Coyote Read Online Free PDF

raging inferno next door. No point now. But I could feel it … If I could just get us down those stairs to the ground, a few scorch marks would be worth it.
    Then the fire escape shifted beneath me, the metal groaning like a snakebite victim …
    Holy hell!
    Then it dropped by a foot.
    Through the metal grating I watched in horror as the lowest flight of stairs, now heavily laden with screaming victims, peeled away from the side of the building like an opening zipper.
    They all dangled in mid-air then dropped to the ground like overripe fruit.
    Beneath my feet the landing dropped another foot as the unzipping raced for the top. I grabbed for the windowsill but the landing dropped again and I missed, smashing my knuckles hard against the gritty external wall.
    Arrgh! That hurt.
    I launched myself at the windowsill, just as the whole fire escape twisted away beneath me and fell crashing into the burning building next door. I grabbed for the sill; got it with one hand … and then the other, and hung there, dangling.
    I tried to find a hold for my feet but scrambled wildly against the wall finding nothing instead. Both my dress shoes were knocked off, dropping through the space below like a warning of what was to come.
    My hands were jarred from smashing against the wall. They just held me … If I didn’t find a foothold soon I wouldn’t be able to pull myself up.
    If I didn’t find a foothold soon, I’d follow the shoes.
    I looked down and around only to see that the fire escape, in collapsing into the inferno next door, had propelled that blaze up and out.
    Fingers of flame reached out to swipe my back and limbs. I yowled in pain and fear.
    There had to be a foothold! There just had to be!
    I scanned down … There was a tiny, tiny decorative ledge, no more than an inch in width, jutting out from the wall near my waist. Would it hold my weight?
    It didn’t matter — that was all there was. But I had to get a foot up to it. I bent my right leg, grasping up with it for the tiny ledge.
    Another burst of flame seared my back and I missed, grunting with the effort to hold my weight.
    My fingers felt like they were stretched to breaking point. I couldn’t hold on much longer.
    Ignoring the pain, I tried again, hooking my leg up to catch the ledge.
    Sweat ran down my face. My fingers and palms became clammy. They started to slip …
    I heaved my right leg up one last time. I was going either up or down. This was it.
    I caught the ledge with my big toe, then wriggled the other four toes onto the ledge. It was only an inch wide. A toehold, not a foothold.
    I used the ledge as a lever and hoisted myself up the wall, slithering over the windowsill, just as another burst of flame reached for me.
    I collapsed on my side on the floor, exhausted … only to see that smoke now covered the ceiling. It was pouring out of the elevator shaft.
    I found Professor Wauhope, hoisted him over my shoulder then set him down near the floor-to-ceiling window on the opposite side of the building.
    Come on, Cosmos — send me some luck!
    The next building on this side was close too. It had to be a boutique hotel — just below us was a fancy roof garden with a fancy turquoise swimming pool. There was no smoke pouring out of it. It looked okay. Well, a lot better than this smoke-filled death trap.
    Good. With a decent run-up, I could make that jump.
    Oh God … but I couldn’t make it laden with Wauhope. And I couldn’t swing him that far either. No way! But there was nothing for me to lower him down with. And I couldn’t leave Wauhope here … not to die like this.
    I checked the trajectory we’d have to follow very carefully. The swimming pool wasn’t that big, and looked smaller every time I checked it.
    â€˜Well, Kannon,’ I said aloud. ‘Now you know why you work out. And why you have to lay off that damned bread.’
    The floor-to-ceiling window didn’t