Buying the Virgin novel Chapter 120

MICHAEL

Smoke billowing up the staircase, we race down to the lower floors. Using the lifts is unthinkable.

Alarms are ringing, and there is chaos, as panicked workers try to escape the building.

Up the staircase, coming towards us, are firefighters in full kit and mask.

Shit!

We’re on fire?

James sees me looking upwards. “Don’t worry. You can be sure she’s getting the hell out as fast as she can. She’ll not sit helplessly by.”

“But she won’t…”

He skids to a halt, hovering between one step and the next. “What? Why not?”

Breathing heavily now. “I told her to stay put. And I made her promise to obey. I think she’ll try to keep the promise…”

James rolls his eyes. “Fuck! What a time to disable her….” He stares at me, hard. “And you accuse me of treating her as a sub…” He pats his pockets. “Damn! No phone. Got yours on you?”

“No. I just ran from the apartment. You?”

“So, she’s promised to stay put, in a burning building, and we can’t contact her?”

“Yes.”

Oh God, Babe. What have I done?

James turns heading upwards again, but above us, there is a crashing noise. A few seconds later, we meet a group of the firefighters, descending again. “Get moving downward.” yells one of them as he comes past. “The floor above here’s on fire. The whole building’s coming apart. You can’t go that way.”

From below there is a rushing sound and the smoke turns black. Coughing, we keep moving downwards.

And will Charlotte try to keep the promise I forced her to make?

*****

BETH

Charlotte dashes to the stairwell, but acrid, black smoke billows up from below. Quickly, she slams the door closed, coughing and spluttering. “No way out that way.”

“Down the garbage chute?” I ask. “Like they do in movies?”

She gives me an old-fashioned look. “Not a chance. Too narrow, and it’s anyone’s guess what we’d land in.”

“I don’t mind a bit of dirt if it’s to escape a fire.…”

“How about landing in a compactor, or a waste recycler? You got any idea what’s at the bottom?”

“Er… no…”

“Well then…. Having said that…. let’s have a look at the laundry chute.”

Smoke surges up, flooding the room, a bitter-sweet chemical smell, and she jerks her head backwards, hastily, slamming the hatch closed “Must have taken hold in the dry-cleaning stuff.…”.

She circles, looking for options, a way to escape. “Jeez…” she mutters, her face white, and for the first time since I have known her, I see real fear in Charlotte.

Her phone rings and she snatches at it.

“It’s James,” she says with it pressed to her ear. “Yes…. Master, we’re trapped…. We can’t…. Right? Wonderful! Yes, Beth’s with me. Richard sent her up here…. Yes, I will.”

She taps off the phone, then yells at me, “Out onto the roof. There’s help coming….”

Grabbing a couple of mobiles lying on the desktop, Michael’s and James’ I assume, she stuffs them in a pocket, and we dash out to the terrace garden. Even as we burst out into the fresh air, a helicopter is descending to us, a harness winching down.

Other choppers are buzzing the higher floors, scanning windows, but there is no-one in view other than ourselves.

Charlotte clips the harness onto me, and immediately I am hoisted away and up. Within a minute, the harness lowers again, and Charlotte too is winched to safety. As she is pulled into the cockpit, the ‘copter tilts, turns and sweeps away. “Where are we going?” she yells to the pilot.

He shouts over the engine noise. “Sorry, I was told not to tell you. Mr Haswell’s instructions.” he shouts back.” Just, away from the City.”.

And below us, a rush of buildings, highways and the river vanish, as we sweep along the coast and off.

*****

MICHAEL

Will Charlotte try to keep the promise I forced her to make?

The Haswell Building on fire and she is trapped in the penthouse apartment. Does she even know yet that she is trapped?

Passing a firefighter, James snags him by the arm. “There’s a woman trapped in the Penthouse. We’re not sure she even knows yet, that she’s trapped…”

The fireman whips out his two-way, talking urgently into it, then clicking it off. “There’s helicopters coming in to help on the top floors. Can she get onto the roof?”

“Got a phone on you?”

The firefighter passes a phone to James, who stabs at the screen. Phone pressed to his ear, staring into space, he mutters. “Pick up your phone, Charlotte, pick up your…. Charlotte! Where are you? Yes, get the Hell out of there. Get out to the roof terrace. Helicopters are flying in…. What..?”

He glances over at me. “Beth’s with her…. Richard sent her up there for safety.…” Then, “Yes, we’ll catch up with you. If you see mine or Michael’s phones, bring them with you.”

James and I descend the stairs at speed. At every floor, black smoke surges and curls on to other side of glass plating.

Outside is a chaos of police cars, armed officers, fire engines, medical workers and ambulances, but oddly, very few other people. Will Stanton, the Police Commissioner, is there, shouting instructions. A familiar face in a squad car, Corby, who first bungled the interview with Charlotte, looks to be relaying messages from the car, and a large area is cordoned off, police widening the cordon as we watch. Above us, is the clip-clip of helicopter blades moving in on the upper floors of the office block.

Where are all the people? The office workers…. Trapped?

Richard is here, by Will, phone to his ear. Seeing us, he gestures us over, then waves up at the ‘copters. “There’s help on the way to the girls. Don’t worry.”

“Where is everyone?” I ask. “I thought they’d be teeming out…”

Richard almost laughs. “There’s almost nobody in there, Michael. With the holiday break, no-one’s here.”

“Holiday break?”

He stares at me. “It’s Christmas Day.”

Christmas Day?

With everything that has happened, I’d lost track of the date entirely.

Richard waves over the scene; the tower block, chimneying smoke upwards, the mess of emergency vehicles, the choppers high above us, now lowering winches to the roof-top. “If there’s a blessing to be had in all this, it’s that we and the women were almost the only people in here. Had it been an apartment block….” He shivers. “As it is, the only real injured party is going to be the insurance company…”

James, scanning the scene, “And the attackers? Where are they?”

Will looks sick. “They seem to have simply faded away. They attacked, did the damage and…. “He holds up his hand helplessly. “I’ve got units out searching, but there’s been a breakdown of the central computer. No-one can coordinate….”

“A convenient time for a failure,” comments James. “Sabotage? Hackers?”

“I think so, yes.”

“Your spy in the camp again?”

Will nods, lips pressed white.

“Hey!” There’s a yell from one of the fire-fighters. “Stretcher-bearers, over here, fast” He waves wildly at the green-uniformed medics waiting by the ambulances. “We’ve got one of them.”

Will comes alive. “I’ll be back.” Then dashing over to where the fire-fighter is dragging an unconscious man out of the building, yells “Can he speak?”

*****

He returns, ten minutes later, looking disheartened. Head-pointing us to a quiet spot, “Richard, James, Michael, come with me. Let’s get some privacy.”

“He’s unconscious, suffering from smoke inhalation, but the medics say he should survive. It seems he was trapped in the chaos and didn’t get out with the others. I’m having him taken to a secure medical facility and there, as soon as he’s fit to speak, he’ll be interrogated. I’ll keep you informed.” He takes a deep breath. “Did you get Charlotte and Beth away safely?”

“Yes.” says Richard, “And right now, I and the pilot are the only ones who know where they are. “I’ve had them taken out of the City and, no offence, Will, but I’m not telling you where to.”

Will nods. “I understand. I’ll be in touch.” Turning, he shouts out, “Corby! I want to know the minute we hear from the hospital….”

*****