Gina then grabs Vaughan by the arm and sticks the gun into his side. Ray Sullivan steps backwards, arms up.
‘No,’ he says. ‘For Christ’s sake.’
Norton steps away as well. He can’t believe what’s happening. He’s right there, watching it, but feels detached from it.
The two construction workers in the distance remain frozen – undecided, terrified, useless.
Gina moves, taking Vaughan with her.
‘You, too,’ she says to Paddy. ‘Come on, let’s go.’
‘What?’
‘Come on.’
‘Where?’
‘Inside.’
Norton follows.
They walk across the concourse towards the building. Vaughan is an old man, so progress is slow and tense. As they approach the arched glass entranceway, the reception committee disperses, left and right. Norton is aware of the others behind him, following at a discreet distance. He glances over and sees one of the construction workers talking on his mobile.
They go through automatic doors, along the entranceway and into the vast atrium.
Still pale and a little shaky, Vaughan nevertheless seems to be OK. He stares ahead, very intently, and remains silent. Gina has a drawn, anxious look to her, as if she knows that this act of stupidity and desperation can only end badly for her.
Which, of course, it will.
Because soon enough the Special Branch and Emergency Response Units will be here, and they’ll all be armed, and seeing as how she’s already shot someone and taken two hostages, one a frail old man – what kind of a chance does she stand?
Norton only hopes that it’s quick and efficient – and final.
They move across the vast atrium, which has been cleaned up since he was last here. Shimmering, pristine, the place is ready for occupation by an army of consumers and office workers – but right now it feels eerie and uninviting.
Gina stops and looks around. ‘Those over there,’ she says to Norton, pointing to a bank of six elevators. ‘Are they working?’
‘Gina, look, this is insane. What do you -’
‘Are they working?’
He is struck, and a little disturbed, by how calm she sounds.
‘Yes.’
‘OK.’
They move towards the elevators.
Norton looks over his shoulder and across the atrium. There are five people standing just inside the entranceway now – three construction workers, Ray Sullivan, and Norton’s director of development, Leo Spillane.
No one is moving or speaking.
Gina looks quickly at the elevator cars. Norton can see at once that she’s confused. Each car has a touch-screen terminal in front of it and operates on a digital control system that depends on traffic patterns, but since these patterns have yet to be established, the system hasn’t been fully programmed. She steps forward to one of the terminals and enters a number, but nothing happens. She’s about to get annoyed, and turn to Norton, when she sees that the last car doesn’t have a terminal in front of it. On the wall to the side, there is a plain silver push-button marked ‘Express.’
She steps over and presses it.
The door opens immediately.
Norton’s heart sinks. This could get very complicated.
‘GINA!’
Norton looks around.
Leo Spillane is stepping forward. He worked closely with Noel and would have met Gina at the funeral.
‘Gina,’ he says, ‘please… whatever this is -’
‘Stay back.’
Spillane stops.
Gina shunts Vaughan and Norton into the elevator car. She leans her back against the door to hold it open. Standing half inside the car and half out, she raises a hand up into the air – the one with the gun in it.
‘Pass this message on to the police,’ she says, speaking directly to Spillane – and again Norton is alarmed by how composed she sounds. ‘Tell them I want to speak with Jackie Merrigan. Detective Superintendent Jackie Merrigan.’
Then she withdraws into the elevator car. The door automatically whispers shut.
She presses a button.
Vaughan clears his throat. ‘Gina,’ he says, ‘I don’t und-’
‘Shut up.’
Vaughan hesitates, looks as if he’s about to continue, but thinks the better of it.
Norton’s heart is racing. His palms are sweaty. As the car starts its rapid, hushed ascent, he closes his eyes.
When they step out of the elevator car into the middle of Level 48, Gina looks around and tries to get her bearings. The tower’s main elevator shafts are located in its central core. But the last time she was up here – with Norton, two weeks ago – they used a service elevator that was located at the end of the building, and the back end, the one facing north.
Behind where they are now.
She waves the gun at Vaughan and Norton, directing them to move forward.
Vaughan hesitates.
‘I’m not sure,’ he says, turning to her, ‘that you fully appreciate who I am.’
Gina raises her arm and points the gun at his head. ‘I told you to shut up. Now move.’
‘OK.’ He holds a weary hand up. ‘OK.’
As she follows the two men, she looks around – left, right, ahead, behind. There doesn’t seem to be anyone else up here. She notices, too, that a great deal of work has been done since that last visit. All the windows, floors and ceiling panels have been fitted, and the place no longer looks like a building site. It’s still an open space, but it’s a lot closer to becoming the teeming ecosystem of reception areas, office suites and conference rooms the architect no doubt intended it to be.
At the end they stop next to a tall stack of what look like prefabricated wall or partition units. The windows are floor-to-ceiling, and the view, as before, is spectacular.
But also a distraction.
Gina turns around. She leans her head back onto the glass and immediately starts wondering how thick it is, and how easy it would be for a trained marksman perched outside on the jib section of the crane to pick her off. Then again – she thinks – someone in here could probably do the job just as easily. They’d come up in the service elevator and position themselves on either side of the central core, or behind any one of the nearby supporting columns.
All of which means one thing: she doesn’t have much time.
‘Right,’ she says, turning to Vaughan. ‘Where were we?’
Norton glares at her.
Vaughan sighs peevishly. ‘I don’t remember.’
‘Well then,’ Gina says, ‘let me remind you.’ She taps the floor with her right foot. ‘This building you have such a big stake in, that you’re here to inspect? I was saying I hope you don’t get too much of a shock when you do.’
Vaughan looks at Norton and shrugs.
‘What’s she talking about?’
‘I don’t know, Jimmy. She’s deranged. Look at her. I feel sorry for the bitch.’
Gina says nothing. There is a long pause.
‘Oh, what is this?’ Vaughan says eventually. ‘Listen, I’m not a well man. I have a blood condition.’ He looks at his watch, and then at Gina. ‘I have meds to take. Can we cut to the chase here, please?’
‘Sure,’ she says, nodding her head in Norton’s direction. ‘But it has to come from him.’
‘Paddy?’
Norton shakes his head. ‘I told you, Jimmy, she’s disturbed. She can’t come to terms with her brother’s death. She’s been making these wild allegations. It’s… it’s all bullshit.’
‘What kind of allegations?’
‘I don’t know. She thinks someone had her brother killed, but -’
‘Why?’
Norton pauses. ‘Sorry, what… why does she think -’
‘No. Why would someone want to kill her brother?’
‘But that’s the thing, you see, she -’