In Icarus' Shadow
Page 56
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Having freed herself from the guard's handcuffs, Nadia had waited a few minutes before taking a peek out into the stairwell. There was no sense in alerting her former captor to the fact that his prisoner was walking around, after all. The vertical shaft was empty, though she could hear the faint echo of voices from far below, meaning that she couldn't linger here for too long. With the coast clear, she ducked back through the forty-ninth storey's door and picked up the two pairs of handcuffs she had been previously bound with. She doubted they would ever fit Burgess' wrists, should she run into him; but still, it was better to have some kind of back-up plan. Tucking one pair of metal restraints into her side pocket, she fit the other in the back pockets of her jeans, one circular end in each with the chain between them. Not the most elegant of solutions, but the entire pair would not fit in one pocket. She would just have to remember they were there before attempting to sit down.
Moving back into the stairwell, she climbed to the fiftieth floor and, facing its door, began steeling herself to move inside. She was interrupted, however, by the sound of footsteps echoing up from the lower floors. Listening for a moment, she could tell that whoever was coming was in one heck of a rush. She briefly considered dashing onto the fiftieth floor to find somewhere to hide, but paused when another thought crossed her mind. Whoever it was coming up the stairs was not talking on a radio to anyone else, or making any other sort of noise for that matter. That sounded like just about the right sort of behaviour for the man she was here to find. Taking a deep breath, she decided to take the chance; if it was Orion coming and she hid, she could lose her only opportunity to meet up with him. Nevertheless, she kept the door to the fiftieth storey at her back, just in case.
The man who came up the stairs was, to her satisfaction, indeed Pasta-Jacket. Stifling a laugh, she grinned at him, positive that she had made the right call earlier in assuming he was Orion in disguise. "I was wondering where you had gotten off to. Now, look, before you get all mad at me for being here, I'm sorry about the fight. You were right, I was being rude and I had no right to judge you without really trying to understand, first. Whatever it is you're here for, I want to help."
The man was quiet for a long moment, the beam of his borrowed flashlight forcing her to squint a little, just as hers did to him. Approaching slowly, he frowned. "I'm here for Miss Fitch, but what's that got to do with you?"
Nadia flinched; yeah, he was still mad. "Nothing, personally, I guess. I just wanted to make up for the way I acted. Come on, don't be mad, please?"
Now directly in front of her, Pasta-Jacket's expression was one of uncertainty. Taking a deep breath, his frown deepened. Leaning forward, he put one hand on her shoulder. "Look, lady, I have no idea what you're talking about, but the Boss wanted me to get to Miss Fitch and keep her safe, so that's what I'm going to do."
Nadia blinked once, twice, and then a third time, feeling her stomach fall out through the hole her embarrassment was rapidly burrowing through her insides. She had been so sure that this was Orion from the moment she had seen him, even when she had seen him talking with Burgess. What in the world was this guy even doing here, then?
The feeling of the man's grip on her shoulder tightening brought her back to reality; that and the feeling of his fist connecting with her stomach, causing the bruises on her side left over from her last struggle to throb in protest. Coughing, she staggered away from the punch, her back quickly meeting the cool, hard surface of the door behind her with a clicking, metallic sound that reminded her of the one pair of handcuffs still in her back pockets. Seeing Pasta-Jacket following her, she sucked in a lungful of air and twisted herself out of the way of his follow-up punch. Gripping the chain of the handcuffs in her pockets, she pulled them loose, snapping one end shut around the man's wrist before he could retract his arm. Lowering her shoulder, she ploughed into his chest, sending them both stumbling across the narrow landing. Feeling Pasta-Jacket colliding against the guide-rail, the only thing keeping them both from plummeting down the gap between each flight of stairs, she grabbed his arm with both hands and forced it down, towards the metal bars beneath the railing itself. Slamming the other end of the handcuffs closed on a pair of these, she collapsed backwards and scuttled back in a crab-walking position until she was safely out of reach.
Taking a few steadying breaths before attempting to stand, Nadia picked herself up off the hard surface of the concrete landing and nodded once in satisfaction. She was down a pair of handcuffs, but they had been a resource well spent so far as she was concerned. Still, with Pasta-Jacket tied up here, it was only a matter of time before someone else came along to help him out; she had to hurry. She only hoped that the real Orion had not already been and gone. Even if it was for no better reason than that she could really use a hand right now.