“More power to him and all that. So, what about the others?”
“James, Tim, Lorraine, Claudia, and Rahmi were going down to the floor below. Malcolm, Jeremy, Butler, and I went up to the hundred and fifty-fourth floor, which is one of the ones you identified as being partly owned by G-Company. Christopher was checking all the floors going all the way up. We lost contact with him when he was around floor one hundred and fifty-nine. Jeremy, Butler, and Malcolm went to look for him. I stayed because I’d found something.”
“What?”
“A diary written in English. I think it’s Goodman’s. It sounded crazy enough. There was some information that I figured we might be able to use, if we can decipher the crazy. Which I know will be your job.” He pulled a small leather notebook out of his back pocket and handed it to me. “Put this somewhere safe, just in case.”
Looked at White, who opened the big purse. Dropped it in, he closed the big purse. We were a well-oiled team. “So, what about the others?”
“James was supposed to advise me when they’d surveyed their floor and were ready to go down, and I was to let him know what we found up on my level. He didn’t answer when I told him Christopher had gone out of communication. That’s when I figured we were screwed.”
“Sounds like Thursday, yeah.” Turned my iPod off. Pulled my phone out, turned my music on, and slid it into my back pocket as “The Rescue” by American Hi-Fi came on. “Richard, I’m sorry, but we need to focus on the people we came here to rescue, not the captured rescuers.”
“I agree,” White said. “I truly trust that Christopher and the others will be fine.”
“If not, we’ll make them suffer for it,” Siler said. “I promise you that.”
My music changed mid-song to “Come to My Window” by Melissa Etheridge. Went to the nearest exterior window and looked around. As I did so the sun officially slipped all the way down. There were lots of lights I could see now, and the building itself was lit up. Didn’t see anything else, but looked down to check if I could still see the haboob. And saw something else.
“Meanwhile, I have a crazy idea that just might work.”
“What’s that?” Siler asked.
Turned around and smiled brightly. “There’s a window washing rig one floor below us.”
CHAPTER 74
“NOT JUST NO, but hell no,” Mahin said.
“How would we get into it?” Abigail asked.
“And what will we do when we’re on it?” Siler asked. “Wave to everyone as they die?”
“Look, we have people captured. That means the remaining Crazy Eights know we’re here. They’re going to start gassing people if they haven’t already.” Refused to let myself get scared that Jeff and Chuckie and everyone else was dead already. Focused on being angry that—at the point in history when the world was finally joining together—a crazed madman was going to ruin everything.
“Missus Martini is right,” White said calmly. “We need to adapt, and this adaptation makes sense.”
“I also have more of a plan than just washing the windows to make up for splattering blood and gray matter all over this observation deck. I want Mahin to take some of the dirt that Lowe so nicely has sent this way and make a small whirlwind inside the restaurant, while Abby puts a shield around the people inside.”
“Then what?” Abigail asked. “We can hold that for a while, but not forever.”
“Then we have Serene send a floater gate that’s on our window washing rig. We’ll move everyone through that and immediately to the Science Center where we’ll have doctors standing by and they can get treated.”
“Serene?” Mahin asked. “The Serene we just hung up on and told to not trust any incoming calls? That Serene?”
“One and the same! Glad you’re all with the program. Mister White, the Bag of Bigness, if you would.”
White flipped the rolling purse down and I opened it up. All the climbing equipment was in there. Pulled it out and handed it to Siler. “I’d assume you have the most experience with this.”
“I do, but honestly the hardest part is going to be getting over the twelve-foot walls of glass.”
Heaved a sigh. “Well, as to that . . .” Handed him the spare guns. “Have at it.”
White was looking in the big bag. “Just a moment. I believe we have something in here that will work more effectively.” He pulled out a glass cutter set, complete with suction cups. He also pulled out five pairs of black gloves.
“I’m not going to ask why you have all this,” Abigail said to me. “But if you want to share . . .”
Managed not to say that the Elves thought of everything, but only just. Also had to think fast to give a reply that wouldn’t make everyone suspicious. Well, more suspicious. “We’re burgling. It seemed wise to bring it along. I just forgot I had it. Creepy clones and losing two thirds of our team mysteriously put my focus elsewhere.”
“I’ll take it,” Siler said. “And I’ll also take the glass cutter stuff.” We traded the glass cutter kit for the spare guns. Siler eyed everything. “We could avoid cutting the glass and go over if we get on top of that.” He nodded his head at the geometric covering thing with the slats.
“I don’t know which would be worse, or harder,” White said. “Our people can repair the glass swiftly.”
“I am not jumping up there and then over the side,” Mahin said. “In the dark. Or in the light, either. At all. I am not doing that at all.”
“Wrecking the tallest building in the world, Dubai’s and the UAE’s proudest landmark, and the winner of the Best Attraction in the World award coming right up,” Siler said.
Actually, what he did first was to secure the lines we’d be using to get down to the geometric covering. It was set up perfectly for this. Chose not to point this out, since Mahin and Abigail were barely one with the plan as it was.
Once the lines were set and deemed safe enough, Siler cut out a two-foot diameter hole, just like they did in the movies. White had to help him pull the glass inwards, since it was very heavy. Chose not to mention that we’d tossed ten exploding dead bodies over with no concerns for who they might land on and yet were treating the glass as if it might be a problem should it fall on someone all those floors below.
While they were doing this I called Serene using my phone. Wasn’t quite as convenient as the Bluetooth had been, but found the will to go on. She answered, we verified I was me and she was her, then I told her what we were doing and what we needed her to do. “And it’s too late to tell us not to, because we’ve already cut the glass.”
“I won’t tell you that because we’ve lost the televised feed. Kitty, you need to be prepared—they may have already released the gas.”
“Got it. It’s likely I won’t be able to call you to tell you to send the floater.”
“You still have the music earpiece in? It looks like you do.”
“Yeah. I figured it was safe in terms of tracking.”