Chapter 16 - The High Council
The financial district penthouse was entirely constructed of reinforced steel and bulletproof glass.
It sat proudly at the very top of a seventy-story skyscraper, operating as an impenetrable fortress in the sky.
Clara sat in the passenger seat of the muscle car, staring up at the glowing lights at the pinnacle of the building.
"The lobby is crawling with Leo's private security contractors," Adrian observed, watching the entrance through a pair of heavy binoculars.
"If we go through the front door, they will cut us to pieces before we reach the elevators."
Clara pulled a rolled-up set of architectural blueprints from her tactical vest.
She had purchased the highly classified building schematics an hour ago by bribing a corrupt police captain with Adrian's untraceable cash.
"We are not going through the front door," Clara stated, tracing a red line on the paper with her finger.
"There is a massive construction crane attached to the unfinished residential tower right next door."
Adrian lowered the binoculars, a genuinely impressed smirk crossing his pale, scarred face.
"The crane arm swings directly over the penthouse's private terrace," she explained confidently.
They abandoned the stolen car in a dark alley and picked the lock on the adjacent construction site's perimeter fence.
They climbed seventy agonizing flights of concrete stairs in complete, suffocating darkness.
Adrian's breathing was heavy and ragged through his throat tube, but his sheer willpower kept him moving upward.
Titan followed closely at their heels, his padded paws making absolutely no sound on the dusty concrete steps.
They finally reached the open-air roof of the construction site, the freezing wind whipping fiercely around them.
The massive yellow crane towered above them, its long metal arm extending precariously over the dizzying drop to the street below.
Adrian climbed into the operator's cabin and quickly hot-wired the heavy machinery.
The massive engine hummed to life, vibrating the entire steel structure.
Clara and Titan stepped onto the heavy concrete counterweight at the end of the long metal arm.
Adrian slowly swung the massive crane directly over the empty, glass-enclosed terrace of the penthouse.
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Clara clipped a heavy climbing carabiner to Titan's tactical harness.
She grabbed the thick steel cable, took a deep breath, and jumped into the freezing abyss.
