Free Sharp Shot by Jack Higgins

to the ceiling. And now Jade was
trapped between the partition and that screen, in a narrow glass-walled
corridor.
    The woman was pushing through the crowd. People were shouting at
Jade, telling her not to be so stupid and to stop mucking about.
    â€œThere’s always one person who has to spoil it all, isn’t
there,” a fat man said.
    Jade got some satisfaction from seeing him shoved heavily against the
partition as the woman in thetrouser suit barged through. But it didn’t
last. As the woman prepared to vault the partition after Jade, her jacket
flapped open, revealing a shoulder holster at her left armpit.
    Jade ran. She had no idea if there was a way out, or if she’d be
trapped by the wall. But she put her hand against the glass and ran. When
her hand disappeared into space just a metre from the ballroom wall, she
almost cried out for joy. The screen didn’t reach right to the end; there
was just room for Jade to squeeze through.
    The woman could probably follow, but Jade was slim, and even if she
was pretty slim too the woman had a bulky jacket—and a gun. It was a
struggle, but Jade got painfully round the end of the screen, and on to
the empty dance floor.
    Looking back, she could see the dancers reflected on the glass. This
time they were dancing the other way. A skull stared out at Jade, and from
behind it she saw the woman’s determined face as she watched Jade for a
second, before running for the gap at the end of the glass wall.
    There was a door at the back of the ballroom. Jade had no idea if it
was even a real door, but she wrenchedit open, and was relieved to find
it gave out into another corridor. From the other side, it looked like a
panel in the wall—probably for maintenance access.
    She was in another corridor, obviously further round the tour. With
luck she was close to the end, but she had no way of knowing. And the
woman would be after her soon. Jade set off at a run down the corridor,
but she didn’t know if she was heading for the exit, or would meet the
rest of the tour coming the other way…
    The ceiling ahead of her was moving. It was lower than the part of
the corridor she was leaving, and curved. In fact, as she approached, Jade
could see that the corridor floor became a bridge through a cylinder that
was turning slowly. The cylinder’s surface was covered with shining stars
and planets like the night sky.
    There didn’t seem to be much point to the turning cylinder, so Jade
ran on. And wished she hadn’t. There were handrails along the side of the
corridor and she grabbed at one of them. Even though Jade knew it was the
ceiling and walls that were turning and not the floor, her mind and body
were telling her the floor was tilting and she clung desperately to the
rail as she tried to keep her balance.
    She inched her way along, one foot in front of the other, one step at
a time. Jade tried to fix her attention on the dark end of the bridge
where it became a corridor again. She told herself the floor was steady,
that she wasn’t being turned upside down, but everything she saw told her
that wasn’t true.
    Her head was spinning as much as the cylinder and she began to feel
dizzy and a bit sick. She wasn’t even halfway over yet. The woman couldn’t
be far behind. Just focus, Jade told herself; just don’t look at the walls
or the ceiling.
    Then she realised. She shouldn’t look at anything. The way to get
across quickly was simple. She closed her eyes and immediately she felt
better—she could tell her feet were steady on a solid floor. Keeping
hold of the rail, she hurried across the bridge.
    When she felt the end of the rail, Jade opened her eyes again—just
in time to avoid walking into the wall at the end of the corridor where it
turned sharply.
    She looked back at the bridge that had caused her so much trouble.
The woman in the suit was running towards her, and had reached the far end
of the bridge. Jade