"Not today, good buddy."
The door opened. Before Cavanaugh could fire, Carl vanished into the building.
Cavanaugh raced up the stairs, but not before the door slammed shut. He yanked at the knob. Locked. He pounded on the door. Beyond it, he heard shots. The door was metal. Carl knew that pistol bullets wouldn't go through it. That meant the bullets were intended for someone else: whoever had opened the door. Cavanaugh thought he heard footsteps running along a corridor.
"He's in a building on the second floor!" Cavanaugh said into his lapel mike.
"We'll seal off Fulton and the opposite street!" the voice promised.
Loud noises made Cavanaugh spin and look down the stairs. A half dozen agents rushed along the passageway. The person he focused on was Jamie.
"He went through here!" Cavanaugh yelled to them. Seeing flowerpots at the top of the stairs, Cavanaugh grabbed one and hurled it through the window next to the door. Convinced that Carl wouldn't have risked staying, he reached through, freed a lock, and raised the window. Air conditioning cooled his hand.
As Jamie and the agents ran up the stairs, Cavanaugh peered through the window, studied an office, decided that he had to take the chance, and crawled inside. Two women lay on the floor, streaming blood.
"We need an ambulance!" Cavanaugh shouted into his lapel mike. Rushing, he unlocked the door.
Jamie and the agents hurried in but stopped at the sight of the gunshot victims. One agent knelt, trying to help them while Cavanaugh and the others raced along a corridor.
In an office, a man peered up, hiding behind a desk. In another office, a man lay bleeding.
Reaching a lobby, Cavanaugh saw a receptionist trembling in a corner behind her desk. Glass doors led to an elevator and stairs.
"We've got operators waiting on the street outside! He can't get through!" an agent told him. Gun drawn, the agent ran past Cavanaugh and charged down the stairs, the others following.
But Cavanaugh and Jamie lingered.
"What's above us?" Cavanaugh asked the trembling receptionist.
She opened her mouth. No sound came out.
"You're safe now," Jamie said. "What's above us?"
"Other offices."
"And?"
"A roof garden."
Chapter 33.
Three minutes to ten.
A team member stood against a wall as the crowd passed. Impatient, he checked his watch, looked up, and paled when two men confronted him, aiming pistols.
"Hands up!"
*
"Turn around! Against the wall!" an agent shouted to another team member, this one a block away. "Jay, get the knapsack off him!"
*
"I think it's safe to take the knapsack!" an agent yelled to his partner three blocks away. "If it's a bomb, it doesn't have a manual trigger. Otherwise, he'd have blown himself up by now."
Someone in the crowd overheard. " Bomb? "
"Where?"
"A bomb!"
"Run!"
*
"Keep your hands away from the knapsack!" an agent shouted.
When the team member drew a pistol, the agent protected the knapsack and shot the man in the head.
The dying man fired into the sidewalk, fragments hitting the crowd.
Panicking, a woman tripped. Stampeding, three men fell over her. Screams filled the street.
Chapter 34.
Cavanaugh and Jamie hurried up the stairs. An office door was open, startled faces peering out.
"Close the door," Cavanaugh told them.
"Take cover," Jamie warned.
Continuing higher, they reached an open door, sky beyond it.
"Stay here," Cavanaugh said. "You don't need to do this."
"Babe, I'm not letting you do it alone."
Cavanaugh went first, aiming to the right while Jamie aimed to the left. Amid blazing sunlight, potted trees and shrubs surrounded them. Patio tables, chairs, and sun umbrellas provided a lunch area through which Cavanaugh and Jamie darted, searching for a target.
"Over there," Jamie said.
Fifty yards away, a shed-like structure had an open door. With the Mississippi spread along their right, they raced toward the exit.
"He used the roof to head east! Farther along the block!" Cavanaugh shouted into his lapel mike. "The corner!"
They entered a stairwell in time to hear footsteps rumbling below them.
"He's almost onto the street!" Cavanaugh shouted.
"We're waiting!" a voice shouted through his earpiece.
Shots made Cavanaugh pause. Even in the stairwell, he heard screaming along the street.
Chapter 35.
Two minutes to ten.
Nearing the ground floor, Carl heard shots outside. Beyond a window, a frenzy swept through the crowd, people swarming to get away. He veered into an office, where workers stared in alarm at the chaos outside. Turning toward him, they reacted with greater alarm to his bare chest, the water dripping from his face, and the gun in his hand.
"Out!" Carl yelled. When they didn't respond, he chose a man with red hair and shot him. " Out! Out! Out! "
The survivors collided with each other, all of them trying to get through the door at once. Firing above their heads, Carl watched them surge out, joining the turmoil on the street. Agents out there would be totally overwhelmed.
He grabbed a suit coat off a chair and put it on. He picked up a chair and hurled it through French doors. He surged through and joined the screaming, stampeding crowd.