Chapter 11

Adelle pretended not to notice the security guards who shadowed her back to her suite. They weren't being careless, she realized; they intended for her to see them, so that she would know she was being watched. It only made her more furious and more intent upon doing – something. She wasn't sure what, yet. But she had to do something.

When she entered the suite, she heard Langton's voice bellow her name. She'd forgotten about the entertainment she hired for him. She poked her head into his room, and nearly forgot all about her anger when she saw him.

He was tied down to his bed, wearing only his boxer shorts. Four naked women surrounded the bed, while a fifth was on it with him, and had clearly been about to remove Langton's shorts.

"Adelle!" Langton bellowed again. "What the hell is this?"

She laughed. "You're going to relax, Boyd, whatever it takes. How is he doing, girls?"

"It took all five of us to get him tied down," the one on the bed said. "But don't worry. We'll make him happy."

"Do that," Adelle said. "I'll double what I paid you. Just keep him… occupied, okay? I'm going out for a while."

Langton shouted at her again as she closed the door. Poor Boyd, she thought. Then she forgot all about him.

In her luggage, Adelle had a black nylon catsuit. She put it on, along with leather gloves and rock-climbing shoes. She also had a coil of very thin, very strong rope. She was going to need it to get past the guards.

Why she needed to get past the guards was not a question that occurred to her.

Adelle went out onto her balcony, overlooking the central core of the Castle. Night had fallen, but electric lights made it bright as day. A gray suit would have been better, she suddenly realized. It would have been much less conspicuous against the white concrete of the Castle's walls. Well, there was no help for it – she'd just have to stick to the shadows as much as she could.

She stood on top of the balcony railing, judged the distance to the next balcony, and leapt. Most people wouldn't have been able to make the jump, but Adelle caught the balcony railing with her hands, held on, and then pulled herself over the rail. One down, she thought. The tower's elevator shaft was four more balconies over; if she could reach that, she'd be able to climb as high as she needed to.

She walked across the balcony, stood on the railing on the far side, and jumped again.


"Uh, Boyd?" Topher Brink's voice said from the speakers by the monitor.

"Topher!" Langton shouted.

"Good, you're there," Brink said. "Um, is something going on with Echo? Her adrenaline is all over the place."

"Listen, Topher!" Langton shouted, trying to squirm out of the embrace of the two women on the bed. "Echo's glitching! Call Kassel's security, and tell them to locate her! And have them come and untie me!"

"But don't be too quick about that last part," one of the girls said. "It's just getting interesting for Mr. Langton."

"Uh…" Topher said uncertainly.

"Just do it, Topher!" Langton shouted. "I don't know what Echo's up to, but we need to stop her before she wrecks the entire mission!"


The elevator shaft was too far from the last balcony for Adelle to jump. Fortunately, the rope had a small collapsible grapnel on one end. It was easy enough to hook it onto a lighting fixture and swing across the distance. She took the impact of the concrete wall with her legs, and then swung over to the elevator's glassed-in shaft. As she suspected, there were external tracks on either side for use by window washers. They made the ascent up the tower easy for her.

At the level of Kassel's private balcony, she stopped. This was going to be the tricky part, she realized. She hadn't been able to retrieve the rope, so she had no climbing aids. However, there was an expansion joint in the concrete that was just big enough for her to fit her fingertips into. It would be enough. She hoped it would be, at least.

Slowly, an inch at a time, she spidered across the sheer wall of the tower. She almost lost her grip twice, but regained it both times. Finally she reached the edge of Kassel's balcony, and pulled herself up so that she could peer over the edge.

It was almost deserted. She saw one person swimming in the pool. Costello, she thought.

And then, all of her thoughts went black.

When she came back to herself, she was sitting next to Laura Costello's body. Costello was twitching and gasping for breath, while blood flowed from a wound in the side of her head, making a dark red puddle on the tiled patio.

"No," Adelle said, rising to her feet and backing slowly away. "No, no, no, no, no…"

She ran for the edge of the balcony. It was easy enough to scale the wall leading to Kassel's suite, easier still to continue climbing up, up, as high as she could, as far as she could get from – what she'd done.

There were men down beside the pool now, shouting orders, speaking into radios, shining lights into all of the shadows. She tried to find a place to hide, but she wasn't quick enough. One of the lights caught her.

"There she is!" she heard, as she scrambled to find a concealed spot. Bullets followed.

"Wait!" a voice she knew commanded. "Don't shoot! I can get her down."

"Do it," said another voice, one she recognized as Kassel's.

"Echo," she head. "It's time for your treatment."

No, she thought. But her arms and legs betrayed her. She found herself climbing down, aware of the lights shining on her and the guns pointed at her back. But she was no longer in control.

Boyd will protect me, she thought as she reached the level of the balcony. She saw him, dressed in shorts and a black shirt, standing next to Kassel. She walked towards him trembling, tears streaming down her face.

"Give me your gun," Kassel ordered one of his guards.

"Wait," Langton protested, but Kassel aimed the gun at her head.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill her now," he snarled.

"Because she's going to die in a few days anyway," Langton said. "She'll be erased. Isn't that enough?"

Kassel's hand shook, and then he lowered the pistol. "Get her out of here," he barked, and he turned and stalked away.

"Boyd," Adelle said softly. Langton pulled out a hypodermic needle. She felt the needle pierce her skin, and then she went wobbly. The world spun around her, and she fell.

But Langton caught her, and lifted her up off the ground, and carried her away.