Chapter 11 - Shattered Iron
The stairwell echoed with tactical commands in Russian. Two mercenaries rounded the curve of the iron staircase, flashlights blinding the landing.
Clara leaned out and fired twice with machine-like precision. Both men collapsed back down the stairs, their weapons clattering against the metal steps.
""They're taking the lower perimeter!"" Clara shouted over the gunfire. ""Alexander, hurry!""
Alexander grabbed the heavy emergency sledgehammer from the wall bracket, swinging it with all his remaining strength against the locking pin of the main cable drum. Rust and sparks sprayed into the air. He swung again, his shoulder screaming in pain. On the third strike, the cast-iron pin snapped with the sound of a cannon shot.
The four-ton counterweight dropped down the central shaft like an anvil falling from the sky.
A catastrophic shriek of tearing metal and collapsing stone reverberated through the tower. The lead weight obliterated the iron spiral staircase on its way down, plunging into the bottom foyer with an earth-shaking crash that destroyed the entrance and buried the remaining mercenaries beneath tons of debris and twisted iron.
The tower shook violently on its foundations.
""Out! Now!"" Alexander yelled, kicking open the balcony door into the howling rain.
On the rusted balcony, two hundred feet above the crashing surf, the steel zipline wire stretched out into the black night, disappearing toward a concrete mooring post on the adjacent breaker reef three hundred yards away.
Alexander rigged the rusted trolley handle to the cable. ""Wrap Lily inside my coat! Wrap yourself around me!""
Clara strapped the baby tightly against her chest, then wrapped her arms around Alexander's neck, pressing her body flush against his back. He could feel the rapid beat of her heart against his spine.
""Hold on with everything you have,"" Alexander breathed.
He grabbed the twin rubber handles of the trolley, kicked off the balcony ledge, and they launched into the void.
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The wind screamed in their ears as they plummeted through the darkness, the rusted pulley squealing violently along the wire, throwing sparks into the black ocean beneath them. Halfway across the abyss, a sniper bullet from the hovering helicopter severed the forward tension wire.
The cable whipped wildly, sending them hurtling downward toward the jagged rocks.
