Arctic Fire (43 page)

Wearily, he climbed onto one of the pots and by
standing on his toes; he could barely reach the edge of the roof.
With a slight jump, which was all he could muster, he got a firm
grip on the roof then heaved himself up onto the roof.

The light cast by the quarter moon was both a
blessing and a curse, a blessing because it illuminated all the
vents and piping on the roof making his journey faster and safer
but a curse because Cain, looking down from his Tower of Mordor,
could see him scurrying across the roof top. Keeping a wary eye on
the tower, Pike moved from heating duct to ventilation tower to
electrical box, staying in the shadows as much as possible. Once
when he looked up, he could see Cain, silhouetted in his perch. A
moment later he was joined by another shadow, which Pike could only
assume was Mallory. She handed him a drink and the two of them
talked for a while. At one point he thought they were going to come
together in a lovers’ embrace but after thinking about it he knew
that wasn’t the kind of relationship they shared. It was more like
a teacher-student relationship but with an almost religious
reverence. Mallory didn’t worship him per se but her devotion was
undeniable.

As he was watching them, he saw Cain’s head turn
sharply, then he and Mallory disappeared; he knew his escape had
been discovered. He moved as quickly as he could, weaving in and
out between the obstacles on the roof. With time running out, Pike
picked up his pace. In his haste, he tripped twice over low-lying
ductwork that lay hidden in the shadows like landmines. He had to
be careful: not only did he not want to hurt himself but he also
didn’t want to alert everyone to his presence by thumping around on
the roof like a drunken Santa trying to land his sleigh.

He made it to the other side of the roof and
peered over the side at the windows below. The rooms on this side
of the iceberg were for the staff and last minute guests...like
K.D. His luck was holding; he passed only three until he found what
he was looking for: K.D.’s logo window sticker for the
Mariners.

K.D. was a Mariner’s fanatic and could even
quote stats from players who played years ago that no one had ever
heard of. When the Mariner’s announcing great, Dave Niehaus, died,
she said it was like losing a close friend. She, like so many other
people credited him for their interest in baseball and in the
Mariners. He made the game come alive for her she said as she would
listen to her tiny transistor radio stuffed under her pillow when
she was a kid, listening to the game instead of sleeping.

Ever proud of her team, she brought the window
sticker with her because when all the cameras were showing pictures
of the iceberg, they would see her Mighty Mariners logo.

He took his makeshift rope and tied off one end
around a larger heat exhaust blower and tied the other end around
his waist. He walked over to the brink and looked down at the
rushing water below and tightened his grip on the rope. He was just
about to lower himself over the edge when suddenly all the lights
on the roof came on. He really hadn’t noticed it before, but all
the glitzy casino lights that were window-dressing for the cameras
had been off.

Suddenly, brightly colored lights began glowing
and flashing and at any moment Pike half expected carnival music to
start playing. If nothing else, Cain was thorough so Pike knew the
roof would be searched soon. He quickly slipped over the side
before he was spotted.

He came down just to the left of the window and
took out the flathead screwdriver he had taken from the toolbox and
slipped it under the window panel and started prying. Just as the
pane popped out, a gust of wind caught it and it spun him around
like a wind chime. He slammed into the side of the iceberg with
such force that the impact caused the window panel to slip out of
his hands. He watched as the pane sliced through the surface of the
water and disappeared. He wanted to save the glass to replace it
once he got inside to cover his tracks, but there was nothing he
could do about it now.

Grabbing the lip of the windowsill, he hoisted
himself in and slipped into the room. Suddenly, there he was. It
had been one thing to sit in his make-shift cell and plan on coming
here but an altogether different thing to actually be here, to be
in the room where K.D. had died.

His eyes shot directly to the bed with bitter
sweetness, glad her body wasn’t there, but sad because he didn’t
have time to say good-bye. Next, his eyes darted to the spot where
the senator had been slain. There was a large, dark stain on the
carpet; thankfully his body was gone too.

He let out a long sigh and clenched his fists, a
thousand different emotions swirling inside him; anger, rage, pity,
loss, but the ball on his spinning roulette wheel of emotions
didn’t land on any of those, instead it landed on resolve. Like the
throwing of a switch, he now knew that nothing or no one would stop
him. He would succeed, not only for himself, but as he looked over
at the empty bed, for her too.

He threw open the curtain to gain as much light
as possible, not wanting to turn on any lights. He started going
through her dresser trying to find her cell phone. He felt like a
thief sneaking around like this but he had no choice. He had to
warn the authorities about Cain’s plan. He quickly found the phone
in the top drawer but his joy was short lived as he got no
signal.

Disappointed but not totally unexpected, he
quickly moved on and found K.D.’s lap top on the table and turned
it on. Not as good as a phone call, he thought, but an emergency
email would still work. He waited impatiently for the desktop
screen to pop up, and as soon as it appeared, he tapped the
Internet Explore icon and…he got the message, ‘unable to connect to
the Internet at this time.’ Cain must have cut all outside
communication the moment he’d learned of his escape.

Out of frustration, Pike pounded the table with
his fist and instantly regretted it. The sound of his fist slamming
into the table echoed like a clap of thunder. Immediately he spun
around and faced the door, checking to see if the shadows of
approaching people would darken the flow of light creeping under
the doorjamb.

After a few tense moments, he gasped, not
realizing that he had been holding his breath. He relaxed for a
moment, knowing he was not in any immediate danger but he also knew
he was far from being out of the woods.

He was just about to turn off the computer when
one of the desktop icons caught his attention; it was labeled,
Hot Shot
. Pike felt a stab of pain when he read it. With
mixed emotions he clicked on the icon and opened the folder: he was
amazed at what he saw.

K.D. had collected all the news articles and
interviews that he had done since he had become the Blast from the
Past. There were dozens of photographs and news stories ranging
from the major papers all the way down to his hometown newspaper
with interviews of people he didn’t even remember claiming to have
grown up with him and how they were the best of friends.

He had to laugh. It was amazing; everyone they
talked to knew that he would grow up to be something great one day.
He just wished they would have told him that sooner and saved him a
lot of time and effort.

Looking at the pictures, he saw that she had
taken a great deal of time to arrange them all in chronological
order. He smiled, that was the engineer in her, always putting
things in their proper places. He closed the file and was just
about to shut it down when another file caught his attention; it
was labeled,
DD.
It was a word document but it was pretty
good size; maybe she was writing a book. Then it struck him…
Dear
Diary
.

He started to move the mouse, but the closer the
arrow got to the file, the more his hand started to tremble. When
the arrow was resting on the icon, he suddenly let go of the mouse
as if it were electrified. He just sat there and stared at the
file. He could feel the floodgate of emotions beginning to open.
These were probably her last thoughts before she was…killed. He
desperately wanted to know them, to know what she thought of him,
but that would never happen now.

These were her thoughts and he felt like he was
invading her final moments by opening them up and casually reading
them just like the Sunday paper. As much as he wanted to know,
needed to know, he just couldn’t bring himself to open the file. He
hadn’t had time to grieve over her loss yet and as much as he
wanted to, now was not the time either.

Taking several deep, sobbing breaths, he moved
the mouse to shut the computer down then stopped. He noticed that
the icon for the internet was still running and he could have sworn
he’d closed it. He opened it again and the window popped open with
the progress bar blinking, showing it was still trying to connect,
but there was something else too.

There was another progress bar below the first
one and it indicated it was 50% loaded. Pike’s heart leapt as he
watched and the bar moved to 60%. He would soon be able to send his
message and warn the authorities, then all he had to do was to hide
out until the Cavalry showed up. With a smile, Pike sat down and
waited, perhaps Cain hadn’t thought of everything after all.

Pike stopped; suddenly the sight of the bar
moving to 73% didn’t excite him anymore. This was Cain he was
talking about here, the man didn’t make too many mistakes, he
thought again. Then suddenly with the reality of water being thrown
in his face, Pike realized that he was the one who had just made a
mistake, a big one! The computer wasn’t connecting to the internet,
the second progress bar was a tracking signal, Cain was tracking
the location of anyone trying to connect to the internet after he
had shut it down.

Frantically Pike pushed the keys trying to turn
it off but he couldn’t. The bar read 93% complete when he tossed
the laptop out the window. He wasn’t sure if the trace was complete
or not, but he couldn’t take that chance, he had to get out of
their now! He had no other choice now; he had to get to the
Yankee Clipper
.

He stuck his head out the window and listened
for sounds of anyone tracking him from the roof. He couldn’t hear
any voices over the churning water so he was just about to climb
out the window when something caught his eye. He hadn’t noticed it
on the table before because it was hidden behind the laptop.

He smiled as he reached over and picked it up.
It was one of K.D.’s most prized procession, a team autographed
baseball from the Mariner’s 2001 season where they set the American
league record for the most wins with 116. He put it in his pocket
as he climbed out the window and grabbed the rope to climb back up
onto the roof.

Chapter Forty S
even

The Blast from the Past was beginning to fizzle
out as he barely managed to get his legs up over the side and roll
onto the roof. As he was surveying the roof, he noticed that the
glowing lights from the distant cities were getting brighter.

The clock was running.

Taking several deep breaths, the cool air felt
good, helping him refocus on what he had to do. He forced himself
onto his feet and quickly and cautiously made his way toward the
stern. He had just reached the edge of the roof and was overlooking
the driving range and sunning area when he heard a clunk. His heart
stopped as he spun around and saw the legs of a ladder coming up
from the pool area, just 15 feet away. Frantically he searched for
cover but this section of the roof was clear of any ductwork. He
had no choice but to go down.

He lay down, then swung his legs down and
slipped over the edge, hanging on with his hands. Dangling for a
second, he let go and fell to the deck. He landed hard in front of
the golf pro shop but managed to break a little of the fall by
rolling when he landed. Pike scampered behind a golf cart and
watched and waited to see if anyone had heard his fall. He had
thought the idea of having a golf cart a bit much since there was
no place to drive it, but Cain had reminded him that image was
everything and right now he was sure glad Cain felt that way.

When men in black didn’t come storming around
the corner of the building or repelling down from the roof, he
slowly crept along the side of the building until he came to the
corner. Crouching down, peering around the edge, Pike saw a man
holding a ladder while a pair of legs disappeared onto the roof. As
soon as his partner was on the roof, the other man followed his
partner up and he too vanished on the roof.

Pike had heard the term “killing field” before,
but now he fully understood what it really meant. He was trying to
get to the
Yankee Clipper
but to get there he had to run
across 20 to 30 yards of slippery ice, all open area with no cover.
If they saw him; he would be the proverbial sitting duck. Once
again he chanted the mantra, desperate times called for desperate
measures, trying to psych himself up… that and the fact that he
really didn’t have any other choice.

Taking several deep breaths, he looked up and
saw no one on the roof and he was just about to make a mad dash for
the Clipper when a guard suddenly appeared from behind the plane;
and he wasn’t alone. With him was the largest German Shepherd he
had ever seen; it was big enough to pass as a Shetland pony at a
kids ride.

Pike spun around and sat down on the ice, his
back leaning against the wall, shaking his head. What was he going
to do now? He
might
be able to sneak up on the guard, but
not the dog. Just then a blast of wind swirled across the deck and
Pike shoved his hands in his pockets to keep warm. As he put his
hands in, he felt the baseball he taken from K.D.’s room and he
took it out. Immediately he had a flashback to the charity ball
where he had thrown the baseball and hit the gumball machine,
stopping the jewel thief. As he held it in his hand, a crazy
thought came to him. He shook his head, thinking that his idea
would never work and he tried to push it away, but the idea refused
to go. He grasped the ball firmly in his hand, looking at it. He
hated to do this with K.D.’s treasure, with
his
new
treasure, but with what was at stake, he knew she would
understand.