Dark Zone

82

Karr was about twenty feet below the nearest man when one of the others pulled an MP-5 submachine gun from beneath his coverall. Tommy started to duck down but lost his balance and slid down the stairway.

Bullets ripped against the metal. Slugs ricocheted everywhere.

Karr’s chin slapped against one of the treads so hard he thought he’d been nailed by a bullet. He was surprised to find his face intact when he finally stopped sliding.

He jumped up, then ducked away as another burst bounced through the iron rafters.

“Get the French here, now!” he shouted. “And get the people down off the tower.”

Piped over the Art Room’s loudspeakers, the bullets sounded like a drummer’s rim shots off the side of a snare. Rubens gritted his teeth and turned to Telach.

“Why aren’t the French moving?” he asked her.

“We’re working on it.”

“Work faster, Marie.”

“We’re hearing shots at the Eiffel Tower?” asked Hadash over the line to Air Force One.

“Yes,” said Rubens.

“The French President is just coming up,” said Hadash. “I’ll leave the line open.”

“Of course,” said Rubens.

Karr, pinned down, guessed he was still two hundred feet below the third floor of the tower, with the terrorists twenty or so feet above him. Except for the one firing at him, they were moving upward.

From what Rubens had said, the plan would be to put all of the explosive charges together. Which meant there was a little bit of time to stop them.

Easy enough if he had a gun.

The gunfire had stopped; the man had started climbing again.

Karr jumped up and took the steps two at a time, reaching the next flight before a fresh fusillade of bullets rattled around him. As he crouched down, he saw a ladder welded against some of the supports; if he could get to it, he’d be out of the gunman’s line of sight.

After a long burst from the submachine gun, Karr pushed through the steps, jumping up and swinging across to the ladder. His hand slipped as he transferred his weight, and for a moment he hung suspended between the stairwell and the beam.

Then gravity took over, and he began to fall.