Page 69 of Sky Song
“It’s all your fault!” she hissed when they halted in front of the door that opened to the ground floor. Cracking it open a hair, Lyle took in the scene out on the floor.
“I have a hunch you don’t have much experience with escaping from tight spots,” he murmured.
“Your hunch is correct. Because I’m not a thief! And I’m not some freakish paramilitary infiltration soldier!” She was shaking from nerves and adrenaline.
“Lucky for you, I’m both.” Lyle closed the door. Pivoting, he started dragging her further up. “These stairs lead to the roof. Let’s go there.”
Like oversized moronic shades, overblown and misshapen for the lab overcoats they were wearing, they surreptitiously exited the staircase onto the roof and started moving along the perimeter, avoiding the landing pad located in the center. Lyle paused and gave a brief but intense consideration to the small medevac perched in the middle, looking sharp and pretty as a picture. “How do you feel about flying out of here?”
“Nope.”
“It’s an option if you’re willing to hop behind the controls.”
“Noppity nope nope.”
Lyle sighed and picked up an empty crate laying nearby and thrust it at Cricket. “Hold it like it’s heavy and look busy. Walk like we belong here.”
She took the crate. “Walk where?”
“To the door on the opposite side. See that overhang over there?”
She nodded. Holding the crate in front of her, she started toward the door with Lyle following close behind. Three menworking on the other side of the landing pad barely glanced in their direction.
Cricket tried not to rush but it was near impossible for the frantic beating of her heart. If one of the people took a good look at them, the game would be over.
Sweat broke all over her skin.
“We’re almost there. Easy now, let me get the door.”
In plain sight, they got in on the other side of the building and called the elevator. The alarm was no longer blaring and everything looked normal.
“Where does this elevator go?” Lyle asked.
She swung desperate eyes at him. “I don’t know, Lyle. I’m not familiar with this part of the hospital.”
“No problem. Keep holding that crate.”
They got off the elevator and brazenly walked down a corridor with Lyle confidently leading the way and her trailing behind holding on to the dirty crate for dear life. They passed through another door that took them to a small garden, and from there, to the street where they left their rider.
“You drive, sky song. You have to.”
She tried to get in but kept bumping against the frame until Lyle gently stopped her and pried the crate out of her clutches.
“Mind it we leave it behind?” He was grinning, the bastard.
“Where should we go?” she asked after activating the controls.
“Drive home.”
“What if we’re followed?”
“Are we?”
“I don’t know!” she wailed.
He kept grinning. “We aren’t. But we may need to think things through a little. Did you use your access code to log in?”
She adjusted her face shield with an unsteady hand. “After we had the power outage, the computer system glitched. While they were working to fix it, they gave everyone a default access code.”
