Nasira found herself in another room. There were no other exits. Just another ladder that took them higher. She kept going, pausing only to make sure her Glock was still in her waistband. It was her only weapon and she wasn’t about to lose it.
She reached the final ladder and climbed to the top. Aviary was just reaching it now. The level was floored with wooden planks, covered in dust and grime. The walls were bare brick, occasionally sprouting a concrete frame. Nasira moved under the concrete, torch in hand, ducking some hot pipes.
They were in the clock tower. A wooden landing fed her out onto a narrow metal walkway under the clock mechanism — a cumbersome cannon-like device that connected via a sort of needle to the center of the thirteen-foot-wide Tiffany glass clock.
The stained glass was ornately designed, with a gold and blue center edged with gold, and white Roman numerals on dark crimson.
Nasira could feel Aviary’s quick breaths on her shoulder.
‘Now where?’ Aviary said.
Nasira needed something to smash through the clock face, but she stopped when she noticed the Roman number VI was actually a window she could open.
‘Through the clock,’ Nasira said.
‘What?’ Aviary said.
Nasira pushed the window open. Wind and rain roared through and howled down the ladders. She suppressed a shiver. Aviary stumbled and regained her footing.
Nasira peered down over the hand-carved stone and didn’t like what she saw. Directly below, the Park Avenue Viaduct, a raised two-way overpass that overshadowed the super-wide Park Avenue South. It was the first time she’d seen it devoid of traffic. In the distance she could see a dark storm front moving towards them.
Hurricane Isaias.
Even though it was elevated from the ground, the viaduct was still too far to survive any sort of jump — the drop to the viaduct alone was probably a six-story fall. Nasira craned her head and looked up. She could see the carvings of Mercury, Hercules and Minerva staring down on her, asking her what the fuck she was doing up here. She couldn’t fly, so get down, bitch.
The roof was just above the carvings. That was possible, she thought, so roof it was. She lifted herself up to sit on the ledge, holding the window frame around her. Aviary was watching from inside, frozen. Over the wind Nasira could hear the Blue Berets breach the door downstairs.
‘You can either come with me,’ Nasira said, ‘or you can face them.’
‘I can’t go out there,’ Aviary said.
‘And I can’t guarantee they’ll keep you alive,’ Nasira said.
Nasira shifted into a crouch and gradually rose, feeling her way along the glass clock, her hands finding grooves and protrusions in the design to hold onto. It was wet and she had to talk her legs out of trembling. She wouldn’t admit it to Aviary but she was very fucking unsure about this.
Nasira climbed over a ledge onto the side of the clock, reaching the bent knee of a god. She didn’t know whether it was Mercury or Hercules, and she didn’t much give a fuck as long as the god kept her from falling. She pulled herself up over his bent knee, landing in his crotch.
Stable and not at risk of falling, she turned and looked back down at the clock. Aviary’s red hair tangled in the wind. She was staring down at the viaduct, dissolving her will to climb.
‘Don’t look there!’ Nasira called over the wind. ‘Look up here! Look at me!’ She maneuvered herself back over the bent knee and offered her hand across the ledge. ‘Climb to my hand and you’re safe! Can you do that for me?’
Aviary nodded — not really convincing but it was something. Aviary sat on the mouth of the window and her shaky hands reached out to grip the frame around the numerals V and VII. She started on one knee and one foot, then slowly stood upright, her body pressed against the glass clock. She wrapped both arms around the minute hand. She trembled when the hand moved slightly.
‘Take it slow, it’s OK!’ Nasira yelled.
It wasn’t OK. But she had to say it. She needed to get Aviary away from the clock. Aviary reached out with her left hand, clawing for the edge of the clock. There were protrusions at every hour, carved into the stone. Aviary’s hand clamped over one. She transferred her weight across, stepped along the carved stone and out of the window.
Come on, Aviary. Come the fuck on.
Aviary moved too quickly, her hand slipping on the wet stone. She scrambled, her hand reaching for the ledge. She missed Nasira’s hand. She dangled underneath. Nasira wasn’t sure what from, but under the ledge there were more engraved things — not gods or whatever but something Aviary had managed to hold onto with one hand to keep from plummeting to her death.
Nasira hooked her boot under the bent knee of the god. Anchored, she shuffled further until she could hang half off the ledge. She reached face-down, blood rushing to her head. She was inches from Aviary.
‘Reach for my hand!’ Nasira yelled.
But she knew it was no good. Aviary had nothing else for leverage. Her strength and endurance weren’t going to last long.
‘Shit,’ Aviary said.
‘Hold on!’ Nasira yelled. ‘Grab my leg!’
Nasira retreated to the bent knee, unhooked her foot. There was only one way to get closer to Aviary and it meant going feet-first. She lowered herself over the edge. She only had her elbows keeping her from slipping off the ledge completely. The god’s bent knee was too high up to grip now. She lowered her legs, tried to find something to stand on. There was nothing.
Nasira’s legs hung in the air. She looked over her shoulder, located Aviary at her four o’clock. Aviary was hanging on the very bottom of the stone carvings, under the clock.
A gust of wind pinned Nasira against the wall. She looked up and didn’t like what she saw. Farther south the edge of the hurricane was moving through Park Avenue. It swelled and curled between the buildings, dark and agitated. It was coming right for them.
Shit.
Nasira shuffled to the end of the ledge, reached her leg out. Her boot made it to Aviary’s head.
‘Grab my ankle!’ Nasira yelled.
Aviary was looking at it, terrified. Nasira’s foot was right beside her head. Aviary lifted her free arm up and clamped it over Nasira’s lower leg. Nasira felt the weight bear on her. She transferred all her strength to her elbows and shoulders, keeping her on the ledge.
‘Both hands!’ Nasira yelled.
Nasira couldn’t look down anymore. She needed to stay on the ledge. She felt Aviary transfer over. Her weight almost pried Nasira from the rain-slicked stone. Her fingers were spread wide, clawing. She couldn’t reach out to the bent god’s knee; it was too far on her left. She shifted her elbows further onto the ledge but Aviary was pulling her back faster than she could move.
Instead of moving her elbows in, she started edging along, moving left. Aviary was swinging helplessly underneath. With each movement, Nasira lost an inch from the ledge and another inch of Aviary’s grip.
Nasira didn’t know if she’d make it but she was sure as hell going to try. She shifted one elbow at a time. Behind her, the hurricane loomed closer. The wind strengthened, threatening to tear them from the ledge. Move by move, she shifted away from the clock and toward the god with the bent knee.
Finally she reached the knee. But she soon realized it was too high to reach. Her elbows were almost off the ledge. It felt like Aviary was hanging by almost nothing. If Nasira risked moving farther she’d lose her leverage and be hanging by just her fingers. But with Aviary’s body weight she wasn’t going to last long.
She kept moving. Past the knee. To the god’s lower leg. To his ankle. The ankle was low, planted firmly on the ledge. Her elbow slipped. The other elbow slipped. Aviary screamed. Nasira clawed at the lip with both hands.