staring at her. “I trust this will be the last time I will see you, Agent Knox.”

“I can guarantee it,” said Knox as the doors closed.

 

Jericho put the gun back in her pocket, turned, and went back into the

apartment.

 

Thus she did not see the pair of hands emerge in the crevice of the elevator’s

outer doors. The fingers gripped and pushed and the doors came open.

 

Paul Rogers climbed up into the vestibule. When Knox had gone up to the

apartment he had ridden on top of the elevator car after getting into the shaft

through an air duct opening. When the car had descended Rogers had already

climbed onto one of the metal beams supporting the shaft and waited there.

 

He slipped across the vestibule and saw Jericho at her desk, her back to him.

She was working on her laptop, some complicated bit of science that held her

full attention.

 

She only looked up when the hands closed around her neck. * * * Down on the

street Knox stood on the pavement looking up at the top floor of the building.

The wind was picking up. As it whipped her hair she drew her coat collar up some

more and put her hands in her pockets. Though it wasn’t possible, Knox thought

she heard the snap of a spine eight stories up.

 

I told you I had friends in high places.