The Lift

The shopping centre was called Millfield Cross and it was busy for a Tuesday, the corridors full of people who had not yet heard about the bridge. The lift was at the far end near the car park entrance, and Felix walked toward it without hesitating, eyes slightly unfocused, like someone navigating by a sense that was not sight.

"Stop," he said, holding up a hand. They stopped. He stood completely still for three seconds. "Two adults and a child. Eighth floor, stuck between seven and eight. The child is crying but nobody is hurt."

"How do we get to the eighth floor?" Ren asked.

"Stairs are locked above the fifth floor," Felix said. "Staff access only."

"I can get through a locked door," Adaeze said.

"Without taking the whole door with it?" Priya asked.

Adaeze looked at her hands. "Probably," she said. "I am working on the calibration."

"I have a better idea," Ren said. He was looking at the exterior of the building, at the large windows running up the stairwell. "If someone can get me to the third floor, I can get to the eighth."

"How?" Priya asked.

"The same way the water does not stick to me," Ren said. "Things do not stop me when I do not want them to. I think I can go through the window."

"Through it," Priya repeated.

"Not break it," Ren said. "Through it. Like water through a cloth."

The three of them looked at him.

"I have not tested this extensively," he admitted. "But I am fairly confident."

"Fairly confident," Adaeze said.

"Very confident," Ren said.

"I can get you to the third floor ledge in about eight seconds," Priya said. She could feel her heart rate already rising, the way it did when she was about to run, her legs restless and ready. "If you are on my back."

Ren blinked. "On your back."

"Yes."

"How?"

"I do not know exactly," she admitted. "I have not tested it extensively either. But I am fairly confident."

Ren almost smiled. "Fair enough."

Felix stayed near the lift to talk to the people inside and keep them calm, because his voice, they had all noticed, had a particular quality of steadiness to it that settled people down. Adaeze positioned herself at the base of the lift shaft in case the mechanism needed persuading.

Priya crouched slightly. Ren climbed on. He was lighter than she expected, or she was stronger, she could not tell which.

She ran.

The third floor ledge came up in seconds and Ren stepped off her back and pressed his palm to the glass of the stairwell window and his hand went through it like a hand going into still water, and then the rest of him followed, and he was on the other side.

He looked back through the glass at her, his expression for the first time genuinely surprised.

"It worked," he said. His voice came through muffled.

"Go," she said.

He went.

Seven minutes later the lift doors opened on the ground floor and a tired-looking man, a woman with a pushchair, and a small girl with a tear-streaked face stepped out. Ren was not with them. He appeared from the stairwell door thirty seconds later, walking calmly, and rejoined the others near the entrance.

"How did you get the lift working?" Felix asked.

"There was a manual release lever on the eighth floor," Ren said. "Once I could get to it, it was straightforward."

"Straightforward," Adaeze said. "You went through a window."

"And then I pulled a lever," Ren said. "The window part was the unusual part. The lever was very normal."