“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 was once again in climbing position, then forced himself to smile up at the group above him, who were looking at him with eyes wide with fear.
He heard another chime.
“I’m fine,” he said, and prayed this rope would hold.
The burn in his raw palms was unrelenting as he gripped the rope, but he forced himself on and reached the level of the platform a second time. Kit had unwrapped the end of the rappelling rope from the rail and now tossed it to Alex. Alex caught it, and Kit worked with him, pulling him to the platform.
When he reached it, Chase held tightly to him. “It’s going to be okay,” Alex said. “We’re all going to be okay. But we’ve got to hurry, all right? You sit next to Spooky, and I’ll make a harness.”
Spooky took Chase in hand and guided him to a place away from the edge. She sat next to him.
Alex leaned out of the narrow window. Meghan was below with the climbing bag. He lowered the rappelling rope, and Meghan tied the climbing bag to it. Alex pulled it up. He took out his harness, stepped into it, and quickly adjusted it to fit over his clothing. He tied a large loop into one end of the rope, making a simple adjustable sling. He attached a carabiner to his harness and an ATC-an “air traffic control” device, a belay brake that would allow him to control the speed of descent.
All the while, Alex was talking to the other three. He told them about leaning back with their knees slightly bent, keeping their legs almost perpendicular to the wall, their feet about shoulder width apart. He showed them how to hold the rope. “Use your feet against the wall, not your hands, and walk down it-don’t bounce.
“I want you down there first to help on the ground,” he said to Kit, knowing that Spooky and Chase would feel more confident if Kit led the way.
Alex placed the loop over Kit’s head and shoulders, feeding Kit’s arms through, so that it wrapped around his back just beneath his armpits. Alex checked to make sure the knot was close to Kit’s chest, so that he wouldn’t slip out. “Spooky and Chase, watch how Kit moves, okay?”