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Max gave a sad sigh for his grumpy neighbor. If he was dead, hopefully it had been quick and painless. But unfortunately, they didn’t have time for mourning. Sporadic gunfire peppered the living room, and there was no telling how long it would be before the cops arrived to deal with this mess.
“We’re not trapped,” Max announced. He rushed over to the one window in the room, but Ed grabbed him, as he was reaching to pull aside the curtain, and jerked him backward.
“Be careful!” Ed warned.
Max huffed at him and jerked free of his grasp. “Then you check the window. There’s a fire escape out there. We can go up to the roof.”
“Not down?” Charlie asked as Ed sidled up to the window and cautiously peeked out to make sure Max’s kidnappers didn’t have their own snipers watching for his escape.
“No, up. If they’ve got someone on the street watching the main door for my escape, they can too easily catch us. They won’t expect us to go up. We won’t be trapped, I promise. I’ve sneaked out this way plenty of times.”
Ed and Charlie exchanged a look and finally shrugged. “West, we’re heading to the roof via the fire escape. Hold them for another minute.”
Max started for the window, but Ed placed a hand on his shoulder. “Kairo wants to know if we need Alexei and Soren to swing through for a pickup.”
“No, we should be able to cut across town and snag a taxi. At this hour, they’ll get stuck in traffic. It’ll take them forever to reach us.”
With a reassuring smile, Max slipped out the window with a practiced ease and climbed the metal stairs as silently as he could. When he’d first arrived in Cairo for this dig, he’d spent a few evenings out on the fire escape, watching the lights of the city and enjoying the cooler weather. His part of town retired early, giving him a peace and quiet that didn’t exist closer to all the tourist hotspots.
As he reached the landing for the third floor, he paused and glanced back to see Ed contorting his incredibly wide shoulders to squeeze through the opening. He hadn’t considered that it would be a tight fit for Ed and Charlie. Both men were built with wide shoulders and thick chests.
When Ed was free of the window, he gave Max a thumbs-up. Max continued on to the rooftop that was cluttered with a large, decaying pigeon coop and a motley of ancient outdoor furniture that appeared as if it had survived since the Ptolemaic Period, not that any of the Ptolemys or Cleopatra would have dared sit on it.
He skirted the mess on the far side of the building situated close to the neighboring structure that was a combination travel agency and apartments. He picked up a sturdy board and laid it across the empty space, creating a bridge.
“You have got to be shitting me,” Ed growled.
Max looked over his shoulder to see Ed approaching and Charlie climbing onto the roof. “Nope. Not scared of heights, are you?”
“No, but I am worried about that flimsy board holding my weight.”
“It’s strong enough,” Max replied, though he was lying through his teeth. The board had no problem holding his weight, but he didn’t know what it would do for Charlie and Ed.
It would hold.
It had to hold.
“It’ll be fine. Two quick steps and you’re on the next roof.”
As if to prove it, Max hopped up onto the ledge and crossed the makeshift bridge before Ed could get out his shout of warning.
When he turned around, Ed had both hands clenched into fists and his teeth gritted. He shook his head as though he were shaking something off and loudly exhaled. “You. You are gonna be the death of me.”
“Come on! Hurry! And last person across, grab the board.”
Max darted across the new roof to make sure the coast was clear and glanced at the street below. It didn’t appear that anyone was watching his building from this side of the street. He ran back as Ed was reaching the building he was on, and he caught the man’s hand to help him step down.
“See! Easy! I bet you’ve done plenty of other things that were way more dangerous.”
“I have, but I didn’t expect to be doing that today.” He huffed a shaky laugh, smiling at Max, but the joy didn’t reach his eyes.
“Don’t worry. We’ve got to do it three more times to get to the good fire escape so we can get to the street with no one noticing us.”
“How many times have you done this?” Charlie demanded as he reached the building and lifted the board they were using as a bridge.
“Here? Only three or four times. And most of that was for fun. One time for escape.” Max led the way across the roof to their next crossing, not feeling the need to explain that he’d pulled this trick more than a few times around Europe. Totally unnecessary details.
