Chapter 83
A soap-soaked sponge ran down the window, streaking the world with a white line before being wiped clear. The two men cleaning the window chatted as they switched from sponge to brush and back again. The windows to the left were speckled with dust, to the right they gleamed with the new day.
Isobel looked at the window rather than through it. Cleaning the windows on Hong Kong’s International Airport would be a lifetime’s work. A job that was never finished. They kept the view of the city sharp for people seeing it for the first time.
No matter how much the window was cleaned, Isobel felt as though she viewed the world through a darkened lens. The last twenty-four-hours just added another painful twist to her life.
How had this happened to her? How had her life gone like this? She knew she was capable, clever and hardworking, but there always seemed to be something that went wrong, or someone who was there to mess it up.
She could pinpoint the night it began. The night her life was changed forever.
Isobel had always wanted to be an architect. To design and create things that would last for generations, combine function with imagination and possibility. The thought had always excited and intoxicated her.
At school people had laughed at her.
“That’s a boy’s job,” the girls teased with their popular dreams.
Isobel had been an awkward teenager. Pale, freckled skin, ginger hair, braces. She’d been teased for it. Teasing that quickly became part of her life. She just got used to it. It was part of who she was.
Once, someone said that no one would every fancy her. After that she decided she didn’t want anyone to fancy her. She was good enough on her own. What would she want with another person?
Then, while at university something changed. Men started looking at her differently. She seemed to grow into her body – and everyone noticed, apart from her.
She was used to being the girl who was friends with guys, nothing more. That was the way she liked it.
Isobel had gone to university to get the job she wanted, to follow the dream she wanted. Nothing else.
She got through the first year in the way she always had, registering the looks from her male course-mates without trusting or engaging in them. She went out occasionally but spent the time exclusively with friends. This only seemed to increase their interest.
Did she have a boyfriend at home? Did she think she was just better than them?
She was there to get the qualifications. This was her life and she wanted to make her dream come true.
But people couldn’t see that.
A month before her final exams they went out for one of her housemate’s birthdays. Isobel didn’t want to go. She wanted to get an early night as she needed to do well.
“But everyone’s going. You need to be there.”
Finally, she agreed, she’d come for a bit.
They were drinking in a bar when they’d met a group of lads the birthday girl knew. There must have been twenty of them altogether.
Loud music. The drinks kept coming. As soon as one was gone, another came.
By midnight Isobel had to leave.
Stumbling out into the night, she tried to walk bleary-eyed up the hill towards home.
“Let me walk you back,” one of the lads said. A guy from her course, she knew him. He was alright. She wasn’t in the state to argue.
Back at the house he came in. She hadn’t invited him but hadn’t said no either.
What happened next was painfully clear.
Chapter 84
“Demolition will begin in twenty minutes. Please leave now.”
When the echoes faded to silence Leo and Allissa looked at each other in panic. It was coming from a small speaker attached to the wall above the door. It repeated the message three more times in other languages, echoing fitfully around the room.
“How do they demolish buildings like this?” Leo asked, already knowing the answer.
A moment’s silence.
“Explosives,” Allissa said, her expression becoming grey.
“I saw a demolition order for a building near the docks on Yee’s laptop yesterday. I didn’t read it closely, but I bet this is it.”
For thirty seconds the pair stood, looking from each other to the small speaker.
Leo had seen it on TV. An old building, an excited commentator, surrounding streets emptied. A countdown. Explosions rippling across the structure. The thing that was so tangible and strong collapsing in on itself in a cloud of dust.
“Where are the explosives?” Allissa asked, moving back over to the window.
“I’d say most of them are in the basement, with a few on the upper floors to make sure the middle collapses first,” Leo answered. He didn’t know where the answer came from or if he was right but it sounded logical.
“We’re going to get out of this,” he said, forcing a smile and turning to look at Allissa. “We’ve come through worse. We will show that shit what’s what.”
“Of course,” Allissa said. “The way I see it, there are two ways out of this room, and the easiest is going to be the door. It’s only the handles that are attached together, it can’t be that secure.”
At the door they held onto a handle each. The grimy metal was cold.
“On my count, pull as hard as you can,” Allissa said, before counting down from three.
The door opened an inch until the chain bit. It wouldn’t move any further.
“Try again,” Leo said. “We might be weakening it.”
Again, they did, with no success.
“The scheduled demolition of this building will begin in fifteen minutes,” the voice again chimed. They’d been pulling at the door for five minutes and had gotten nowhere.
“This isn’t working,” Allissa said, “plus there might be other locked doors beyond this one.”
“You’re right. Let’s have a look at the windows,” Leo said, leading the way to the wall of glass behind which the world seemed unchanged.
The glass was thick, Leo noticed running a finger across it. He barged it with his shoulder – it seemed to bend.
“I reckon we could break this,” Leo said, looking down at the oily water lapping forty feet below. He felt anxiety build in his throat. The water was their only chance, he would have to do it.
But…
But…
With a hand on the glass to steady himself, he counted his breathing.
Five seconds in. Five seconds out.
Breathe in, and out.
“I’ll look for some kind of damage, where the glass is weakened,” Allissa said, pulling Leo’s focus from the water below. Allissa looked concerned. They didn’t have time. Leo knew he needed to focus.
Breathe in, and out.
Leo caught another glimpse of the water. He’d have to jump in there.
Five seconds in. Five seconds out.
“You go and look for something to break the glass with,” Allissa said, putting her hand on Leo’s shoulder and turning him away from the window.
Breathe in, and out.
“Yes, good idea,” Leo said. The anxiety subsided slightly when he wasn’t looking at the menacing ripple of the water below.
Walking into the room, Leo looked around. Almost everything had been cleared from the building. On the far wall, he noticed a steel angle bracket sticking out from the concrete. It had been used to fit something to the wall. Leo pulled it, it wobbled and the concrete surrounding the fixing bolts started to crack.
He pulled again and it loosened further. It was a heavy bit of metal. Discoloured after years of use but strong. Leo pulled again, putting his whole weight onto the bracket. With a crack, it separated from the concrete but still refused to give completely. He was about to try again when the voice returned.
“The scheduled demolition of this building will begin in ten minutes.”
Leo looked over at Allissa who was searching the glass for cracks or dents where it had already been dama
ged. They could make all the difference.
Keeping her image in his mind, Leo turned back to the bracket. He put both hands up, gripped the rough surface and pulled.
With a jerk downwards, Leo felt the bracket move. He pulled again, and the thing started to move.
He pulled until he felt the steel cut into his fingers. He pulled it until his teeth were clenched and his stomach ached. With a final effort he felt it separate and thud to the floor, along with a lump of concrete loosened over years of use. The extra weight would help.
“Found anything?” Leo asked, carrying the steel bracket over to the window.
“There’s a couple, yeah. This one is the most damaged.”
Allissa pointed out a pane in the middle which bore a collection of deep-looking cracks.
“That’ll do,” Leo said. “We don’t have time to keep looking.”
Trying to ignore the water lapping below, Leo raised the steel bracket above his head. Aiming for the damaged section of glass, he let it fall. The vibrations of the crack stung his elbows. The web of cracks spread across the glass. Dust flew.
Again, he lifted the steel bar and smashed it into the glass. The cracks spread further.
Again. There were lines now reaching to the corners of the pane, but still no hole.
Allissa took the bracket from Leo and turned it around. Using the pointed end, she pushed the centre out. The glass in the middle fell away, leaving a hole where the wind whistled through. She pushed out as much as she could before the glass became solid again. Then turned the bracket around and struck the glass twice more.
“The scheduled demolition of this building will begin in five minutes,” the voice behind them said. Neither paid it much attention now – every second counted. The hole was still only two feet across.
“Keep going,” Allissa said, passing the bracket back to Leo. After a couple of strikes the steel and concrete felt heavy.
“We need to open it up more to get through.”
Allissa concentrated on the edges, knocking shards of glass out which fell towards the murky water below. The hole was widening, but time was ticking.
They looked at each other as the emotionless voice spoke again.
“The scheduled demolition of this building will begin in two minutes.”
Chapter 85
The broken glass on the kitchen floor told a different story. So did the bruises on her thighs and arms. So did the smashed lock on the bathroom door where Isobel had tried to seek refuge.
Twenty people had seen them leave the bar arm in arm. Apparently, she had been leading the way. Leading him back to her house where she had opened the door and let him in.
No charges could be brought. The university refused to expel him.
Isobel had tried to go back to complete the course, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t be there with him and his friends. She had to go, she had to leave.
Initially her family had been good to her. She went back to stay with her mum and step-dad for a while.
Soon, it became clear she was getting in the way.
“Why don’t you go back and finish the course? Only a couple of years to go. You’ve paid all that money.”
But Isobel knew she couldn’t. There was no way she could sit in the same room as him. Even thinking they could meet as she walked around the city was too much.
Again, she left and within a month had a job at a firm of architects in London. It wasn’t as an architect, but it was a good start.
“Passengers for the Cathay Pacific flight to Kathmandu please make your way to the gate. Boarding is about to start.” An announcement rang through the airport.
Outside, the light had turned from plum to orange, the day was now out in full glory. The sky was streaked with stratus, as though it was in the process of being cleaned too. Isobel looked out the window at the lines of aircraft. Each multi-coloured tail was an opportunity and soon she would be on one of them. Leaving for Kathmandu.
Chapter 86
“The scheduled demolition of this building will begin in two minutes.”
The system was designed so that anyone left in the building got out in time. Providing they could. From behind the cordon marking the safe distance, Yee smiled to himself. The cycle was moving. Something old was being destroyed and making room for something new. Resurrection and decay. This one was particularly special though because two other problems were being solved at the same time.
Yee had never let people take advantage of him or stand in the way of what he wanted. That would have been made clear last night if Leo and Allissa hadn’t interfered. But that didn’t matter now that Isobel was gone. The ring was gone too. That didn’t really matter either. The important thing was the two people who could incriminate him wouldn’t be seen again.
What was left of their bodies may be found when demolition crews sorted through the wreckage, but there was no way they could be traced back to him.
“They must have been sleeping there, people with nowhere to stay,” he’d say. “We did everything we could, all regulations were followed. It’s a terrible accident.”
“The scheduled demolition of this building will begin in one minute and thirty seconds,” the voice chimed again.
Jiao stood next to him, scanning the landscape. The building was isolated against the docks behind it. If, through some miracle, Leo and Allissa managed to escape, the only way they could walk to safety was by coming this way. Yee knew that Jiao would be more than ready to finish the job if needed. He had wanted to earlier. Yee had said no. That wasn’t the right way to do it.
“What if they manage to break through the wall?” Jiao had asked. That had made Yee laugh. “What do these idiots know about breaking through walls?” he’d replied, kicking Leo in the ribs.
Perhaps two years ago he would have been right. Perhaps two years ago Leo didn’t know anything about breaking through walls. But since then he had broken through the expectations of his family. Broken the reach of an overbearing and bullying employer. Broken through the traps set by Lord Stockwell to find and escape with Allissa.
Allissa, on the other hand, through no choice of her own, had spent her whole life breaking through walls. Both the walls set by society on her as a woman. In her family by having a different mother. In herself with her long inability to trust and settle.
In truth, the two young people, currently battering their way out with a steel bar, knew more about breaking through walls than anyone could imagine. For them, it had become a way of life.
Chapter 87
“The scheduled demolition of this building will begin in one minute,” echoed the emotionless voice.
The glass was now so damaged that it was falling loose with ease. Leo and Allissa pushed sections of it out frantically as the time counted down. The hole was still not quite big enough. Allissa had the steel bracket while Leo punched and kicked it, ignoring the pain which rose from his fists. They needed the gap wide enough so that they could jump cleanly through it. A caught foot or hand would be enough to ruin the fall and fling them back against the building on the way down.
“The scheduled demolition of this building will begin in thirty seconds,” the voice said, in the same electronic nonchalance as it had for the last twenty minutes. They kept pushing. The hole was now about four feet across.
“That’ll do, I think,” Allissa said, expecting the voice to echo away. It didn’t. Now the countdown had started.
29
“I need to tell you something,” Leo said, looking towards Allissa.
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“What, right now?” Allissa pushed the last pieces of glass out.
27
“I can’t swim,” Leo said.
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Allissa looked at him. If she thought it was unusual, she didn’t let it show.
25
“Don’t worry about it. When you hit the water let yourself float to the top and then kick your legs to stay there.”
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“But what…” Leo stuttered. The drop was nothing. It was the oily unwelcoming water that made his breathing quicken.
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“I’ll go first,” Allissa said, “and then as soon as you land, I’ll come and get you. We will be fine.”
21
Leo nodded. He knew there was only one way out of the building. Leo held Allissa’s arm as she climbed through the gap and stood on the tiny ledge which protruded at the bottom of the glass pane. To slip now would mean falling down the surface of the building and hitting the concrete lip of the dockside which jutted out just above the water.
20
Forty feet of air and water one way. Steel, glass and concrete the other.
“Just get back up to the surface,” Allissa said. “Keep kicking and don’t panic. You’ll be okay.”
19
Crouching on the ledge, Allissa paused for a moment and looked out to the horizon.
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Then without hesitation, she jumped.
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Time moved quickly. Leo couldn’t watch her fall, he hoped she’d landed and was able to swim well enough.
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14
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Laying the steel bracket they’d used to make the hole across the inside of the window, Leo stepped out onto the ledge.
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On the outside of the building the wind to whipped furiously.
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The voice seemed like a whisper now.
7
6
Crouching as Allissa had done, Leo readied himself to jump.
5
He planned to curl into a tight ball, diving was too risky. Landing on your belly at this height could break bones.
4
No time to think about it. No time to worry whether Allissa had made it. To consider whether she’d be there to pull him to the surface. He had to go.
3
2
Jump.
Chapter 88
Hong Kong Page 18
