Chapter 21 - Empire State Building

When Gwen and I landed on the hard concrete terrace of the Empire State Building, I staggered forward a little, but quickly pulled myself together. It only took a few seconds with my hands on my knees to calm my stomach.

"Did you see that? No big deal." Gwen said, looking at me, and then began to analyze her surroundings.

As expected, the place was completely empty, and at that moment a strong icy wind was blowing, making the air seem sharper than usual. At that moment, I raised my head and saw the horizon, it seemed as if you could see the whole city from up there. We were frighteningly high, and a part of me didn't want to enjoy the view.

But Gwen seemed to be perfectly used to it. She approached one of the edges of the terrace, looked down, then came back up to me and pulled a small device out of one of the pockets at her waist.

"Listen, Dream Knight. We need access to the archive section of Murdock's law firm on the eighth floor. This time of night, the building is practically deserted, but that doesn't mean there aren't security guards and cameras everywhere."

"Right, and how are we supposed to get in? I thought we'd take the fire escape that leads to the terrace."

She nodded and activated the device in her hand. The device projected a small hologram of the interior of the Empire State Building, with the location of the archives highlighted in red.

'Very cool!' I thought.

"I think taking the stairs would be a bit risky. It may be empty, but most of this place is heavily guarded. Cameras, guards, motion sensors, and who knows what else. Our best chance is to go through the maintenance floor, which is a few levels down. There's an air duct that connects to the lower levels, including Murdock's office. If we can do that, we'll avoid most of the security systems."

I looked at the hologram, paying attention to the path. "Okay, but one thing still doesn't make sense to me. This building is 102 stories high, and from what this hologram shows, the maintenance floor is on the 85th floor. We're on the roof. How are we going to get down all these floors if we don't use the stairs?"

Gwen turned the device off and put it in her pocket. She turned her head to me and said, "Isn't it obvious? If the inside of the building is so heavily guarded, all we have to do is go outside and we won't get caught."

"What?"

"Don't worry, I'm sure no one will see us. No one on the street looks up, and no one can see that high. If we're not lucky, someone from another building might see us, but the police will take a long time to understand the call. There are a lot of tips about me to the police, but most of them are hoaxes, so the police only pay attention when there are a lot of calls pointing to the same location," she said. She said, at the same time beginning to shrug her tense shoulders. "Anyway, let's go down quickly and get in through a window. It would be better if there was a window on the floor where Murdock's office is, but they took the windows out of the offices after the number of workers throwing themselves in got too high. Now there are only windows on the maintenance floors to let the structures 'breathe'."

Which meant that Gwen's idea really was the best.

"Okay, let's go down quickly and get in through the maintenance window. What if something happens? What will be the decisive idea?" I asked, trying to be cool.

Gwen stopped, shrugging her shoulders. "This is exactly why I wanted to have a partner specifically for this mission... If we're discovered, the plan will change. You go ahead, Dream Knight. I'll draw the guards' attention and keep them at bay while you locate and steal the files. Don't worry, I know my way around."

I didn't want to question her or tell her how dangerous it would be to draw all the attention to herself, because she was an experienced heroine and I was only one day into this risky life, so I had to trust her judgment.

"All right, but how am I supposed to get down? By holding on to you?"

"No, I think you're ready for something more... independent." Gwen smiled slightly and pulled up one of the sleeves of her clothing.

She showed what, at first glance, appeared to be a simple metal bracelet. But I knew it was much more than that.

"I'm going to lend you one of my web launchers. You'll be able to climb down the building without my help. I'll show you how to use it, but it's easier than it looks." She held the device out to me.

I was bursting with excitement, barely able to contain it. I took the launcher and examined it with my eyes. The one in my hands was a little different from Peter Parker's classic web-slinger. It was more like Black Widow's shock wristbands. It was light but looked sturdy, made of some kind of polished metal. There was a buckle to fasten it around the wrist, but no button to throw the web.

"Right... how does it work?"

"It's simple." Gwen began to explain as she showed me how to put the launcher on. She adjusted the buckle on my right wrist. "First you attach it to your arm, like this. And to fire the net, all you have to do is press down on it with your hand, moving your middle and ring fingers all the way back so the bracelet knows to fire. But be careful. You will need to hold the web tightly as soon as it catches on something. It's not as easy as it looks."

Gwen's explanations were easy to understand, especially since she showed it so clearly. But maybe the last thing I mentioned was the problem, why I didn't pay so much attention.

'She smells of lavender. I wonder if that's from her shampoo.'

Gwen moved away a little and pointed to the edge of the terrace. 'Let's do a test. Aim at the ground here on the terrace and shoot."

[You have obtained the item "Spider Gwen's Web Launcher".]

[Item: Spider Gwen's Web Launcher

Description: This item allows the user to shoot webs of high durskill, viscosity and resistance.

Rating: Epic

Durskill: 100 filaments.]

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