Page 81 of Tapeworld Induction

She joined him and leaned her head out. The building jutted out underneath. The ledge wasn’t very wide, but she could walk it, if she was careful.

“You want me to climb outside and get in through his window?”

“You have any other ideas?”

She shrugged. Talia shrugged too. Her heart began to beat faster.

Isaak had better have left a window open.

“Here. Put this on.” Sacha shrugged off his vest and held it out so she could slip her arms into it. “There are all kinds of things in there that might help you open the window, if you have to. Don’t smash it, if you can avoid it.”

“Right… like you haven’t already fucked with his lock.”

Reluctantly, she grabbed onto the windowsill, her white dress riding up as she lifted her legs through it. She looked back into the corridor to see Talia give her a thumbs-up. “Go on, babe. You can do it!” Squeezing through the window opening, she dropped down onto the ledge.

The sun was shining. Market noises and food smells in the air.

“That’s right, people, just keep not noticing me…”

She shimmied sideways, hugging the grimy white-cemented walls. She’d need to manoeuvre a corner up ahead. There was a metal column sticking out of the wall. She’d need to swing around it and find footing on the other side. It looked doable. Then she made the mistake of looking down.

Fuck.

She made a rude gesture back at the window she’d dropped down from.

“You see that? That’s for you!”

She gripped the metal column and swung her right leg around it. Found footing. She tapped her foot and bent her knee to test its stability. Looked good.

Beads of sweat formed around her temples. Okay. Let’s do this, Dylan. With one movement she shifted her weight to the right foot, her right arm holding on to the other side of the column as she pushed herself around it.

The force of the movement slammed her right against the wall, arm, chest, and knee first. The recoil pushed her back and she felt herself losing balance.

She leant desperately back towards the wall, heart hammering.

Fuck. You made it, girl.

Slightly further ahead and above her, there was one window, which mapped out to Isaak’s flat.

It was closed.

Obviously.

No handle on this side.

Sweat mingled with dust covered her hands. The mixture slid down her skin. Deep breaths.

It wasn’t long now.

She forced herself towards the window.

The brick ledge had a weathered piece of plastic stuck to it. Her foot slipped.

The thought of falling and breaking every single bone in her body lasted only a moment. Instinct took over and she grabbed onto the windowsill above her to reposition her foot somewhere more stable.

She took another deep breath.

She dug around in the tool vest and took out a plunger, and with one movement she stuck it on the glass.