Alicia caught sight of the banner for the first time. Two terrorists were lugging the long package at the front of the fleeing herd, struggling, sweating, but forging gamely ahead. Their boss, it seemed, ran right behind them, shouting every time they stumbled or slowed. The closest man to her was a mercenary she recognized, and he was running as if a hellhound was snapping at his heels.
She was.
Alicia flew up the risers two at a time, pocketing her gun now that nobody seemed prepared to use them. At this altitude, she thought, that’s not a bad thing. Nobody wanted to fall through a smashed window over one thousand feet in the air.
The chase continued up, heading right for the top of the tower, and by now the less fit among them were starting to feel it. Feet slipped and tangled, sending men and women sprawling, making them lose precious seconds as they struggled once more to their feet. Alicia saw Russo at her back and then just a single FBI agent; she hoped the leaders above wouldn’t notice it.
Surely more would be waiting inside the entertainment area.
She caught the trailing merc, placing her hands on his shoulders, but he spun, expecting it, and shrugged her off. A well-placed elbow to the face made her cover up in the corner, and then he was away again, pounding ahead with increased adrenalin.
Russo came alongside her. “What the fuck are you doing, Myles?”
“Sorting a wedgie. Get a move on.”
Russo was so aghast he staggered up the next three steps. Alicia squeezed by him and laid on even more speed. She saw Crouch and Terri running alongside each other with Cutler just behind. The older man looked intensely white and unwell, and Alicia gritted her teeth even as she feared for him.
Up the stairs lay the Top of the World restaurant, an intimate lounge saved for live entertainment, then the observation deck and finally the thrill ride levels. Alicia saw that already the leaders had bypassed the restaurant and lounge.
Ah shit, that’s not good then.
Most of the other levels were outside.
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
Alicia burst through the doors, hot on the heels of the straggling mercenary. He’d slammed it back at her, but she took the blow on her outstretched arms and forced her way through. Beyond, a new world awaited.
To the right, a double, vertical row of windows tilted outward, their clear glass giving an almost vertical view straight down the side of the tower. Beyond the windows she saw the red painted tracks of the rollercoaster that ran around the outside and huge, alien-looking green arms that belonged to other rides. A breeze blew through the place, since the doors that led to the rollercoaster were open.
Terrorists crowded around the elevator doors. Mercs delayed in front of them. Alicia pulled up short of engaging anyone and eyed the huddle.
Russo joined her. “What the fuck? What is this — brunch break?”
Alicia caught Crouch’s eye, closer to him now than at any time in the last thirty six hours, but saw no helpful sign. No indication of his own intentions. What the hell does that mean?
More FBI agents came in behind them now. One shouted: “Freeze, FBI!”
Alicia turned and gave him a withering glare.
As if on a prearranged signal, two mercenaries and two terrorists rushed them. They came as a mass, wielding no weapons, hitting Alicia and Russo unstoppably from the front simply because they had nowhere to go. The agents pressed in behind, fell back as Alicia and Russo staggered into them, their attackers throwing punches and using knees to gain headway. Alicia peeled away to the side, the windows at her back, to gain a little room, and found a man confronting her. Two haymakers caused her to block and retreat another two steps and then she felt a rail at her back.
A shot was fired. One of the mercs went down. Somebody screamed at the shooter for being a goddamn fool. A melee erupted by the staircase doors, agents tripping and being herded by their aggressors. Russo stomped over to help Alicia.
She pointed at the elevator lights that were blinking. “Stop them!”
Russo came to a halt. Alicia took a blow to the stomach and then the chin. She rolled over the rail which appeared to be part of the rollercoaster queuing system. As she landed she kicked out, striking the other man’s shins and making him stagger. Then she rose fast, elbows striking out. If it weren’t for the rail she’d have progressed forward, but it hampered her movement. The man’s bloody visage was facing her again in just a few seconds.
“You’re sacrificing your freedom for them?” she hissed “Give it up. Let us by. I’ll get you some leniency.”
He struck out and they were evenly matched for a minute. Every second that passed screamed a warning to her brain. The staircase doors were still a mess. Russo was lumbering at the elevators but three aggressors were waiting to meet him, makeshift weapons ready.
Crouch screamed something then at the top of his voice, a reiteration of his earlier words: “Chase the gold! Keep chasing the gold!”
He conferred with Terri and Cutler as the mercs and terrorists around him pushed and huddled and fought off random attacks. Alicia saw it all even as she fought off the man standing before her. It was several seconds before she realized her mistake.
The cold was at her back.
“Crap and bol—”
Her opponent pressed forward, delivering blow after blow so quickly that she knew exactly what this guy did every day from dusk until midnight. Feeling like a punch bag she pressed back. Her right foot balanced on a round rail which would be the edge of the track. High winds buffeted her, tugged at her hair and jacket. Her left leg backed up against a hard surface and she figured that would be the rollercoaster carriage.
And this thing runs around the outside of the bloody tower.
Fear mixed with adrenalin galvanized her efforts. She struck at the man’s weak areas, his pain receptors. She hit the nose and the eyes, the throat and the groin. He grunted and growled but came on, unstoppable, perhaps immune to everything he felt but the victory he could see just a few steps behind Alicia.
And then he jumped at her.
The amount of times Alicia had cried out in dread could be counted on the fingers of one hand, but this was one of them. The man launched himself fully off the floor, struck her upper body, and sent her tumbling backward, over the rollercoaster carriage. He landed short, striking his chin on the edge. She fell inside, smacking her spine against the seats, her head and shoulders leaning out of the far side.
He rose before her. This wouldn’t be pretty. She kicked and kicked, stopping his advance and trying to lever herself up into a better position. A gale now slammed at her, flowing around the tower and funneling into the coaster station. To her left she could see a patch of ground, far below, all grays and browns and the distant, miniature tops of square and rectangular buildings that, from below, would probably seem very high indeed. To the right the coaster track curved away and around the tower as it emerged from a protective outer barrier.
The man reared up again, and this time she was out of options.
As he jumped into the carriage she somersaulted out of it, toward the drop. He landed heavily and she landed cat-like on the soles of her boots, both balanced on the outer track. He smashed his face into the hard surface and she leapt once more, coming down squarely on his neck. Even to her, battered as she was, the crunch was sickening.
Unable to give up, she forced herself down from the carriage and back inside the tower.
The elevators were chiming, white lights flashing. The man that she thought of as the terrorist leader was ready to push his banner-bearing men inside and had one arm around Crouch’s throat. Even from here she could tell he was a ruthless, violent individual. One other man guarded Terri with a similar threat, neutralizing both her and Cutler. And still, by the stairs, men fought and died. Russo had been felled by an attack and was even now struggling to his knees.