of rope, pitons, etriers, carabiners, klettershoes, nylon jackets lined
with down, and perhaps thirty other items-lay in a disordered heap
before the screen.
“See what I found?” he said. He held up the blades.
She wasn’t interested. “What about this stuff?” she asked, pointing to
the climbing equipment.
Coming from behind the desk, he said, “This issue we’re running a
buyer’s guide. Each of those pieces wis photographed for the article.
Why’d you ask?” Then his face brightened. “Never mind. I see why.”
He hunkered in front of the equipment, picked up an ice ax. “This makes
a better weapon than any draftsman’s tool.
“Graham?”
He looked up.
Her expression was peculiar: a combination of puzzlement, fear and
amazement. Although she clearly had thought of something interesting
and important, her gray eyes gave no indication of what was going
through her mind. She said, “Let’s not rush out to fight him. Can we
consider all of our options?”
“That’s why we’re here.”
She stepped into the short, private hallway, cocked her head and
listened for Bollinger.
Graham stood up, prepared to use the ice ax.
When she was satisfied that there was nothing to listen for but more
silence, she came back into the room.
He lowered the ax. “I thought you heard something.”
“Just being cautious.” She glanced at the climbing equipment before she
sat down on the edge of the desk. “As I see it, there are five
different things we can do. Number one, we can make a stand, try to
fight Bollinger.
“With this,” he said, hefting the ice ax.
“And with anything else we can find.”
“We -can set a trap, surprise him.”
“I see two problems with that approach.”
“The gun.”
“That’s sure one.”
“If we’re clever enough, he won’t have time to shoot.
“More important,” she said, “neither of us is a killer.
“We could just knock him unconscious.”
1 “If you hit him on the head with an ax like that, you’re bound to
kill him.”
“If it’s kill or be killed, I suppose I could do it.”
“Maybe. But if you hesitate at the last instant, we’re dead.” He didn’t
resent the limits of her faith in him; he knew that he didn’t deserve
her complete trust. “You said there were five things we could do.”
“Number two, we can try to hide.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know. Maybe look for an office that someone forgot to lock, go
inside and lock it after us.”
“No one forgot.”
“Maybe we can continue to play cat and mouse with him.”
“For how long?”
“Until a new shift of guards finds the dead ones.”
“if he didn’t kill the guards, then the new guards won’t know what’s
going on up here.”
“That’s right.”
“Besides, I think maybe they work twelve-hour shifts, four days a week.
I know one of the night men. I’ve heard him curse the long shifts and
at the same time praise the eight hours of overtime he gets each week.
So if they come on duty at six, they won’t be off until six in the
morning.”
“Seven and a half hours.”
“Too long to play cat and mouse in the elevator shaft and on the stairs.
Especially with this bum leg of mine.
“Number three,” she said. “We could open one of your office windows and
shout for help.”
“From the fortieth floor? Even in good weather, they probably couldn’t
hear you on the sidewalk. With this wind, they wouldn’t hear you even
two floors away.”
“I know that. And on a night like this, there’s not going to be anyone
out walking anyway.”
“Then why’d you suggest it?”
“Number five is going to surprise you,” she said. “When I get to it, I
want you to understand that I’ve thought of every other possible out.”
“What’s number five?”
“Number four first. We open the office window and throw furniture into
the street, try to catch the attention of anyone who’s driving past on
Lexington.”
“If anyone is driving in this weather.”
“Someone will be. A taxi or two.”
“But if we toss out a chair, we won’t be able to calculate the effect of
the wind on it. We won’t be able to gauge where it’ll land.