Suddenly there was a rope hanging in front of Ben’s face, then three more appeared out of nowhere with the ends falling to the ground. Ben looked up and saw nine men in the rafters.
“At last, they’re here,” yelled Dahms.
“By God if they aren’t.” Sam grabbed a rope and told Dahms to go. Just then two red streaks came from above and knocked down the two Toral in the lead.
"That was a little too close," Dahms yelled while looking up. “What the hell took you so long?” She grabbed the rope and started up.
A voice yelled down from the rafters, “We had a problem with the guards.”
Another red streak and one more Toral went down.
Sam grabbed a rope and started to climb, but fell back to the ground. "I can't climb with this arm," he shouted.
"Tie the rope around your waist.” Dahms yelled.
Ben took the end of the rope and pulled it around Sam's torso. He tied it off and looked up at the men standing on top of the rafters. "Haul him up.”
Sam suddenly shot up like a puppet on a string.
Gaal was going up one of the other ropes hand over hand and moving fast.
The stairway to freedom, thought Ben. He had just started up the rope when three city patrollers came running through the exit door. Two of the patrollers took aim with their phasors and squeezed the triggers. Blue bolts streaked the air bringing down the last two toral in stun. At the same time the other patroller started shooting at the men in the rafters. Red and blue streaks lit up the air as the rebels and the city patrollers started shooting at each other. Two of the patrollers were hit and went down either dead or injured, Ben couldn’t tell which. He was half way to the rafter when he saw the last patroller take aim.
Crap, thought Ben. The blue bolt hit him in the chest. He slid down and down and down. He landed on the ground. He couldn’t move, but he could hear the commotion going on around him. And then he heard Sam shouting.
“We have to get him,” he yelled.
“More patrollers coming through the gate,” yelled Dahms. “Let’s get out of here.”
“He didn’t leave me when I was fighting the toral, and I can’t leave him now.”
“If you go back down there, Hurd’s men will have you. Let’s go. We’ll do what we can for him later.”