Page 5 of Lethal Danger

The man lost his grip. And fell.

Hawthorne’s breath stopped.

The guy landed hard on the support beams between the spokes below.

“Base, this is PT3.” The redhead spoke into coms, her tone steady. “A passenger tried to climb down the Ferris wheel and fell. He’s still on the wheel. Appears to be unconscious. Call a rescue squad.”

Hawthorne stared at the man. He hadn’t moved. The Phoenix K-9 agent was probably right. And it could be a good thing if he was out. At least he wouldn’t panic and do something additionally foolish.

But he could wake up at any moment. And fall to his death, if he wasn’t already terminally injured.

They couldn’t wait for the rescue squad.

“I’m going up.”

“What?” Both women said the word at virtually the same time. They stared at Hawthorne but didn’t actually look like they thought he was crazy. More like they doubted his ability to do it.

“Can you free-climb?” The redhead’s expression was intense, her eyebrows lowered.

The rational question took him by surprise. He’d expected her to protest or try to stop him.

“I do it all the time.” Normally on rocks or climbing walls, but a Ferris wheel shouldn’t be much more challenging. He hoped.

“You know that’s fifteen stories up?” The agent with the shepherd appeared to be assessing him with her dark eyes.

He chuckled. “Yeah, I’ve heard.”

“I’ll call for some rope so we can lower him down.”

He gave the redhead a nod. “Good idea.” He turned and walked past the controls toward the base of the wheel, eyeing the best place to begin the climb. At least he’d worn his broken-in tennis shoes today. Should be fairly flexible with a bit of grip.

He scanned the massive base of the wheel. Not the best handholds there. He glanced back toward the cabin that had just been vacated in the loading dock. That should be easier.

He went to the enclosed pod and clambered up to stand on top of it. No sweat.

From the roof of the cabin, he reached for the X-shaped beams that crisscrossed between the vertical spokes. Gripping the middle of the X, he found footholds where the beams connected with the spokes.

He pulled himself up, switching out his handhold to put his foot in the middle of the X as he climbed. He continued the same pattern, sweat moistening his forehead with the effort. The holds were pretty good.

He looked up beyond the next beams. Might as well keep climbing vertically until he reached the center of the wheel.

The passenger had fallen onto the support beams and spokes that were locked horizontally at the moment. So long as Kenny didn’t bump any controls.

Hawthorne grimaced at the thought as he pushed on. By the time he reached the center of the wheel, sweat dampened his skin under his blue security uniform T-shirt.

Thanks to the interconnecting spokes and beams at the center, it wasn’t hard to climb from there out onto the horizontal spokes.

He stayed in the prone position, essentially crawling as he carefully gripped the crisscrossed beams between the spokes with his hands and wedged his feet in the corners to be sure he didn’t slip through. The parallel spokes were much farther apart up here than they’d appeared from the ground. Too widely placed for him to grip them instead.

He looked up from his holds as he neared the fallen passenger.

The man didn’t move. Was he alive?

Hawthorne picked up his speed to close the distance between them.

“Sir?” Hawthorne braced his knee against the beams, ignoring the discomfort of the metal digging into his bone as he let go with one hand to reach for the unmoving passenger.

He pressed his fingers to the guy’s clammy neck, feeling for a pulse.

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