Chapter 6 - THE SMOKE AND THE STAIRWELL
The alarm was deafening.
A piercing, rhythmic shriek that echoed off the high ceilings of the penthouse.
Red strobe lights flashed above the doorways, casting the room in a hellish, chaotic glow.
“What did you do?!” Margaret shouted over the noise.
Victor backed toward the heavy mahogany doors.
“I’m not taking the fall for this!” Victor yelled, his eyes wild. “The police will be here for the alarm. When they arrive, they’re going to find a corporate dispute, not a kidnapping!”
Victor grabbed the heavy brass door handle, stepped out into the hallway, and slammed the doors shut behind him.
A heavy CLACK echoed through the wood.
He had locked them in from the outside.
“Hey!” Thomas barked, lunging for the doors. He grabbed the handle and yanked.
It didn't budge.
The electronic deadbolts had engaged when the fire alarm was tripped, overriding the manual locks.
“He jammed the system!” Thomas grunted, throwing his massive shoulder against the wood. The door barely rattled. It was solid oak, reinforced with steel.
Inside the room, the situation went from chaotic to dangerous in seconds.
Elias, realizing this was his only chance in the confusion, scrambled toward the desk. He lunged for the leather folder Nora was holding.
“Give me that!” Elias snarled, his fingers grappling for the pristine trust deed.
Nora twisted her body, shielding the folder.
“Get away from her!” Sarah yelled. Despite her cane, she swung her arm, striking Elias hard across the back with her heavy purse.
Elias stumbled, but his hand caught the edge of Nora’s apron, yanking her forward.
Nora lost her balance and crashed into a heavy iron floor lamp near the fireplace.
The lamp tipped over.
It crashed directly into the roaring fireplace, shattering the glass screen and sending a shower of burning logs tumbling onto the expensive Persian rug.
The dry, antique wool caught fire instantly.
Flames surged upward, licking at the velvet drapes near the window.
“Fire!” Leo screamed, covering his ears from the alarm.
Thick, black smoke immediately began to fill the room.
The sprinkler system on the ceiling sputtered, but nothing came out.
“The sprinklers are dry!” Thomas shouted, backing away from the locked door. “Elias must have shut off the water mains to this floor when he disabled the elevator!”
Elias scrambled backward away from the flames, coughing as the smoke hit his lungs.
He looked at the burning rug, then at the locked doors, and finally at the private elevator.
He ran to the elevator keypad. He pressed his thumb against the biometric scanner.
A green light flashed.
The elevator doors slid open.
Elias stepped inside, looking back at them with terror in his eyes.
“You’re on your own,” he choked out.
The doors slid shut, leaving them trapped in the burning penthouse.
Nora coughed, the acrid smoke burning her throat. She scrambled to her feet, clutching the leather folder to her chest.
“Mom!” Nora cried out.
Sarah was leaning heavily on Thomas, coughing violently. Her lungs were already weak. The smoke was going to kill her in minutes.
Margaret was standing near the desk, using her faded coat to cover her mouth and nose. She looked terrified, but she wasn't panicking.
“Thomas! The windows!” Margaret shouted.
Thomas ran to the massive floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city. He grabbed a heavy bronze bookend from a side table and smashed it against the glass.
The bronze bounced off.
“Hurricane glass!” Thomas yelled over the alarm. “It won't break!”
The fire was spreading rapidly now, consuming the bookshelves and crawling up the walls. The heat was becoming unbearable.
Leo was crying, clinging to Nora’s leg.
Nora looked around desperately.
Locked doors. Shatterproof windows. A disabled elevator.
They were going to burn alive.
Then, Nora remembered something.
She was a waitress.
She had spent six months hauling room service trays through the hidden arteries of this hotel. She knew the blueprints better than the architects.
“The dumbwaiter!” Nora shouted, grabbing Leo’s hand.
Margaret looked at her through the smoke. “What?”
“The old dumbwaiter system!” Nora yelled, pointing to a wood-paneled section of the wall near the dining area. “When they built this place, Arthur insisted the penthouse have a direct line to the main kitchens on the ground floor!”
Margaret’s eyes widened in realization. “Yes! Behind the wine rack!”
Nora ran to the wall. The heavy wooden wine rack was built directly into the paneling.
“Thomas! Help me push this!”
Thomas rushed over. Together, they threw their weight against the heavy mahogany rack.
With a grinding screech of wood against the floor, the rack slid to the side.
Behind it was a small, waist-high metal door.
Nora yanked it open.
Inside was a metal box, suspended by thick steel cables. It was dark, smelling of dust and old grease.
It was about three feet wide and three feet tall.
“It’s too small for an adult,” Thomas coughed, waving smoke away from his face.
“It’s not for us,” Nora said. She looked at her little brother.
“Leo, listen to me,” Nora said, kneeling down so she was eye-level with him. “You are going to get in this box. It’s like a mini elevator. I’m going to press the button for the kitchen.”
Leo shook his head frantically. “No! I don't want to leave you and Mom!”
“You have to,” Sarah croaked, her face pale. She knelt beside him, kissing his forehead. “You are a brave boy. You go down, and you tell the firemen where we are.”
Leo looked at the dark box, then at the fire roaring across the ceiling.
He nodded bravely.
Nora helped him crawl into the dumbwaiter.
“Press the button that says ‘K’,” Nora instructed, pointing to a faded panel inside the box.
Leo pressed it.
With a heavy mechanical groan, the metal doors of the dumbwaiter slid shut, and the box began to descend.
Nora let out a breath, but the relief was short-lived.
The smoke was now thick enough that she couldn't see the ceiling.
Sarah collapsed to her knees, gasping for air.
“Mom!” Nora cried, dropping beside her.
“I can't…” Sarah wheezed, her chest heaving. “I can't breathe.”
Thomas scooped Sarah up into his arms effortlessly.
“We have to get out of this room now!” Thomas bellowed.
He ran toward the locked main doors.
“I already told you, it’s electronically sealed!” Margaret shouted, coughing.
Nora looked at the heavy brass key still clutched in her hand. The one that had opened the secret drawer.
She remembered what Victor had said.
He jammed the system.
But the system was electronic. The Crown Meridian was a historic building. They had modernized the security, but they could never fully rip out the old architecture.
“The fire box!” Nora shouted.
She ran toward the doorway. Next to the heavy oak doors, embedded in the wall, was a small red glass box.
IN CASE OF EMERGENCY, BREAK GLASS TO OVERRIDE LOCKS.
Nora gripped the heavy brass key like a dagger.
She slammed the metal end into the glass.
The glass shattered.
Inside was a heavy metal lever.
Nora grabbed it with both hands and pulled down with all her strength.
A loud, mechanical CLANG echoed from inside the doorframe.
The electronic deadbolts retracted.
Thomas kicked the doors open.
They spilled out into the 40th-floor hallway, gasping for the clean, cool air.
Nora fell to her hands and knees, coughing until her ribs ached.
May you like
She looked up.
Standing at the end of the hallway, frozen in shock as they escaped the fire, was Victor.
