Chapter 5 - The Rooftop Extraction
Elena dropped flat to the carpet, dragging Marcus down with her as a second round shattered the front window, showering them in glittering shards of safety glass. The distinctive sound of combat boots echoed down the long hallway toward her bedroom.
"Through the kitchen!" Marcus roared, firing a single defensive shot down the corridor before grabbing her arm and hauling her upward.
They scrambled through the wrecked kitchen, past overturned bar stools and broken dishware, making for the service balcony that overlooked the narrow alleyway behind the building. Marcus slammed his shoulder against the glass sliding door, shattering the remaining latch, and dragged Elena out into the biting wind of the twelfth-floor ledge.
"Are you crazy? We're going to fall!" Elena screamed, clutching the cold metal railing as her long hair whipped wildly across her face.
"We go down or we stay and become part of the concrete," Marcus said, pointing down at a thick fiber-optic cable running from the roof of the high-rise across the alley down to their balcony. "Grab the descent harness from my belt pouch. Now!"
Sirens wailed in the distance, growing louder by the second. Below them, a black sedan pulled up directly beneath the alley exit, four men in identical charcoal suits stepping out and looking up with binoculars.
Elena fumbled with the straps of the harness, her fingers numb with adrenaline and cold terror. "I can't do this! I'm an auditor! I sit at a desk!"
"You signed the audit, Elena!" Marcus snapped, hooking her harness securely onto the steel cable. "You bought yourself a front-row seat to a treason trial. Jump!"
May you like
Before she could process his words, Marcus kicked the railing, launching them both off the edge of the building into a stomach-churning, high-speed descent across the open gap of the alleyway.
---
