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Lucien turned me around and finished clipping the whole thing on. When he was done, he helped me slip a backpack on. I noticed he was wearing one too. I narrowed my eyes at him.
“What do we need these for?” I asked.
“If our escape plan fails, this is our backup.”
“I’m not even going to ask how these backpacks are going to help us escape.”
“It’s probably best that you don’t. Come on, let’s get ready to go.” Lucien looked over at his father’s men. “Two minutes,” he called out.
One of the men nodded, grabbed the harpoon gun, and positioned himself on the roof of the stairwell entrance.
Lucien pulled himself up onto the small wall that circled the roof’s edge. Once there, he extended a hand and helped pull me up. I could see the guy with the harpoon gun already aiming his shot. We only had one chance at this, a misfire would mean having to wait till the next shift change, and I couldn’t imagine Mason being impressed to receive that update. What if he misses and hits us, though?
“I think I’m going to hate this more than the jump,” I said.
“You’re going to be fine. If it breaks, just phase through the building’s outer walls and land inside.”
“I’m pretty sure I’d kill myself trying to do that.”
“It’s better than landing on the top of a car in the middle of a busy street.”
“Thanks, Lucien. I feel much better.”
“Good. Now, concentrate,” he said, and he fastened a hook and pulley looking thing to my harness.
As soon as he finished, the harpoon fired. The shot was silent, but the sound of the rope uncoiling and stretching was not. Once the harpoon struck the other building, the guy who had fired it cocked a thumb toward his colleague, who cranked a winch that tightened the droopy rope until it was taut and stiff.
“One-minute, forty-five seconds,” Lucien said, as he attached my harness to the rope. “Use this brake to slow down once you’ve reached the other side. Go.”
“I hate all of you,” I said, as I took a small hop off the wall, clenching my eyes shut, and hoping for the best.
I felt the zip-line tug on my harness and suddenly I was soaring high over the ground, trying my best not to look down and holding the brake so tightly that all my knuckles had turned white. I had to admit, now that I was flying, the anxiety was gone—replaced with a rush of adrenaline I had not expected. I almost wanted to scream, but not out of fear.
I kept my mouth shut, though, and concentrated on getting across. The guard wasn’t there, the rooftop was clear. As soon as I crossed the temple’s threshold, I pressed on the brake, slowing myself down until I reached the end of the line.
From there, all I had to do was unhook, drop, and I had made it.
“That was amazing,” I said to myself, running my shaking hands through my hair. “Holy fuck, that was amazing.”
By the time I turned around and started removing my harness, Lucien was already on his way, streaming silently through the night air like a bird of prey. I stepped aside to give him enough room to land. As he reached the end of the rope, he slowed his descent, unclipping himself and falling to the floor while he was still in motion.
He came to a bit of a staggered stop, but it shaved a few seconds off his time.
“Now what?” I asked.
“This,” he said, pushing a button on the harpoon to retract whatever hooks it was embedding in the wall. Once it was loose, he attached both our harnesses to the rope, tossed everything over the wall, and the guy manning the winch on the other rooftop pulled it all back.
“What about that giant hole?”
“We have to leave it and hope no one notices it until morning.”
I nodded. “Alright. We should get into position.”
Lucien made a move toward the rooftop access. Besides the hole in the wall, the entire rooftop was as it had been a moment ago, and we still had time to spare.
“Not bad for your first try,” he said.
“I want to say I had a good teacher,” I said, “But you didn’t teach me anything.”
