Memoria (22 page)

"Step back!" he snapped.

Frank grabbed
Maggie's hand and pulled her to the wall.
The bolt
chattered. The rifle
thudded
out a long burst.
Sha
ttered glass mixed with spent shells cascaded to their feet.
A gust of cold wind burst into the room tearing the curtains.

"
Clip on to the line,"
Barney
stepped to the desk and leaned across it looking into the monitor.

Under their jackets, Frank and Maggie had
parachute-type h
arnesses
, the straps coming together just under the solar plexus.
One after the other,
they
clipped themselves onto the line.
They stepped to the open window and
used
Barney
's clever method
to remove
their electronic bracelets
.
The girl pressed the
nail gun
to her chest
and glanced down
.
The nail gun's
leash
wrapped around her wrist. Frank watched
Barney
who'd turned off the camera and forced the hard disk free.
He d
isconnected the camera and the
trip
od and threw the parts into the
attaché
case
, snapping its lid shut.
Then Barney
jumped off the desk and headed for the window holding the rifle barrel
aloft
.

The second spool was meant for him.
Barney
alone weighed m
ore than Frank and Maggie
together, so
they h
ad decided to use two
rappel
l
ing
devices instead of
the
one originally suggested by
Max
.

Barney
hadn't made it to his spool. A blast shattered the reception room. The door flew off its hinges
. The heavy filing cabinet barricading it leaned and exploded
producing
a fountain of paperwork.
Clouds of smoke
belched into the office. Maggie screamed and ducked in, covering her head.
Barney
slid the
attaché
case
along the floor to
ward
Frank, turned around and fell onto one knee. At that moment, the massive filing cabinet toppled onto the floor
un
der
powerful kicks from
outside.

The first of the attackers fell full length on
to
the floor
under
Barney
's bullets. Another one followed him into the reception. In the smoke, return shots flashe
d over his shoulder
.
Barney
snarled, lowered the barrel a little and
peppered his
a
ttacker
with
bullet
holes.
The attacker
stumbled, dropped his weapon and collapsed head first onto the
capsized
filing cabinet.

"Go!"
Barney
shouted.

"Dad!"

"Go!"

Frank held Maggie tight and climbed onto the window sill, kicking the remaining shards of glass out of the window frame. She was so light he didn't need a
cord
to support her. But she was frightened now; she didn't understand they had to escape while
Barney
could keep their attackers at bay
. In his other hand, Frank held the
attaché
case
. If the scared girl jerked or turned awkwar
dly during the descent, he risked
drop
ping
it. Then all their
work and planning
would be for nothing.
Without the data from the disk, Frank wouldn’t prove anything to anyone.

"Go now!"
Barney
repeated. He reloaded and stepped forward, closer to the broken door.

"You ready?" Frank looked into Maggie's face.
Then he kicked
the latch on the rubberized tube free, releasing the rollers'
braking ring.

"Close your eyes. Don't look down," he instructed her. He noticed the
nail gun
still hanging off her wrist but had no time to get rid of it.

Frank hugged the girl tight and stepped out into the void.

T
he open space around him took his breath away.
All of
Manhatta
n lay
below.
On the horizon, t
he ocean
glistened
under the clear blue skies
.
The sun blazed away
, reflected by the upper stories
'
windows.

The
line was unwi
nding at five feet
per
second. Not too fast, but enou
gh to reach the first floor in under three minutes without getting hurt
when it finally stopped
.
After that, there were two scenarios available.
They could either run across the flat roof of an adjacent T-shaped annex
, then
use the fire escape to get down
to the street. Alternatively, they could go back into the building and use one of the elevators to re
ach the underground parking where
Max
was
waiting in the limo. T
hey didn't
have contact with him:
portable radios didn't reach the parking lot without
a signal amplifier, but instal
ling
one
in the
building
would have taken too much time and
jeopardized the whole mission
.
Besides, Memoria's security scanned all frequencies which allowed their workers to detect and blanket out all talks.
That's why
Max
was supposed to neutralize the guards and keep the parking exits and the cameras under control
for an agreed length of time. In case of the others' failure, he had to leave the building alone.

The
rasping of metal against metal made Frank
writhe around
in order to look up.
He didn't see the end of the rubberized tube
overhead. The line
had slid off the roller and was now grating against a
window ledge above. Frank's shoulder
grazed
a
buttress
, turning him away from the building. He hit the back of his head against a window
ledge
. His jacket slid up and
snapped apart
.
Between clinching Maggie and gripping the
attaché
case
, h
e couldn't kick himself away
from the wall
for fear of
swinging back and smashing their own butts against the window ledges.

Their descent stopped.

They hung
opposite a window
, rotating
on the end of the cord.
Frank looked up wondering if
the
malfunction
had triggered
the emergency brake
or the spool had
simply
jammed in the rollers.

Three sto
ries above,
Barney
looked out of the broken window.
The wind tore off his hat and blew it away.

"It's jammed!" Frank shouted.

Barney
disappeared. Shots followed.

"Dad!" Maggie screamed.

Frank
looked down at her. Tears welled
up
in her eyes.

"Let's swing,"
he held the
attaché
case
with both hands, turned his face to the window and propped his feet against it. "Kick when I count to three. One
—
two
—
three!"

They
kicked together. Maggie broke a
stiletto
heel.

They didn't have enough momentum.

"Again!
B
ring your knees up!" Frank shouted.
"Then use the nail gun
!"

He kicked as hard as he could hoping that the side wind would take them a bit further away this time. Maggie raised the nai
l gun and pressed the trigger und
er the handle. With a clatter, nails
hit the window covering it with a web of cracks.

They swung into the window. Frank held out
the
attaché
case
and shiel
d
ed the girl with his body as best he could. In a shower of shattered glass, they
burst inside.

His fingers bleeding, Frank undid the clasps
and let go of the
girl. He looked around.

"Where are we?" he grabbed her elbow helping her to get up.
"Maggie? Do you know this room?"

A large desk with several intercoms on it stood in the middle, surrounded with chairs.
Plas
ma screens covered the walls overhead.

"It's the conference room."

"You know how to get out of here?" Frank
removed his battered jacket and the harness, listening for any sounds from above.

He couldn't hear any shooting.

"You think we can reach the elevators without being noticed?"

"We're trapped," Maggie's voice shook. She stood up clenching the nail gun with both hands
. "The elevators are along the hallway to our right. To our left, the conference hall. It's all packed
out
with security."

"And if we leave through the conference hall?"

"There's another staircase there."

"Let's go, then,"
Frank pulled her hand.

Maggie
kicked off her shoes. With one heel broken, they would only hinder their escape.

The door to the room began to open. Frank backed to the wall, covering Maggie.
The door opened, concealing them in a narrow niche.

"
There's
a broken window
down here
," said
a voice in the hallway. "I'm going in
."

First, a
swaying
gun barrel
appeared, followed by the hand that held it. A well-built man entered the conference room. He held his left hand
up to
his face, reporting over the microphone in his sleeve.

A scream echoed from above. A body flashed past the window.

"Damn!" the agent backed
up
. "
He's fallen out!
Someone's fallen out the building!"

Maggie squeaked. Frank didn't wait for the agent to turn round. He smashed the
attaché
case
over his shoul
der and kicked him in the hip, pushing the man to the desk. He ran out into the hallway, about to turn left, when he
realized
he
'd done so
too soon. Another security agent stood to his right. The gun in his hand jerked and banged.

Frank stuck out the
attaché
case
to protect his ribs. One of the bullets tore through his shirt and stung his shoulder. The others
clanged
as they smashed into the
attaché
case
's steel lid without
piercing it. Luckily, Frank
stood
with
his side to the agent.
His
elbow joint snapped and his
fingers let go of the
attaché
case
handle. Frank released
it
and turned to face the gun.

His old street fight
ing
skills saved him. He ducked under the gun
and
his left arm shot up
, the fist hitting the
opponent
's elbow. Frank stood up and leaned forward,
butting
the man
upwards, his forehead breaking the bridge of
the man's nose.