Singapore Sling Shot - Andrew Grant [134]
Now we were high above the site, still climbing and swinging through an arc as the crane driver somewhere above us manoeuvred us to our target. The lights of Singapore were laid out below us. Even at midnight, cars streamed on the streets. The city was wide awake.
We continue climbing. We were now above the crane operator. I could see his head and shoulders in the dim lights as he sat inside his tiny cab as we wound our way upward. Up where we were beyond the light haze from the buildings, the black night was crowded with stars. It would have been almost romantic in another setting. I could imagine lying on a hilltop on a rug with Simone and simply counting stars on a night like this.
“Fuck it!” I snapped. I could feel Sami and K both looking at me, although they were just shadowy outlines against the lights of the city. “Sorry,” I muttered. “Just a bad memory.”
“We all have those,” Sami replied.
We were now sweeping over the apartment complex that separated the construction site from Lu’s building. This was obviously the reason Sami had ordered the extensions fitted to the crane, to get it high enough to get over the intervening structure. I hadn’t asked him how he’d organised that. Did he own the construction site? Had he simply bribed the right person or people? The fact was that somehow he had got it done.
Sami was now working the radio as we started to drop down towards our target. The crane operator was now flying blind. It was up to a combination of Sami’s precise instructions and the driver’s skills. K and I pulled on our shoulder holsters and quickly checked our weapons in the half-light. They had been checked before, several times, but old habits die hard. I put a stun gun into one pocket and a bundle of cable ties in another. I hitched the jemmy bar through the belt on my overall. I was ready for whatever came next.
Below, Lu’s lair was rapidly coming up at us. The penthouse roof covered much of the actual area below us. There were, however, two large patios. One, the largest, was on the street side, while the second, adjoining one was on the side from which we were approaching. Looking down, I could see deck furniture on both patios. There was a covered pergola on the smaller one and a closed octagonal structure on the larger one.
“Spa,” Sami said as he came to my side, pulling on his shoulder harness. “My bet is that Lu will be in there right about now. Michael said he is a real night owl and always has a late night spa before going to bed. Let’s hope he’s right or we’ll have to go into the penthouse after him.”
Sami started talking to the crane guy again. He slowed us down and moved our cage slightly to the right. Our landing zone was the smaller patio and we had to avoid the pergola.
The apartment building we were sliding by as we came down didn’t have balconies facing us but there were windows. Would anyone be looking out of them? Would they actually see the basket? Would they see what was about to happened on the terraces below? Too much speculation is bad for one. I stopped asking, “What if?” and concentrated on what I could control.
“We won’t touch down, too much chance of noise. We’ll hover and jump.”
“Done,” I agreed. There was no wind, so the cage could just hang there while we did what we had to. I held my Browning at the ready. I couldn’t see any of Lu’s people on either of the terraces, but it was possible there was a man on watch inside the building. Unless Lu was an exhibitionist, it was doubtful he would have anyone close enough to watch or overhear him and his playmates at bathtime. I didn’t know the guy, but I was hoping I was right in my assumption.
We crept down to a metre off the patio deck when Sami gave the word to stop. The basket jerked to a halt. K eased the bolt on the gate out of its cleat and carefully swung it open. He used a cable tie to fasten it so it couldn’t swing and make any noise. There was little noise up here,