NUMA files 19 Dark Vector by Clive Cussler

Author:Clive Cussler
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Adventure, Thriller
ISBN: 9780593419670
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Published: 2022-05-24T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 31

The freight elevator jerked to a stop and Yan-Li slipped out the doors before they’d even fully opened. They’d come to the hundred and first floor, seldom visited, off-limits to the general public, where the management stored cleaning equipment, supplies and tools.

Yan stepped forward, found the exterior door and cracked it open, looking around for any sign of trouble. She saw the surface of the rooftop and the curved wall of the circular platform that made up the higher deck. Directly ahead lay a white crane that was used to lower the window-washing platforms. Other than that, the roof looked empty.

She stepped forward. The night air was heavy and humid with the threat of rain. A layer of mist drifted past, tinted orange from the glow of the illuminated spire above.

“It’s clear,” she called back, waving the others forward.

Guānchá came first, then Zhu, still carrying Degra over his shoulder like a sack of flour. The hostage was beginning to stir, groaning and moving one arm sluggishly. Yan hoped he’d be securely bound in the helicopter before the anesthetic wore off.

“Where’s the helicopter?” Zhu cried out.

“Quiet,” Yan demanded. She listened closely. The sound of rotor blades could be heard in the distance, coming in from the west. The noise grew louder and more thunderous. A landing light came on, piercing the mist with an arrow of light. It swung around, playing across the central column that held the building’s lighted spire, bathing the rooftop in a brilliant glare. Yan held a hand in front of her eyes.

“Can’t touch down,” the pilot’s voice called out over the radio. “I repeat, we can’t touch down. Move to the corner of the roof. We’ll put one wheel on the edge and you’ll have to climb in.”

Yan-Li rolled her eyes at the request. Move to the edge of a fifteen-hundred-foot building and climb up on the mist-slick wall. Hop from there into a helicopter balancing on the edge while the downdrafts swirl around you. Sure, she thought. No problem.

She clenched her teeth and stepped forward, kicking off her high heels and fighting her way into the wind as it whipped at her slacks.

The pilot was good. He eased the helicopter in close, putting the big machine exactly where he said he would. Its right-hand wheel touched the ramparts of the building while the lethal blades sliced the air within mere feet of the central spire.

Yan crouched at the edge of the wall. Turning back, she urged Guānchá and Zhu to hurry. “Come on,” Yan shouted.

Guānchá moved out of the shadows, handing Yan the radio and stepping past her to climb up on the wall.

Its surface was wide and sturdy but slick with condensation. Guānchá tested the footing and reached for the helicopter, grasping a handle on the door and pulling himself in.

Safely inside, he turned and yelled to Zhu. “Hand him over to me.”

Zhu stepped forward. But before he reached the wall, a brace of small-arms fire tore into the side of the helicopter, stitching a trail from the doorway up to the cockpit.

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