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Locke spent a couple minutes adjusting the cable, reaching into the bag next to him now and then for tools to adjust the tension on the line. A few minutes later, he jumped to his feet and brushed off his glovedhands.
“Let’s get the comms equipment online,” Nicosaid.
He reached into his pack and handed out the small earpieces and mics that would act as their communication system once they were inside the Tangier. They did a quick test to make sure everything worked, and Locke started for the corner of theroof.
“Now for the fun part.” He reached into his bag and removed a handful of nylon that Max knew were harnesses for theline.
“How do we know it’s secure?” Carlosasked.
Locke grinned. “Because I’m going first.” He handed them each a harness. “Put these on now, while I’m here to make sure they’re attachedright.”
They watched him put on his harness and mimicked his movements, stepping into the leg holes, buckling the waist strap. When they were done, he stopped in front of each of them, testing the buckles andstraps.
“Looks good.” He sat on the edge of the roof. “You’re going to have to get down to see how the harness attaches to the line since I won’t be here to hook on foryou.”
“What if we make a mistake?” Maxsaid.
Locke shrugged. “I can go last if you want, but then one of you will have to be the first oneover.”
“No, thanks,” Farrell said, getting down on hisstomach.
Nico, Carlos, and Max followed suit, watching as Locke slid off the roof, landing lightly on a one foot ledgebelow.
Max dared a look down and felt the world tilt. He refocused his eyes on Locke as he clipped a nylon strap attached to his harness to the zip-line, explaining as he went how to make sure it was secure, how to keep themselves upright as they zipped over the chasm below, how to slow their approach when they got close to theTangier.
It was easier than Max would have thought to propel yourself hundreds of feet above the ground with only a few straps of nylon and a length of aircraftwire.
“You guys got it?” Locke asked without looking atthem.
“We’ve got it,” Nicosaid.
“Then yippee-kai-yay,motherfuckers.”
He let go all at once and immediately flew away from them, the sound of the trolley wheels receding as he got smaller. They were on the dark side of the Drew — the side off the Strip — but the lights from the city still made it possible for them to track Locke’s figure until he got about halfway between the twohotels.
When he disappeared into the darkness, Max jumped to his feet and pulled the binoculars from hispack.
Locke appeared in the lenses, scrambling up to the roof of the Tangier from a ledge similar to the one he’d used to launch himself from the Drew. He turned and gave a thumbs up, grinning like a fuckingidiot.
“He’s good,” Max said. “I’ll gonext.”
He sat on the edge of the roof before he had time to think too hard about what he was doing. The ledge felt wider than it had looked from above — not roomy by any means, but he didn’t have the sense that he was in danger of toppling offit.
He held onto the line with one hand and reached up with the strap in his other. Locke had left four cable trolleys behind to avoid having to send one back and forth, and Max clipped onto the next one in line, tugging to make sure it wassecure.
“Ready?” Nico asked from theroof.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” Max positioned his hands the way Locke had shown them. “See you on the otherside.”
He kicked off theroof.
