Chapter 3

"You're the idiot. In a minute these two animals are going to sell you out and you won't even know what hit you!"

Anthony clutched his nose and howled.

The second he saw I meant it, that I was really leaving, Dominic lunged at me.

"How dare you hit people!"

"Things are this urgent and your boss already signed off on you driving us to the hospital, out of basic human decency, because lives are on the line! Now come with us!"

I looked at those upturned, slitted eyes, the exact copy of Willow's, and something in my stomach turned over. I stopped holding back and drove my foot straight into his gut.

Dominic went down, knocking a chair over with him.

I spun, grabbed Anthony by the collar, and slammed him down hard against the desk.

"You just said you talked to the electrician on the phone. So tell me. What's his name?"

His eyes flicked away.

"How am I supposed to remember exactly!"

"There was only one electrician on the maintenance call at Building Six tonight, and his name is Grant Finch!"

I punched him in the face.

"Except Grant Finch's pager ID went offline half an hour ago!"

"So who were you actually talking to?"

Blood filled his mouth. Cornered and furious, he screamed.

"Clara Swanson! You're fired!"

I wasn't wasting another word on someone this stupid. I turned and ran for the door.

Behind me, Willow's voice came, thick with venom.

"You're not leaving here today!"

The next second, a chair crashed into my back.

The pain exploded all at once.

I stumbled into the doorframe, and something hot and metallic surged up my throat.

The ghost caught me, alarmed.

"Aren't you afraid they'll come after you?"

"This family are experts at flipping the blame!"

I gritted my teeth, steadied myself, and ran hard for Building Six, throwing the words back over my shoulder.

"This whole complex could lose power for a month and the fire-control room feeds would still keep running."

"It's wired to an independent diesel backup. Everything that just happened in there is on tape."

"And the local feeds in the Building Six underground equipment room, from before the power cut, can be recovered too. They'd better pray the fire hasn't spread, because if it has, those two animals are the first thing I put in the ground."

Behind me, Willow was still shrieking, hysterical.

"Bitch! You're all bitches!"

Through the downpour, I half caught it, and I couldn't believe it, Willow was already turning back to her idiot son.

"Sweetheart, let's hurry and have Supervisor Whitney take us to the hospital. We really can't afford the delay, we have to move fast."

The wind hurled rain into my face, and every time my back shifted, the pain was like a bone snapping.

But I didn't dare stop. Building Six sat at the deepest end of the complex.

I'd barely rounded Building Five when I saw the smoke rising thick out of the dark.

Above the fifth floor, the outer wall already glowed red with firelight.

Wind poured in through the broken windows, and flames climbed the exterior in long tongues, higher and higher.

My heart dropped. I ran straight for the door of Building Six.

The first-floor corridor was solid smoke, and the manual alarm button on the wall showed no light at all.

I found the mechanical button from memory and pressed it hard.

Even the building-wide mechanical fire bell was dead.

Beside me the ghost was frantic too, cursing through tears.

"My mother-in-law used to prop the fire door open with a brick all year so she could haul her plastic bottles through easier. After you people warned her about it a few times, she held a grudge. I only found out after I died, she went behind your backs this very morning and wrecked every mechanical fire alarm bell on every floor!"

No time to think. I turned and ran into Building Five next door and hit the fire alarm for the whole building.

Sirens tore through the air all at once.

A ground-floor resident heard the noise and opened his door, and I grabbed the phone right out of his hand.

"Let me borrow this!"

Before he could react I'd already dialed 911.

"Building Six at Brookhaven Residences is on fire!"

"The fire alarm system and the backup power are both dead, and the upper-floor residents are still asleep! This is extremely urgent!"

The dispatcher answered fast.

"Trucks are already rolling."

"Do not enter the smoke on your own. Get the people around you evacuated now!"

I hung up and ran for the emergency equipment box at the door of Building Five.

Inside was the bullhorn property kept for flood emergencies. I grabbed it and ran back into the rain, and with everything I had I shouted toward Building Six.

"Building Six is on fire! Everyone wake up, now!"

"Floors one through four, once you've confirmed the corridor is clear of smoke, take the safety stairs out. Do not, under any circumstances, use the elevator!"

"Fifth floor and above, do not open your doors yet!"

"Feel the door handle first. If there's smoke outside or the door is hot, keep it shut tight! Stuff the gaps with wet towels and clothing, and shut off your gas and power!"

Then, one after another, the screams started up in the Building Six corridors.