Turning toward the door that led to the hallway, Lisa yanked it open and left the stairwell. In the sudden calm of the carpeted hallway, she looked through the plate-glass window on her right and caught a glimpse of a crystal-blue indoor swimming pool below. She ran down the corridor, banging on every door with her cuffed hands. “Fire! Everybody out! Fire!” she screamed. Not a single door opened. When she reached the elevators, she repeatedly pounded the down button with her fists. The digital display above the elevator doors showed one at the nineteenth floor and the other at the twenty-sixth. Too long to wait, she thought as she continued running. Heading toward the far end of the hallway, she saw a small sign marked: SOUTH STAIRWELL-LOBBY LEVEL. Praying for an escape, she grabbed the doorknob. Once again, it was locked. “SON OF A BITCH!” she screamed.
From the north stairwell door, Lisa heard Claremont shouting back to Rick. Their voices were loud. Lisa knew they couldn’t be more than a few floors away.
As she raced back to the elevators, Lisa could barely catch her breath. Furiously, she punched both call buttons. “C’mon, you piece of crap! Get here!” One elevator was now on the seventeenth floor and the other was still at the twenty-sixth; they had barely moved. Convinced that Claremont and Rick would be there in seconds, she looked down the hall and remembered the swimming pool outside the window. She took a deep breath. It’s only four stories, she calculated. I can probably make it if I go through fast enough. Before she could talk herself out of it, Lisa tucked her elbows in tight and ran full speed, barreling down the hallway toward the huge window next to the stairwell. Shoulder first, shoulder first, shoulder first, she repeated to herself as she raced toward her target.
Lisa hurled her body against the glass just as Claremont emerged from the stairwell. He grabbed the chain of Lisa’s handcuffs, even as the glass started to shatter. Propelled forward by her momentum, Lisa cleared the threshold of the window, as thousands of tiny glass shards rained down on her. The weight of her fall had brought Claremont down flat on his stomach and dragged him to the edge of the window. But something had stopped his slide: Rick.
“Are you okay?” Rick asked, holding Claremont by the belt.
Looking over the edge, Claremont struggled to hold on to Lisa, who was dangling outside the window. “Y-yeah,” Claremont said.
“No! Don’t!” Lisa screamed as her hands grabbed Claremont’s wrist. Her face and arms were covered in hundreds of tiny, bleeding cuts. “Please don’t drop me!”
Without the momentum to reach the pool, Lisa would fall directly onto the tiled atrium, where a crowd had already started to gather. “Drop her,” Rick said.
“What?” Claremont asked.
“Please don’t!” Lisa screamed. “Don’t drop me!”
“Drop her, and let’s get out of here,” Rick said. “I’ve had enough of this nonsense.”
Still, Claremont held on to Lisa’s handcuffs, his arm tensing from the weight.
“I said drop her,” Rick demanded. “What’s wrong with you? We were going to kill them anyway.”
With all his strength, Claremont held tight.
Rick pulled his gun from his waist and pointed it at Claremont’s head. “You’re not Richard Claremont. Who the hell are you?” Lifting his arm, Claremont started to pull Lisa to safety. Rick pulled back the hammer on his gun and pressed the gun against Claremont’s head. “You have three seconds to tell me who you are. At the end of three, you’re both going out this window. One…two…”
“Ben!” Lisa screamed. Rick spun around to a blast of white foam. As Rick rubbed his burning eyes, Ben ran into the corridor wielding a fire extinguisher. With his wrists still handcuffed, Ben swung the fire extinguisher like a baseball bat and slammed Rick in the side of the head. Rick stumbled backward and fell to the floor. He fired his gun, and a jagged pain ripped through Ben’s left shoulder. He’d been shot. Staggering forward, Ben swung the fire extinguisher again, this time knocking the gun out of Rick’s hands.
Ben struggled to swing the fire extinguisher one more time, but the pain in his shoulder was impossible to ignore. Seeing the blood that rushed down his arm, he felt faint and dropped the extinguisher.
“Hurts like a bitch, doesn’t it?” Rick asked, stumbling to his feet. “The next one’s going in your head.”
Holding his shoulder, Ben looked down the hallway and saw Rick’s gun lying on the floor by the elevators. He looked back at Rick, who was almost standing.
“GET THE GUN!” Claremont screamed, pulling Lisa to safety.
Ignoring the gun, Ben raced toward Rick. Grasping his hands together, Ben swung wildly at Rick’s head. When his handcuffs struck Rick’s face, Rick staggered backward. As Ben moved in to hit him again, Rick slammed his fist into Ben’s gunshot wound. Ben screamed, clutching his shoulder. Rick looked down the hallway at the gun.
Fighting the urge to collapse, Ben saw Rick move toward the gun. Once again, he ran at Rick, plowing into him from behind and knocking him to the floor. Rick turned on his back and tried to fight his way free, but Ben stayed on top of him. Ben grabbed Rick by the throat and pinned him against the floor. “You greedy bastard!” Ben screamed as Rick thrashed wildly. “You killed Ober!”
“He killed himself,” Rick coughed.
“NO!” Ben screamed, banging Rick’s head against the floor. “YOU KILLED HIM!” Ben tightened his grip around Rick’s throat. “YOU WANT TO SEE HOW OBER FELT? YOU WANT TO FEEL HOW HE DIED?” Rick swung at Ben’s head, attempting to remove his attacker. Ben wouldn’t budge. Rick punched at Ben’s bloody shoulder. Ben didn’t move. The more Rick fought, the tighter Ben’s grip. Eventually, the coughing stopped and the struggling ceased-Rick was finally unconscious. But Ben didn’t let go of Rick’s throat. “You killed my friend!” Ben sobbed as rage slowly erupted into tears. “I’ll kill you for that!”
As tears rolled off Ben’s cheeks, Rick’s face turned beet red. Ben clenched even harder. With Rick’s life in his hands, Ben remembered his last conversation with him. “You want to see me break the rules?” Ben growled as blood continued to flush Rick’s face. “Here’s what I think of your damn rules.” Holding fast to Rick’s throat, Ben remembered Rick’s boasting. And Nathan’s beating. And Lisa’s bleeding. And Ober’s hanging.
Ben sobbed and, staring down at Rick’s swollen face, he let go: “Ober! I’m so sorry!”
A small cough emerged from Rick’s lips. Mentally and physically exhausted, Ben collapsed on the floor, his ragged breathing punctuated by sobs. It was finally over.
As Ben lay on the floor, holding his shoulder, the elevator arrived. When the doors opened, Alex DeRosa got out with half a dozen armed U.S. marshals.
“Everybody out,” DeRosa yelled as his men fanned into the hallway. Two of them handcuffed Rick, while two others ran to check on Lisa and Claremont.
“Are you okay?” DeRosa asked Ben, helping him to his feet.
“What the hell is this?” Ben asked, confused. “You were here all along?”
“Sorry about that,” DeRosa said as he unlocked Ben’s handcuffs. “Rick was watching you full-time this whole week. We didn’t want to risk anything.”
“Risk anything?” Ben yelled, rubbing his wrists. “We were almost killed! You lied to my face.”
“I didn’t lie,” DeRosa said. “I needed you to act normally.” DeRosa put his hand on Ben’s shoulder. “It was the only way-”
“Don’t touch me!” Ben yelled, pulling away from DeRosa’s hand. “You lied and put all of our lives at risk! Who the hell do you think you are?”
“Ben, I couldn’t get through to you. Rick was always watching.”
“That’s bullshit,” Ben snapped. “You could’ve passed me a note on the subway. You could’ve passed me something at the Jefferson Memorial. At the very least, you should’ve passed me something when Ober died.”