A bell chimed to their left, and the center elevator opened its doors. Jack stepped toward it but Milkdud held him back.

"Uh-uh. We're taking the one over there on the left."

"What's the difference?"

"That's the one that's going to put you closest to where you want to go."

"I'm all for that," Jack said.

Milkdud reached inside the center cab and pressed a b.u.t.ton, sending it back up.

Half a minute later, the doors to the left elevator opened.

"That's ours," Milkdud said.

As they started toward it, Jack spotted a red-haired woman rounding the corner. She headed their way.

"Move it, Dud," he whispered. "Company's coming."

They'd shown up early to ensure that they'd be able to ride an empty elevator car. This redheaded early bird was going to mess up their plans.

They scrambled through the doors. As soon as he got inside, Milkdud hit "7" and then leaned on the door close b.u.t.ton.

"Hold it, please!" the woman called from outside.

"Sorreeee," Milkdud said softly as the doors slid closed and they started up. "But we need this one all to ourselves."

"Close," Jack said.

He could feel himself tensing up as the floor numbers climbed the display. He wasn't relishing the next few steps.

Milkdud squatted and opened his briefcase. He pulled out a curved piece of metal about the size of a coat hanger hook. A length of slender cord trailed from its end.

"All right. Here's your hook. You remember how to work it, right?"

"Yeah. I think so."I hope so.

"Just like we practiced last night." He handed Jack the hook and cord, then snapped his briefcase shut. "And you've got your change of clothes, flashlight, headlamp, and cell phone, right?"

"Right."

"Okay. Let's do it."

Jack swallowed. "Which floor?"

"Seven. A new tenant is renovating before moving in. The workmen probably don't arrive until eight, so-"

"Probably?"

Milkdud shrugged. "I did my thing here yesterday. They don't work on Sunday, so what can I say?"

"Okay. Let's a.s.sume they're not there yet."

"Right. Which is good. That way you won't be too rushed."

The car eased to a stop.

Milkdud gave him a thumbs-up. "Okay, Hacker Jack, go to it. I'll start back down-and don't let the alarm bell rattle you."

A bell is the least of my worries, he thought.

With the hook and cord in one hand and his briefcase in the other, Jack stepped through the open doors.

The seventh floor was indeed under construction, a clutter of lumber and wallboard, all coated with a fine layer of sawdust and plaster.

And no workers yet.

As soon as the elevator doors slid shut, Jack dropped his briefcase and began working the hook through the s.p.a.ce between the metal lintel and the top of the elevator doors. He and Milkdud had practiced this a dozen times last night on the elevator in Milkdud's building. The top s.p.a.ce here was narrower.

And then the elevator alarm bell started ringing as Milkdud hit the emergency b.u.t.ton, stopping the cab between the sixth and seventh floors. Jack had been expecting this, but still he jumped.

He knew he had time, but the bell was a goad, pushing him to hurry. Finally the hook slipped through and dropped over on the other side of the door.

And kept dropping, taking the cord with it.

He'd forgot to wrap the d.a.m.n cord around his wrist.

"Christ!"

Jack s.n.a.t.c.hed at it and snagged the last foot of cord just before it disappeared into the void of the elevator shaft.

And all the while, that d.a.m.n emergency bell kept up its steady, insistent ringing.

He let out a breath. The next step would be a little harder.

Jack reeled in the cord until he heard the hook clink against the other side of the door, then he worked it up and down, twisting the cord as he let it in and out.

Finally, he felt the hook catch, but just as it did, he heard another bell, a ding ding! He glanced around and saw the up arrow glowing above the far right elevator door. Someone was coming.

Jack yanked on the cord, praying it was hooked on the shaft side safety handle.

It was. The elevator doors parted a few inches. That was all Jack needed. He got his foot between them, then spread them wide with his hands.

The emergency bell was even louder now. He looked down.

Two feet below his feet the top of the elevator car waited.

Now came the hard part. The really hard part.

Jack hesitated-I've got to be out of my G.o.dd.a.m.ned mind!-and would have loved to have hesitated longer if he'd had time, but the doors to that other elevator were sliding open. Wedging his doors open with his feet, he grabbed his briefcase and stepped down onto the roof of the elevator car. As the doors eased closed behind him, he found the switch for the light atop the elevator and flipped it, hoping the bulb hadn't burned out.

"Yes," he said as the incandescent lit within its cage.

He grabbed the hook off the safety handle and pulled the rest of the cord through. He banged the go-ahead signal to Milkdud on the roof of the car, then dropped into a crouch.

Abruptly the emergency bell stopped.

And for a few heartbeats, blessed silence.

Then the car started down with a lurch.

"Oh, s.h.i.t!"

Going down wasn't the problem. The car was supposed to head down. That was in the plan. Milkdud had started it down before stopping between the floors, so it had to continue that way. Once he reached bottom, he'd start it back up... and take it all the way to the top.

The problem was that Jack's breakfast wanted to remain between the sixth and seventh floors. He gritted his teeth and forced the cherry cheese Danish and coffee to stay in his stomach. With his free hand, he clutched the heavy steel sling bar that ran across the top of the car. It looked like a piece of I-beam girder. Had to be strong-it anch.o.r.ed the hoist cables. To his left and right the roller guides rattled softly as they wheeled along in their shoes.

The car picked up speed.

"Oh, s.h.i.t!"

He whispered the two words over and over in a scatological litany all the way down. He was scared. Not that he'd ever admit it to anyone, not even Gia-no way he'd even tell tell Gia about this-but he freely admitted to himself that at this moment, in this place, he was flat-out, all-but-screaming terrified. Gia about this-but he freely admitted to himself that at this moment, in this place, he was flat-out, all-but-screaming terrified.

Not the height that bothered him, because he couldn't see the bottom; and being enclosed in a sealed concrete shaft wasn't all that bad, because the light atop the car let him see where he was.

It was the whole deal: Here he was dressed in a business suit and hanging onto a briefcase while riding an elevator on the wrong side of its ceiling. Sure, there had to be a first time for everything, but Jack swore this first time would also be the last time.

Because he liked to be in control of his gigs, and at the moment he was anything but in control.

And he didn't see any quick way out of here.

Plus he couldn't help worrying about what awaited him at his ultimate destination: the top of the shaft.

Finally, a faint ding ding! and the car slowed to a stop. He heard the doors open onto the main floor, then overheard Milkdud explaining to someone how the emergency stop was his fault, how the car had started to go down when he'd wanted to go up so he'd pressed the stop b.u.t.ton by accident. Sorry. No harm done, right? Don't worry, he wouldn't make that mistake again.

Jack used the stop time to pocket the hook and cord, then unbuckle and rebuckle his pants belt around the handle of his briefcase. He heard bodies piling into the cab, heard the doors close, and then the car started up.

If the descent had been an oh-s.h.i.t moment, the ascent was ten, twenty, a hundred times worse.

Sure, Milkdud had explained it all and drawn diagrams about how much s.p.a.ce was around and above the main support beam up at the top of the shaft, but Jack kept seeing himself squashed like a bug against the inside of the roof up there.

The middle elevator zoomed past on its way down, and his own car's counterweight flashed past the rear of the car between one of the seven stops on the way up. If he'd had his hand out, he might have lost it. Taking the local usually drove Jack crazy when he was inside; but here on the outside, he didn't mind.

"Take your time," he whispered. "Take all the time you want."

But after the sixteenth floor-Jack had seen the number stenciled above the door-the car resumed its ascent and kept going.

As he shot toward the roof of the shaft, Jack crouched and peered into the shadows above, trying to make out the details. And then he spotted the main support beam running across the top of the shaft. It was aligned with the sling beam atop the car. As he got closer, Jack saw the mult.i.track wheel fixed in the center of the support beam, spinning wildly as it guided the racing hoist cables.

And then the car stopped. Twenty-sixth floor. End of the line.

Jack let out the breath he'd been holding. Milkdud hadn't been exaggerating about the extra s.p.a.ce at the top. The car had stopped well short of the support beam and the roof. In fact, the shaft continued up a good twenty feet above him.

Jack knew Dud was leaning on the door open b.u.t.ton to give him some extra time, but he couldn't hold it forever. Jack looked around and spotted a metal ladder embedded in the left wall of the shaft, running up to a door-just where Dud had said it would be.

He grabbed a rung, stepped off the top of the car, and climbed to the door. Dud had said it was unalarmed and that he'd left it unlocked, so Jack pushed through.

He shut the door behind him and stood a moment in the rumbling darkness, reveling in the feel of solid floor beneath his feet as his pounding heart slowed.

What a h.e.l.l ride. Only a few minutes in real time, but a good aeon or two subjectively.

But he'd survived. The worst was over. He'd be more in control from here on in.

Until he had to get out.

He'd worry about that later.

He fumbled his hand along the wall and found the light switch. A row of naked fluorescents flickered to life overhead.

He was in what Milkdud called the HVAC area-heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning. Straight ahead sat the system's air filters, each the size of a panel truck. Eight-foot ducts ran to and from them.

Jack stepped over to the nearest and freed the briefcase from his belt. He opened it and removed a one-piece coverall-let Dud wear pantyhose; Jack preferred coveralls. He stripped off his suit jacket, pants, and tie, then stepped into the coverall and zipped it to his neck. He traded his wing tips for sneakers. He slipped the slim little cell phone into the inside breast pocket. He strapped the headlamp around his head and slipped its battery pack into his right hip pocket. He adjusted the headphones to his ears, then turned on the Walkman and dropped it into the left hip pocket.

Milkdud's voice spoke softly in his ears.

"Okay, Jack. If you're listening to this, I guess it means you're not lying in a broken heap at the bottom of the shaft." And then he chuckled.

"Ha ha," Jack said.

"Go to the big return that feeds into the left air filter and open the service door. We're using the return system because it'll have cooler air. Look close and you'll see I've marked it with my handle."

Jack stepped to the door and found the lever marked with Dud's little black spot within a circle. He pulled it open and looked inside. Dark. Very dark.

"Dark, isn't it. But not for long. To the right of the door is a light switch. Flip it."

Jack did, and an incandescent bulb lit the inside of the duct-a square galvanized metal shaft, eight foot on a side. A dozen feet to his left it made a right-angle downward turn.

"Don't stand there gawking, Jack. Get inside, close the door behind you, and start moving."

Jack did and inched to the edge of the down shaft. Just below the lip, a metal ladder trailed down the inner surface of the shaft; its rungs were swallowed by the darkness beyond the cone of light cast by the single bulb.

"Use the ladder to get to the twenty-first floor. Don't worry about the dark. We'll take care of that as we go."

"If you say so," Jack muttered.

He swung over the edge and started down. As he neared the darkness below...

"The engineers who renovated this system were unusually considerate. Not only are there no motion detectors or grates in the ducts-something I'd recommend if I was trying to keep out people like us-but they placed a light on every floor, same as in the elevator shaft. But these have to be turned on. Keep an eye out to the right of the ladder as you pa.s.s each major seam. You'll see a pair of light switches: One operates the bulb above you, and the other the bulb below."