving a slit barely large enough for Rob’s hand. The dae clutched the glass. “Toe holes.”
Colby slithered along the front of the skyscraper out of view.
“Miss Daegberht?” Rob demanded in my ear.
While I knew I should’ve responded, I struggled to cling to consciousness. I focused on my breathing, drawing steady breaths to slow my frantic heartbeat.
“Alexa?”
The panic in the dae’s voice drew my attention back to him, and after several swallows, I mumbled, “Didn’t flip your switch.”
Rob tightened his hold on me, pulling me closer to him. “No shit I didn’t flip the switch. There’s no fucking way I’m abandoning you.”
I could tell the instant Rob jammed his toes into the holes Colby made for him. He straightened behind me, pressing me to the glass. “Colby, can you fetch my anchor? I’ve got a solid enough hold to keep her from falling.”
“Mommy!”
My macaroni and cheese was versatile, I had to admit. Instead of leaping across to the Ivory Tower, it slithered over my chest and climbed along Rob’s line.
“What the hell happened?” Rob demanded.
“Don’t know,” I mumbled, shaking my head in a futile effort to clear the ringing from my ears. My vision remained blurred, and the motion worsened the throb in my skull. “Anchor cut out.”
“How did it cut out?”
Shaking my head made my nausea worse. It took several deep breaths to settle my stomach. There hadn’t been much of a chance for me to see much of anything, but the anchor had behaved as though I had intentionally cut the power to it so I could reset it. “You didn’t hit any buttons, did you?”
“Of course I didn’t,” he snapped.
The slackening of the line was the initial warning the anchor was about to shut off. I remembered the way the cable’s tension lessened, buying me enough time to see the red light flash.
It amazed me my second anchor still held. Rob’s descent to join me would have tested the anchor’s strength—or had it? How had he reached me without yanking me away from the skyscraper on his way over? Despite Rob’s hold on me, most of my weight rested against my harness and the anchor jammed against my ribs. If it gave, I wondered if the dae would be able to keep his grip on me and the skyscraper even with the help of Colby’s cuts in the glass.
“Alexa?” The way Rob’s tone changed warned me I had missed something.
“What?”
“Are you hurt?”
“Almost definitely,” I replied, wondering what I had broken—if anything—when I had hit the glass.
“I don’t suppose you can define that a little for me?”
“I haven’t died yet.” I was rather proud I managed to get the entire sentence out without throwing up. “This is not what was supposed to happen.”
“So I gathered.”
Colby slapped against the glass right over my head, startling a gasp out of me. He had Rob’s anchor with a chunk of metal and glass still attached to it. “Mommy!”
“Good job, Colby. Alexa, how do I turn off the disc so I can reset it? Without cutting power to yours, that is.”
My arms refused to cooperate with me, and shuddering at how helpless I was, I told him how to do it. Instead of Rob doing the work, Colby clung to me and manipulated the controller. I had no idea how a conglomeration of noodles and cheese had the ability to depress the switches, but after several long moments, the glass and metal detached from the disc and tumbled to the ground far below.
Colby grabbed Rob’s disc and clambered up the side of the skyscraper. When it reached the maximum length of Rob’s cable, it sliced a hole in the glass, turned the disc, and crammed it into the opening, disappearing within the building. When it reemerged, Rob freed his hand from its hold, grabbed his line, and gave a tug.
It held.
“Now would be the time for a bright idea, Miss Daegberht.”
“Winch and walk.”
“I’m not sure I follow.”
“Use the winch.” Drawing a deep breath, I explained how to activate the mechanism. “When it pulls you up, walk up the building.”
“It’s strong enough to handle our combined weight?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe,” he echoed. He sighed. “Maybe isn’t good enough.”
“As long as my anchor keeps holding, you can pull me up after you’re at the top. Get yourself up first.”
“Unacceptable.”
“Don’t get us both killed being stupid,” I hissed. For all of his faults, I didn’t want Rob to end up dead because of my malfunctioning gear. Tears burned in my eyes, and I angrily blinked them away.
Sliding along the glass, Colby came to a halt beside my head. “Mommy.”
“She’s being stubborn,” Rob complained to my roommate. “She thinks I’m going to listen to her, leave her hanging here, and save my ass first.”
“Mommy! Mommy, Mommy,” Colby scolded before slapping me across the face. My head snapped to the side from the force of the blow and stars burst in front of my eyes.
I gasped, tears stinging my eyes.
One thing was for certain; I’d never think of macaroni and cheese the same ever again. Colby packed quite the punch, and I wondered if I’d have a bruise to show for its temper. Probably.
If I lived through the night, I’d explain to both of them the method to my madness—and why it was for all of our benefit to sacrifice the deadweight, me.
“Let’s try this again. We are going to the top, and we will figure out how to get to the street level after I have had a chance to see how badly you’ve been hurt. The keyword here is ‘we.’ So, how do I get us to the top, Miss Daegberht?” Rob paused, and in a rueful tone, he added, “This is not my expertise.”
“What isn’t? Hanging around getting in the way? I thought it’d come naturally for you,” I mumbled.
He laughed and tightened his hold on me. “You’re really something else. You’ll just have to suffer, as I’m going to ignore your arguments and do what I want anyway. Any ideas on how to get up this skyscraper, or am I going to have to get creative?”
In a way, I was curious to find out how creative Rob could get, but instead of testing my luck, I said, “Your second anchor’s already tangled in my harness. So long as your primary anchor doesn’t break through the window, I’m not going anywhere. It’ll be faster and safer for the both of us if you get to the top first. I’m a liability like this.”
“Shit. You’re serious.”
“I have one trick right now, Rob. I can hang around and wait. Will you please just get to safety?” I begged.
With luck, we’d both escape alive, but if my harness or the anchor binding us together broke, at least one of us would survive.
Twenty-Five
I was impressed I hadn’t keeled over dead yet.
Rob secured both of the cases filled with drugs and electronics to his harness with Colby’s help. The details of how he had gotten both of them were a bit of a blur, along with Colby making hand and foot holds for me in the glass. My body refused to move quite right, but I had sufficient strength and coordination to keep myself from swinging away from the building.
If I had any say in it at all, I would never climb out of anything higher than a first story window ever again.
While I waited, my worry for Rob and Colby growing with each passing minute, I systematically wiggled my fingers and toes to convince myself I hadn’t done permanent damage colliding with the skyscraper. The movement hurt, with the worst of the pain radiating from my neck and shoulders. So I wouldn’t stare at the ground far below, I fixed my gaze on the blinking blue light above. If my anchor de
tached, all of my weight would end up hanging from Rob’s harness.
If I fell, I’d take him with me, and it worried me so much I considered slipping my harness to make certain he reached the top alive. The dae climbed hand over hand to my anchor, and he gave my cable a tug. A faint glow radiated from Colby as my roommate worked with Rob.
Despite my attempt to remain close to the skyscraper, the instant they deactivated my anchor, the slack in the line dislodged me from the building, and I swung out into open air. I spun, and when I hit the glass, it was with my shoulder and back. Blinding pain stabbed down my spine, and my entire body jerked. I bounced against the skyscraper a second time before I twisted around and clawed for one of Colby’s holds. My fingers caught on the opening, but before I could secure a grip, Rob hauled me up an entire story.
Without anything to cling to, the gusting wind blew me along the glass, spinning me. I squeezed my eyes closed, and my fear of falling choked off my breath. Rob and Colby were all that stood between me and death, and my inability to influence my fate terrified me even more than the thought of splattering on the ground below.
While I was vaguely aware of Rob and Colby working with my anchor disc, I lost track of time. The dae’s hands under my arms, hauling me up onto the skyscraper’s roof, woke me to the fact he had pulled me to safety. He dragged me away from the ledge, and while I shuddered from relief, he stretched me out, his hands cupping my throat to check my pulse.
At the rate my heart was pounding, I was impressed I hadn’t keeled over dead yet.
“You’re fine. I have you,” the dae murmured, going to work freeing me from my harness. “Just give me a minute to get you out of this mess.”
The mess proved to be a tangle of cables, anchors, and the pair of cases. I had no memory of anyone securing our ill-gotten gains to my harness, but one of the metal edges dug into my side, and I hissed from pain when Rob rolled me over to work the straps out from under me.
“Can you move your hands and feet?” Rob demanded once I was freed. Bracing for the inevitable pain, I rotated my ankles and wrists. My left hand protested the worst, and dark splotches showed beneath my bandages.