Page 43 of King’s Ransom

—the cable arrested my fall, but now I was hanging, one-handed, eight feet below the rim of my open window, too far away to be able to help Ajax.

Ten . . . nine . . . eight . . .

‘Sam! You okay?’ Garrett yelled.

He’d cut Cassandra’s cuffs and her arms were now wrapped around his neck.

Garrett slipped his big knife back into his boot-sheath and grabbed hold of her suction cup, about to release it.

‘Yeah, but . . .’ I yelled back.

I had to get back to Ajax and cut his cuffs.

I started hauling myself up my cord to my window.

Seven . . . six . . . five . . .

I glanced at the attack drone looming a short way out from the windows.

‘Help me, you stupid fuck!’ Ajax cried.

‘Sam!’ Audrey yelled.

I crawled back in through my window.

Four . . . three . . . two . . .

With a sharp yank on its handle-grip, Garrett released Cassandra’s suction cup.

The young woman came free of the glass and hung with Garrett on his rope. Garrett kicked them both away, swinging to the side of the window.

One . . .

I leaned out my window, reached for Ajax again.

Too late.

Our time expired.

The drone opened fire.

The sound of the drone’s 7.62mm cannons firing was ear-

splitting.

Braaaaaack!

It fired a short burst, maybe only a half-dozen shots, but that was all it had to do.

The result was shocking.

The windows to which Cassandra and Ajax had been attached shattered and instantly transformed into a thousand tiny shards . . .

. . . and like a curtain being dropped, those shards just fell away.

Which meant Ajax dropped with them.

His face was only a few feet from mine when it happened and in that terrible moment, I saw the most primal emotion flash across it: the realisation that he was going to die.