Chapter 5 - The Edge of the Abyss
The wind on the mechanical floor was deafening. It screamed through the open steel frames like a dying animal, carrying with it a blinding sheet of white snow.
Edward led Leo along a narrow metal catwalk. The metal grid beneath their feet was slick with black ice. Below them, through the gaps in the steel, the streetlights of Manhattan looked like tiny, frozen stars fifty floors down. One slip meant death.
"Edward!"
Victoria's voice cut through the roar of the wind. She stood at the entrance of the catwalk, her hair whipping wildly around her face. Behind her stood Samantha, holding a crying Lily, and the two remaining armed guards.
"Give up!" Victoria shouted, her voice echoing off the massive concrete pillars. "There is no way down! The service elevators are cut off. You're trapped on an unfinished floor in a blizzard!"
Edward backed slowly down the catwalk, keeping Leo behind him. He reached a junction where the walkway split—one path leading to a massive, roaring exhaust fan, the other leading to an emergency fire escape ladder that clung to the exterior of the building.
"Why, Victoria?" Edward yelled back, his voice hoarse. "You had everything! We were going to be married! I gave you half of this company!"
"You gave me a share of your name!" Victoria screamed back, her face contorted with a mixture of rage and desperation. "I built Clayton Global just as much as you did! But to the board, to the media, to the world, I was just your pretty assistant who got lucky! I wanted my own empire, Edward. And Arthur's money was the key."
"Arthur was your friend!"
"Arthur was going to ruin everything!" Samantha interjected, stepping forward. She held Lily precariously over the edge of the catwalk railing. The little girl’s pink dress fluttered in the freezing wind. "And if you don't step away from that ladder, Edward, I’m going to drop his daughter. Let's see how fast she falls."
"No!" Leo shrieked, trying to run forward, but Edward caught him, holding him tight.
"Stop! Don't do it!" Edward yelled, his heart in his throat. He looked at Lily’s pale face. She was shivering so violently she couldn't even cry anymore.
"Step to the edge of the platform, Edward," Victoria ordered, her gun pointed at his chest. "Both of you. Jump, and we’ll let the girl live. Refuse, and she goes over first, then we shoot you anyway."
Edward looked at the raging blizzard. He looked at the exterior fire escape ladder. It was covered in thick ice. Climbing down in this wind with a child would be suicide. But staying here was certain death.
He looked down at Leo.
The seven-year-old boy looked up at him. Despite the freezing cold, despite the guns pointed at them, Leo’s eyes were calm. He trusted Edward completely.
"Are you ready to jump?" Leo whispered.
Edward realized the boy thought he had a plan. But for the first time in his life, the brilliant, calculating Edward Clayton had no plan. He was just a man trying to save two children he had met eight hours ago.
"Leo," Edward whispered back, his voice breaking. "I need you to do exactly what I say. When I run at them, you climb that ladder. Don't look back."
"No, Edward—"
"Do it!" Edward commanded.
Edward braced his feet against the icy metal. He prepared to charge the armed guards, knowing he would likely take a bullet, but hoping it would buy Leo enough time to escape.
But before he could step forward, a massive, deafening explosion rocked the entire building.
The lights on the mechanical floor instantly went out, plunging them into near-total darkness, illuminated only by the flashing red emergency beacons and the dim light of the city below.
A secondary explosion—louder than the first—shook the steel structure.
The massive exhaust fan next to them groaned, its metal blades grinding to a halt with a screech of tearing steel. A plume of black smoke and fire erupted from the electrical generator room at the far end of the floor.
"What did you do?!" Samantha screamed in panic, losing her balance on the slippery walkway.
"I didn't do anything!" Victoria yelled, looking around in terror as the emergency sirens began to wail throughout the skyscraper.
Through the smoke and the flashing red lights, a figure emerged from the service stairwell.
It was Marcus, the head of security. But he wasn't alone. Behind him were ten heavily armed tactical police officers, their rifles raised, their weapon lights cutting through the blinding snow.
"Drop your weapons! Now!" Marcus’s voice boomed over a megaphone. "The building is surrounded! We have Victoria Vance’s digital signature on the elevator override and the offshore transfer requests! It's over!"
"No!" Victoria screamed, firing her gun blindly toward the police.
A chaotic gunfight erupted.
Bullets sparkled off the metal pipes. Edward threw himself over Leo, shielding him from the ricochets.
In the panic, Samantha lost her footing on the icy catwalk. She slipped, her arms flailing.
Lily slipped from her grasp.
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The four-year-old girl slid across the icy metal platform, straight toward the open edge where the glass panel was missing—fifty stories above the pavement.
"LILY!" Leo screamed.
