I got out of the car, slamming the door with more than necessary violence, and looked around. The hotel roof was flat and wide and open, with no one about. A cold wind whipped across the roof, ruffling my hair and tugging at my clothes. Molly came forward to join me.
“Are we still protected by your distraction field?” I said to Molly.
She shrugged, quickly. “It’s not an exact science. As long as we stay reasonably close to the car, probably.”
I walked over to the edge of the roof and looked down. It was a really long steep drop to the ground far below. I started to feel a bit dizzy, so I made myself keep looking until the feeling went away. Molly came and stood beside me. The drop didn’t seem to bother her at all.
“So, here we are,” she said brightly. “Part One of our Really Desperate Plan has been achieved. Really looking forward to seeing what Part Two might consist of.”
“Look at that drop,” I said. “I can’t believe Uncle Jack and Uncle James just jumped off here, and trusted to their handholds on the building to slow them down. I wouldn’t like to try it even now, with Ethel’s improved armour.”
“Which you haven’t got,” said Molly. “And, I think we should at least consider the possibility that your uncle Jack might have been exaggerating, just a bit.”
“Hard to tell, given all the things he really did do back in the day,” I said.
“If they really did do it, you can bet good money that there are security options in place now, to make sure no one ever does it again,” said Molly.
“Can you See any hidden security systems up here?” I said.
She looked around. “No. Nothing. Which is . . . odd. You’d expect something . . . if only to dissuade people like us.”
“There are no people like us,” I said firmly.
Molly stamped her foot on the roof a few times. “Seems solid enough. How are you planning to get down into the penthouse floor without the use of major explosives, which I don’t happen to have about me?”
“There’s a trap-door,” I said, pointing. “But that’s far too easy, and far too obvious. Bound to be alarmed.”
“Agreed,” said Molly.
I looked back over the edge of the roof. “I was always very good at climbing,” I said. “I used to climb around the exterior of Drood Hall all the time, when I was a kid. So I could get to all the places I wasn’t supposed to go.”
Molly grinned. “Like the girls’ dormitory, after lights out?”
“No,” I said. “I’ve always been the shy and retiring type.”
“I have noticed,” said Molly.
I lowered myself onto one knee and studied the exterior face of the hotel, with all its sweeping curves. There was a cold hard knot in my stomach.
“You want to climb down that?” said Molly. “Are you sure about this?”
“Absolutely,” I said. “But feel free to try to talk me out of it.”
I swung down over the edge before she could say anything. I needed to do it to prove to myself that I was physically fit and fine again . . . and that my nerve was everything it should be. I couldn’t go through life hesitating and worrying, armour or no armour. I was a field agent, and that was all that mattered. I grabbed tightly on to every extruding curve, and forced my feet into every place where one rounded design met another. And step by step, foot by foot, I lowered myself down the side of the building. It was a lot harder than I remembered from my youth, but then, I’d been a lot smaller and lighter in those days. And, I’d had my armour. And, the drop had only been a few stories. I didn’t look down, just concentrated on finding new foot – and handholds. The cold wind whipped around me, blowing my hair in my eyes and tugging peevishly at my clothes. Trying to pull me away from the hotel face, and throw me down. I pressed myself as flat against the building as I could, and kept going.
No armour to protect me, nothing to depend on but my own strength and skill. I grinned to myself. I was going to have to do this, anyway, so I might as well enjoy it.
A line of closed and apparently secure windows stretched across the building, marking my arrival at the penthouse floor. The glass was opaque everywhere, so that Parris and his kind could look out on the world, but the world couldn’t see them. Which meant I had no way of knowing whether there was anyone home, and maybe watching me. I would have shrugged, but it didn’t seem like a good idea. I lodged my feet carefully, and tested the frame of the window with my fingertips. No obvious locks or hinges, or anything I could get a grip on. I could have smashed my way in with an armoured fist, or broken the seal with armoured filaments, but now . . . I was still considering the problem when I realised Molly was standing beside me, hovering in mid-air. I looked at her for a long moment.
“What?” she said. “You didn’t ask. I could have carried you down, if you’d asked.”
“I have my dignity,” I said.
“Don’t touch the glass itself,” Molly said briskly. “It’s alarmed. I can See the protections. Major league stuff, too. Expensive.”
“Give me your half of the Armourer’s lock-breaker,” I said.
I fished out my half, being very careful with every move I made. Molly handed over her half. The two pieces fitted easily together, clicking into place to form one smooth black square. No obvious controls, or protrusions, so I just pressed the thing carefully against the frame of the window. And the window opened, swinging smoothly outwards.
The solid glass pushed me away from the building with a firm, remorseless pressure, forcing me backwards. My feet scuffed and slipped on the curved surfaces, and I scrabbled helplessly for a hold on the smooth window frame. I’d just started to fall backwards when Molly grabbed me from behind.
“I can carry you in,” she said. “Or you can embrace your dignity, all the way to the ground.”
“Carry me,” I said.
Molly flew me in through the open window. I snatched the lock-breaker at the last moment, and the window swung smoothly shut behind us.
Inside, it was at least a fair bit warmer, away from the cold wind. Molly placed me carefully on my feet, and I nodded my thanks. A quick look around suggested we’d hit pay dirt first time out. We were inside a massive, sprawling office, packed with every luxury and comfort.
“I love it when a plan comes together,” I said.
“I love it when pure blind luck hands us a free pass,” said Molly. “You really should have left the window open in case we need to make a sudden exit.”
“You’ve done this before,” I said.
“I did have a life, before I met you,” said Molly.
“I know,” I said. “I try not to think about it.”
We both moved cautiously around what I very much hoped was Franklyn Parris’ office, careful to touch nothing. Very plush, very comfortable, thick carpeting, paintings on the walls. But somehow, still impersonal. No character, no individual touches. Just a place to work. Molly studied the paintings carefully, and then sniffed loudly.
“Bought by the yard,” she said. “Ordered out of a catalogue, to look good. No taste, or design. Just there to impress the visitors. And I can tell you for a fact, that Dali there is a fake. I stole the original years ago.”
“That was you?” I said. “I’m impressed. But the paintings are just that little bit too obvious, to hide a safe behind. Keep looking.”
I moved over to the large and impressive office desk, just bursting with all kinds of futuristic tech. I hadn’t even got within arm’s reach when Molly spun round and yelled at me.
“Stop! Don’t move! Don’t even breathe heavily! I’m sensing alarms everywhere!”
I froze where I was. “Have I activated anything? Am I in any danger? Should I start running?”