Necropolis

then she looked more closely and saw that it was just an incredible trick. There was a bridge constructed between the two buildings, a strip of almost invisible glass or Perspex — some see-through material strong enough to take his weight. Nobody would have been able to see it from the street or from the air, and even now she might not have been able to make it out but for the rain hitting it and the faint coating of grime that covered the surface. It still looked as if Lohan was suspended between the two buildings.
    He had walked some distance from the edge of the roof and was standing over the road, the cars and people far below.
    It would be Scarlett's turn next.
    A door burst open on the roof behind her. Their pursuers had finally reached them, pouring out onto the roof, nine of them, human from the look of them but with dead eyes and pale, empty faces that might have spent years out of the light. Their hair was ragged, their clothes moldering away, and they wore no shoes. Some of them carried long, jagged knives. Others had lengths of chain hanging down to the ground and wooden clubs spiked with nails. Slowly, they began to fan out.
    "You — go!" Red pushed Scarlett forward, propelling her toward the glass bridge. "Draco…" He finished the sentence in Chinese.
    There was no time to argue. The creatures were already getting closer. Red moved toward them, away from the safety of the bridge, his own gun raised in front of him. Scarlett looked down. The bridge had no sides, no safety rails. The surface was wet and slippery. Worse still, because it was transparent, it felt completely insubstantial. She could imagine herself falling through it or losing her balance and plunging over the side. And she could see where she would land. The road was there, waiting for her far below.
    Red fired a shot, and the sound of it propelled her forward. She couldn't look back. She couldn't see what was happening behind her. All her concentration was focused on what she had to do. She took one step, then another. Now she was in midair with the wind buffeting her. She felt Draco behind her, urging her on, but fear was paralyzing her. Lohan had told her not to look down — but if she didn't, how could she be sure that her foot was coming down in the right place? The rain sliced into her face, half blinding her.
    She could feel it running down her cheeks.
    There were two more shots, but then they stopped and she heard screaming. Red had been caught, and terrible things were being done to him. Scarlett hated herself for doing nothing to help him. He had stayed behind for her, to give her the time to cross, and she was literally walking out on him. All these people were risking their lives for her. The whole apartment block with its knocked-through walls and this incredible transparent bridge had been prepared for the time she might need it. And the crazy thing was that she still didn't know who they were or why they had decided to help.
    Somehow, she got to the other side, taking the last step with a surge of relief. At that exact moment, Red's screams ended and she turned round to see him being held in the air by a group of the creatures who were standing at the edge of the building she had just left. His body was limp. Blood was pouring from a dozen stab wounds in his arms and chest. Then they let him go. He seemed to glide rather than fall through the air, as if he weighed nothing. Finally, he smashed into one of the parked cars, crumpling the roof and shattering the front windshield. An alarm went off. With a screech of triumph, the creatures who had killed him lurched themselves onto the bridge.
    Lohan was standing, watching them. He let them get about halfway across before he stretched out a hand and closed it around a lever set in a wall. He smiled briefly, malevolently, and pulled. At once, the bridge collapsed. It was like one of those magic wands used by conjurors at children's parties. The different sections folded, then plunged downward. Five of the creatures went with it, hitting the road in an explosion of bone and blood. The rest were left on the other side, jabbering and shaking their fists, unable to cross.
    Behind them, something vague and dark rose up over the side of the rooftop. The swarm of flies had arrived. Lohan signaled and set off across the second apartment block, making for a door on the far side.
    If he was going to mourn the man who had died, it would have to wait. He went through, waited for Scarlett