Vows of Graphite and Guilt
The world vanished.
Gravity ripped away from them as the cable unspooled at terminal velocity. Clara choked on a scream, her face burying into the wet linen of Julian’s shoulder as they plummeted down the sheer, vertical face of the skyscraper. The wind howled in her ears, the lateral force throwing them sideways, smashing Julian’s shoulder hard against the tinted glass panels of the 58th floor, then the 55th.
Above them, sparks flew into the night as the operatives fired down the line, their bullets pinging harmlessly off the reinforced steel casing of the winch mechanism sixty feet above.