The Glass Inferno

CHAPTER 65

They weren’t going to make it, Douglas thought. They didn’t stand a chance. They couldn’t go back down the ladder to the restaurant; the smoke was far too heavy for that. But twenty.minutes or half an hour on the roof would finish them off from exposure, even if the fire didn’t claw its way up there and eventually force them over the edge.

The plastic table liner he had wrapped around himself was stiff with the cold and little protection against the wind.

Some of the tenants had tried to seek shelter in the penthouse, but the smoke had driven them out and they had returned to the roof, huddling against the near wall of the penthouse as partial protection from the wind. At least Larry would be provided for, Douglas thought.

His insurance would take care of that, perhaps even give Larry a second chance if he wanted to remain in the business. -One of the tenants struggled to his feet and walked over to Douglas.

“What the hell do you expect us to do, sit here and freeze?”

Douglas shrugged. “You can go downstairs and burn.

It’s your choice.”

The man turned to the group. “Anybody with me? We’ll go back to the restaurant and take the stairs down on the other side.”

Several of the tenants got to their feet to follow and the others looked uncertain. Douglas swore and stood up.

“You’ll have to go down past the fire floor!” he shouted.

“You’ll never make it!”

“What about the helicopters?” another man yelled.

“You said there would be ‘copters coming! So he had, Douglas thought, and he’d give five years off the end of his life to have been right.

It had been’ a gambler’s he and it looked like he was going to lose the gamble.

The first man looked at Douglas slyly. “You know, fat man, I think that’s a lot of bullshit. I don’t think anything’s coming.” He turned.

“Come on, Martha.” A heavy woman in a thick fur coat waddled out of the group and they went to the trapdoor and disappeared down into the smoke-filled kitchen.

“You’re killing yourselves!” Douglas shouted after them.

A few of the other tenants ran to the trapdoor, looked down at the smoke, hesitated, and then walked silently back to the lee of the penthouse.

Douglas had started to shake from the cold. Jesus walked over to him. “Mr. Douglas,” he said quietly, “you never lied to me tonight.

Does anybody know we’re really here? Are there really helicopters coming?” He read the answer in Douglas’ eyes before he had a chance to reply.

“Man, people have lied to me all my life but this time I know why.

At least that’s something.”

“I’m sorry,” Douglas whispered hoarsely. “I didn’t know what else to say-” Somebody in the group yelled, “Listen!” In the. distance, Douglas could hear a dull whop-whop-whop sound.

“It’s a helicopter!” somebody shouted.

Douglas listened closely. It was a ‘copter all right and there were more than one. They’d have to have a place to land. He glanced quickly around. “They can’t land with that television antenna in the way!” he, yelled. “We’ll have to flatten it!” He grabbed the nearest brace and started to pull on it.

I Jesus glanced at the wires, said, “Back in a minute,” and ran for the trapdoor to the kitchen. He disappeared inside and came back a few moments later, carrying a huge cook’s cleaver and coughing heavily.

“You know those two people who went down earlier?” Douglas nodded.

“They couldn’t have made it, man, you can’t breathe down there.”

He chopped at the wires of the.

antenna that Douglas was tugging on. A moment later the tenants had pushed it flat, just as the first ‘copter, appeared ;it the edge of the building.

It touched down on the rooftop and the side door slid open on greased rollers. A lean, rangy man with a thick mustache and dressed in fatigues jumped from the interior. The crowd surged forward and he shouted, “Wait a minute, folks, just a minute! We can only take seven at a time-there’ll be another bus along in a minute, just have your transfers ready!” He turned and dug a tool bag and two long boxes from the inside. “How about some help here?”

Douglas and Jesus ran forward. The crowd was starting to push again and the man yelled, “No more than seven, damnit!” He turned to Jesus. “Count them as they get on, kid. No more than -seven, there’re other choppers right behind this one. If you have any trouble just holler.”

Jesus half smiled. “There won’t be any trouble, man.”

The soldier turned to Douglas. “Name’s Burleigh. How about helping me with these boxes a minute?” Douglas helped him carry the cartons away from the crow Burleigh quickly tore them open.

Inside were tubelike devices with nozzles. They looked very much like two-foot-long rocket motors. “Got any idea where the motor housing the scenic elevator is?”

Douglas glanced quickly around the roof and made a guess as to the approximate location of the scenic elevator.

The shed there had to be it. “Over there,” he said, gesturing at the edge of the roof a hundred feet away. Burleigh jogged over toward it.

Douglas started running after him, then heard Jesus shouting: “Hold it, man, wait your Turn-women first and you don’t look like you’re wearing a skirt!” There was something mumbled about a “fucking PR kid” but nothing more was said. Douglas looked quickly around before following Burleigh. Jesus was standing at the door to the ‘copter, helping women aboard with one hand. In the other, he still held the cleaver. There would be no trouble there, Douglas thought.

He turned and trotted after Burleigh.

The shed that housed the motors and the idler sheaves over which the cables passed was of aluminum sheeting, riveted to an aluminum frame.

The door was locked with a flimsy-looking lock. Burleigh pried the lock loose and kicked the door open. He stepped inside, glanced around in the darkness and said to Douglas, “We’ve got to knock this down so the cables are exposed to the air-how tight’s the siding?” He kicked at one experimentally and it came partly loose at the bottom from the rivets that held it to the frame. “Help me with the others.”

Douglas started kicking at the panels at the bottom, then wrenching them away where they were riveted at the top. Most of the panels he let lay where they fell on the roof. A few slid over the edge of the building and spiraled away into the darkness. Burleigh took a heavy wrench from his bag and started hammering on the overhead roof panels.

Within a matter of minutes, there was nothing left of the shed but the thin frame. Inside was the control panel, motor generator set and starter, and the gearless machine beneath which the secondary idler sheave was suspended. Fortunately, the skeletal frame would not interfere with their work.

Burleigh looked for a long moment at the motors and the idler sheaves, suspended out from the building’s edge, and the cables disappearing down below into the darkness.

He shook his head. “This is going to be a bastard.”

Douglas glanced back at the tenants gathered in the middle of the roof. The first ‘copter was taking off with its load, disappeared into the sky, and a second one settled in its place. The rest of the tenants had dutifully queued up under Jesus’ shouted directions.

Somewhere, that kid had to fit in, Douglas thought briefly.

Then there was a heavy chopping sound overhead and he glanced up into the night to watch the biggest helicopter he had ever seen settling toward them, a heavy cable dangling from its recessed midriff.