tugging it down as if pulling a train whistle. I’ll go first—you stay back and prepare for cover fire.
The other agent nodded in comprehension.
“Got it , ” the earpiece said. “You’re good to go.”
The doors pinged and slid open. The agent swung into the elevator, gun barrel first. “Freeze!” he roared.
The elevator was empty. The Spade retreated back into the corridor immediately, wary that Agent Six of Hearts might have somehow slipped behind or beneath him. But the corridor was deserted.
“What the…” The other agent stared. The aluminum handrail had been bent at ninety degrees and twisted on its joints so it depressed the door close button. But other than that, there was no evidence that anyone had even been in the elevator. The boy they had seen enter less than a minute earlier had vanished into thin air.
Six listened at the lid of the maintenance trapdoor, concealed in the darkness of the elevator shaft. He knew that while he hadn’t left behind any evidence of his escape route, it wouldn’t be long before the Spades eliminated all the other options and figured it out. But he knew their protocols. They would check the corridor again before deciding they’d lost him. It was always embarrassing to call in a lost visual, so they’d want to be sure he hadn’t somehow crept past them first.
And while he had to move, and soon, it wouldn’t be smart to do it right now. Not with one of them inside the elevator, listening for the revealing scuffle that would put them back on his trail.
Six heard the clumping of boots as the Spade left the elevator. “Suspect is not inside,” he confessed after a moment. “We’ve lost him.”
Now! Six pushed himself off the elevator’s roof and slapped his palm around a pipe welded horizontally to the shaft wall.Hauling his body up to stand on it, he sprang off the wall and swung around the elevator cables before landing froglike on a supporting beam above.
Unfortunately , he thought as he bounced up into the darkness, I’m on the wrong side of the elevator. I need to be below it, climbing down, not above it, climbing up. I need to escape from the building, and I can only do that from the ground floor. The choppers on the roof will be well guarded or decommissioned.
Six was horrified that the Deck, the one place in the City he’d thought was safe, had finally turned against him. When soldiers from the Lab had broken in and abducted all the agents, that had been different—it was an attack by external forces, and it had been happening to everyone but him. Now it was the reverse; the Deck was still functioning, but he had been excluded.
He tried to put the fear and confusion out of his head and focus on his current goals. His watch read 17:33:17—he had less than an hour and a half until the drop-off. That meant getting out of the Deck, getting the bugged money into the kidnappers’ account, and then making it to the rendezvous point and hoping they were willing to give Kyntak back.
But even now, Six thought, the Spades would probably be working out where he was. They’d seal off all the elevator doors except the ones at the top, and send some Spades down the shaft to corner him or flush him back out the way he came. He had two options: force open the first door he found and escape onto that floor, or race them to the top to see if he could reach the maintenance tunnel under the roof.
But, Six realized, neither of those options was guaranteed to work. They knew how he thought, just like he knew how they thought. Even if they didn’t all necessarily work under the same roof all the time, they followed the same Code and operated inthe same way. They’d seen the schematics of this building, so they knew about the maintenance tunnel and they’d have the individual layouts of every floor. Whichever way he tried to escape, they’d be prepared for it and they’d be on him well before he could figure out an escape route.
Okay , Six thought. I know
The other agent nodded in comprehension.
“Got it , ” the earpiece said. “You’re good to go.”
The doors pinged and slid open. The agent swung into the elevator, gun barrel first. “Freeze!” he roared.
The elevator was empty. The Spade retreated back into the corridor immediately, wary that Agent Six of Hearts might have somehow slipped behind or beneath him. But the corridor was deserted.
“What the…” The other agent stared. The aluminum handrail had been bent at ninety degrees and twisted on its joints so it depressed the door close button. But other than that, there was no evidence that anyone had even been in the elevator. The boy they had seen enter less than a minute earlier had vanished into thin air.
Six listened at the lid of the maintenance trapdoor, concealed in the darkness of the elevator shaft. He knew that while he hadn’t left behind any evidence of his escape route, it wouldn’t be long before the Spades eliminated all the other options and figured it out. But he knew their protocols. They would check the corridor again before deciding they’d lost him. It was always embarrassing to call in a lost visual, so they’d want to be sure he hadn’t somehow crept past them first.
And while he had to move, and soon, it wouldn’t be smart to do it right now. Not with one of them inside the elevator, listening for the revealing scuffle that would put them back on his trail.
Six heard the clumping of boots as the Spade left the elevator. “Suspect is not inside,” he confessed after a moment. “We’ve lost him.”
Now! Six pushed himself off the elevator’s roof and slapped his palm around a pipe welded horizontally to the shaft wall.Hauling his body up to stand on it, he sprang off the wall and swung around the elevator cables before landing froglike on a supporting beam above.
Unfortunately , he thought as he bounced up into the darkness, I’m on the wrong side of the elevator. I need to be below it, climbing down, not above it, climbing up. I need to escape from the building, and I can only do that from the ground floor. The choppers on the roof will be well guarded or decommissioned.
Six was horrified that the Deck, the one place in the City he’d thought was safe, had finally turned against him. When soldiers from the Lab had broken in and abducted all the agents, that had been different—it was an attack by external forces, and it had been happening to everyone but him. Now it was the reverse; the Deck was still functioning, but he had been excluded.
He tried to put the fear and confusion out of his head and focus on his current goals. His watch read 17:33:17—he had less than an hour and a half until the drop-off. That meant getting out of the Deck, getting the bugged money into the kidnappers’ account, and then making it to the rendezvous point and hoping they were willing to give Kyntak back.
But even now, Six thought, the Spades would probably be working out where he was. They’d seal off all the elevator doors except the ones at the top, and send some Spades down the shaft to corner him or flush him back out the way he came. He had two options: force open the first door he found and escape onto that floor, or race them to the top to see if he could reach the maintenance tunnel under the roof.
But, Six realized, neither of those options was guaranteed to work. They knew how he thought, just like he knew how they thought. Even if they didn’t all necessarily work under the same roof all the time, they followed the same Code and operated inthe same way. They’d seen the schematics of this building, so they knew about the maintenance tunnel and they’d have the individual layouts of every floor. Whichever way he tried to escape, they’d be prepared for it and they’d be on him well before he could figure out an escape route.
Okay , Six thought. I know
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