Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Roses are Blue, 10.
In the narrow alley that leads from Stationer's Hall I pulled a line and grappling-hook from my belt and threw it. The grappling-hook caught and held. Knowing that my weight was unlikely to pull anything off anything else (I feel so slim when I write that), I swiftly scaled the side of the building.
Standing on the roof, I hurried towards Paternoster Square.
If you're my age, you can dimly remember when Paternoster Square was a collection of ugly tower-blocks and concrete monoliths. It isn't any more! Now Temple Bar, transferred from Theobalds like it was transferred there from the Strand, makes a pretty gateway into a beautiful square full of light. Oh, and with the obligatory Starbucks.
In the daytime, Paternoster Square can be quite busy. At the dead of night it's silent. I stood on the rooftop, looking down at the square. There, in front of me, was the Stock Exchange building. The enemy's target.
I saw people moving into the colonnade beneath the building, and I ran across the rooftops, sure-footed as a real cat, headed for the Stock Exchange.
Call me old fashioned, but I preferred the old one. Not the ugly block in Threadneedle Street, the old neoclassical one by the Bank of England.
Throwing my line again, I jumped from the roof I was standing on and swung on the end of my line onto the roof of the Stock Exchange. The League of the Blue Rose would already have disabled the building's burglar alarms, I told myself. Still, there was one thing they hadn't counted on - Scruff. She would be busily tapping away (or whatever you do) on her little laptop in the car, trying to interfere with their plan. Me, I prefer to interfere more directly. With a boot and a whip.
My little diamond-tipped tool got me into the building in seconds. I moved among silent offices, headed for the building's central atrium.
Reaching it, I saw lights below. In my usual gung-ho fashion, I threw my life upwards and jumped.
I sent blue-robed figures sprawling over the floor. Drawing my whip from my belt, I faced them.
"You!" one of them cried. "But.. you're dead!"
I proved him wrong by kicking him in the stomach.
"Brother Peter..." another snarled. I laughed.
"He's probably still taking it easy on the church floor."
I wielded my whip deftly, tearing a gun from a man's hand. In the wide open space my movement was unhindered, I could move like a tornado.
"Stop!"
The voice was the Prior's. Looking up, I saw him standing on a landing. He was flanked by two men with very large guns. I laughed.
"Sorry, you can't afford to shoot this place up."
"You're right." The Prior pulled his own gun. I carried on fighting.
Then a little red spot appeared on the front of my costume. A laser sight. I stopped and dropped my whip.
"Sensible girl. Take her!"
I hoped Scruff was going to come through.
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