45

I catch my hip on the way through the hatch; the metal pulls at the fabric of my dress and scrapes my thigh, but I make it through and land with a clatter on the floor of the elevator car. I manage to stay on my feet. Straighten up. Over in the corner I see Cabressa leaning against the wall. There’s a pained expression on his face, and he’s favouring his left leg, but when he sees me looking he straightens up. Gets his poker face on. It’s too late though; I’ve seen the weakness.

‘Clear,’ I shout to Otis.

I hear a thud above me and know that he’s stepped back onto the elevator car’s metal roof. His footsteps are slow and heavy as he moves over to the hatch. I’m real worried. It’s kind of narrow. Cabressa was fine and all, but he isn’t a broad guy. Otis is tall and muscular from the boxing. I’m not sure he’s going to fit.

I wait. Looking up at the open hatch. Waiting for Otis.

‘Taking his time,’ growls Cabressa. ‘We need to keep going down.’

‘No,’ I say, my tone firm.

Cabressa scowls but he doesn’t push it. I figure he knows that he’s physically compromised and that puts him at risk. I could tackle him now, and it could be that I’d get the better of him. But I hold back, just for a little longer. If he was to get a shot off inside the elevator car, the ricochet could kill us all. I’m not willing to take that risk.

There’s more movement on the car’s roof, and I see Otis’s feet appear through the hatch opening.

‘Steady,’ I call up to him. ‘It’s quite a drop.’

‘Yep.’ Otis is breathing heavily. He lowers himself down real slow. Feet, calves, knees; he’s almost to mid-thigh through when he stops.

‘You okay?’ I call.

‘I’m caught.’ He sounds panicked. His words fast, urgent. ‘Can’t get through.’

‘You want some help?’ I say, looking up at the hatch’s rectangular opening. He looks wedged. ‘How about if I support your weight, can you twist diagonally into the gap, make yourself a little more space?’

‘Maybe.’ He sounds unsure; the fear from earlier is creeping back into his voice.

‘Let’s try.’ I move closer to his legs. Make my hands into a stirrup and put them under his sneakers. ‘Press down on me to give yourself some leverage.’

He does as I say. I brace under his weight. Hold steady. But it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference.

‘We’re wasting time,’ Cabressa mutters. ‘We need to get going.’

‘Keep adjusting,’ I say. The muscles in my arms are burning. Sweat’s running rivers between my shoulder blades and down my back. ‘You have to do this.’

Otis gasps from the effort. Keeps moving within the small space of the hatch, trying to get himself through.

Cabressa continues muttering about it being pointless. I ignore him. Will for Otis to keep trying. Suddenly the pressure releases from my hands as Otis raises himself up through the hatch with a roar. Then he forces himself down and through. It works. He drops through the hatch real fast. The power making him land hard. I stagger sideways as his feet connect with my hip. The glancing blow makes me lose my balance, and I fall to the floor, landing hard on my butt.

Pain vibrates up through my spine from tailbone to skull. I pay it no mind. We don’t have time for it right now. The temperature in the cramped space of the elevator car is hot and rising, and I know that Otis is more than a little claustrophobic. I need to find us a way out of here before he starts freaking out.

‘You okay?’ Otis asks me. He puts his hand out to help me up.

I take it. ‘Yeah, sure.’

He looks around the elevator car. ‘So what now?’

‘We get out of here,’ I say.

‘Finally,’ mutters Cabressa.

Otis is staring at the closed doors. ‘How? Is there another hatch?’

I shake my head. ‘No. We’re going to need to open these doors to get out onto whatever storey of the building this is.’

I sound more confident than I am. In truth I’ve no sense of whether the elevator car stopped between storeys, or if it was stopped on a floor at the time of the blackout. There’s only one way to find out.

‘Get the hell on with it then,’ growls Cabressa.

I glance over at him. In the gloom, I see he’s gotten the Glock in his hand, his finger on the trigger guard. I fight the urge to challenge him right now. By my calculation he has three more bullets in the gun; more than enough to do some serious damage in the confines of this metal box. I need to wait until we’re out of this space before I tackle him. I just hope that Monroe is getting all of this on the micro camera feed. He’s in the building, and his SWAT team are stationed outside in vehicles on the street. Once he knows which floor we’re on he should be able to help us. I think about JT and the group that were heading up to the roof garden and emergency fire escape, and hope to hell Monroe’s already gotten them help.

‘Quit dawdling,’ Cabressa says. ‘Get us out of this thing.’

I take a breath. Swallow down the anxiety that’s threatening to overwhelm me. And step towards the elevator control panel. The only buttons on it are the four penthouses. My breath catches in my throat. I remember now. The design of the elevator means they only service the residential or the hotel floors, not both. This is a residential elevator – if we’ve climbed down past the floors of privately owned apartments we might not be able to exit the elevator car at all.

At the top of the panel there’s a call button for emergencies. I know there’s no sense in pressing it – the power outage will have cut all communications – but I try anyways. I flinch – the alarm sounds loud in the small space of the elevator car. But nothing else happens. I lift the emergency phone. The line is dead.

‘Well?’ Cabressa says.

I shake my head. Think back to the blueprints and the elevator design. I didn’t study that section of the plans real close, but there’s usually a way to get elevator doors to open manually in the event the electronic mechanism failed. ‘We’re going to have to do it manually.’

Otis shakes his head. ‘How do we—’

‘There must be a manual override for the doors.’ I scan the control panel. The luminous glow from above the wooden panelling gives me enough light to see there’s a small compartment, its access door built into the panel. The sign on it reads: In case of emergency. Authorised use only. 

I run my fingers down the side of the compartment looking for the release. Turn to look at Otis and Cabressa. ‘I think this is it.’

I feel the door release for the compartment and press it. The small door springs open. Inside is a metal lever with an arrow pointing downward. The sign above it reads Emergency Door Release.

‘Thank God,’ says Cabressa.

‘Yes, thank him,’ Otis says, without a hint of sarcasm.

Gripping the lever I pull it down in the direction of the arrow. There’s a clunk as something in the elevator doors disengages, and I see the doors move apart a fraction.

Looking at Otis, I step towards the doors. ‘I’m going to need your help with this.’

‘Sure.’ He moves over to join me.

We push our fingers into the small gap between the doors. He takes the left, and I the right. The elevator car could have stopped anywhere within the shaft – on a floor or between floors. There’s only one way to find out.

‘You ready?’ I say to Otis.

He nods.

I brace my legs. Focus all my energy on the door.

Slowly we start to prise open the doors. They’re real heavy and all kinds of stiff.

I grit my teeth. Pull harder. Know that if the elevator car is between storeys then we’re stuck here with no way of escape until the blackout ends. Beside me, Otis is murmuring quiet prayers.

As my arm and back muscles start to burn again I join Otis in a silent prayer to a God I don’t believe in.

Please, don’t let us be trapped.