MONOLITH (18 page)

Jess turned and sprinted for the door, hurrying across the marble floor towards the way out of the apartment.

The whirring as the approaching lift drew closer was growing louder and she glanced in the direction of the private lift doors as she reached the way out and pulled open the door, stepping back out into the area beyond. She paused there for a moment, ear pressed to the door, straining her ears to hear if whoever was in the lift had actually finally arrived but then realising that she would be better off just getting the hell out and away from this floor.

She hurried through the fire door and to the bottom of the steps before slipping her shoes on again then she walked briskly towards the lift that would take her back down to Hadley and the estate agent.

Jess felt mixed emotions as she jabbed the Call button.

She was feeling a strange kind of exhilaration due to the fact that she’d actually managed to infiltrate Voronov’s private penthouse but also a sense of frustration because now she seemed to have even more questions. What exactly she would have asked Voronov if she’d found him inside his apartment she had no idea and how this helped her as far as investigating the series of accidents that had occurred within the building went she was also unsure.

And of course there was that statue.

The more Jess thought about it the more incongruous it seemed and again she wondered what it had been doing alone in that room.

She was still pondering these questions when the lift stopped.

It bumped to a halt and Jess glanced up, waiting for the doors to slide open.

They didn’t and also, as she looked up at the illuminated numbers above the doors she saw that she wasn’t back at the floor she’d sought. None of the numbers were lit. She had no idea which floor she was at. Muttering to herself she pressed the button marked 23 again and waited.

Nothing happened.

This time Jess swore quietly under her breath.

‘Come on,’ she whispered exasperatedly.

She jabbed the button again.

All that happened was that the illuminated numbers above the doors began to light up. Every single one of them glowed yellowish-orange, lighting one after the other in rapid succession. Jess watched them lighting up and then fading again, wondering if there was some kind of electronic fault inside the lift. The numbers had now stopped flashing she noted but still the lift remained immobile and Jess shook her head, her finger extended towards the button marked 23.

‘Jesus,’ she muttered, preparing to press it again. Just before she did there was a loud metallic whirr and the lift lurched back into life.

Jess nodded, relieved that it was moving again. Her heart was thumping fast now and when she tried to swallow her mouth was bone dry.

The lift stopped.

This time it juddered to a halt so abruptly that Jess almost overbalanced. ’Shit,’ she hissed looking up again to see that the illuminated numbers above the doors were once more flashing quickly in turn, as if the lift was rising and falling past each floor in rapid succession. Jess steadied herself against the back wall of the lift and stood there for a moment, waiting for some kind of movement either up or down, wondering if it might just be a better idea to get out of the lift wherever she was and walk back to the apartment where Hadley and the estate agent were still waiting for her.

The lift juddered into life again and Jess felt a momentary stab of concern, anxious now just to be out of this metal box that seemed to be suddenly much smaller than it was when she first got in it. She was also aware that she was breathing more rapidly than she had been a couple of minutes ago.

There were mirrors on either side of the lift car and Jess caught sight of her own reflection. She saw how pale her skin looked and she could see the look of concern on her features that she was feeling all too acutely now. She had now convinced herself that when the lift stopped again no matter which floor it halted at she would get out and walk to the apartment where Hadley was waiting for her. She nodded to herself as if to reinforce her own determination to get out of this metal box.

She was reaching for the button again when the lift dropped like a stone.

Jess screamed.

She couldn’t help herself. The lift didn’t just drop it plummeted. Hurtling down the shaft like a bullet along the barrel of a gun.

Jess looked up and saw that the illuminated numbers above the doors were all blazing now and her ears were filled by a loud screeching sound that set her teeth on edge and made the ordeal even more unbearable. She pressed herself against the back wall of the lift, wondering what speed it must be doing and also wondering how long it was going to take before it hit the ground travelling at such an incredible velocity.

Her breath was coming in short sharp gasps now, her eyes bulging wide with terror as she felt the lift continue to speed downwards.

It slammed to a halt.

Jess overbalanced and fell to her knees in the centre of the car.

‘Oh God,’ she gasped, trying to swallow but not managing it.

She crawled towards the doors and pulled herself upright, trying to dig her fingers into the small gap between the two lift doors. Jess used all her strength and tried to pull them apart. They wouldn’t budge. She slammed one fist angrily and impotently against the metal but nothing happened except that a sharp pain shot up her arm as far as the elbow. Jess ignored it and hammered on the metal again. If the lift had stopped on one of the floors them maybe someone would hear her and get her out.

The building’s empty. Who’s going to hear you?

She dug her fingertips into the gap again and tried to part them.

The lift shot upwards suddenly.

As if the cables that had first caused it to drop were now retracting, the car hurtled back upwards at dizzying speed. Jess stumbled backwards, slamming into the rear wall so hard that her head spun. She gasped and sat motionless on the floor as the lift continued to rise, the pace of its ascent terrifying.

Jess dug her nails into the carpeted floor and closed her eyes, praying to a God she didn’t believe in to stop the movement.

The lift continued upwards at breakneck speed, the scream of metal on metal now filling the car. Jess closed her eyes more tightly, fighting back tears now as her journey continued.

It stopped again.

The impact was so violent that Jess screamed again, the sound reverberating inside the claustrophobic space. There was a loud strident whiplash sound and Jess looked to her right in time to see a long crack had appeared in the mirror on that side of her. It had split the glass from one corner, scarring it as far as the middle of the reflective surface. Several small pieces of glass had already fallen from the frame and were now spread on the floor of the lift like glistening confetti.

Jess saw her own distorted reflection in the glass, almost transfixed by the terror in her own expression. Jess scrambled to her feet and slammed her hand against the Emergency button.

The lift dropped a few feet, then rose again just as suddenly.

More fragments of glass fell from the wall to her right.

The lift rose twenty or thirty feet higher although for all Jess knew it could have been more. She was trying to haul herself to her feet again now, her back pressed so tightly against the rear wall of the car that she feared she might push right through it into the lift shaft. The entire structure continued to rise until it halted once again and Jess looked around frantically, terrified that it was going to plummet earthward once again.

Seconds later that was precisely what it did.

Her whole body was shaking as the lift again shot downwards, that terrible high pitched shriek of metal on metal now filling the small space.

It slammed to a halt, the impact so strong that it knocked the wind from Jess.

Wheezing slightly she sat motionless on the floor of the lift, her heart hammering madly against her ribs.

Jess dragged herself upright and hit the Emergency button again then she moved towards the lift doors, banging furiously on them.

‘Help me,’ she shouted, frantically as she drove her fists against the recalcitrant doors.

Jess could feel the perspiration on her back now and the heat inside the lift seemed to be intensifying, as if someone was slowly increasing the temperature within the small compartment. She hammered again on the doors, pausing for a moment when the effort became too much but as she stood there she swallowed hard, wondering if the lift was about to fall or rise again with the terrifying speed it had already demonstrated. A thought flashed through her mind that she tried to suppress.

What if it fell again but this time didn’t stop? What if it simply hurtled to the bottom of the shaft and slammed into the ground doing Christ alone knew what speed when it hit? Jess gritted her teeth, trying to force that image from her mind. She knew she would have no chance if the lift fell. She would be pulverised, mangled in the twisted metal.

She banged the doors again and shouted.

Then she heard the voices.

At first Jess thought that she was imagining it but then as she pressed her ear to the lift doors she was sure that she had been correct. There was someone outside the lift.

Jess screamed and hammered on the doors with all her strength, not knowing or caring who was outside but only aware that whoever it was might actually be able to get her out.

‘Help me,’ she shouted.

Only as she was battering wildly on the metal did she think for one fleeting second that the repeated impacts might cause the lift to move again but the prospect of rescue from this metal coffin seemed more pressing than the possibility of it lurching up or down again.

‘In here,’ Jess shouted again, trying to control her breathing.

She heard the voices again and realised that they were male.

‘Help me,’ she continued.

‘Jess?’

The sound of her own name from the other side of the doors raised her hopes even further and she realised that the voice belonged to Hadley.

‘Alex,’ she called. ‘Get me out of here for God’s sake. The lift is out of control.’

She heard banging from the other side now.

‘The doors are stuck,’ she called. ‘You’ll have to force them open.’

There were several muffled grunts from the other side of the doors and then another tremendous impact.

‘We can’t get them open,’ Hadley shouted.

‘You have to,’ Jess told him. ‘You have to get me out. The lift is going to fall.’

‘Press the emergency button,’ Hadley told her.

‘I’ve done that, nothing happened.’

‘Get that,’ Hadley said to whoever was with him and there was a moment’s silence then she heard a heavy thump on the other side of the doors. ‘Jess, stand back,’ Hadley called to her. ‘I’m going to use a fire extinguisher to batter the fucking things open.’

Jess did as she was told, backing away to the rear of the lift car as Hadley slammed the extinguisher against the doors, his efforts aided by the frantic knowledge that he had to get her out. Several thunderous bangs echoed inside the lift, each impact causing the car to shudder, the sound reverberating inside it as if amplified. Jess gritted her teeth and stared fixedly at the lift doors. She tried to swallow but couldn’t manage it her throat and mouth were so dry.

Hadley struck again and a small chink of light showed between the sliding doors.

The lift lurched slightly and Jess gasped in terror. It was as if it was hanging by a slender thread, ready to plummet the full length of the shaft and slam into the ground so many hundreds of feet below.

Again Hadley struck at the doors.

She heard the other voice from the far side of the doors say something but she couldn’t make out what it was, instead the words were eclipsed by another stunning impact.

The chink of light grew brighter, the gap in the doors wider.

Jess could see Hadley now and just behind him, gazing in bewilderment at what was unfolding before him was the estate agent.

‘Help me with this,’ Hadley snapped and Jonathan Tyler stepped forward. He and Hadley dug their fingers into the gap opened by Hadley’s assault on the doors and they began to pull, trying to part the doors far enough for Jess to get through. Hadley cursed under his breath as he used all his strength on the stubborn doors. There was a creak and they opened a little further, then a touch more.

Jess felt her heart jump in her chest and she too crossed to the doors to add her efforts to those of the two men. The gap was about a foot now. Another six inches and she might be able to slip through, she thought. The three of them re-doubled their efforts.

Another inch.

‘Come on,’ Hadley snarled, his face contorted as he pushed and pulled at the doors.

Two inches.

‘Nearly there,’ he hissed.

Jess pushed one arm through the gap.

The lift fell.