She gave him a light kiss. “We have to get moving.”
Matt let out a breath. “Alright, let’s do this.”
She looked at him, searching his face for the kind of reassurance she knew he couldn’t give. “You sure about this?”
“No, but we’re only getting weaker. We need water, at the very least. And now that we disabled the cameras, Reid’s partner will come back. Neither of us is in a position to fight, and if she has a gun, we’re really screwed.”
Kara scanned the factory floor, the web of catwalks hanging from the ceiling across from them, stretching like an endless maze of rusted metal. “I’ve thought about what might happen if the catwalks break. If we fall... it’s about two stories down. That’s not enough to kill us, unless we hit our head on the machinery. Still, we could break something.”
“We may be able to use the equipment to help,” Matt said. “Cross the catwalks, then drop down onto a machine. Whatever decision we make, it’s going to be dangerous.”
Kara squeezed his hand and started toward the nearest catwalk. “If we don’t make it, Matt—”
“We will make it,” he said firmly, cutting her off. His confidence made her heart thud in her chest. “I’ll go first.”
“No,” she said. “I’m lighter.”
“What does that have to do with it? If the catwalk holds me, it’ll hold you.”
“Matt, I’m doing it,” she insisted. “First, your ankle is messed up.”
“So?”
How did she convince him? “Want to flip for it?”
Now he smiled. “You have a coin?” Then he said, in all seriousness, “Okay, you go. But listen carefully, Kara. If you get down there and I don’t, you get out of this place. Promise me?”
“I’m not promising anything like that. I’m not leaving you behind.”
“Kara—”
“You wouldn’t leave me. I’m not leaving you.”
“Just—”
She kissed him. “Shh.”
Kara knelt and inspected the metal. She couldn’t just walk out from the control room onto the catwalk, it was about two feet away. She would need to jump, which was a risk even if she wasn’t concerned about sabotage. She took one of the monitors they’d pulled from the wall when they were looking for a way to communicate with the outside world, and carefully tossed it onto the walkway. It hit hard, bounced, then fell off, plopping into the water below with a thud and splash.
This catwalk went straight across from the control room to the opposite wall, where there was a ladder down to the floor. She hoped to get all the way across, but if there was any danger or threat of collapse, if she could get just halfway, there was a conveyor belt she could drop onto, the top of it only a few feet from the bottom of the catwalk.
Now or never. She walked to the door, then ran and jumped onto the catwalk, grabbing the handrails as it swayed back and forth. But it held. She heard Matt swear behind her. She turned,gave him a thumbs-up, then she started across the metal grate, her tennis shoes giving her traction. The catwalk continued to sway, but it held. She stepped carefully, her mind running through all the booby traps they’d already encountered. The staircase that chewed up Matt’s ankle. The falling ceiling. The elevator.
Her confidence grew as she progressed, but still she moved slowly, purposefully.
Suddenly, the support chain to her left broke, hit her arm, then made a deafening sound as it clanked against the metal and hung from where it was attached to the rail. It jerked heavily, made the entire structure wobble. She froze. The catwalk creaked ominously.
“Kara, get back here!” Matt called.
“No, it’s okay.”
She took another step. Good. Another. Only twenty more feet and she’d reach the top of the conveyor belt. Her first opportunity to get off. She glanced back at the end of the swaying chain and it looked clean, as if it had been sawed off.
Maybe she should go back. But it was only another few feet...
Suddenly, three chains broke simultaneously in front of her, and Kara screamed as she lost her balance, tilting sideways and down. She would have fallen to the floor below, but her hands clutched at the rusted edges of the walkway, holding on as she dangled above the factory floor, a chasm of dark, murky water. How deep was it? Would she fall, hit her head, drown? Was it so shallow that she’d break her back?
Matt shouted her name, but the sound was muffled by the ringing in her ears.Focus, Kara. You need to focus.
