Vigilante by Robin Parrish

turned back to the screen and watched as Nolan crouched to his knees; he’d arrived. As he leaned in close to the reflective glass to get a look inside, Alice could see that he’d stopped just shy of the thirty-ninth floor and was peeking up over the bottom edge of the corner office’s window. Nolan tapped the side of his glasses and the view turned to a dark blue shade, showing the people inside as human-shaped outlines of bright red. She could make out the hostage taker standing over the five hostages. They cowered on the floor with his two Uzis trained on them.
    Touching his thumb to his ring finger, Nolan placed his gloved palm up against the glass, and speakers inside Branford’s area played the same enhanced audio that Nolan was hearing through his headphones.
    The hostage taker’s voice was immediately heard, talking to one of his hostages. “ You think I care about your family? ” he screamed, placing the muzzle of his rifle up against the man’s head. “ Don’t you get it? This office wouldn’t even be here without me, and you gutted me! My whole life was poured into this place, and if I’m going down, I’m taking all of you with me. ”
    Branford spoke up. “He’ll never negotiate. He’s going to kill the hostages and then himself.”
    “ Agreed, ” Nolan replied. “ Is the building secure? ”
    “Negative,” said Branford. “Police aren’t far—maybe three minutes out. The other tenants in the building don’t even know what’s happening yet.”
    “ What are you thinking, General? ” Nolan asked.
    Branford sighed. “That five hostages are an acceptable loss if it means a nut job doesn’t blow a whole building apart.”
    Alice’s ears burned red. She reached down and snatched the headset off of Branford’s skull. “ Give me that!” she hissed, putting the earpiece up to her ear and swatting Branford’s hand away when he tried to take the headset back. “Now, you listen. There is no such thing as an ‘acceptable loss.’ You hear me? Those people aren’t dispensable soldiers who signed up for danger. They’re regular folks, with families and jobs and lives, and you are going to help them, just like you helped me.”
    She all but threw the headset back at Branford, but not before she heard a soft but conviction-filled “ Copy that ” from Nolan over the speakers.
    Already Nolan was switching off the temperature-based setting of his goggles and springing into action. Releasing some of the coil from his grappler, he rappelled quickly down to the thirty-eighth floor and slammed his steel-hard fist into the glass while releasing the catch on the grappler. It recoiled instantly while Nolan tumbled to the floor and then continued the roll to stand on his feet.
    “Stairwell’s near the center of the floor,” said Branford, still eyeing Alice warily as if she might grab some other piece of equipment without warning. Only then did Alice notice that Branford had pulled up a blueprint of the building’s layout. She wondered how in the world Nolan and his friends had access to such information—not to mention virtually every security camera in the city—and made a mental note to ask him about it later.
    Ignoring the shocked gasps and stares from people in the spacious meeting room he’d leapt into, Nolan ran out, through a receptionist’s area and past a large space with cubicles on both sides. Alice wished she could get a better look at the people he was running past, but Nolan never stopped or even slowed. Right where Branford said it would be, he found the stairwell and darted up it to the thirty-ninth floor.
    “But won’t that man know he’s coming?” Alice asked. “Didn’t he hear the glass break?”
    Branford never moved his eyes from the screen. “Just watch.”
    Of course , she thought. Of course the man heard it. Which Nolan knew would be the case long before he broke the glass.
    She had come to learn pretty fast that these were the rules by which Nolan lived. She