The Survivor: A Novel Part 1

The Survivor.

a_novel.

Gregg Hurwitz.

To Lisa Erbach Vance, simply the best.

ON THE BRINK.

Fear was absolutely necessary. Without it, I would have been scared to death.

-Floyd Patterson.

Chapter 1.

From this height the cars looked like dominoes, the pedestrians like roving dots. The breeze blew crisp and constant, cooling Nate's lungs on the inhale-none of that touted L.A. smog this close to the ocean. To the west, blocks of afternoon gridlock ended at the Santa Monica cliffs, a sheer drop to white sand and the eternal slate of the sea. The view would have been lovely.

Except he was here to kill himself.

The eleventh-story ledge gave him two spare inches past the tips of his sneakers. Balance was a challenge, but getting out here had been the hardest part. He'd shoehorned himself through the ancient bathroom window at First Union Bank of Southern California, wobbling for a solid minute on the ledge before daring to rise.

On the street below, people scurried about their business, no one squinting up into the late-morning glare to spot him. As he flattened against the wall, his senses lurched into overdrive-the smacking of his heart against his ribs, the sweat-damp s.h.i.+rt clinging to his shoulders, the salt tinge burning his nostrils. It felt a lot like panic, but somehow calmer, as if his brain was resigned to the circ.u.mstances but his body wasn't getting the signals.

Because he was unwilling to risk landing on someone-with his luck he'd pile-drive a pension-check-cas.h.i.+ng granny through the pavement-he continued slide-stepping to the end of the ledge. The corner of the building gave him less trouble than he'd antic.i.p.ated as he elbow-clamped his way around, and then he was staring down at the empty alley and the target of the Dumpster below. It was, if nothing else, a considerate plan. If he hit the bin squarely, the steel walls would contain the spatter, leaving him neatly packaged for delivery to the crematorium. He was sick of people cleaning up after him.

It had been less than ten minutes since he'd laid open that Dumpster lid, but it seemed like days. The chilly elevator ride up, the nod to the wizened black security guard, that final moment collecting his nerves by the row of urinals before muscling open the sash window-each had stretched out into a lifetime.

First Union of SoCal was one of the few West Coast banks located up off the ground floor-cheaper real estate, more s.p.a.ce, better security. But only one high-rise perk held Nate's interest currently. Gauging his position, he slid another half step to the right, stopping shy of a cas.e.m.e.nt window that had been cranked several turns outward. From the gap issued a current of warm, coffee-scented air and the busy hum of tellers and customers. Business as usual.

He considered his own dwindling checking account within. His next step-literally-would void the million-dollar life-insurance policy to which he dutifully wrote a check every January, but even that wouldn't matter. There was no one who wanted anything of him and nothing ahead but increments of misery.

He took a deep breath-his last?-and closed his eyes. Spreading his arms, he let the October wind rise through the thin cotton of his T-s.h.i.+rt and chill the sweat on his ribs. He waited for his life to flash before his eyes, the ethereal song and dance, but there was nothing. No wedding-day close-up of Janie's lips parting to meet his, no image of Cielle dressed as a pumpkin for Halloween with her chocolate-smudged hands and dimpled thighs, just the teeth of the wind and a thousand needle points of fear, skewering him like a pincus.h.i.+on. The longest journey, according to Taoism and Hallmark, begins with a single step.

And so does the shortest.

He took one foot and moved it out into the weightless open.

That was when he heard the gunshots.

Chapter 2.

For an instant, Nate wobbled at the fulcrum, seemingly past the point of no return, but then a subtle twist of his hip brought him back, fully, to the ledge. As he gulped in a mouthful of air, another gun snapped and a swath of crimson painted the window at his side.

Nate knew the crack of a nine-mil sidearm, but the next eruption, a resonant clatter, suggested that a semiautomatic was in play as well.

A gravelly voice floated out through the window gap: "Don't reach under the desks. Step back. Back. You saw what'll happen. Now lay down. On your f.u.c.king faces."

Gripping the frame beneath the swung-out pane, Nate rolled carefully across his shoulder to peer inside the bank. The blood-smeared gla.s.s turned the robbers' faces into smudges, but he could see that they were wearing ski masks. One stood a few feet away behind the teller line, his back to the window, automatic rifle c.o.c.ked in one hand, the Beretta in his other, surveying the room methodically. Like the others he wore a one-piece charcoal flight suit, thick-soled boots, and black gloves. Duct tape wrapped his wrists and ankles so no hint of flesh peeked through. The burst of bullets had punched holes in the ceiling, and white dust clouded him like an aura, lending the scene an otherworldly tint.

The bank workers stretched flat at his feet, hands laced at their necks, foreheads to the tile, their labored breaths coming as rasps. On the main floor beyond, about fifteen customers also lay p.r.o.ne. The coffee trolley had been knocked over, cups resting in brown puddles. Two robbers patrolled the area on a circuit, stepping over bodies, handgun barrels moving from critical ma.s.s to critical ma.s.s.

By the entrance the black security guard lay sprawled, tangled in a vinyl banner announcing FREE WEB BILL PAY!, a fan of blood marring the money-green print. His pant leg was pulled up, exposing an anomalous striped sock.

Whereas his a.s.sociates shouted and moved in quick bursts, the man by the window moved with a composed fluidity that suggested greater expertise. While the others barked orders, he remained unnervingly silent. Given the man's a.s.surance and the fact that he commanded the big gun, Nate pegged him as the crew leader. And he was standing close enough that Nate could have reached through the window and tapped him on the shoulder.

To the right, a pair of armed men (five, that made five of them so far) dragged a middle-aged Hispanic woman toward the vault, her hands fussing at two knots of keys and making little progress. The bank manager. Dressed crisply in a wool pantsuit, pearl necklace, and matching earrings, she struggled to keep her legs beneath her. The steel vault door, thicker than a cinder block, rested open, leaving only the gla.s.s day gate to protect the nests of safe-deposit boxes beyond. As she fought two keys into two locks and swung the day gate ajar, a sixth masked man appeared from a rear corridor, dumped a black duffel off his shoulder, and announced, "Cameras are down." He removed a fierce-looking circular saw with a chain-saw handle. The teeth of the white-silver blade sparkled.

A woman's hoa.r.s.e sobs echoed off the faux marble walls, and somewhere a man was pleading, a broken loop of desperation: "-G.o.d oh G.o.d please I just got engaged I just-"

Nate tried to swallow, but his throat had gone to sand. Forgetting where he was, he drew back slightly. The drop to the pavement below swirled vertiginously into view between his legs.

One sneaker lost purchase, his weight pulling out and away, and his stomach flew up into his throat and choked off a cry. His hand slipped a few inches before wedging in the corner of the window frame and firming him, panting, against the concrete.

The robbers kept shouting, oblivious to the mini-commotion outside on the ledge.

"-anyone moves or speaks, and I mean one f.u.c.king squeak-"

"Three and Five, get going on those hinges. Four, that b.i.t.c.h better get you into the-"

All of them barking nervous commands except the crew leader, who stood mutely, projecting calm menace.

Nate had wound up clinging to the frame with his face filling the gap, peering down into the eyes of a teller crumpled just beneath the window. He was shocked he hadn't noticed her before. Her white blouse blotted a growing spot of blood. Her mouth guppied a few times, a bubble forming. She looked up at Nate, disbelieving, as if she wasn't sure how she'd been knocked over or why a stubble-faced angel had fluttered up to the eleventh-floor window.

One arm was slung back across her head, an ivory hand quivering in a sideways float. She stared at Nate imploringly. Watching the shallow rise and fall of her chest, he felt his breath catch. He reached down and took her hand. It was cool and smooth, carved from marble. A burbling sound escaped her, the bubble popping, leaving behind a speckled lipstick stain.

The crew leader consulted a stopwatch and for the first time spoke. Faint accent, utterly serene. "I would like to hear that saw, Three."

In reply, metal shrieked in the vault, sparks cascading into view. The manager backed into the hinges, her balled hands in front of her face. Her mouth formed an oval and veins bulged in her neck, but the metal-on-metal screech of the saw eclipsed all other noise. The biggest of the men had her by the hair. He smacked her head into the vault door, a smudge of blood darkening her forehead, but still the mouth stayed ajar, her fists trembling at her chin. The half-wall part.i.tion and open teller gate sliced Nate's view into horror-movie glimpses-straining arm, kicked-off high heel, hank of loose hair clutched in a dark glove.

It took the bite of the sill in his armpit to remind him he was hanging through a window. The cool hand tightened in his, grinding his knuckles together. He looked down at the woman beneath him. Her gaze went loose, looking through him instead of at him, and then her pretty green eyes turned to ice.

The saw paused, the manager came off mute, and Nate tore his focus from the death-smooth face below. Twisting his hand free, he withdrew his arm through the gap and tried to shake feeling back into it.

The manager's screams continued. The big man turned to look helplessly at the crew leader, who said with quiet authority, "She is near the duress alarm. Put her down."

"Look, Six, how many we gonna kill?"

Crew leader, Nate thought. Number Six.

The leader's boots tapped as he crossed the room. Sheetrock dust flecked his back. He raised his arms, and the automatic rifle coughed, tapping a line of holes through the woman's stiff suit, the percussion and horror nearly knocking Nate off the ledge. The woman remained grotesquely standing, propped against the open vault door, until Six placed two fingers on her shoulder and tipped her over. She slapped the floor, one arm unfurling, her rings clacking tile. A pearl earring skittered away, pinwheeling off a desk leg.

Several people yelped on the main floor, and a child began to wail, a single wavering note. A middle-aged man choked out a series of sobs, blurred against the floor into something feral.

"One dead or twenty-it carries the same sentence." The crew leader's voice remained exceedingly even, almost peaceful. He brushed white powder from his shoulder. "I'll handle the vault. Empty the teller drawers." He handed off the automatic rifle and stepped toward the safe-deposit boxes, pointing. "Here next. Then here."

The big man moved obediently toward the teller line, Nate jerking his head back from the gap. As the footsteps neared, he pressed his face into his straining biceps. His wet s.h.i.+rt had gone to ice against his lower back, the wind riffling the hem. He realized he was biting into his own flesh to keep quiet.

The man pa.s.sed by the window, shoving aside the teller's lifeless leg with his boot. He set his Beretta on a low file cabinet, looped the rifle over his shoulder, and began emptying teller drawers into a black trash bag.

A scream knifed through the bank, p.r.o.nounced even out on the ledge. Nate risked another peek across the room, his face grinding the concrete to give himself a one-eyed vantage. A customer was bucking on her stomach, both masked men across the main floor oriented toward her. Nate wondered what the h.e.l.l she was doing until a pigtailed girl, maybe four years old, popped out from beneath her and ran toward the exit. Two handgun barrels traced the girl's movement. The mother screamed again, lunging to a knee and grabbing her daughter's flailing arm. The man nearest kicked the woman in the face, blood erupting from her lip, and she fell limply, dragging the girl to the floor with her. The girl scooted away, hands and feet scrabbling for purchase, a streak of her mother's blood darkening the lobe of one ear. She struck a pillar, her feet still trying to propel her back until she realized she had nowhere to go. s.h.i.+vering violently, she hugged her legs, buried her face in the b.u.mps of her knees, and shut off like an unplugged TV.

The other man-Number Two?-walked over and stared down at her. "Get back over there with the others. Go on. Move it."

The girl remained motionless. He aimed the gun loosely at her head.

At the sight Nate pressed forward into the window gap, long-buried paternal instincts firing. The pane notched farther open against the pressure of his elbow. A few feet in front of Nate, the big man watched the scene unfolding on the main floor. He made a soft noise of deference in his throat and returned his focus to the next teller drawer, shoulder blades s.h.i.+fting beneath the charcoal flight suit.

Number Two firmed both hands on a Beretta, sighting on the girl. "You're gonna want to listen now, girlie."

The saw revved back to life over in the vault, a metallic grinding, and the ski mask pulsed again where Number Two's mouth would be-a final warning to the girl.

One dead or twenty-it carries the same sentence.

Nate looked down at the pretty green dead eyes aimed up at him. Across to the clip-on pearl earring resting on the dappled tile. Then over at the Beretta, sitting on the low file cabinet next to the big man's turned back, less than two steps from the windowsill.

Nate strained against the cas.e.m.e.nt window, and it gave another few inches, enough for him to worm his torso through. Headfirst, he cascaded down over the dead teller. Her body softened his landing, though the circular saw's teeth-rattling reverberation in the concrete walls obscured all sound. Three of the robbers were out of sight in the vault. The big man was a few feet away, his back still turned, rummaging in a cash drawer. The two across on the main floor stayed focused on the girl. Both pistols were now raised, their boots shuffling in at her. Still she didn't move, her head bowed, arms fastened around her bent legs.

Rising, Nate felt the complaint of his thirty-six-year-old knees. The listlessness of the past several months fell away, and for the first time in a long d.a.m.n time he sensed himself moving without hesitation. With something like purpose.

Stepping forward, he reached for the Beretta on the file cabinet.

Chapter 3.

Nate lifted the Beretta, swung the barrel to the back of the big man's head, and fired. The trigger hitched, a quarter-second delay, and somewhere between recoil and the flare of scarlet against the teller gla.s.s he registered that the first trigger pull had been double-action. From here on out, the Beretta would be single-action.

The gunshot was all but silent compared to the amplified screech of the saw within the vault. The big man's knees struck the ground as he collapsed, shuddering his shoulders and clearing Nate's view to the masked men on the main floor.

And theirs to him.

Both masks swiveled in puzzlement to take him in, the stillness of the moment stretching out in painful slow motion. The heads c.o.c.ked slightly, an instinctive attack-dog tilt, sending an icy ripple up Nate's spine. He realized what looked off about the faces: There were no eyes. Mesh had been st.i.tched over the holes so that no flesh was visible, an insectoid effect that smoothed the heads to disturbing perfection.

With detached tranquillity, Nate watched their gloved hands rise, blued steel glinting inside curled fingers. A bullet lasered past his face, close enough to trail heat across his cheek. He was, it struck him, utterly unafraid. In his indifference he felt a weight lift from his shoulders, felt a smile curve his lips, felt imaginary manacles release. And then his hands, too, were lifting. He reminded himself with alarming calmness that he had to keep his wrists steady as he'd learned in basic, that he should not antic.i.p.ate recoil, that he was, if not an ace, a decent shot. The air around his head took form as more bullets rocketed past, and he aimed across the teller part.i.tion at the first man and squeezed, and half the masked head went to red mist. The man toppled out of sight. His companion was shooting, the muzzle flas.h.i.+ng but still inaudible beneath the earsplitting action of the saw. Nate was firing, too, the far wall giving off little puffs of drywall, spent cartridges cartwheeling across his field of vision. He stepped forward through the laid-open teller gate into the incoming bullets, to his death, his senses alive with the thrill of freedom-no, more than that. The thrill of liberation.

Number Two's mask was stretched at the mouth-he was screaming-and his arms were trembling. Nate watched the bore winking into view like a black eye, and he stared back, his thoughts pounding a suicide urge: Steady your hand. Hit me.

But the barrel jerked left, right, bullets framing Nate's silhouette. Nate replayed the man's growled threat-You're gonna want to listen now, girlie-and anger sharpened his focus. He felt the Beretta kick and kick in his hands until the flight suit's fabric did a little dance above the man's chest and he fell down and away.

Sometime in the past second or two, the saw had paused, leaving the pop of the bullets suddenly naked, and Nate turned quickly to face the vault door. A man emerged carrying the circular saw, hood pushed up atop his head, wearing an expression of mild surprise. Nate shot off his ear in a spray of black blood. The man swung his head back, and Nate put a bullet through the puzzled furrow between his eyes.

Really? That's the best you a.s.sholes can do?

The back-strap checkering on the grip had bitten into the web of his thumb. The scent of cordite spiced the air, dragging him almost a decade into the past, to burning sand and blood in his eyes.

He blinked himself to the present. Four down, two to go.

Moving again behind the teller line, he looked down at the automatic rifle on the floor, contemplating an upgrade. But he couldn't spare the time untangling the sling from the body, so he walked swiftly toward the vault door, stepping across workers' quivering bodies. "Sorry, 'scuse me, sorry."

Sobs and gasps answered him. A wail of sirens grew audible, faint enough to be imaginary.

A pistol reached around the vault jamb, firing blindly. Nate drew a careful bead on the gun hand and kept on, swift and steady, not because of courage or heroism but because he hadn't a thing to lose. He fired once, the round clanging off the vault door, and then he adjusted and fired twice more, a whirl of muscle memory, reaction, and instinct. The pistol flipped back, the fingers spreading comically wide, as if waving, and the hand vanished intact.

Five more steps brought Nate to the vault door, and he strolled through without hesitation. A man sat in the far corner, aiming at the doorway, locked elbows resting on the shelf of his knees. He took a clear-as-day shot at Nate's head, but the wind of the bullet kissed the side of Nate's neck, the slug bouncing around the vault more times than seemed plausible. Nate swung the pistol, figuring he was too close to bother with the sights, and unloaded two shots into the guy's gut. Simultaneously he heard the scuff of a boot in the blind spot behind him. He sidestepped, the coolness of metal brus.h.i.+ng his neck and turning to a dagger of flame in his trapezius. Twisting, he shot, but the hammer clicked dryly-marking the fastest fifteen rounds he'd ever spent.

The blade tweaked the muscle down the length of his arm, barbed wire tugged through a vein. Heat poured into his little finger. A half turn of his neck brought the handle of a sleek metal letter opener visible, sticking up out of him like an Indian brave's feather.

He said, "Ouch."

His eyes tracked to the man who had stabbed him. The ski mask was still on, the mesh patches of the eyes s.h.i.+ny under the fluorescent glow of the vault lights, but from the man's bearing Nate recognized him.

Number Six.

Up close the crew leader seemed slight-slender-hipped and wiry, built for maximum efficiency. He couldn't have been more than five foot nine, shorter than his a.s.sociates. Nate's eyes were drawn to a band of exposed flesh, the white skin striking against the comprehensive black getup. The man had peeled back the glove of his right hand, the meat at the base of the thumb pink from where Nate had shot the pistol from his grip. He held the palm up and at an angle, babying it, which gave Nate a flush of schoolyard pride.

They faced each other from a few paces, the masked man bare-handed, Nate holding a bulletless gun, Nate realizing with some disappointment that no one would be killing anyone else at the moment. He lifted his good shoulder in a half shrug, then drew back the Beretta and threw it at the guy's face. Number Six barely flinched, the gun clipping his forehead. He touched a hand to the black fabric at the point of impact, then rolled his fingertips together, a man accustomed to checking for his own blood. He gave off nothing resembling emotion.

The sirens, now louder.

That dead-calm voice again, the faint accent. "He will be greatly angered by you."

Nate said, "Tell whoever he is to take a number."

The man pointed at him. "You have no idea what you have done."

These words-even more, the gravity behind them-cut through Nate's exhilaration, an arctic chill. For the first time since climbing in off that ledge, he felt fear, cold and pure.

The man took a step back and then another, those patches of mesh trained on Nate. "He will make you pay," he said, "in ways you can't imagine." Then he slid past the vault door, his footsteps pattering off.