She turned slowly away from the mirror and walked back into her bedroom. She walked to the window, turned the three locks that held it firmly in place, and pulled it up. It was difficult. The window hadn’t been opened since she’d moved in.
She looked out into the night. There was a quarter moon. There were stars flooding the sky. The air was cool and fresh. She could see Alcatraz, Angel Island beyond it. She could see the few lights in Sausalito, just across the bay. The Transamerica building was brightly lit, a beacon in downtown San Francisco.
She turned away and walked to the bedroom door. She stood there a very long time. Finally she pulled the chair away
and set it where it belonged, in tne corner beside a reading light. She unlocked the door. No more, she thought, staring at that door, no more.
She flung it open. She stepped out into the hallway and stopped, every burgeoning whisper of courage in her freezing as she couldn’t help but hear the sound of a creaking board not more than twenty feet away. The sound came again. No, it wasn’t a creak; it was a lighter sound. It seemed to be coming from the small foyer by the front door. Who could be toying with her this way? Her own breath whooshed out. She was shaking, so frightened she could taste copper in her mouth. Copper? She’d bitten her lip, drawn blood.
How much longer could she live like this?
She dashed forward, turning on every light as she went. There was the sound again, this time like something lightly bumping against a piece of furniture-something that was a lot smaller than she was, something that was afraid of her. Then she saw it scurry into the kitchen. She burst out laughing, then slowly sank to the floor, her hands over her face as she sobbed.
2
Seven Years Later FBI Academy Quantico, Virginia
SHE WOULD GET TO THE TOP of that rope if it killed her. And it just might. She could actually feel each individual muscle in her arms pulling, stretching, feel the burning pain, the rippling cramps that were very close to knotting up on her. If that happened, she’d go sprawling to the mat below. Her brain already felt numb, but that was okay. Her brain wasn’t climbing. It had just gotten her into this fix. And this was only the second round. It seemed as if she’d been climbing this rope since she was born.
Just two more feet. She could do it. She heard MacDougal’s steady, unhurried breathing beside her. From the corner of her eye she saw his huge fists cover that rope, methodically clamping down one fist over the other, not consuming that rope as he usually did. No, he was keeping pace with her. He wasn’t going to leave her. She owed him. This was an important test. This one really mattered.
“I see that pathetic look, Sherlock. You’re whining even though you’re not saying anything. Get those twerpy arms working, pull!”
She grabbed that rope just three inches above her left hand and pulled with all her strength.
“Come on, Sherlock,” MacDougal said, hanging beside her, grinning at her, the bastard. “Don’t wimp out on me now. I’ve worked with you for two months. You’re up to twelve-pound weights. All right, so you can only do ten reps on your
biceps, buy you can do twenty-five on your triceps. Come on now, do it, don’t just hang there like a girl.”
Whine? She didn’t have enough breath to whine. He was goading her, doing a good job of it actually. She tried to get annoyed. There wasn’t a pissed bone in her body, just pain, deep and burning. Eight more inches, no, more like nine inches. It would take her two years to get those nine inches. She saw her right hand pull free of the rope, grab the bar at the very top of the knotted rope that was surely too far for her to make in one haul, but her right hand closed over that bar and she knew she’d either do it or she wouldn’t.