“Not a good move, Elena,” a voice told her.
That got her attention all right. “Where are you?” she demanded as she ran down the corridor, retracing her steps back to the elevator.
Silence.
The elevator was still open. She checked her watch. Not that much time had passed. She got inside and pressed the button. Once she had the key, she was to return to her group, give it to Alex, and they would then head back down. Alex would somehow pass the key to their insider so that if they were stopped and searched, they wouldn’t have anything on them.
“Helen?” De Clerq interrupted her thoughts.
Helen caught a note of urgency in his voice. “Yeah?”
“Our feed is showing a male speaking urgently on a mobile and running into one of the offices on the twelfth floor. There’s an elevator behind a set of closet doors. We’re assuming this is the same elevator you’re on.”
That made sense. It would be a pain to have to go all the way up to the boss’s office if someone were needed on the ground floor.
“Wait, another one’s just appeared. Weapon drawn. Two hostiles, repeat, two hostiles heading your way.”
The guys running didn’t bode well.
“What do you want me to do?” she asked calmly. There was no way to stop the moving elevator. “Take him out?”
“Not if he has his mobile on. We don’t want each floor blocked off. We’re monitoring the other feeds right now. So far, none of the other security seems to be aware that anything’s wrong.”
There wasn’t any time to debate about this. “I’m climbing up into the elevator shaft,” Helen announced, pulling out her rappel shot. “If you don’t hear anything, it means I’m busy.”
There was silence from De Clerq’s end. She could see them all at CCC exchanging doubtful glances. The decision had been instinctive, and at moments like this, she usually followed her instinct rather than question it.
The webbing from the rappel-shot was made to hold triple her weight. She aimed at the top corner of the elevator and pulled the trigger. A “twap” resounded in the enclosed space as the prong pierced the metal. She pulled and flipped at the same time, using her feet to kick on parts of the ceiling panel as she “ran” across it, looking for the escape hatch used by repair technicians. At the third kick, a part of the panel gave way. She landed on her feet and pulled on the webbing again, this time running up the sides of the elevator and using her speed to give her enough momentum to let go of the rope so she could shove aside the open hatch. She pushed up quickly, popping the panel to the side as she hung on, half in and out of the elevator car. It didn’t take her long to pull herself into the space above.
Air rushed like a miniature wind tunnel as the elevator continued moving upward. Helen ignored the lurching motion, the cracks of light flickering from between cinder blocks giving her an idea how fast the car was moving. The reverberation of speeding air and moving cables humming together distracted her for a second. Still on her knees, she pressed the trigger that would release the prong from the wall and felt the webbing snap back into the rappel-shot. She moved the paneling back into place even as the elevator was slowing down. That had the same effect of a train shuttle coming to a stop, and she had to hang on to an illuminated box attached to the top of the elevator car to keep her balance. Someone who had been there before her must have spilled some kind of oil; she could smell it and her shoes had no traction as she slid sideways, barely missing the cable.
“That wouldn’t have felt good,” she breathed out, more to herself than anyone.
“We have that on video here. Pretty nifty move, Agent Roston,” De Clerq came in. “The door is opening. Our hostiles are looking into the elevator, weapons drawn.”
Helen rose up on her knees, looking down at the panel, prepared for anything.
“First hostile’s talking into his unit, shaking his head at his partner, looking around,” De Clerq informed her. “He’s definitely looking for an intruder. Someone must have called him from his post. The other’s turning around and running off.”
Knowing that De Clerq’s end probably couldn’t hear what was being said, Helen put her ear against the loosened panel, trying to catch all the words. The elevator started moving and the whistle of rushing wind cut off some of his words. They were going back down. The German was speaking fast and furiously.
“…no one here. No one’s answering me on my mobile. Something’s wrong…coming down to untie you now…Peter’s alerting security about upstairs now. I heard over the walkie-talkie…visitors. Hang on, I have to call individual numbers—”
Shit. Her decision—Helen didn’t allow herself to think. She couldn’t afford to make another tactical mistake and let this man get more help. It might already be too late, what with the other hostile running off upstairs.
Unsteady from the moving elevator, she cocked her weapon then pushed the panel aside, lurching through the opening and popping a shot to the right. She guessed wrong. Her target was standing against the back of the elevator, not the front. He glanced up and dropped his communication unit, surprised but prepared, his hand holding his weapon already up and firing.
A shot grazed Hell’s arm as she pulled back quickly. Another bullet whizzed past her and from the corner of her eye she could see sparks flying off the steel cable. As long as the stupid car was moving, she couldn’t keep her balance.
That illuminated control box she had been hanging on to. That must be the override control panel of some sort.
She fired a few shots down through the opening to keep the man from picking up his communications unit. A stream of curses in German floated up. Good, she hoped he was hit, too. She turned her attention to the box. It had three buttons, all lit up. More shots from below. She threw herself to the side. Which one? Which one? She pressed the middle one.
The steel cables screeched at the sudden reversal, jerking her body violently. She rolled over the opening, curling her body to avoid the cable. One of her legs fell through. She could hear the man inside the elevator crashing into the wall as the car jerked and swayed for a few seconds as it readjusted. And started going back up. She must have pressed the up button.
She felt her foot being grabbed. She kicked out and leaned forward, pressing the top button this time. The elevator stopped suddenly. Her attacker now had both his hands on her dangling leg. Lying on her front, her other leg was trapped. He pulled on her leg viciously.
Helen could feel perspiration dripping down her face as she grabbed the cable with both her hands so she could twist her body sideways to allow her other leg space. If she let the bastard pull her through the opening with her body jammed so awkwardly, he would pull her leg out of its socket.
