He made sure the rope was properly rolled up, before he swung it again, aiming the hook at the ledge of the warehouse’s roof as if he were swinging a lasso at a calf. This time he succeeded on the first try. Again he pulled at the rope to make sure it didn’t loosen.
Then he wrapped part of the rope around his right hand, held onto it a little higher with the left and stepped back a few feet. He ran and jumped toward the red brick wall feet first. When the soles of his feet hit the wall, he bent his knees, absorbing the impact, and steadied himself.
He took a breath and listened. Had somebody heard the bang against the wall? He waited another few seconds, but heard nothing in response, so he climbed the rope and reached the roof. Not even taking a second’s rest, he rolled up the rope and crossed the roof, being careful not to tread too heavily for fear the occupants would hear him.
When he reached the ledge, he inhaled deeply, letting the scent permeate his body. Lilo was somewhere below him. He laid flat on the ground and edged forward, looking down. There were several windows along this wall, one about six to eight feet below him. He slid back and rose, reaching into his backpack to retrieve his thermal imaging goggles. He put them on. Then he fastened the rope to an old chimney a few feet away.
Blake tied the rope around his waist, giving himself enough length to reach the window, then started to lower himself over the edge. He gripped the rope tightly and released more and more of it, until his feet touched the window ledge. He looked through the window, but it was painted black. Luckily, this was no obstacle for his goggles.
Inside the room he perceived two bodies, though he couldn’t tell whether they were vampire or human, because the heat signature of either species was the same. However, Lilo’s scent was strong here. It was seeping through the single-paned window. Blake made a quick assessment of the window and its mechanism. It was latched in the middle, meant to be opened at the top and tilted inward, rather than opened to the side. A little inconvenient to enter through such a tight space, but not entirely impossible. He’d worry about that after he’d managed to open it.
Blake reached for a knife in one of his many pockets and wedged it in the gap between window frame and lintel, sliding it to the latch in the middle. When he felt the lock, he wiggled the knife until he heard a click. He kept the knife there. Checking that his rope was holding, he let go of it with his other hand and then reached for the window, pushing it inward slowly and silently, until it had tilted to a forty-five degree angle on its bottom hinges.
He took off his goggles and hooked them onto his belt. It was dark in the room, but even without his night vision he would have known who was inside: Lilo’s scent was strongest here.
“Lilo,” he whispered.
He heard somebody stir, then he saw her and Hannah appear in his field of vision, looking up at the window.
“Blake!” Lilo said.
“Shhhh,” he cautioned, and put his finger to his lips and motioned Lilo and Hannah to approach. He took off his backpack and reached it through the opening, before he let go of it to drop it into Lilo’s waiting hands.
Checking out the window’s opening once more, he held onto the window frame and balanced himself on the ledge, releasing the rope. Once he was without the safety of the rope he reached inside the room, gripping the metal frame of the window that was anchored to the inside wall. He pulled up his knees and swung his legs through the opening, catapulting his body forward into the middle of the room, where he landed. The impact was hard, but he rolled off instantly.
Immediately, he listened for sounds from within the warehouse, but nobody seemed to have heard him.
Lilo and Hannah rushed to him. Lilo wrapped her arms around him, and he pressed her to him for a brief moment. “You’re alive.” He pressed a kiss into her hair, then reached for Hannah’s shoulder and squeezed it.
“We don’t have much time,” he murmured.
Lilo raised her eyes to the window. “How’re we gonna get up there?”
“We’re not,” he said. He snatched his backpack and opened it. He pulled two guns from it and handed one to Lilo and one to Hannah. “Have you fired a gun before?”
Lilo nodded. She’d attended the writer’s police academy several times to help her write realistic crime fiction.
Hannah shook her head, so he quickly showed her how to handle the gun.
Satisfied, Blake reached into the backpack again and pulled out a heavy silver chain. Even through the thick, double-layered leather gloves he could feel the silver, though it didn’t burn him. He laid it on the floor and pulled out his cell phone, sent a pre-typed text message to John, and put the phone back.