The spiraling sensation in her stomach told her that they were falling. Not falling, she realized. Rising, skimming upward along the cable, the old filament of steel that had been lying neglected for a decade. She could not get her eyes to focus as the world blurred around her. Luca finally struggled to his knees, a dazed look on his face. “What happened?” she said after she got a breath. “Someone hit me from behind.” They both looked out the back window as a bundled figure hurried down the ladder. There was no time to worry about it as the gondola was still jerking forward, shuddering so hard that Ava feared the metal contraption would fall apart. They were traveling away from the tower at a fast pace, the distance from the ground now a good twenty feet and increasing with every moment. Fear knotted her insides as the gondola pitched and heaved.
