Ahead of her the lowest edge of the curved section was coming at her. In a moment she knew her trajectory was wrong. She was going to miss it. She stretched her arms forward, her fingers reaching for the edge.
They touched. The snow crumbled under her fingers. With her tenuous grip acting as a brake she slowed and her body swung, pendulum like, beneath her. She felt her fingertips slipping. Quickly she pulled up her legs, giving herself a faster rotation. Her fingers lost their grip but now she was spinning and her rate of fall had been temporarily halted.
She had never been good at gymnastics but she knew the theory. The tighter the ball, the faster the spin. She grabbed her knees. She saw the building she had jumped from upside-down. The street below came into view then the flat glass of the lower floors of the Utopia Genetics building, finally the overhang that was the start of the DNA spiral. She stretched out, flung her arms up and grabbed at the edge.
Here, on a surface sheltered from the worst of the weather, her fingers found proper purchase. Her feet continued to swing up and she hooked a foot over as well.
She came to a halt hanging upside-down from the bottom of the spiral. She got the ridiculous impression that someone, somewhere, was applauding.
It took her only a moment to pull herself up so she was crouched on the concrete of the structure. And then she began the ascent, slowly at first, getting a feel for the way the slope was constructed. As she became accustomed to it she moved closer in to the core, away from the snow and ice, and climbed almost at a run. Each step pushed her up towards the penthouse of Mercedes Smith.
Chapter 23
Yates
His warrant card, and Ria’s forensics ID, got them through security and into the building. The equipment was sufficiently non-specific that it could be accepted as something forensics might use. At least as far as the guard might be concerned.
It was eerie to be in a department store at night. With the shelves half-filled it had a deserted look and the size of it made every sound echo.
Both of them had been in the building before but neither knew how to get up to the roof.
‘Let’s go up to the fifth and then see where we can go from there,’ said Yates.
It was warm in here, at least relative to the outside, and there was no wind. The escalators were turned off, of course, so they used the customer stairs. They reached the defunct restaurant on the top floor with its antique styles. There was an odd smell, almost as if something had died a long time ago. On the other side of the space was an emergency exit sign glowing green. They headed for it.
‘The things I do,’ said Yates under his breath. He did not want to say anything out loud.
There was an echoing clatter in the distance as if a mannequin had fallen to the ground. They both froze. They waited for long moments. Silence.
‘Probably nothing,’ said Yates very quietly.
‘Probably.’
‘Nobody knows we’re here.’
‘Nobody,’ she said.
‘How could they?’
He put his hand on Ria’s shoulder and pushed her down behind a counter. A bullet cracked past them and buried itself in the wall behind them.
‘Shit,’ muttered Yates.
Ria grabbed his arm and in the dim night lighting of the store her eyes were wide. He pulled out his gun. ‘Carry the gear. Stay down. Head for the exit.’
‘What are you going to do, Harry?’
‘Just do it, Ria. Lament needs to know where the girls are.’
‘Be careful.’
‘I’m no hero,’ he said. ‘Move it.’
Another bullet cracked past and went through the panelling he was hiding behind. A nice new hole allowed light through. He rejected the idea of using it as a spy hole to get the direction and moved the other way just as another hole appeared beside it.
He checked on Ria; she was halfway to the door, crawling with the detector slung over her shoulder. One of the restaurant chairs lay close by. Straining, he lifted it cleanly from the floor to avoid noise and then flung it as hard as he could in a direction away from the emergency exit, and lifted his head above the counter.
In the silence of the store, the sound of the chair crashing into a table was sudden and surprising. Three fast cracks and impacts echoed through the room. He saw the muzzle flash. The shooter was about twenty yards away behind a display pedestal. The remains of a mannequin were scattered around it.
‘Clumsy,’ muttered Yates. He checked the angle between the sniper and the door Ria was heading for. He was not in direct line. She was almost there.
Keeping down he got on his knees and focused on what he could hear. This was going to be tight.
The door creaked as Ria opened it. Yates paused for a fraction of a second. Hear. Look. Aim. He came up straight, gun in his hand. The sniper barrel was aimed to his right. Yates’s gun roared. He knew the shot was on target but he didn’t wait for the result. He stumbled to his feet and ran for the exit. Ria had frozen at his shot.
‘Go!’
She pushed the door harder and it swung back. He reached it just as she was getting up and he threw himself against her to push her through, and to the ground. Bullets cracked over his head. And then into the door as it swung back. Unlike the counter this was solid wood and stopped every single one of them.
There were stairs up and down. ‘Up!’ he said and almost pulled her along as she tried to get to her feet. Moments later they rounded the first turn and kept going.
‘No locks on fire escapes,’ he said.
They pounded up the next flight. The door below squeaked. At the next turn Yates paused. He saw a movement and fired another shot. The noise echoed up and down the stairwell. If he didn’t hit the guy, he’d be stunned from the noise.
I wish.
They reached the end of the stairs with a small landing and a door. A length of wire was twisted round the lock to prevent it opening.
‘Can you get it open?’ Yates said as he knelt on one knee and rested his hands on the railing. Gun pointed back the way they came.
‘It’ll take a minute,’ she said. Her voice wasn’t shaking and that helped.
‘Quick as you can. I’ll keep them off you.’
‘You know,’ she said. ‘I blame the wirehead.’
‘Yeah, me too.’
A shadow moved below them and he fired. The shadow vanished.
‘Jesus! Could you let me know when you’re going to do that?’
‘Might give the game away to the other guy.’
‘Guys.’
‘Plural?’
‘I saw two.’
‘Maybe seeing double?’
‘Maybe.’
He jumped back as a burst of machine-gun fire raked up from below, pinging off the metal. A dark shape arced up in the dim light, and then burst in a flame of brilliant white. All he could see was white with black spots that came and went. He heard feet pounding on the stairs below. He moved back and tried to remember the exact position of his hands on the railing. He fired. And fired. Tilted the barrel down a little, fired.
He was rewarded by a cry of pain. He angled a little further down and fired twice more. It sounded like the footsteps were moving away. And someone was groaning.
‘Nice shooting,’ said Ria. ‘Voila!’
Freezing air poured in from the outside. Still blind he let off one more shot and stepped out on to the roof.
‘Shut the door, Ria.’
‘You do it, dickhead.’
‘I can’t see a fucking thing. That flash grenade.’
‘You looked at it? Moron.’
He felt her push past him and the door slam.
‘Is there anything to bar the door?’ he said.
Metal scraped on the ground. ‘Shit, that’s cold.’ Then metal against metal.
‘It won’t hold for long,’ she said.
‘Find me somewhere to sit where I can cover the door.’
‘You can’t see.’
‘I’ve got e
ars and if I’m sitting you can point me in the right direction. I can keep them inside while you scan for the right floor.’
She grabbed him by the arm and dragged him, stumbling, across the roof.
‘Shouldn’t I put you behind something, so you have cover?’
‘I won’t be able to shoot straight. Just do what I said.’
‘You’re a total dick, you know that?’
‘Yeah, I know.’
He felt the warmth coming from her face and her breath against his lips. She touched his nose with hers. ‘No kisses, it’s too risky.’
‘I’ll take what I can get.’
‘Just want to remind you what you’re missing.’
‘Consider me reminded.’ In the sitting position he brought his knees up and rested his hands on them, clutching the gun. ‘Point me in the right direction.’
She adjusted his aim slightly. ‘We’re off about sixty degrees from the door and it opens away from you.’
‘Thanks.’
He felt her move away. ‘You know how to use that thing?’
‘I’m a scientist, how hard can it be?’
Chapter 24
Mitchell
They made their way through the building to the lifts and then down via the stairs. He was concerned. Apart from the look he kept getting from Dog, and the weirdness of Jason Lomax, he had a nagging feeling that something was wrong.
There was no justification for it. But it was there nonetheless. Perhaps it was because he was on the wrong side of the law. Though he somehow doubted it was guilt. He had left guilt behind a long time ago.
He stopped at the bottom of the stairs they had taken to the car park level—it also felt wrong to be going down when their target was very definitely up. He held his gun before him.
There was nothing here to set off the alarm bells in his mind but it was the ease of the whole thing that nagged at him.
Ahead of them and to the right was the door that would take them out into the underground car park. There was a low-level light in here but the car park was dark. Had it been dark when he had looked on the monitor? He couldn’t remember; he hadn’t studied it in that much detail.
‘Can you smell trouble?’ he asked.
‘I can smell you,’ said Dog.
Mitchell turned to Jason. He felt sympathy for the kid, being unable to talk must have been a real trial for him. But at least he had his mother.
And then Jason was in front of him and moving fast. Mitchell raised his hand and started to take the breath to tell him to stop. But he was too slow. The door swung inward as if Jason was opening it but the boy went past it and was tucked into the corner beyond when the explosion ripped both doors off their hinges.
A wave of heat knocked Mitchell back. His bare skin stung as flying splinters of wood and glass peppered him. Something cut through his leg.
The noise was so loud he didn’t hear it. His only thought was ‘again?’ before pain hit him front and back, and he passed out.
Cold air brushed across his skin. He was lying on the lowest flight of stairs that propped him up and dug painfully into his back. The weight of his pistol was still in his hand. The lights were out. He blinked and tiny bits of debris fell like tears from his eyelids.
He had been wrong about the light in the car park. There was some. Just very dim. Or they had turned it on after the blast. Had it been a grenade or a booby trap? Probably the latter.
Why had Jason done that? Had he known? If he had known it was really stupid. Maybe he thought someone was out there and wanted to draw them out.
A shadow moved at the entrance to the door. He couldn’t hear a thing but someone was coming and whoever it was was not going to be a friend. He lifted his hand.
The barrel of an assault rifle came into view. Mitchell held the gun, his muscles felt weak. Explosions were not good for the health.
The head and body appeared, completely covered in soft armour. Military. The armour would absorb most of the energy of a bullet. He aimed higher. The head turned his way, light reflecting on the glass of the goggles.
Mitchell fired three times in quick succession. The head jerked back and the man collapsed as if his strings had been cut. Automatic fire cut through the gap. There was little risk of ricochet as the slugs buried themselves in the brickwork beyond. That meant there was at least one more of them out there, and in armour too. He was lucky to have been close enough to take the shot he did.
A shadow shifted above and behind the far door. Jason was still moving. Mitchell groaned as he pulled himself into a proper sitting position and then clambered to his feet. At least he assumed he had groaned, his throat rasped as he moved. Unfortunately that meant their opposition knew that someone was alive.
Something shifted beside him. Dog clawed up the wall until he was standing. In the dim light he looked ... probably much the same as Mitchell himself. Covered in dust and debris. Dog stretched, getting the kinks out of his body.
Mitchell touched his ear and then spread his palm to indicate he was deaf. Dog nodded and made the same move. Not surprising.
Dog locked his gaze on Mitchell but not in the aggressive way he had done before. Dog pointed at the body and gave Mitchell a thumbs-up. Must be friends now. Mitchell gave a half smile.
There was a flash of movement as a ball-like object arced into the room but Jason’s hand swept at it, caught it and flung it back. It erupted moments later. Mitchell couldn’t hear it but he could feel the shock wave. Dog leapt at the door and was through it in a second. The shadow of Jason flickered across the top of the door as if he was clinging to the ceiling. Mitchell ran after them, holding his gun ready.
Chapter 25
Chloe
She had given up counting the floors. The building just went on and on, up and up in a continuous spiral.
The crack of gunshots attracted her attention and highlighted the top of a building—though at this range there were no details. She wasn’t tired but she paused. Anything unusual happening here tonight was her business. Watching out for patches of ice, she moved further out towards the edge of the spiral. The structure seemed to fall away and there was southern Manchester laid out in the night. Sparkling in the snow. It looked peaceful.
Two figures staggered on to the roof of the building about two hundred feet below her. A man and a woman carrying something. The man looked hurt. They barred the door and the woman helped the man sit facing the way down. Moments later the woman came to the edge of the building and started to point the whatever-it-was at the Utopia Genetics building.
It might be a gun.
She clambered back to the inner part of the spiral. There was no way she could remain completely hidden but if that was a gun she needed to stay clear of it. It was windy up here but again staying close to the centre protected her from the worst of it.
And then, after two further turns of the spiral, it was the end of the line.
She hadn’t considered what would happen when she reached the top. All she knew was that Mercedes Smith lived there. But above her was the flat under-surface of what was probably the penthouse. The wind howled but the space above her, beyond the outer layer, was strangely invisible to her acoustic sense. It must be soundproofed, or layers of insulation simply absorbed the sound as well.
She pulled a flashlight from her bag. She had remembered to pick up another one but she didn’t switch it on. Instead she tapped it against the wall. The resonating sound fed back a complex network of spaces, girders and pipes.
And there was a walkway in there.
She tracked back, going down the spiral until she was directly below where the walkway ended. A ladder came down to the door in front of her. She hadn’t noticed it on the way up because she hadn’t been looking for it. She saw the door lock inside a panel on the right which swung open. She tried it. It didn’t turn.
Taking the flashlight in one hand she got her head close to the lock and tapped gently trying to get a full three-dimensional picture of it.
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‘Damn it.’
There was a bolt-like mechanism on the inside, and there was no way she could shift it. She shouldn’t have been surprised they weren’t going to leave an unlocked door here. It might not be the easiest place to get to, but anyone with enough persistence could manage it.
A thought was trying to make it to the front of her mind. It was the walkway. It ended so abruptly above her. She tapped a little harder and the sound waves brought her the image of another door directly above this one. What if there had been a mistake in the construction and that walkway was supposed to meet the spiral so they put the door in but they had got it wrong.
It didn’t matter, there really was another door about ten feet above her. Her hands found the necessary holds and she climbed. She had never been much of a climber when she was young. There had been a lovely big apple tree in the garden and it was easy to get into its branches and climb as high as she could. But she stopped being interested when she got older.
Everything was different now. Her lack of weight made it all so easy. She was nearly two hundred metres up, climbing a flat metal surface crusted in ice. In a high wind.
It took her a few moments to reach the second door. The panel was there just like below. She made sure her hand and footholds were solid, then she pulled open the little hatch and turned the lock. It was stiff and the first time she slipped off the wall completely and hung by the hand holding the lever. She got back into position and tried again. It still held and she was about to give up when it turned slightly. She redoubled her efforts and it unlocked.
She yanked the door open. A wash of warm air and cool blue light streamed out. She slipped through the gap and pulled it closed, relocking it, then stepped on to the walkway.
Above her she knew was Mercedes Smith’s apartment and she was keen to see the look on the woman’s face when she saw Chloe Dark alive and well.
Chloe really was looking forward to that a great deal.
Chapter 26
Mitchell
He felt old and slow. He shouldn’t be doing this. This was a game for young men. He suspected his life might be about to end very abruptly and probably painfully as he crossed the threshold.
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