49

We move along the hallway in the direction of the hotel’s emergency exit. The place seems deserted; there’s little light, and no ambient noise. Any hotel guests are either asleep, so unaware of the blackout, or waiting it out quietly behind closed doors. The silence seems unnatural. It’s dangerous too. In this environment we’ll hear any move Monroe or his team are planning on making before we see them. They can’t hope to have the element of surprise.

There’s a real danger this will turn into a fire-fight. Cabressa might not have many bullets left, but I’m sure he’ll not give himself up easy. I shudder. Need to find a way to stop things happening that way. I know the best option: take Cabressa out of the game myself.

Cabressa stays a few paces ahead as he leads us along the hallway, following the emergency-exit signage. I keep step with Otis. Glance across at him. I’m wondering where his loyalties lie. At the beginning of this evening I’d thought he’d been a friend of Cabressa’s, but some of the things he’s said, and the way Cabressa has acted towards him and the others, makes me question that. Even so, I need to know he’s got my back.

Otis sees me looking at him and gives me a small smile. ‘We’re nearly out of here, man.’

‘Yeah.’ I don’t smile. I’m wondering how JT is doing. ‘But what about the others?’

‘Dunno.’ He glances upwards. ‘What happened in the penthouse, it was all kinds of bad. Feels like a nightmare.’

‘It wasn’t a nightmare, it was real,’ I say, my voice granite hard. ‘People died.’

‘Yeah, yeah.’ Otis looks twitchy. He glances towards Cabressa then back to me. ‘It was bad shit.’

I stay silent. Keep walking. Wait to see if he’ll say more.

Half a minute passes before Otis turns to me again. His voice is hushed. ‘We’ve got to go to the cops, man, soon as we get out of here. They’ll find whoever locked us into the penthouse and unleashed that crazy shit.’

I nod. ‘Good idea.’

With Cabressa so close, I can’t ask Otis outright if he’ll help me, but if he’s thinking of going to the cops I’m hoping he’ll step in if I tackle Cabressa and get into trouble. The cops do need to know what happened up in the penthouse tonight, but right now we need to fix the immediate threat from Cabressa.

I flick my gaze towards him. He’s still facing forward, leading us along the hallway, but there’s more tension in his posture – his back is rigid – and I wonder if he’s overheard us. I sure hope that he hasn’t.

We take a right into another hallway. A little ways ahead I see another emergency-exit sign with an arrow pointing to a set of doors. My heart accelerates. We’re almost at the stairs. It’s possible Monroe could have chosen this place to ambush Cabressa.

I slow my pace. Otis shortens his stride to keep level with me.

‘Move it,’ growls Cabressa, putting his hand on the release bar for the door. ‘Let’s go.’

We maintain our steady pace as we watch Cabressa push open the emergency-exit door and step into the stairwell. I take a breath and get ready to drop to the ground, pulling Otis with me, in case Monroe is waiting inside to ambush us.

Nothing happens.

Otis pushes open the door and walks through. He holds the door for me. Only Cabressa and Otis are on the stairs. Otherwise, the space is empty.

As I walk through the door, I take a brief glance over my shoulder. The corridor is still deserted. There’s no sign of Monroe or his SWAT team. I think about what he said, how he’d gotten the team stationed a little way down the street, outside the building, and guess that he’s taken the decision to apprehend Cabressa at ground level. I can understand that. But the problem is, that means there’s another forty-nine storeys to go before we act against Cabressa.

Personally, I don’t want to wait that long.