Killing Rain

elevator. Delilah wouldknow I would come this way. If Gil managed to drop Hilger and Al-Jib, this would be his next stop.
    Dox said, “Okay, I hear what you’re saying. I’ll just find some more hospitable place to wait this out.”
    “At some point, you’re going to get a crowd from the fifteenth-floor private dining rooms and the restaurant on fourteen stampeding for the exits,” I said. “Let them carry you with them.”
    “Yeah, that’s pretty much what I had in mind. What about you?”
    “I’m waiting for the freight elevator right now. But once the doors close and it goes down, we’ll lose contact. The range of this gear is too short.”
    “Well, what the hell are you waiting for? Go on, git. We’ll hook up at the bug-out point.”
    The elevator arrived. I stepped inside and held the “door open” button. I glanced up—no dome camera. That was only for the passenger units.
    “It’s here,” I said. “I can hold it for you.”
    “Don’t be stupid, man. Just take it down, then send it back up when you get off. I don’t even know if I’m going out that way. I’ll probably just drift out with the crowd once Hilger and the rest have finished killing each other.”
    I didn’t want to leave him, but what he said made sense. “Good luck,” I said, and pressed the button for the lobby. The doors closed and the elevator started down.
    Damn it, I hated to let Hilger go. We’d been so close to having this whole thing wrapped up. I thought for a moment.
    The dumpster opposite the entrance. If I hid behind it, and Hilger made it out, an opportunity might present itself. A long shot, true, but there wasn’t much downside.
    Thirty seconds later, the doors opened on the lobby level. The security guard I had seen earlier was right in front of them. Hehad a gun drawn, a .38 Special, and was holding it too far in front of his body. He barely glanced at me as he charged inside.
    He yelled something at me in Chinese—“Get out,” probably. Before he even had a chance to think about what was happening, I dropped the attaché, grabbed the outstretched gun in both hands, pivoted, and twisted it away from him. He cried out in shock and fear. Then he backed up against the elevator wall and started yelling in Chinese again. This time I assumed it was something like “Oh, shit!” or perhaps the time-honored “Don’t shoot!”
    I picked up the attaché, stepped out of the elevator, and glanced around. All clear. I reached inside and pressed the button for thirteen. The doors closed, and the bug-eyed guard disappeared behind them, getting him out of my hair and preventing him from seeing what I was going to do next. Hopefully Dox already would be waiting for the guy when he arrived on thirteen. He could just haul him out and ride the elevator straight back down.
    I walked across the street to the dumpster and examined my options. Good cover and concealment from both sides. But it was a little far from the elevator bank for my tastes. If Hilger hit the ground running and went immediately left or right from the elevators, I might lose him. If I could find the right spot, better to be waiting right there as he emerged.
    I walked back over. The guard’s desk. That would do. I started to duck down behind it.
    The stairwell door blew open to my left, ricocheting off the wall. Al-Jib dashed out. I brought the gun up and tried to track him, but he had already gone around the corner.
    The door blew open again. I spun back toward it. This time it was Delilah. She stuck her head out and checked left and right, the Kimber in a two-handed grip just below her chin. She saw me and said, “Where did he go? Which way?”

    “Where’s Hilger?” I said.
    “Upstairs! Goddamn you, where is Al-Jib!”
    I cocked my head to the left. She took off without another word.
    I turned and took two steps toward the guard’s desk. I stopped. I took one more step. Then I said, “Fuck!” I turned and ran after Delilah, heaving the attaché in the direction of the dumpster en route.
    I saw her head into Statue Square park and sprinted after her. She raced past one of the fountains inside, the couples sitting around it turning their heads to watch as she blew by them. I sprinted after her, dodging pedestrians. We crossed the square, then weaved through the thick traffic on Chater Road. I could see Al-Jib, about fifteen meters ahead of Delilah. He was running flat out but she was gaining. Damn, she was fast.
    He bolted across