Matthew Reilly - Area 7

and clear now. The water damage must have only affected its

range.

"Damn it!" Schofield said. "I thought the elevator platform

would be here!"

"The prisoners took it up to the main hangar," Gant

said.

9:59:05.

9:59:06.

"Jesus, Scarecrow. What do we do? We only have a

minute left ..."

Schofield was thinking the same thing.

Sixty seconds.

Not enough time to go down to the bottom of the shaft,

swim across, and come back up again. And not enough time

to shuffle hand-over-hand around the walls of the shaft, either.

And they couldn't swing across on a Maghook--it was

too far.

Damn, he thought.

Damn-damn-damn-damn-damn-damn-damn-damn.

"What about a Harbour Bridge? " Mother's voice came

in over Schofield's earpiece.

The "Harbour Bridge" was a legendary Maghook trick.

Two people fired two oppositely charged Maghooks in such

a way that the two hooks hit in midair and stuck together. It

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was named after the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the famous

Australian landmark that was built from opposite sides of

Sydney Harbour, two separate arcs that ultimately met in the

middle. Schofield had seen a number of Marines try it. None

of them had succeeded.

"No," he said, "the Harbour Bridge is impossible. I've

never seen anyone hit another Maghook in mid-flight. But

maybe ..."

9:59:09.

9:59:10.

He looked over at the President and Gant standing in the

doorway to Level 2, gauged the distance.

Then he looked up--and saw the darkened underside of

the aircraft elevator platform, way up at the top of the shaft.

Mother's suggestion, however, had given him an idea.

Maybe with two Mag hooks they could ...

"Fox! Quickly!" he said. "Where is the mini-elevator?"

"Where we left it before, up on Level 1," Gant said.

"Go up to Level 1. Get on it. Take it up the shaft and

stop it a hundred feet below the main elevator platform. Go! Now!"

Gant knew not to argue. There was no time. She

grabbed the President and dashed out of Schofield's sight.

9:59:14.

9:59:15.

Schofield dashed past Book II, heading back along the

horizontal cross-vent to the main vent.

He came to the vertical ventilation shaft and without

even a blink, fired his Mag hook up into it again.

This time he waited until the Maghook had played out

its entire one hundred and fifty feet of rope before initiating

the grappling hook's magnetic pull.

As before, the Maghook's powerful magnetic charge

yanked the upwardly flying hook sideways in midair, and it

thunked hard against the metal wall of the vent, and held fast.

9:59:22.

9:59:23.

area 7 331

Schofield whizzed up the shaft again.

This time Book II didn't go with him--Schofield didn't

have the time to send the Maghook back down for him. He'd

have to do this alone, and besides, he needed the

Maghook ...

Schofield shot up the shaft on the Maghook's rope, the

air vent's close steel walls rushing past him on all four sides.

He stopped the hook's reeling mechanism as he came to another

cross-vent three levels up--but still a hundred feet below

the main hangar. He charged into the cross-vent.

9:59:29.

9:59:30.

Came to the aircraft elevator shaft again. The underside

of the giant elevator platform loomed closer now, only a

hundred feet above him. He could hear the gunshot blasts

and catcalls of the prisoners up in the hangar and wondered

for the briefest of moments what on earth they were doing

up there.

9:59:34.

9:59:35.

And then, by the light of his barrel-mounted flashlight,

he saw the mini-elevator whizzing up the concrete wall on

the other side of the massive elevator shaft. The small figures

of Gant, Juliet, Mother and the President were on it.

9:59:37.

9:59:38.

As the mini-elevator drew level with him, Schofield

said, "Okay! Stop there!"

The mini-elevator jolted to a halt, now diagonally opposite

Schofield but separated from him by a sheer concrete

chasm two hundred feet wide.

And so they faced each other, from opposite sides of the

enormous shaft.

9:59:40.

"Okay, Fox," Schofield said into his radio. "I want you

to fire your Maghook into the underside of the elevator platform."

"But it's not long enough to swing across on ..."

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"I know. But two Maghooks will be," Schofield said.

"Try and hit the platform about a quarter of the way across.

I'll do the same from this side."

9:59:42.

Schofield fired his Maghook. With a loud, puncturelike

whump, the hook flew into the air, flying diagonally up into

the shaft.

And then--clunk!--the magnetic head of the hook affixed

itself to the underside of the elevator platform.

9:59:43.

Clunk! A similar noise came from the other side of the

shaft. Gant had done the same with her Maghook.

9:59:45.

9:59:46.

Schofield held his Maghook with one hand. Then he

opened the Football, revealing the countdown timer inside it--00:00:14 ... 00:00:13--and held it by its handle, folded

open.

"Okay, Fox," he said into his mike. "Now give the rope

to the President. We've got twelve seconds now, so we'll

only get one shot at this."

"Oh, you have got to be kidding," Mother's voice said.

On the other side of the shaft, Gant gave the Maghook's

launcher to the President of the United States. "Good luck,

sir."

Now, Schofield and the President stood on opposite

sides of the great concrete elevator shaft, holding on to the

diagonally stretched ropes of their respective Maghooks,

looking like a pair of trapeze artists about to perform their

act.

9:59:49.

9:59:50.

"Go!" Schofield said.

and they swung.

Out over the shaft.

Two tiny figures, on two equally tiny threadlike ropes.

area 7

Indeed, as the two of them swung in mirroring pendulum

like arcs, they did look like trapeze artists--swinging toward each other, aiming to meet in the middle, Schofield holding

out the open briefcase, the President reaching forward with

his outstretched hand.

9:59:52.

9:59:53.

Schofield reached the base of his arc, started coming up.

In the dim light, he saw the President swooping in toward him, a look of sheer terror plastered across his face.

But the chief executive swung well, gripping his rope

tightly, reaching forward with his right hand.

9:59:54.

9:59:55.

And they came close, rising in their pendulum motion,

reaching the extremities of their arcs ...

9:59:56.

9:59:57.

... and, four hundred feet above the base of the elevator shaft, swinging in near total darkness, they came together, and the President pressed his outstretched palm

against the analyzer plate in Schofield's hand.

Beep!

The timer on the Football instantly reset itself.

00:00:02 became 90:00:00 and the clock immediately

began counting down once more.

As for Schofield and the President, having briefly

shared the same space of air four hundred feet above the

world, they now parted, swooping back toward their respective starting points.

The President arrived back at the mini-elevator platform, where he was caught by Gant, Mother and Juliet.

On the other side of the elevator shaft, Schofield swung

back to his cross-vent.

He landed lightly on the edge of the tunnel, breathing

deeply with relief, the stainless-steel Football hanging open