Chapter 5 - Between Earth and Sky
"Sterling, no!" Mark roared, thrusting his free hand upward through the narrowing gap.
His heavy leather glove caught the lip of the heavy steel hatch just before the dog latch snapped shut. The force bruised his fingers to the bone, but he clamped down, his boots slipping on the slick rungs. Below them, the diesel vapor ignited with a concussive blast that blew the ladder off its lower rivets. The rung beneath Mark’s right foot sheared clean off.
Suspended by one hand on the hatch rim and one boot on a bent rung, Mark surged upward with sheer adrenaline. He threw his forearm against the hatch, ramming it open with enough violence to send Sterling sprawling backward onto the gravel roof.
Mark dragged Clara out onto the tar-paper surface, collapsing into the cold wind of the city night. Above them, searchlights crisscrossed the sky, and the distant siren chorus wailed from the streets eighty stories below.
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"You bastard," Mark wheezed, glaring at Sterling, who sat clutching a leather briefcase to his chest.
Before Sterling could stammer an excuse, a thunderous roar filled the air. A rescue helicopter from the city brigade hovered into view, searchlight blinding the roof. But as the chopper banked to align its hoist cable, a catastrophic backdraft blew through the skylight behind them, engulfing the helicopter’s tail rotor in a swirling vortex of debris.
