At the window, as we prepared to climb back down, Raven said, “When you get to the bottom, unhook the rope from your climbing belt and give two tugs. I’ll know you’re free. Then step away with Jo, because after a ten-count, I’ll be throwing the rope down from the top, and I don’t want to hit her. The hook at the end looks small, but at the speed it will be coming down, it’s going to be dangerous.”
I tried to lighten the mood. “Not worried about hitting me?”
Her answer was a grunt.
I wasn’t successful in fighting a quick surge of temper. “What’s with the attitude?” I said. “You and Jo are treating me like dog poop to scrape off a shoe.”
“We owed you this help, and you’re getting it,” Raven said. “Why should you care what attitude comes with it? But if you want to know, we’re seriously not happy about the blackmail thing and how you threatened to turn us in to the authorities if we didn’t help.”
“Didn’t say I cared,” I snapped back. “It was just an observation.”
“Then keep it to yourself. When we’re on the ground, that’s the last you’ll see of us. Our debt to you will be paid, and you can go back to preppie heaven.”
“Sounds like a good plan to me,” I said. Especially because there was a better than fifty-fifty chance it had been the two of them torturing me with curling irons.
Raven had removed the Jumars and replaced them with belay devices. These were simple hand brakes with the rope threaded through them to slow my descent. I pulled on the leather gloves and gritted my teeth in anticipation of the pain. I lowered myself over the windowsill and began to slowly slide down the rope, using the belay devices as Raven had instructed to brake myself against gravity.
It was far easier going down than up.
I landed softly a few minutes later.
“Top of the evening to you,” I said to Jo.
“Whatever,” she answered.
“Look,” I said, “if it’s about kicking that kitten…”
“Huh?”
“Inside joke,” I said. “Very inside. Forget I said anything.”
I tugged twice on the rope.
“We’ve got ten seconds to clear,” I told Jo. “The grappling hook is coming down.” We both stepped back a healthy distance. There was a slight thump as the rope hit the grass in front of us.
Jo stepped forward to reel in the rope and wind it up to place in her backpack. As she completed that task, I stayed where I was. Much as Raven’s attitude bothered me, I had to admit it was amazing to watch her climbing abilities.
She threaded her way back down the outer wall of the hospital, finding nooks and crevices in the bricks.
Halfway down, she froze. She gave a warning hiss.
That’s when the flicker of a flashlight to my left caught my eye. With her bird’s-eye view, she’d spotted it first.
The light moved and bobbed with the rhythm of a man at a walking pace. Security guard.
At this point, he didn’t seem to be hurrying. The light flicked around as he checked doors and windows. But that lack of purpose would only last about thirty seconds. This guy wasn’t a slacker—he was flashing the light up and down the walls. Chances were too good that he’d pin Raven with that light.
I was guessing Raven didn’t want to move because she was afraid it would catch his eye.
“Jo,” I said in a low voice. “Trouble.”
She saw it immediately. “We need to distract him.”
“We could make out,” I said.
“What?”
“You know. Like in movies. We could start kissing and look all passionate, like we didn’t notice the guard, and then be all embarrassed about being caught, and that would distract him from Raven above us. It’s a price I’m willing to pay.”
“Make out,” she said. “Kiss.”
“It’s a sacrifice I’m prepared to make for the team,” I said.
“I’d hate to make you pay a price that high,” she said. “Let’s try something else.”
She stepped back, then started screaming, “Get away from me! I don’t know you!”
“What?” I stepped forward and grabbed her arm.
She grabbed mine in return, twisted it and flipped me to the ground. The air rushed from my lungs. Standing over me, she yelled, “You’re disgusting! Slimeball!”
Then she turned and ran, leaving me alone with the guard coming up fast on the sidewalk.
“Hey!” the guard shouted. “What’s going on!”
“I dated a creep, that’s what’s wrong!” she shouted without slowing down. “He’s back there by the bushes!”
The flashlight beam swung in my direction. But by then I was already running too. Opposite direction.