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And it isn’t as if I haven’t had a nice life up until now Okay, maybe parts of it have been rockier than others But hey, I had an okay childhood; at least ry

And I was never abused or ranted, it had peaked at age eighteen or so

But still, I’ve gotten to eat in a lot of awfully good restaurants

And I know that Lucy will be well taken care of Cooper will look after her if anything happens toof Cooper res were just getting interesting I’ to knohat it is he really thinks ofto die, and miss it!

Unless, of course, when you die you attain all the knowledge in the universe

But what if you don’t? What if you just die?

Well, then I guess it won’t matter

But what about those repairmen? They’d assured me elevator cables don’t just snap Okay, maybe one of them snaps, but not all of them, all at once Those cables hadn’t broken accidentally So from the ball of fla boain

Reflecting on who could possibly want to killhands--and even Cooper and the what-he-thinks-of---for a ton, who eranium planter on my head because I suspect hiood alibi for this one

But hoould Christopher Allington have known that I’d be on that elevator? I rarely ride the service elevator In fact, the only ti elevator surfers

Could Gavin McGoren so and Bobby Pace? This seems far-fetched, but what other explanation could there be? Julio can’t be the murderer For all I know, he’s dead down there Why would he want to kill himself and me?

Suddenly, the elevator closest to me returns, and this time, there’s so--the shaft is filled with sri to my rescue

Which mustto risk his own life to save mine…

"Heather," Cooper says He sounds as cool and authoritative as ever "Don’tanywhere," I say Or that’s what I try I say What I hear is actually a string of hysterical blubbering But surely it isn’t co from me

"Listen to me, Heather," Cooper says He’s cli on to one of its cables His face, I can see through the smoke, is pale beneath his tan Nohy is that? I wonder "I want you to do so for me"

"Okay," I say Or I try to, anyway

"I want you to swing over here It’s okay, I’ll catch you"

"U down "No"