Chapter 13 - Rooftop Pursuit
We scrambled up the vertical maintenance ladder inside the pitch-black elevator shaft, our hands burning against the cold rungs as automatic gunfire echoed below us. The security guards were recovering their vision, their boots clattering heavily against the lower service stairs as they pursued us upward.
'How much higher to the roof access hatch?' I gasped, my lungs burning as I pulled myself up another ten feet of vertical steel.
'Three more flights!' Christian called down, his voice strained but steady as he covered our rear with his pistol raised toward the darkness below. 'Keep moving! If they corner us in this shaft, we're trapped!'
We reached the heavy steel roof hatch at the top of the shaft. Christian holstered his weapon, slammed his shoulder against the emergency latch, and shoved upward with all his remaining strength. The rusted hinges shrieked in protest before the heavy metal door burst outward into blinding morning sunlight and a howling rooftop gale.
We tumbled out onto the vast, windswept helipad of Sterling Global Headquarters, fifty stories above the sprawling Savannah skyline. The wind whipped our hair across our faces as we scrambled across the open concrete tarmac.
'Where do we go from here?' I shouted over the roar of the wind, scanning the perimeter for an escape route. 'There are no stairs down from the helipad!'
'There!' Christian pointed toward a glass-paneled maintenance bridge connecting the main tower to an adjacent corporate archives building fifty feet away. 'If we make it across that bridge before their backup arrives, we can access the public stairwells.'
We sprinted across the helipad just as the heavy rooftop access door burst open behind us. Three tactical guards spilled out onto the tarmac, raising their carbines and shouting commands to halt.
'Run!' Christian grabbed my hand, pulling me forward with explosive speed as the first round of suppressive fire whined past our ears, chipping concrete flakes off the landing lights.
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We dove headfirst through the glass doorway of the maintenance bridge just as a barrage of lead shattered the exterior glass panels behind us. Christian slammed the heavy emergency magnetic lock button on the interior wall, engaging the steel security shutters with a resounding thud that sealed us off from the rooftop.
Panting heavily, we collapsed against the interior wall of the bridge, staring at each other through adrenaline-fueled silence. We were inside the archives building. But we were still deep inside enemy territory.
