43

And so we climb.

The lower we get the cooler the air becomes. Breathing starts to feel easier, and the pounding in my chest begins to subside. It’s only after I’ve been climbing a few minutes that I catch a glimpse of my watch. It’s eight minutes after the air in the suite was rendered unbreathable. So far we’ve climbed down six storeys and there’s no sign of the elevator car. There are fifty-seven more to go.

Above me I see the flashlight that I know belongs to Cabressa flicker and die. Otis’s cellphone battery gave out long before we’d left the penthouse. Mine is all we have now. I glance at the cell tucked into my bra. The screen shows me there’s one percent battery life remaining. It won’t last long enough for us to reach the bottom.

‘You okay?’ I shout up to Otis.

‘Yeah,’ he says. I can hear the exhaustion in his voice, and the shock. After what happened to Mikey I wasn’t at all sure that he’d even start this climb. But he did, and for that I’m relieved.

‘Move faster and shut the hell up,’ says Cabressa.

Ignoring Cabressa, I yell, ‘Hang in there, Otis.’

‘Doing my best,’ he says.

I smile at that, despite the ache that’s creeping into my hands and fingers from finding and clinging on to the metal struts of the elevator cage. As long as Otis is here it’ll be two against one when we reach the bottom. There’s hope that between us we can disarm Cabressa. We’re younger and we’re fitter. And the mobster will be tired after the climb, hopefully more so than us. I have to believe we can get the gun from him. I have to make that my plan.

*

There’s no light now. My cellphone battery’s died.

I keep climbing. Maintain the same rhythm. Find the footholds with my toes, and the handholds with my fingers. My bare feet are sore; cramp is setting in to my toes. There’s no way to tell how far down we are. All we can do is keep climbing until we reach the ground, and so we do.

Minutes pass.

We keep climbing.

My fingers become numb. My biceps and thigh muscles ache like a bitch.

Still we climb.

‘How much longer?’ calls Otis. He sounds exhausted.

‘I don’t know,’ I reply. I want to give him hope, but we could have four storeys to go or forty. The darkness and the echoing metal tube of the elevator shaft are disorientating. I have no sense now of how far we’ve climbed.

‘Just move it,’ growls Cabressa. There’s aggression in his tone, but tiredness too.

We keep moving, climbing. It’s all we can do.

Cramp turns my fingers into claws. I struggle to grip the struts of the elevator cage. Cuss under my breath and force myself to grip the metal through the pain.

I’m not sure how much longer I can do this.

Keep climbing.

Maintain the same rhythm.

Fight the pain in my fingers, my arms, my legs.

My foot hits something solid. Metal. The sound of it echoes like a thunderclap in the constricted space of the shaft.

‘Lori?’ Otis calls, fear in his voice.

‘What’s the hell’s that?’ Cabressa calls from a way above me to the right. ‘Did you reach the ground?’

‘I don’t think so.’ I slide my foot along the metal. Put a little more of my weight onto it and feel it flex beneath me. Remove my foot. The metal vibrates.

‘What’s going on?’ Otis asks. ‘You okay?’

I don’t reply.

‘What’s happening?’ says Cabressa. He sounds worried.

‘It’s real hard to tell with no light,’ I snap back. ‘Give me a minute, will you.’

They both stay silent.

I climb lower, so I’m not stretching to reach the platform, then put one of my feet back onto it. The metal is cold against my bare foot. Slowly I put my weight onto that foot. The metal flexes again, but this time I keep my foot in place until all of my weight is on it. The metal holds. Feels secure. I think it’s the roof of an elevator car.

Removing my foot I twist around, changing my position from facing the shaft wall to being side-on to it. Gripping the metal strut with my left hand, I reach my right hand out into the middle of the shaft void. They hit the thick, twisted metal cables that move the elevator cars up and down the shaft. Holding onto the thickest one, I feel my way down it to the platform. The cable is attached to the car via a heavy metal ring.

Stepping off from the struts, I place both feet on the car’s roof. The metal flexes like before but holds my weight. Letting go of the cage strut with my left hand, I drop to my knees and run my hands over the metal roof of the car. Searching.

It takes me a minute to find it, but when I do I feel relief flood through me. There’s a hatch in the car’s roof. If I can get it open, we’ll be able to climb down into the elevator car.

‘What’s going on down there?’ says Cabressa.

‘It’s the elevator car,’ I shout up to him. ‘I’m trying to open the hatch so we can climb down into it.’

Above me in the darkness I hear Otis praying.

‘Quit that, will you,’ growls Cabressa.

Otis is quiet for a moment. Then he continues, a little quieter than before.

Personally I’m happy for the prayers. Right now we need every piece of help we can get.

I run my fingers around the rectangular edge of the hatch. It’s hinged along one of the long edges. Flattening my palms, I swipe them over the hatch. That’s when I feel it – a handle. Gripping it with my right hand, I try to open the hatch.

Nothing happens. The handle is stuck rigid.

I try again. Use both hands around the handle. Twist it left, then right.

Looking up, I yell towards the others, ‘I’ve found the way into the car, but the damn handle won’t budge.’

‘You want some help?’ Otis asks.

‘Sure do,’ I reply.

In the darkness I hear Otis start to climb down towards me. His progress is slow, and from the sounds of his feet on the struts he was far higher above me than I’d realised.

‘Come on, come on,’ says Cabressa. ‘What’s the hold-up?’

Otis doesn’t reply. But a moment later I hear his feet strike the elevator car roof, and the metal sheet flexes beneath me.

‘Where’s the handle?’ Otis sounds out of breath from the effort of climbing. From the direction of his voice I figure he’s on the other side of the elevator car roof, the other side of the cables from me.

‘Move towards me,’ I say. ‘It’s over here. Be careful, the cables are attached in the centre of the roof. Go slowly.’

Up above us, Cabressa tuts.

Otis ignores him, says, ‘On my way.’

I hear Otis slide his feet across the roof. The metal flexes beneath his weight, and I hope to hell it’ll hold us both. Then I hear the sound of clothes rubbing against the steel cables and smell his fruity cologne mixed with the odour of musky, sour sweat. A moment later he’s beside me.

‘Let’s get this thing open,’ Otis says.

‘Down here,’ I say.

He kneels beside me, and I guide his hands to the handle of the emergency hatch. ‘I can’t get the damn thing to budge.’

‘Okay,’ Otis says.

I remove my hands and let him grip the handle. I can’t see what he’s doing, there’s no light – all I can make out of him is a vague shadow – but I hear the effort. He grunts like a weight lifter in a muscle gym. Gasps. ‘Jeez it’s tight.’

‘Yeah,’ I say.

‘Get it done,’ calls Cabressa.

We both ignore him.

I put my hands over Otis’s on the handle. ‘I’ll help.’

‘Okay,’ he says.

We try again. No movement.

‘It’s hopeless,’ says Otis. He sounds beat, real defeated.

‘We can’t give up. This is our only way out.’ I clench my fingers tighter around his and the handle. ‘Again.’

We tug at the handle. I’m leaning back, pulling with all my weight. Otis grunts and groans.

I feel it give a fraction. ‘Keep going, it’s working.’

Otis is breathing hard. He keeps pulling, so do I.

There’s a fraction more movement in the handle, and for a moment I think it’s stuck again. Then it slides the rest of the way real fast. I lose my balance and fall back against Otis. We land sideways on the metal sheet. The vibrations from our fall echo through the elevator shaft.

‘What the hell’s happening?’ Cabressa yells.

‘You okay?’ I ask Otis.

‘Yeah,’ he replies, still breathless.

I push myself back up onto my knees. Reach for the handle. It clicks, and the hatch opens down into the elevator car. I peer through the hole. There’s no light inside the car, but it seems that the trim around the top of the wooden panelling is coated in luminous paint, giving the interior a slightly ghostly glow. After the pitch dark of the elevator shaft it seems almost as good as daylight. Relief floods through me. We’ve done it. I look up into the blackness of the shaft and call to Cabressa. ‘We’re in.’

*

Cabressa insists that he’s the one to climb into the elevator car first. I don’t argue, and there’s no sense in it, but something else is troubling me – whether Otis is going to fit through the emergency hatch.

Otis and me step off the elevator car roof onto the struts of the cage as Cabressa steps down onto the sheet metal roof. I figure we’re hitting the maximum load it can hold with the two of us. It’s safer this way.

‘Go onto your knees first,’ I instruct Cabressa. ‘Then go feet first into the car. It’s a little ways down so keep a grip on the roof until you’re straightened up.’

‘Got it,’ says Cabressa. His tone implying he doesn’t need my help.

Fine by me. I’m not sure why I’m even caring.

I stay silent. Listen to the sound of Cabressa’s breathing, his feet moving across the sheet metal roof, the grunt of effort as he crawls through the hatch opening. There’s a bang as he hits the floor of the elevator car, followed by a stream of cusses.

‘You okay?’ I call.

There’s more cussing. Then he replies, ‘My goddamn ankle twisted.’

I don’t feel sorry, I feel hope. If he’s injured it’ll be easier for me and Otis to get free and clear of him once we’re out of the elevator.

‘You go next, Lori,’ Otis says.

Neither of us say it, but I reckon he’s thinking the same as me – can he fit through the hatch opening?

‘Okay,’ I say, stepping down from the cage strut and onto the roof of the elevator car. I move lightly across the metal roof to the hatch. Drop to my knees, and bring my feet around to dangle through the hole. I see now why Cabressa fell – there’s nowhere to get a decent handhold. I grip the edge of the hatch real tight. Can’t afford to injure myself, not if I’m going to break free of Cabressa.

Taking a deep breath, I swing myself down through the hole into the elevator car.