Page 67 of Thorn

“Brigitte here, I see you made it to the roof.”

“Roger.” This was as far as his Plan E had taken him. He knew from satellite pictures that he could move from roof to roof the length of the block, but then, so did anyone else with access to Google Earth. He knew he had nothing to the north. His best chance was to move south and hope for inspiration.

“My team is moving into place,” Brigitte said.

Thorn’s phone was hooked to the Panther Force war room, anything he heard, could be heard by Nutsbe and Lynx, too. “Your team is? Is this the team that was on the motorcycles chasing us out of the airport? The ones with what looked remarkably like explosive devices in their hands?” Thorn jogged along the roof, scanning for options.

“David DuBois and Juliette DuBois are separate missions.”

“But you’re the common denominator.”

“My mission goal for Juliette is to not allow her into the enemies hands.”

“Am I your enemy?” Thorn asked.

“As long as you’re keeping her safe, we’re playing on the same team.”

Thorn turned and sat on the wall separating this building from the next. He lifted his legs and swiveled around, planting his feet and taking off again. “What happens when I get her safe? Are you thinking you’ll take custody of her?”

“Save your breath, Thorn. Let’s focus on the Omega crew. Billy and his buddy went back through the window. They’ll move on to their back up plan. You’re heading south. Good choice, actually, your only choice. That fire alarm, by the way, wasn’t connected to emergency services. The old dude simply walked the halls and turned it off. Most of the people are out in the alley though with their phones, taping YouTube videos of your super hero antics.”

Thorn had made it to the wall separating the next buildings, and he sat, spun, and launched again.

“Thorn,” Lynx said, “we have a support team twelve minutes out. We’re checking architectural schematics, coming up with a plan.”

Thorn whispered, “Yeah, not a lot of options up here, even with the Calvary riding in.”

“You’re going to need to ditch Juliette and the pack,” Brigitte said. “You have guys coming up the fire escape on the building just south of you. It’s going to be a fight.”

Thorn didn’t like the idea of unstrapping and slowing himself down. “Where are you?”

“I’m coming to help, heading up the fire escape further north of you.” Brigitte’s breath came heavily. Thorn knew she was pushing to get to him.

Still, the idea of pulling Juliette off his shoulder… “How are you seeing all this?” he asked into the phone. His eye searched for a good place to put Juliette down, just in case.

“My guy is blinking a light,” Brigitte said.

Thorn was standing between two chimneys, and he could see the SOS blinking from the high rise just west of him on the other side of the alley. With enough rope, he could rig something−

“Ideas?” he called into his comms.

“She’s right. Four unsubs visible,” Nutsbe said. “They’re coming up the two buildings north of your location. You have about forty seconds. Unpack Juliette,now.”

Thorn pulled his multitool from his pocket, flipping out the pen knife. In one motion, he squatted down, and took a knee as he sliced through the zip tie and cord that held Juliette in place. “Here you go. I know it’s damp up here, But I need you to lie super still, curled up in a ball. I’m going to cover you with my pack. It’s black so you’ll be camouflaged here. I need you tostaystill and curled until I can get back to you.”

With chattering teeth, and wide eyes, Juliette followed his instructions. Putting her back to the chimney, pulling her knees to her chest, she didn’t say a word or make a sound.

Thorn dropped his pack off and leaned it over her. Made with a Kevlar lining, as long as it was in front of her, she had at least a little protection from knives and maybe even from a stray bullet.

All right, four against one.

Brigitte was coming.

Thorn just didn’t know how to file that away.

He wished he knew what her mission entailed.

He wished he knew if Brigitte really had his back, or if she planned to bury a knife there.

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