Sudden prey

A

Now! Kill the lights. Move it!''

''Hey, what, what?'' Jason kept shooting.

''Close down! Get in the truck. Now.''

As A

Creek: ''I know the place. Jesus, it's two minutes from here.''

''Gotta hustle,'' A

Creek spun the truck in a U-turn, headed back toward the Shell station, paused at the red light just long enough to make sure he wouldn't hit anything, then powered on through.

Louis had an earphone clamped over one ear. ''The guy's still out there. On a ledge. There's hotel people talking to him. He's from a party, high-school kids.''

Creek had the gas pedal on the floor and they just caught the light at Wilshire.

As they swept through the intersection, A

''I'm ready,'' Jason said.

''Creek?''

Creek nodded. Creek was always ready.

''Louis, talk to me,'' A

Louis's eyes were closed, and he was leaning away from them, listening hard.

''There're cars on the way, we got maybe a minute by ourselves. Maybe two minutes.''

A

''You got it, sugarbun,'' Jason said.

Creek showed his teeth: ''Sugarbun?''

Jason gri

''Yeah?'' Creek glanced at A

''Me'n A

A

''Shamrock,'' A

He pointed, and A

She turned away from the straining face, and looked where he was looking. Five stories, A

Creek,'' A

They were doing seventy-five, the wheels screaming, right up to the hotel, then

Creek hammered the brake and cut sidewaysand they went over the curb again and

Jason spilled out, ru

The man on the ledge had his back to a sheet of plate glass, his arms spread.

The ledge, A

''Guys, I'm go

Hotels didn't want to know about media. As far as hotels were concerned, no media was good media. A

She hit the glass doors and went through the lobby like she was on a motorcycle.

Two bellman huddled at the reception desk with a couple of clerks, and one of the bellmen saw her and just had time to turn, to open his mouth and shout,

''Hey,'' when she was past him. The elevators were straight ahead, and a brass plaque with an arrow pointing to the right said ''Stairs.''

She took the stairs. Ran up one flight, two, then a man shouting again, from the bottom, ''Hey…'' Third floor, not even breathing hard. A

She ran down the hall, now aware of her heart pounding in her chest, turned a corner past a niche with Coke, ice and candy machines, to another stairway. She pulled open the door, looked up and down, heard nothing and ran up to five. She took three seconds, two long breaths, pulled off her headset, shoved it with the

Nagra up under her jacket in back, held it with one hand, and sauntered into the hallway.

Halfway down, three older men-security, probably- stood outside an open doorway.

A dozen kids were scattered up and down the hall, a few of them talking, most just looking down at the open door. All the kids were dressed up, the boys in suits and ties, the girls in pink and blue party dresses, all with the stark-white look of fear on their faces.

One of the security men looked toward A

My God, A

The girls in pastel dresses were looking at the door, the boys were looking at each other, all were frozen: A

Then A

A

''Did he jump?''

The woman, white-faced, looked at her, her mouth working, nothing coming out, then: ''Oh, my God.''

A

A

''What happened?'' she asked.

''I don't know… I think it was just kids, having a party. They were making noise, we could hear them ru

A

''I think he was coming in,'' the man said. ''He turned and it was like he lost his balance and all of a sudden he jumped, like he was trying to make the pool. ..''

The woman turned to her husband, ''Jim, let's get out of here.''

A

Tilly, OK. ''Are you Mr. and Mrs. Madson?''

The woman turned toward her. ''Yes, yes… Are you with the hotel? We'd like to check out.''

''You'd have to talk with the people downstairs. Are you all right, ma'am? What is your name?''