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Where the hell were the fire alarms? The medic alert alarms? The hazardous materials alar She&039;d spent years working in this building She ought to be able to remember where they were located
She could hit one and say it was an accident
But she saw no alarms
The men were now thirty yards behind If they broke into a run, they&039;d reach her in a few seconds But they were being cautious - apparently they, too, expected to see people at any ht, she saw a forest of blue beae barrels in place, while they were riveted together The last place she ht hide
I&039;m an executive of Norton Aircraft And it&039;s -
The hell with it
She turned right, ducking ah the lamps She heard the men behind her shout in surprise, and start to follow But by then she wasfast
Casey knew her way around here Sheto see someone above Usually there were twenty or thirtythe barrels in a glare of fluorescent light Now she saw nobody
Behind her, she heard the
She started to run, dodging low-hanging bea over cables and boxes, and then suddenly she ca Station fourteen: a plane stood on its landing gear, high above the floor And higher still, all around the tail, she saw the hanging gardens, rising sixty feet into the air
She looked up at the widebody, and she saw the silhouette of someone inside Someone in the
Someone inside the plane
Finally! Casey cli on the steel steps She went two stones up, then paused to look High above her, in the hanging gardens, she saw three burly mechanics in hard hats They were only ten feet below the ceiling, working on the top buzz of power tools
She looked down and saw the twoher on the floor below They broke clear of the forest of blue jigs, looked up, saw her, and started after her
She continued up
She reached the aft door of the plane, and ran inside The unfinished widebody was huge and e curved arcs, like the belly of a metal whale Halfway down, she saw a solitary Asian wo silver insulation blankets to the walls The wo here?" she said
The wohtened, as if she&039;d been caught doing so
Casey turned, ran back out the door
Down below, she saw the men just one level beneath her
She turned and ran up the stairs
Into the hanging gardens
The metal staircase had been ten feet hen she started Now it narrowed to two feet in width And it was steeper,into the air, surrounded by a dizzying crosswork of scaffolding Power lines hung down like jungle vines on all sides; her shoulders banged into her The staircase swayed beneath her feet It turned abruptly at right angles every ten steps or so Casey was now forty feet above the ground, looking down on the broad crown of the fuselage And up at the tail, rising above her
She was high up, and suddenly flooded with panic Looking up at theon the rudder above, she shouted: "Hey! Hey!"
They ignored her
Below, she saw the other two h the scaffolding as they clinored her Continuing upward, she sahy they had not responded They earing audiopads, black plastic cups like ear through them
She cliled right, around the black horizontal surface of the elevators, protruding from the vertical tail The elevators obscured her view-of the men above Casey worked her way around the elevators; the surfaces were black because they were made of composite resin, and she remembered she rab on to the They swayed wildly and her feet slipped off the steps; she clutched at the railing with sweaty hands as she slid five feet down, before coer see the floor below; it was obscured by the layers of scaffolding beneath her She couldn&039;t see if the second shift had arrived or not
She continued up
As she went higher, she began to feel the thick, hot air trapped beneath the roof of Building 64 She reh perch: the sweatbox
Working her way upward, she finally reached the elevators As she continued above theled back now, close to the broad, flat, vertical surface of the tail, blocking her view of the er wanted to look down; she saw the wooden bea above her Only fivearound the rudderand then she would be -
She stopped, stared
The one
She looked down and saw the three yellow hard hats beneath her They were on ato the factory floor
"Hey! Hey!"
The hard hats did not look up
Casey looked back, hearing the clang of the twoup the stairs toward her She could feel the vibration of their footsteps She knew they were close
And she had nowhere to go
Directly ahead of her, the stairs ended in a side the rudder There was a railing around the platfor beyond
She was sixty feet up in the air on a tiny platfore expanse of the widebody tail
The o
She should never have started to cliround Now she had no choice
Casey swung her foot over the platforripped it Theover
And then she began to cli for handholds, working her way down
Al was constructed of X-angled girders Wherever she grabbed, her hands slid down, ja pain Her feet slipped along the angled surfaces The scaffolding bars were sharp edged, difficult to hold After only a fewfor air She hooked her arht her breath
She did not look down
Looking to her left, she saw the two h platform The man in the red shirt, and theat her, trying to decide what to do She was about five feet below the on
She saw one of the loves
She realized she had to get ain Carefully, she unhooked her arms, and started down Five feet Another five feet Now she was level with the horizontal elevators, which she could see through the crisscrossed girders
But the girders were shaking
Looking up, she saw the , and moved quickly She kneould reach her in just a fewback down the stairs, pausing now and again to peer at her through the girders
The man in the red shirt was only about ten feet above her
Casey went down
Her ar was greasy in unexpected places; her hands kept slipping She felt theup she saw his big orange work boots Heavy crepe soles
In a few ers
As Casey continued to scraainst her left shoulder She looked back and saw a power cable, dangling froray plastic insulation How ht would it support?
Above her, the ged at the cable It held firm She looked up, saw no junction boxes above her She pulled the cable close, wrapping her ars Just as theand swung out on the cable
And began to slide
She tried to go hand over hand, but her ar down fast
She couldn&039;t control it
The pain from the friction was intense She went ten feet, another ten feet She lost track Her feet sla in the air She lowered her legs around the junction box, gripped the cable between her feet, let her body weight go down -
She felt the cable pull away
A shower of sparks flared frohout the building The cable inging back and forth She heard shouts fro down, she realized with a shock that she was only about seven or eight feet above the floor Hands were reaching up to her People shouting
She let go, and fell
She was surprised how quickly she recovered, getting right to her feet, e herself off "I&039; to the people around her "I&039;m fine Really" The paramedics ran over; she waved them away "I&039;e, seen the blue stripe, and were confused - as an executive hanging fro away a little, unsure what to do
"I&039;o on hat you&039;re doing"
The para away, until suddenly Kenny Burne was at her side, his ar on?"
"Nothing," she said
"This is no time to be on the floor, Casey Remember?"
"Yeah, I reme, into the afternoon sun She squinted in the glare The huge parking lot was now filled with cars for the second shift Sunlight glinting off row after roindshields
Kenny turned to her "You want to be more careful, Casey You knohat I mean?"
"Yeah," she said "I do"
She looked down at her clothes There was a big streak of grease running across her blouse and skirt
Bue of clothes here?"
"No I have to go home"
"I better drive you," Burne said
She was about to protest, but didn&039;t "Thanks, Kenny," she said
ADMINISTRATION
6:00 PM
John Marder looked up from behind his desk "I heard there was a little upset in 64 What was that about?"
"Nothing I was checking so"
He nodded "I don&039;t want you on the floor alone, Casey Not after that nonsense with the crane today If you need to go down there, have Richo with you"