*
Two monitors in the computer room showed helmet camera feeds from the snipers on Sparrow-Four-One, the first inbound chopper, which had just gone stationary near the south face of the tower. Gaul watched the viewpoints pan across the glass and steel edifice.
The pilot’s voice came over a speaker. “No movement on the target level.”
Above and below eighty-three, the occupants of nearly every residence were at their windows, woken by the hovering chopper. The pilot directed a spotlight into the seemingly deserted floor, sweeping most of the southern stretch in a few seconds. Nobody there.
“Sparrow-Four-One, make a slow orbit of the building,” Lowry said. “They’re in there somewhere. Neighbors called in gunshots. Sparrow-Four-Two, deploy your men.”
“Acknowledged, out.”
On a tightened Miranda frame, the second chopper arrived on-site. Gaul watched it settle into position above the southwest corner of the roof. The Little Bird didn’t need a proper landing pad; it was designed to off-load men onto rooftops in parts of the world where building codes weren’t exactly strict.
In the satellite image, it was impossible to tell exactly when the chopper touched down, but suddenly the four-man specialist team bailed from the troop bay and sprinted across the building’s roof. They reached a stairwell access and halted for a moment. Bright light flared as they torched out a lock, and then they were in.
*
Dryden released the final clasp and pulled the harness free from Sandra. Rising, he kept the machine gun trained on the near corner. Still no sign of Audrey, in his view or in his head.
He could hear both choppers now. The first was circling the building clockwise, moving up the west face. The second, having settled onto the rooftop moments earlier—its turbines sending vibrations down through the building’s core—now powered up and lifted off again. The team it must’ve put on the roof would be inside this apartment in no more than four minutes. They would cut through the ceiling from upstairs if need be.
They’d be three and a half minutes late.
Dryden slipped the chute harness on with automatic ease, adjusting for the tightness. He nodded to Rachel; reluctantly, she lowered the pistol and stepped into the bedroom. Dryden followed.
“All you have to do is hold on,” he said. “You’re going to put your arms around my neck and grab your wrists with your hands as tight as you can. Don’t focus on anything but holding on, okay?”
She nodded, already scared to death.
At that moment intense cold pressed at Dryden’s temples, like the touch of icicles. Audrey. Close now, coming fast. Determined and reckless.
Rachel understood. She threw her arms around him, lifting her feet off the floor. Dryden raised the G-36, thumbed the selector switch to autofire, and raked the south windows. The panes disintegrated into a curtain of shards, raining out of the frames even as Dryden sprinted toward them. Wind surged in like water, plastering Rachel’s hair across his face and spraying glass against them both. Two steps from the window he let go of the gun, locked his arms around Rachel, and dove.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
The city. Out in it, above it. Lights and windows and streets spinning in a wind-tunnel scream of night air. The tower filling up the world beside him. The choppers pounding the darkness with their rotors.
Dryden’s senses stabilized. He turned his head to correct for the spin of his body and locked his eyes on the tower for reference. He and Rachel had fallen maybe ten stories, with seventy yet beneath them. He freed one arm from Rachel, pulled the release for the pilot chute, and had the arm tightly around her again before he felt the line go taut and rip the main chute from the pack.
A second later the straps of the harness wrenched his shoulders back, and the rush of air ceased. The night became silent except for the helicopters circling the tower high above.
Drifting now. The moment was deceptively peaceful. Dryden looked up at the canopy of the chute and saw the wind’s influence at a glance. It was pushing them toward the tower.
“Can you hold on if I let go of you?” he asked.
Rachel nodded, her forehead against the side of his jaw, and tightened her arms over the back of his neck.