Look, I am not a hero. I am a guy who used to steal high-end laptops by climbing up drainpipes and sliding through skylights. My knees sound like a bag of potato chips being crushed every time I stand up. I have a bad habit of looking over my shoulder, and I haven’t slept a full night since the police caught me in Chicago three years ago. I am a disgraced runner with a record and a very empty bank account.
But right now, I am standing at the base of the Titan Plaza. It is the tallest building in the city, a giant spear of glass and steel reaching into the clouds. Usually, it looks like a monument to money. Today, it looks like a tomb. A green fog is rolling through the streets, thick and sickly like spoiled lime juice. The insurgents released the toxin ten minutes ago. If I do not get this silver drive to the roof, everyone in this zip code is going to be coughing up their own lungs by sunset.
Benny handed me the drive. He was shaking so hard his teeth were clicking. He told me the building was going to fall. Some kind of bomb hit the support beams in the basement. I have sixty minutes before the whole thing snaps like a dry twig.
“Ike,” Benny whispered, his eyes wide. “You’re the only one who can move fast enough. Don’t look down.”
I looked up. My stomach did a slow, heavy roll. The tower was actually leaning. Just a little bit. It was tilting against the gray sky like a drunk uncle at a wedding. I rubbed some chalk on my palms. I could feel the hum of the city dying below me. The silence was the scariest part. No cars. No sirens. Just the sound of the wind whistling through the girders.
I started on the outside. The elevators were dead, and the stairs were full of guys with masks and big guns. I grabbed a decorative ledge and pulled. My shoulders popped. I felt that old spark in my blood, the one that makes me forget I’m a middle-aged screw-up.
By floor twenty, my lungs were burning. I looked through the glass. Inside, a group of men in black tactical gear were smashing desks. They didn’t see me. I was just a fly on the window. The wind picked up, screaming past my ears. It tried to peel me off the wall. I dug my fingers into a seam in the steel. My heart was a frantic bird trapped in a cage.
By floor fifty, the world started to change. The green gas was a thick carpet below me now. I couldn’t see the ground anymore. It felt like I was climbing out of the ocean. The sun hit the glass, blinding me. Everything was gold and terrifying. I reached for a maintenance rail, but it was loose.
The metal groaned. I slipped.
My feet kicked empty air. For a second, I was flying. My stomach ended up in my throat. I slammed into a lower ledge, the air rushing out of me in a wet grunt. I hung there by one hand. My fingers were screaming. I looked down into the green abyss. I thought about Jade. I thought about how I told her I’d be home for dinner. I’m a liar, but I didn’t want to be a dead liar.
I swung my body, using the weight of my legs. I caught the rail with my other hand and hauled myself up. I sat on a narrow ledge, gasping. I pulled a crumpled cigarette from my pocket but didn’t light it. My hands were shaking too much.
“You’re a clown, Ike,” I whispered. My voice sounded like gravel in a blender.
The building let out a sound like a freight train crashing. A long, deep shriek of metal. The tower tilted another three degrees. I could see cracks spidering across the windows next to me. The glass was crying. I stood up on the ledge, pressing my chest against the cold wall. I had twenty minutes left.
I climbed faster. I didn’t think about the drop. I thought about the rhythm. Reach. Pull. Kick. Breathe. Reach. Pull. Kick. Breathe.
I reached the seventy-fifth floor. This was the gap. The bomb had blown a hole right through the middle of the floor, leaving a thirty-foot space between the two sides of the building. The structural core was exposed. It looked like the ribcage of a dead whale. To get to the roof, I had to jump across the hollow center of the tower while it was swaying in the wind.
I stood on a jagged piece of concrete. The wind up here was a physical thing. It slapped my face and stung my eyes. I looked across the gap. The other side was lower, a twisted mess of rebar and broken desks.
I took a breath. I thought about every mistake I ever made. I thought about the people I let down. This jump wasn’t just about the toxin. It was about proving that gravity didn’t own me yet.
I ran.
My boots clicked on the concrete. I hit the edge and pushed.
Time slowed down. It turned into a thick, golden syrup. I saw a flock of birds drifting far below. I saw the curve of the earth on the horizon. For a heartbeat, I wasn’t a thief or a failure. I was a part of the sky. I was weightless. The silence was absolute. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. The city was a toy box. The danger was a dream.
Then, reality hit me in the face.
I slammed into the far side. My ribs hit a metal desk. I heard a loud snap. I didn’t scream, but a hot wave of red pain washed over my vision. I rolled, grabbing a piece of rebar to stop from sliding back into the hole. I lay there for a second, tasting copper in my mouth.
I looked at my watch. Three minutes.
I forced myself up. I crawled more than I ran. I reached the roof access door. It was locked. I didn’t have time for a lockpick. I took the silver drive and wedged it into the external port by the antenna. Benny said it would trigger the dispersal units automatically.
I hit the “Send” button.
A blue light flickered on the drive. High above, four massive vents opened on the tower’s crown. A white mist began to spray out, neutralizing the green fog below. It looked like a halo. It looked like a miracle.
The building gave one last, final moan. It was a tired sound. The floor beneath me began to slide.
I didn’t run for the stairs. There was no point. I walked to the very edge of the roof. I sat down and let my legs dangle over the side. The white mist swirled around me, smelling like ozone and rain. The sun was starting to set, turning the horizon into a bruise of purple and orange.
I watched the city wake up. The green gas was vanishing. People would live. Jade would have her dinner.
The tower shifted. A massive crack opened up right behind me. The penthouse floors were starting to peel away from the main structure. I closed my eyes and leaned back. I felt the wind catch my hair. I wasn’t scared anymore. I had seen the top of the world, and it was glorious.
As the glass began to shatter and the floor dropped away, I just watched the light. It was a hell of a view.