Chapter 6 - The Freefall
Julian let out a sharp gasp of agony as the heavy metal shattered his right tibia. His legs gave out, his body crashing hard against the bloody linoleum. The remote detonator slipped from his gloved fingers, skittering across the floor toward the gaping, broken window.
"Althea, now!" Marcus roared.
Althea didn't aim for Julian. With ruthless precision, she fired three rounds into the structural support cables anchoring the medical machinery overhead. A heavy steel surgical light fixture broke loose from the ceiling, crashing down directly across Julian’s chest and pinning him to the floor.
Julian screamed in rage, his fingers clawing desperately across the slick tiles toward the detonator. "Kill them! All of them!"
Heavy gunfire erupted from the hallway behind Julian as his second wave of private security reached the doorway. Bullets chewed through the drywall, showering the room in blinding white plaster dust.
"The roof is compromised!" Althea shouted over the deafening noise, grabbing Clara by the forearm. "We can't go through the halls! We go down!"
"Down?" Clara cried, clutching the baby against her chest with both arms. "We're on the fourth floor!"
"Hold on to me!" Althea barked, clipping a heavy nylon descent harness around Clara's waist with brutal efficiency, locking the secondary carabiner to her own tactical rig. "Marcus, clip the secondary line to the window frame! Now!"
Marcus grabbed the steel cable anchor bolted to the exterior masonry, slamming the heavy industrial carabiner shut just as a burst of automatic fire grazed his left shoulder. He hissed in pain, blood immediately soaking his gray shirt, but he didn't stop. He grabbed the brake rope.
"I go first, Clara goes in the middle, you control the descent from above!" Althea yelled.
"No," Marcus said, his eyes locking onto Clara's tear-stained face. "If I drop down, they cut the anchor line from the room. I have to stay here and hold the door until you hit the ground."
"Marcus, no!" Clara screamed, her voice tearing her throat. "You can't stay! They'll kill you!"
"Clara, look at this baby," Marcus said, his voice terrifyingly calm amidst the gunfire chipping away at the door frame. He reached out with a bloody thumb, gently brushing the infant's cheek, then pressing his lips to Clara’s forehead. "You gave everything to bring her into the world. Now let me do my part to keep her in it."
Before Clara could fight him, Althea pulled the quick-release lever on her harness. The two women, locked together with the infant secured between their chests, tumbled backward through the shattered glass into the black, howling storm outside.
The wind roared in Clara's ears as they plunged into the empty air, the rain blinding her. Above them, the cable hummed with terrifying tension.
May you like
Through the rain-slicked darkness, Clara looked up at the fourth-floor window just in time to see Marcus kick a heavy steel equipment cart across the doorway, barricading the entrance, before raising a fallen weapon to face the hallway.
Then, a massive explosion tore through the lower floor, sending a plume of fire billowing out into the rainy night, severing the descent cable forty feet above the asphalt.
