Chapter Thirty-Two

Thorn

Paris, France

Sunday, Twenty-one Thirty Hours

T horn snapped the computer shut.

He was talking through his comms as he explained the situation to Lynx and Nutsbe. "I need back up." He was on his feet and moving. He'd already worked out a plan and staged the room should he have to make a dash with Juliette. He called out, "Give me a two-minute count down."

Lynx's voice began, "One hundred twenty seconds, one nineteen…"

Now, he worked his plan double time. He crammed his laptop into his duffle he'd staged on the bidet should a quick exfil be required. He zipped it shut and pulled the straps over his shoulder. With a snap, snap , he clipped the hip and sternum straps into place.

He flung back Juliette's covers. Yanking them free, he dropped them out of the way. He lifted her head, took the pillow and tossed it to the side.

"One hundred and twelve, one-eleven…"

Thorn grabbed up the surgical tape that he used to secure Juliette's port sites. Ripping and biting at the tape, he pulled off sections. One hand wrapped her wrist with a thick surgical bandage, with the other, he wrapped the tape around her wrist, staging her for if things turned from bad to worse. After that, he released the IV tubing.

"Ninety seconds. Eighty-nine. Eighty-eight…"

Grabbing the saline bag from its stand, Thorn tossed it toward the window and out of his way. A flick of the hand, he collapsed the stand and folded the feet. He was glad he'd practiced that earlier. He thrust it now ? a fat and short configuration, like a closed umbrella ? into the side pocket of the duffle. It could function as a weapon if push came to shove.

Thorn opened the door and searched the hallway.

Clear.

"Seventy-six—"

Swinging back toward Juliette, he said, "My name is Thorn. I'm here to help you. I'm moving you to safety." He caught her by the wrist and scooped under her back to lift her torso upright. "I'm going to put you over my shoulders." After she had been riled and fighting in her delirium, Thorn needed her to be still. Passed out would be good here. If she were fighting him, it would slow him down. It might even bring the help of some good Samaritan. And while good Samaritan's had their place this was not it.

"Seventy seconds. Sixty-nine…"

Thorn would have preferred to carry Juliette in his arms. It would have been more comfortable for her. But he needed at least one hand available for work. And it was damned hard to run with a weight across the chest. He sucked a breath between his teeth, knowing that he was probably going to hurt her head even more.

Still, nothing good was racing up the back stairs.

Out of this mess was the only goal.

Thorn pulled Juliette across his back in a fireman's hold, reaching through her thighs, using his arm to trap her leg in place on his chest as he grasped her wrist with tight fingers to keep her from slipping off his back.

With his free hand, he pulled the door shut behind him. That might buy him a few seconds.

"Fifty-four, Fifty-three…"

Thorn's phone buzzed. He pulled it from his pocket and swiped, as he took off down the hall.

They're in the building. The text read.

Shit, not two minutes out.

"They're in," Thorn called out to his team.

He shoved his phone into his pocket as he raced down the hall toward the far end near the shower rooms. Without breaking stride, he reached out and pulled the fire alarm. Immediately, the bright whirring alarm sounded. Thorn hoped it was connected to the fire station and that within minutes, fire fighters would be on scene.

He reached back and felt the side of his pack, grasping for the IV stand. As he reached the window, he turned his back to look up the hall.

People emerged from their rooms, looking confused and put out.

"Take the stairs." Thorn yelled in French. "Front stairs are down there. Here are the back stairs. Hurry. Hurry. Move!" Then he repeated his commands in English.

His words seemed to do their job. That and the woman passed out on his shoulders.

The complacency of a fire-drill fell off as the people realized they were on the third floor in a possible fire. They pushed at each other trying to get down the stairs faster. With the stairs clogged and the hall empty, Thorn used the IV stand to smash out the window, he turned and swiped around the edges, clearing the shards as best he could.

He couldn't fit through the opening, with Juliette and his backpack on him.

Leaning out, he swiped the IV stand across the fire escape, quickly clearing the worst of the glass.

He rolled Juliette over the sill.

She lay there on the grill of the fire platform, the wind whipping at her pink nighty. The ground was three stories below.

Her eyes fluttered open.

"I'm Thorn. I'm the good guy." He planted his hands on either side of the window frame and stuck his boot through.

Juliette moved to sit up.

"There's broken glass. Stay still."

She didn't listen. She struggled to sit up.

"Look," Thorn said as he ducked out of the window to crouch on the small landing beside her. "I'm trying to save you. The bad guys are downstairs, and they're on their way up." He'd let her interpret bad guys in anyway she wanted to. "If you fight against me, we just don't have a good shot at getting away. They have a team. If they get to you, there's not a lot I can do." Thorn stood up and reached above his head to the ladder that he'd scoped out when his team had first parked in the alley that morning. Even the adrenaline coursing through his veins didn't help as he tugged at the bottom rung. It didn't budge. Thorn got a better grip and leaped in the air to use his weight to help bring it down. But it was stuck just over his head.

"Thorn." Nutsbe's voice was in his ear. "I've got you up on satellite imaging now. You pushed the team outside with the alarm. We're running the photos from your phone. Our count is eight. I'm assuming those texts were from Brigitte. You might not be there all alone. It could be she'll help. You have to assume the Omega crew have eyes on your movements. Don't take the fire escape down."

He'd figured that was the case. The hell he'd crawl down the side of the building to hand Juliette over to Billy fucking Watts. "Roger," Thorn said. "Up it is."

Thorn tried one more time to slide the ladder into place so that up was an option. It was a no-go.

Thorn rounded on Juliette. She was lying very still, just as he'd asked. As he crouched, Thorn pulled out a police-duty zip tie and fastened it around her bandaged wrist. Things had gone from bad to worse.

Juliette frowned at it.

Yup, this is gonna suck for both of us. It was part of his equation that he'd need to be hands-free. Kneeling, Thorn could feel the glass shards grinding into his knees. He pulled a length of parachute cord from his pocket. "I'm going to put you back across my shoulder now." He didn't stop his movement while he spoke, sticking the cord between his teeth and talking through a clenched jaw. "You're going to keep your eyes tightly shut. And your going to keep your body as relaxed as you can possibly make it."

He pressed up from his squat with Juliette draped across his shoulders. Though he knew it would hurt, he bounced her up and forward, edging her closer to his neck. "I'm sorry for this." With quick practiced hands, he fed the cord through her zip tie, wrapped her leg and pulled a quick knot, securing her much the way he'd used his hand to as they exited. He took an end of the cord and stuck it through the metal survival loop of his tactical belt. "Believe me, this will be as uncomfortable for me as it is for you. We're in this together." He tied a figure eight on a bend knot.

She'd stay in place.

"Everyone's out of the building," Nutsbe said. "I'm seeing jostling. All black clothing. I'm saying that's the Omega crew playing salmons and swimming your way. You've got to get off that X, man."

"Wilco," Thorn muttered as he bent his legs and pulled his arms back. As he swung his hands over his head, he thrust up with his legs, catching the ladder by the second rung. He used the momentum and a flex of his biceps to pop his feet up to either side of the window. Walking his feet up the side of the wall, he let his heels slip until they found the miniscule ridge of mortar between the bricks.

"The only easy day was yesterday," Thorn reminded himself as he pulled up, lifted one hand from the rung, and reached to grab the next one.

Feet sliding, hands slick from sweat, off balance from the pack and the tethered precious cargo, he pulled up again, scrambled his feet again, moved his hands up to meet the other, pulled and grabbed upwards.

Three stories above ground, a feverish disoriented woman balanced on his shoulders, a daunting ratio of bad guys, and only make-do weapons.

Could be worse, though.

Juliette could be a bad partner, and she could start freaking out.

He moved another rung. Thorn pulled that image back. People in stressful situations could suck thoughts out of the air, and the last thing he wanted was to plant the freak-out seed. Instead, Thorn said, "You're doing great. You're so damned brave, keep it up."

"Hey, spidey," Nutsbe was in his ear. "You're going to need to hurry that up."

Thorn exhaled three puffs, grit his teeth and focused. Now that he had done a couple of swings, he'd figured out the mechanics of the movement and was able to move through each step more fluidly.

The faster he moved, the more things shifted, his pack, and Juliette.

She screamed from behind tightly pursed lips, grabbing at his shirt with both hands.

As Juliette slipped the few inches down his back, it yanked the cord on his belt. His pants cut into his balls. That was enticement enough to get him moving, to bring the boys some relief.

He hoped it didn't make him puke.

Juliette struggled then went lax, and he appreciated it.

Later, he might consider what it had been like to be in her position, blood rushing to her throbbing, feverish head, zip tie cutting into her wrist, trusting a stranger who appeared in the room, and staring straight down three stories to the pavement below.

He wouldn't have trusted the situation. He'd wonder about why she did later. Right now, he flexed his back muscles and pulled another rung upward. He could hear shouting from the ground. People had spotted him. He heard confusion in their yelling.

Well, hopefully they'd point the rescue crew this way – that or maybe they were yelling that the bad guys were at his heels.

"They're at your heels," Lynx said.

Of course, they were.

Three rungs, two, one, Thorn was at the top of the ladder. He reached over the lip, clenched his abs, and swung a leg over the edge. The momentum of the shifting weight on his back pulled him over the lip. But he caught himself before he drove Juliette's face into the gravel.

On all fours, he pawed his way to the side and looked over.

Billy was looking straight up at him, pissed as hell.

Thorn grabbed at the ladder and shook it viciously.

Billy lost his grip and fell to the landing outside the window.

A beam of light caught him in its glow.

Billy swiped a bloody arm through the air to signal his guy to cut that shit out. Billy stood and grabbed at the rung. This time when Thorn shook it, it loosened, and Thorn was able to yank it upward out of the reach of even someone as tall as Billy.

He patted Juliette's hand. "Are you hanging in there?"

"Yes." Her voice shook.

"All right here we go. We're working on an exit strategy." His phone buzzed. This time it was a phone call.

"Brigitte here, I see you made it to the roof."

"Roger." This was as far as his Plan E had taken him. He knew from satellite pictures that he could move from roof to roof the length of the block, but then, so did anyone else with access to Google Earth. He knew he had nothing to the north. His best chance was to move south and hope for inspiration.

"My team is moving into place," Brigitte said.

Thorn's phone was hooked to the Panther Force war room, anything he heard, could be heard by Nutsbe and Lynx, too. "Your team is? Is this the team that was on the motorcycles chasing us out of the airport? The ones with what looked remarkably like explosive devices in their hands?" Thorn jogged along the roof, scanning for options.

"David DuBois and Juliette DuBois are separate missions."

"But you're the common denominator."

"My mission goal for Juliette is to not allow her into the enemies hands."

"Am I your enemy?" Thorn asked.

"As long as you're keeping her safe, we're playing on the same team."

Thorn turned and sat on the wall separating this building from the next. He lifted his legs and swiveled around, planting his feet and taking off again. "What happens when I get her safe? Are you thinking you'll take custody of her?"

"Save your breath, Thorn. Let's focus on the Omega crew. Billy and his buddy went back through the window. They'll move on to their back up plan. You're heading south. Good choice, actually, your only choice. That fire alarm, by the way, wasn't connected to emergency services. The old dude simply walked the halls and turned it off. Most of the people are out in the alley though with their phones, taping YouTube videos of your super hero antics."

Thorn had made it to the wall separating the next buildings, and he sat, spun, and launched again.

"Thorn," Lynx said, "we have a support team twelve minutes out. We're checking architectural schematics, coming up with a plan."

Thorn whispered, "Yeah, not a lot of options up here, even with the Calvary riding in."

"You're going to need to ditch Juliette and the pack," Brigitte said. "You have guys coming up the fire escape on the building just south of you. It's going to be a fight."

Thorn didn't like the idea of unstrapping and slowing himself down. "Where are you?"

"I'm coming to help, heading up the fire escape further north of you." Brigitte's breath came heavily. Thorn knew she was pushing to get to him.

Still, the idea of pulling Juliette off his shoulder… "How are you seeing all this?" he asked into the phone. His eye searched for a good place to put Juliette down, just in case.

"My guy is blinking a light," Brigitte said.

Thorn was standing between two chimneys, and he could see the SOS blinking from the high rise just west of him on the other side of the alley. With enough rope, he could rig something?

"Ideas?" he called into his comms.

"She's right. Four unsubs visible," Nutsbe said. "They're coming up the two buildings north of your location. You have about forty seconds. Unpack Juliette, now ."

Thorn pulled his multitool from his pocket, flipping out the pen knife. In one motion, he squatted down, and took a knee as he sliced through the zip tie and cord that held Juliette in place. "Here you go. I know it's damp up here, But I need you to lie super still, curled up in a ball. I'm going to cover you with my pack. It's black so you'll be camouflaged here. I need you to stay still and curled until I can get back to you."

With chattering teeth, and wide eyes, Juliette followed his instructions. Putting her back to the chimney, pulling her knees to her chest, she didn't say a word or make a sound.

Thorn dropped his pack off and leaned it over her. Made with a Kevlar lining, as long as it was in front of her, she had at least a little protection from knives and maybe even from a stray bullet.

All right, four against one.

Brigitte was coming.

Thorn just didn't know how to file that away.

He wished he knew what her mission entailed.

He wished he knew if Brigitte really had his back, or if she planned to bury a knife there.