Gretchen Casey’s breath caught in her throat as she watched it all unfold.
Before she realized what she was doing, she ran for the edge of the roof. As Julie Ericsson’s parachute was about to disappear, she leaped for it and missed.
Gretchen scrambled to the edge, half-expecting to hear the sound of Julie hitting the ground, but instead she heard something else: the sound of parachute silk being torn. Ericsson’s chute had gotten hung up on a window-washing anchor. Casey could now not only hear, but see the material rapidly giving way. Reaching down, she grabbed two fistfuls of silk and pulled with all her might.
Every muscle fiber in her body felt as if it was being torn, just like the parachute itself. Gretchen ignored the searing pain and pulled even harder as the adrenaline surged through her body.
Leaning backward, she ground her teeth and fought to pull Julie back. “Come on, damn it!” she called out. “Come on!”
Casey summoned everything she had. She went to that dark place inside where she hid the very last burst of speed she had ever used in a race. This was her sister hanging there. A woman she not only loved but was responsible for. She wasn’t going to allow her to die.
With one last surge of effort she felt the chute move toward her. She pulled again and it moved again. Hand over hand, inch by painfully slow inch she pulled until she saw the top of Julie’s helmet.
Clawing her way down the rigging, Casey reached out for Julie’s harness, and planting her feet, pulled her the rest of the way up onto the roof.
She collapsed and lay next to her, panting. Her lungs were on fire, as was the rest of her. It took several minutes for the feeling to return to her fingers.
It was Julie who spoke first. “I think I misjudged that one, just a little bit.”
Casey couldn’t help herself. It hurt to laugh, but she did anyway, until it turned into a hacking cough, her body still desperate for air.
They continued to lie on the roof for several minutes more until Casey had fully caught her breath.
“Is everyone okay?” Rhodes asked over the radio. “What happened?”
“We’re okay,” coughed Casey. “Just give us a minute.”
“That’s all you’ve got,” chimed in Cooper. “They’re about to do the first handoff. You need to be at the access door behind you in ninety seconds.”
“I’m on it,” said Ericsson as she pushed herself up to her feet. Gathering up her chute and clutching it to her chest, she crossed the roof to the access door, where she removed a lockpick gun from her bag.
“Forty-five seconds,” said Cooper.
“What about the closed-circuit cameras?” she asked.
“Already taken care of,” replied Rhodes.
“Twenty seconds,” said Cooper.
Ericsson slipped the tension wrench into the door and then positioned the lockpick gun.
“Ten seconds.”
Ericsson applied tension to the wrench and began clicking the trigger. She felt the lock give.
“Now,” said Cooper.
Julie pulled back the door and held it open for Casey, who was crossing the roof toward her.
“You’ve got three minutes until the elevator gets there,” said Rhodes. “I suggest you ladies get it in gear.”
“Roger that,” replied Casey as she stepped into the stairwell and Ericsson gently closed the door behind them.
They stripped out of their harnesses, removed their helmets, and stored everything in a small electrical closet.
Drawing the suppressed Glock 19s they’d been issued, they took a deep breath and headed down the stairs.
One level below the roof, they paused and radioed Rhodes.
“The elevator will be there in fifteen seconds,” she said.
Casey kept her ear pressed up against the stairwell door until she heard the chime in the hallway announcing the elevator’s arrival. “I’m opening the door,” she stated.
Rhodes, who was monitoring the true security camera feeds, as opposed to the falsified loop that the building’s guard staff were watching, said, “The hallway is all clear.”
Gretchen opened the door slowly and peeked out. Seeing that it was in fact all clear, she signaled Ericsson and the two of them stepped across the hall and into the elevator.
There were no buttons inside. “We’re in,” said Casey.
“Roger that,” replied Rhodes, who activated the elevator.
As it began to descend, Ericsson looked at her teammate and simply said, “Thanks, Gretch.”
Casey gave her a smile and nodded. “That could have been a lot of paperwork for me.”
Ericsson grinned. “Then I’m glad it worked out the way it did.”
“Me too.”
“Eighth floor,” said Rhodes as the elevator slowed to a stop. “Golf clubs, pool supplies, ladies’ lingerie.”
Casey was just about to ask her if she could silence the chime, when the doors opened and the noise was conspicuously absent. “I should have silenced it for you upstairs,” said Rhodes. “My bad. Hallway all clear. Go get him.”
“Go to sterile comms,” replied Casey as she stepped off the elevator, her pistol up and ready. Immediately, the entire team fell silent. They would communicate via a language of predetermined clicks.
There were three apartments per floor. Branko Kojic’s was at the end of the hall.
“Are you able to do this?” Casey asked. “After what happened on the roof, if you’re not up for it, I understand. We can switch.”
“I’m good,” said Ericsson as she handed Gretchen her gun, took off her boots, and then unzipped and removed her jumpsuit. She was wearing black lace panties and a matching bra.
Running her fingers through her hair, she asked. “How do I look?”
Casey, who was no slouch in the looks department, couldn’t hold a candle to Ericsson’s body. “If I was a guy and you turned up on my doorstep looking like that,” said Casey. “I’d be buying whatever it was you were selling.”
Ericsson rolled her eyes. “Let’s just hope he’s not gay.”
Gretchen smiled as she stepped out of the way. “As long as he opens the door, that’s all we care about.”
Once Casey stepped off to the side with her boots and jumpsuit, Ericsson adjusted her lingerie, making sure her panties rode high on her hips and her bra put everything on perfect display. Then she rang Kojic’s doorbell and stood back just far enough to give him an eyeful.