Chapter 36
The voice in the intercom belonged to a ghost Cole thought he had buried in the snow of the Swiss Alps.
"Viktor Volkov," Cole whispered, his blood turning to absolute ice. The former head of the Russian syndicate, the man who had orchestrated the abduction of his niece, was alive.
"You American operators are so arrogant," Volkov chuckled softly through the speaker. "You rely entirely on your technology. Your sister is brilliant, Cole, but she is fighting on a network my engineers designed. I didn't just lock down the elevator. I severed the primary cables."
A horrific, metallic groaning echoed from above as the massive steel cables holding the elevator car began to snap one by one under explosive stress.
"Cole!" Sarah’s voice broke through the encrypted earpiece, frantic and terrified. "They blew the winch mechanisms! The emergency brakes are failing! You have to get out of the car!"
The elevator lurched violently, dropping ten feet before the emergency brakes caught with a sickening screech of metal on metal.
Cole didn't panic. He reached up, tearing the emergency escape hatch in the ceiling of the car open with brute strength. He hauled himself up onto the roof of the elevator, standing in the dark, grease-covered shaft.
"I'm on the roof," Cole reported, looking up at the distant, small square of light ninety floors above.
"The structural integrity of the brakes is compromised," Sarah warned, her voice shaking. "You have less than a minute before the car free-falls into the sub-basement."
Cole looked at the thick, greased guide rails running vertically along the walls of the shaft. He had no ropes, no grappling hooks. Only his raw, physical strength and sheer willpower.
"I have to jump to the maintenance ladder," Cole decided, spotting a narrow iron rung bolted to the concrete wall fifteen feet across the open shaft.
"Cole, with the weight of the EMP payload, you won't make the jump!" Sarah pleaded. "You have to drop the package!"
"If I drop the package, it detonates in the basement and levels the block," Cole replied coldly, adjusting the straps on his tactical harness to secure the heavy casing tightly against his chest. "I am not leaving the weapons."
He stepped back to the very edge of the elevator roof, his muscles coiled like steel springs.
The elevator groaned again, slipping another two feet. The final brake was giving way.
Cole didn't hesitate. He sprinted across the metal roof and launched himself into the dark abyss of the elevator shaft, leaping toward the distant iron ladder.
He soared through the air, the heavy payload threatening to drag him down into the void. He extended his arms desperately, his gloved hands slamming violently against the concrete wall.
His fingers closed around the rusted iron rung of the ladder.
The kinetic shock of the impact was devastating. Cole’s shoulder screamed in agony, threatening to dislocate, but his iron grip held. He dangled over a hundred-foot drop, his boots scrambling for purchase against the slick concrete.
Below him, the final emergency brake on the elevator snapped. The massive metal car plummeted into the darkness, crashing into the sub-basement seconds later with a catastrophic, earth-shaking explosion of twisted metal.
Cole hung in the dark, gasping for air, suspended by a single iron rung.
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"I made it," Cole whispered hoarsely into the comms.
"Thank God," Sarah sobbed on the other end. "Climb, Cole. Climb to the ground floor. We are getting you out of there."
