Free Grab (Letty Dobesh #3) by Blake Crouch Page B

over the lip of the marble. She found her footing in the crawlspace, the urge to be out of this mess, out of this hotel, this city, overpowering.
    A sense of panic, of time running out enveloping her.
    Then she was climbing down the ladder into room 968, listening to the marble slab slide back into place. The soles of Isaiah's BDUs descended toward her as he maneuvered through the ductwork.

 
     
     
     
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    It took Letty four tries to get her left leg through the harness.
    Isaiah watching her from the window.
    He s aid, "You gotta lock that shit down."
    "Lock what down?"
    "Your panic."
    Stu had rappelled out the window four minutes ago. Jerrod right on his heels. Now Ize had the last three duffle bags on belay, smoothly lowering two hundred and fifty pounds of cash—$12,000,000—to the convention center roof.
    The radio crackled again .
    A rod of tension shot through Letty's entire body.
    Isaiah unclipped his locking carabiner from his harness and moved over to the bed.
    "Matt, we still have no visual, over?"
    Isaiah lifted the radio, pulled off a passable impersonation.
    "This one doesn't work either, over."
    "Are you messing with me? Over."
    "Nope . Over."
    "I'm bringing one up personally. Over."
    "Copy that."
    "See you in five."
    Isaiah said, "Now you can panic." He grabbed her harness, gave it a hard tug. "Ever rappelled before?"
    "No." She could feel a wave of nausea coming on.
    "Easiest thing in the world."
    "I'm sure."
    As they approached the gaping hole in the window, Letty felt the night-heat of Vegas and the smell of the Strip and the desert ripping through. Sage and car and restaurant exhaust.
    Isaiah ha d rigged a sophisticated anchor system out of webbing to the bed frame.
    "I don't want to die," Letty said.
    A black rope had been halved and thrown out the window.
    "Go ahead, look, " Isaiah said. "You need to see where you're going."
    She edged up to the glass, po ked her head through.
    "Oh Jesus Christ."
    Stomach swirling. Body in full revolt against this.
    Stu and Jerrod the size of Lego men far below.
    The curve of the building a dizzying mindfuck.
    "We should've gone over this before," Letty said.
    Isaiah grabbed her belay device, threaded the rope through, then locked everything into the carabiner on her harness.
    "I'm scared," she said.
    "I hear that. But personally...I'd rather fall and die than be in this room when hotel security busts through. You feel me?"
    She nodded.
    He grabbed her hands, put her left on the rope near the belay device, her right on the rope further back.
    "This belay device is your friend, your brake. When the rope is back here," he touched her right hand to her hip, "you won't move. When you raise it up, it'll allow the rope to feed through. You'll drop."
    H er heart was going like mad.
    "Two things. Do not let your left hand get too close to the belay device. It'll chew it up. You'll let go and die."
    The radio crackled. "On my way, Matt. Say, did you ever send Mario down? He never showed, isn't responding, over."
    Isaiah said, " Look in my eyes." She did. "You go down in a sitting position. Control your speed."
    "I can't do this."
    "You have to do this." He helped her up onto the lip of the glass.
    " I can't," she said.
    "You been through worse than this. Put your right hand in the brake position." She clutched it, held it to her hip. "You ain't gotta squeeze so hard. Relax. Now lean back."
    "I can't."
    "Stop saying that."
    "Matt, do you copy, over?"
    "Lean. Back."
    She hung her ass out over the gaping darkness, her stomach turning itself inside out.
    "Now raise your right hand slowly, until you feel the rope begin to glide through the belay device."
    "I—"
    "Do it!"
    "Matt, do you copy, over?"
    She raised the rope off her hip.
    Isaiah smi led at her from inside the room, said, "There you go, now let it slide through your grasp, but not too fast."
    She opened her fingers, felt the rope move through.
    She dropped a foot.
    "Keep it going," Isaiah said, "and I hate to