Page 13 of Coldwire
“Hey,” I say. “Do you hear that?”
The soldier turns around, his badge pressed to the panel. His nose is crinkled, his top lip curled with a faint hint of disgust.
“What?”
I keep listening. “It sounds like a helicopter. Weird for one to be arriving at this hour.”
The moment the words leave my mouth, the lights go out. My heart plummets to my stomach. The soldiers take a beat to react. One of them yells out loud. The other two pull their handguns from their holsters.Despite their preparedness, they still flinch when the windows to our left shatter, pelting glass into the stairwell. I’m making an effort to press as closely as I can to the banister. If there’s some sort of attack on the facility, I won’t be looped in with Atahua’s federal agents—
The silhouette of a person dives through the window, immediately unhooking a harness line from their belt. I search the stairwell for something, anything, to hide behind. Nothing. Before I’ve had the chance to consider whether it would be better to run, the silhouette from the window comes right for me.
“Wait, wait—”
They reach to grab my wrist. I go for my quickest defense, straightening my arms even while they’re stuck together with my cuffs. One of the soldiers fires a shot in the dark. It misses. This masked figure, meanwhile, has predicted my exact move and grabs my elbow instead. Before I register their counteractive measure, they have their other arm looped through my waist, and I’m being picked up, thrown over their shoulder.
This has turned from merely dire to a catastrophic situation.
I have one gulp of air to scream before I’m yanked out of the third-story window, making a rapid plunge for the concrete ground. The wind whistles against my ears. My sense of balance turns upside down, fighting to understand which direction gravity has flipped.
We come to a halt just before hitting the pavement.
“Come on, soldier.”
I recognize that voice. I don’t believe it. I’m too flabbergasted to react, but then my rescuer releases the rope he caught, depositing us onto the sidewalk beside the federal building. The line of military is gone. My feet stop the moment they meet solid ground, so he grabs my arm again, hauling me forward.
A helicopter has descended near the pier. There’s an alarm shrieking from the federal building. Red and white lights flash from the exterior, but the agents haven’t made it out the door yet.
“When we reach the ladder, you’re going to climb.”
“I’m not climbing.” I have to shout over the helicopter’s frenzied whirring. My short hair whips into my eyes. “I’m not fleeing the scene with you.”
Nik Grant yanks off his ski mask. “You’d rather be prosecuted for treason? Because trust me, theywillprosecute you.”
I fight to squeeze air into my lungs. The night shouldn’t feel so cuttingly cold when we’ve long left the husks of winter. Each swallow tightens my throat.
The federal agents emerge from the building.
“Forget it,” Nik Grant snaps. “This isn’t a choice. Let’s go.”
Atahua’s most dangerous anarchist, who is only a teenage boy barely three inches taller than I am, yanks me with him until we’ve approached the hovering helicopter. Nik flings my bound hands onto a rung of the ladder.
“Either hold on or fall off.Lift!” The latter part of that command is called up to the people inside the aircraft. Gunshots ring into the night, fired from the steps of the federal building. I throw a glance over my shoulder, both hoping for some intervention and praying there is none. My hair tears into a frenzy, writhing like loose wires and obscuring my eyes while the wind picks up with takeoff. I scramble to hook a leg through a lower rung so that my arms aren’t straining for grip. The shots keep ringing out, coming close enough to strike the ladder multiple times with fierce metallic clanking before the helicopter hefts properly into the dark clouds.
“I’m sure I don’t need to warn you not to try anything at this point.”
Nik nudges my ankle with his own leg, securing my footing. His voice hovers close to my ear. I resist the impulse to fling myself off only to see what might happen if I did. He’d probably follow me and drag me right back even if we’d both splatted on the ground.
The ladder starts to retract back into itself on a winding mechanism, pulling us higher, higher, until there’s an arm inside reaching for my elbow and yanking me in.
“I have to say…” The girl doesn’t release me once I’m on my feet. Herhands stay at my shoulders in the dark interior as she makes a thorough examination of my face. “I really didn’t think this was going to work.”
“Lack of trust, Miz. Didn’t I say it would be fine?”
Nik clambers in, slamming the helicopter door closed. It seals away the roar of sound outside. With the engine flying steadily, I could almost believe we’re standing in a train car on the ground instead.
A beat passes. I’m taking in the space, the bags stashed in the corner, the clean seats that make the helicopter appear entirely new.
“Why did you break me out?” I ask carefully. My voice is hoarse.
