Instantly Timmy perked up. "Hey, you might be right. We might get to use the fire hoses after all."
*
A7BB was awake. The early morning glow began behind the city where scattered clouds dotted the sky. The fire was out downtown, but South Center still burned, as did Bremerton. On the Aircraft Carrier, a dozen choppers sat ready to lift off and teams of men with search dogs climbed into three. Boxes of blood and supplies bound for hospitals were loaded onto others and just as the day before, Canadian choppers waited to land.
He moved a tree branch and looked down. Beneath him, several more bodies sloshed in the water. Quickly, A7BB released the branch. The cat was nowhere to be found and none of the choppers coming or going seemed at all interested in him. Jim Sarasosa sighed, wiggled his hand between the tree and the dirt, and then dug a fresh radio battery out of his pants pocket. He loaded it, closed the cover and listened to his friends report in.
Mattie called in to say a team with a search dog arrived at the department store in the night. They pulled six more people out of the rubble, but not the little girl. Now, the little girl named Charlie was quiet. Hopefully, she was just sleeping. Nevertheless, the searchers were trying to get a microphone down to her. Reports of more collapsed buildings poured in, each sounding grimmer than the last. Emergency calls took priority and occasionally, A7BB saw a chopper head in the direction of the call.
On the I-5 freeway, where a landslide buried cars and an overpass crushed a metro bus, Marines dropped from choppers with a cherry picker and equipment. All who could be saved would soon be on higher ground. Attention then turned to the collapsed Convention Center tunnel where the drunk driver started a chain reaction pileup. Yellow tiles were scattered in front of the collapsed tunnel entryway.
A7BB watched a chopper hover over the people trapped in cars on what remained of the Alaskan Way Viaduct, now several yards out in the bay. Chopper after chopper flew to downtown, returning to the Aircraft Carrier with still alive, but horribly injured Saturday shoppers.
Water still dripped from the pipe behind his head, although he'd slid nearly out of reach. Occasionally, Sarah checked on his welfare. Occasionally the ground trembled a little and a chopper seemed to be heading his way, but none came and the sun rose higher and higher in the sky. He spotted the big blue chopper right away. It had a distinctive sound amid the other choppers, but there was no new balloon basket hanging from its belly. When it flew right over him without stopping, he put his free hand on his hip, "You saved everyone else, why not me?"
*
At KMPR, Sarah took call after call, seldom pausing to drink or rest. "Okay, who's up next?"
"WC7NJT."
"Well good morning, Mister Mayor."
"Sarah, it's me again. Please tell everyone the water in Lake Washington has been tested and is contaminated. Continue boiling the water before you drink, over."
"Thanks, we'll do that. Next?"
"NG7L"
"NG, go ahead."
"NG7L. We've still got people stranded on Interstate five between NE 75th and 85th. We sure could use some help. The off ramps have fallen on both ends, over."
"Copy NG, do you have injured?"
"Negative. We've got about fifty people here and some are kids with nothing to drink. NG7L, over."
"NG, you might have to wait awhile, but we'll put you on the list."
*
Seely was exhausted. So much so that the sound of an approaching chopper hardly interested her. Several times Tim went to the conference room and watched, but the blue Angel didn't come back. Finally, he gave in to Jenna and was about to head down nearly thirty flights of stairs when at last, he heard it. Instantly, he grabbed Jenna's arm and nearly pulled her back down the hall. Well-traveled by now, the carnage in the hallway seemed easier to navigate and soon they turned, passed the elevators and walked into the conference room.
Again, the noise was deafening and again they couldn't see it. The chopper hovered somewhere above and the waiting seemed endless. Jenna was about to turn back when two feet appeared at the top of the blown out window. Inch by inch, legs, knees, thighs and a woman's waist descended from above.
Tim quickly glanced around, scouring the carnage on the floor for something to pull her in. But there was nothing. Helpless, he turned back to watch.
Jackie sat in a full sitting harness with a thin steel rod across her lap. On the end of the rod was a small hook. She wore a headset complete with earphones and a microphone wired to a cell phone in her pocket. When she was low enough, she reached inside her vest and withdrew a rope. Already tied to the seat, she looped it around her hand several times, aimed and tossed the other end of the rope toward Tim. The first time, he missed. So Jackie coiled the rope again and hurled it harder.
As soon as he caught hold, Jackie put a hand up palm out to keep him from pulling. Assured of his compliance, she took hold of the long steel rod. Cautiously, she brought it out of the safety belt, turned it and shot it toward an inside wall. The rod bounced off the wall, fell to the floor and began to roll toward the window.
Jenna grabbed Tim's arm, reached out and grabbed the rod.
Jackie heaved a sigh of relief, nodded to Tim, and then spoke into her mike.
As Tim pulled her in, the cable holding her up lengthened, allowing Jackie to step inside the badly damaged, monster of a building.
"Boy are we glad to see you!" Tim said.
Jackie wasted no time unbuckling the safety seat and letting it fall to the floor, "The girl goes first."
"Jenna's eyes grew large, "Me? But I..."
Tim glared and yanked the rod out of Jenna's hand, "You want to go home or not?"
Jenna slumped and stood still while Jackie and Tim helped her into the harness.
"Here's the deal," Jackie said, tightening the strap over Jenna's legs, "don't jump. Just walk to the window. When you step off..."
"Step off? But I ..."
"Look, rollercoasters are more dangerous than this. The trick is to let the chopper pull you away from the building. Don't hang on to anything except the seat. Just relax and let us do the worrying, okay?"
Jenna didn't have time to protest. Instead Tim and Jackie were walking her closer and closer to the edge. Suddenly, she was two steps away from the window, and then one, as the cable above her head got shorter. She closed her eyes, gripped the side of the chair and stepped off. Instantly, her body sailed through the air, swinging away from the building as the chopper quickly banked and veered away.
Jenna was barely away when Jackie grabbed Tim's arm. "We don't have much time, this building is in trouble. Where's Seely?"
"This way." One last time, Tim traveled the beaten path into the dark bowels of the forty-third floor.
Behind him, Jackie's eyes darted, her ankles twisted in the rubble and hanging electrical wiring repeatedly got in her face. Finally, she spotted Seely Ross sitting on the floor near the ladies room. In one sweeping motion, she dug a hypo out of her pocket and knelt down. She quickly ripped the small slender cap off, pushed the liquid through the tip of the needle and jabbed it into Seely's arm.
"Ouch!"
"Sorry, I didn't have much time to practice."
"What's that? And who are you?"
"That was something to keep you calm and I'm Jackie." She tossed the hypo away, and then looped Seely's right arm around her neck. "Come on, we've gotta get moving."
"Jackie from the Internet?"
"That's right, I've come to take you home." Just as they got Seely up, the building began a sorrowful groan. "Don't stop, keep going." Yet, it was Jackie who was terrified, stumbling through the rubble, gasping for air and fearing each new sound of the screeching, wailing building. Endless seconds passed and Seely grew more and more dependent on their strength, and when they at last reached the conference room, the chopper wasn't there.
Jackie nearly yelled into her mike, "Michael, where are you?"
In the aft bubble, Michael began lowering the chair again, "The
girl panicked. We just now got her inside."
"Hurry Michael, hurry!"
Suddenly, there was a different sound deep within the building -- a whining. It was loud at first, and then seemed to drift away, growing softer and softer, "What is that?"
Tim shrugged, "We think it's the elevators. That's the third one this morning." Finally, it hit the bottom; it’s sickening crash muffled somewhere below.
Jackie's eyes grew still wider, "Do you think..."
"I hope not."
"Man, I can't wait to get out of here."
"I know what you mean."
Finally, the dangling seat appeared. Jackie quickly picked up the hook, looped it through the harness and pulled it in. Working as quickly as they could, Jackie and Tim strapped Seely in and walked her toward the edge.
But Seely balked. She stiffened her legs and refused to budge, "No!"
"You have to, it's the only way out," Jackie said.
"No, you're trying to kill me."
Jackie grabbed hold of Seely's arm. "Listen to me. No one is trying to kill you and if I wanted you dead, I'd just leave you here. Now Go!"
Seely's mind was a fog and just before she stepped out the window, she thought she heard Jackie say that Evan was waiting for her. That was impossible. Still, she smiled. She became oddly relaxed and calm, moving through the air with music in her head, and a long forgotten memory of a silk pink dress and Evan Cole. The sky was a bright blue, the sun felt warm on her skin and she could see forever. White fluffy clouds drifted across the western horizon, the waterways of Puget Sound shimmered and she was swinging -- back and forth, back and forth -- just like a child in a backyard swing.
Below, the Winningham Blue still voiced its distress with odd screeches, deep-throated moans and frightening shivers. Tim took a slow look at the broken and cracked ceiling. "It's starting to lean, isn't it? That pole wouldn't have rolled last night."
"Yes. The eighth floor can't hold up much longer and one side looks weaker than the other. You mind if I ride piggy back?"
Tim grinned. He removed his imaginary hat, and then slowly and elaborately bowed. "My pleasure." Then he paused, "How much do you weigh?"
Jackie nearly laughed, "A lot less than this building."
"Good point."
At last the chopper came back and once more the harness appeared. Jackie quickly hooked it, pulled it in and helped Tim with the straps. As soon as he was secure, she climbed into his lap, wrapped the rope around both of them and tied a quick knot. "Ready?"
"You bet." He walked closer and closer to the edge with Jackie's weight full on him and her arms gripping his. Finally he heard her say, "Go Michael, go!" And they were away, swinging through the air a thousand feet above the ground below the Blue Angel.
The top floors of the Winningham Blue began a slightly more exaggerated and torturous sway. As it seesawed, it added and subtracted weight on the weakened and crumbling eighth floor. Abruptly, it stopped and for a moment the building rested. Suddenly, the entire eighth floor collapsed. The upper floors landed with a reverberating bang, sending a new round of broken metal, concrete, dirt and glass cascading out of the windows to the streets below.
Tim cast his eyes upward, gazing at the hole in the belly of the air crane. The cable became shorter and shorter with the giant hook growing bigger and bigger until, at last, the huge pulley drew both he and Jackie into the helicopter. With the flip of a switch, Michael retracted the steel doors in the floor, unbuckled his safety belt and scrunched through the small door into the chopper body. In the first passenger seat, Jenna gazed aimlessly out the window. Behind her, Seely sat slumped with her head bowed and her eyes closed.
Michael un-strapped Tim and smiled. "Welcome to HDA1. She's big and she's beautiful. Now, where can we drop you?"
Tim wrinkled his brow. "Don't say drop, okay?"
*
For several minutes, Collin paced nervously across the studio floor. His latest station break was complete and with no word from Beth or Candy, he could think of nothing else to do. Max kept busy in the control room and Sarah hardly ever looked up. He walked away from the window, stopped, and turned back just in time to see a pebble fly in and roll across the floor. Cautiously, he eased closer until he was able look straight down.
A woman dressed in a dirty shirt and blue jeans smiled up at him, and in her hand, she held a fresh, unopened pack of cigarettes. Using her best aim, she threw the pack as high as she could and then watched as Collin reached out just in time to grab it. She smiled and yelled up, "Don't worry, the guy I took those off of won't be needing them anymore." With that, she turned and headed on down the street.
Collin eyed the pack in his hand, and then muttered under his breath, "I sure wish she hadn't told me that." He shrugged, ripped the plastic seal off, opened the pack and lit his first cigarette in nearly 24 hours.
*
By ten o'clock in the morning, Sam Taylor had had enough. He paid fifty dollars for a ride on the back of a motorcycle – a dangerous one at that – over broken and traffic-snarled side streets. When he reached the Lake Union Ship Canal, he paid another hundred and fifty dollars for a small rowboat and two oars. In less than two hours, he rowed out of Shilshoe Bay, passed the bustling Aircraft Carrier and landed on the littered beaches of West Seattle. His favorite pier was gone.
He got out, pulled his boat alongside huge chunks of a broken ship, tossed the oars inside and started toward home. He was still mad when he finally stopped to take a good look around. The air smelled of dead fish. Remnants of small boats and back-washed houses were everywhere. A compact car was near the water's edge and lying on its top. When he noticed a body, he immediately turned and walked away. Half way up the hillside, he put both hands in the small of his aching back, stretched from side to side a time or two, and then headed on. He hardly recognized the broken and splintered remains of the missing ferry.
There it was at last – home. It stood where it always had, with its front porch still oddly intact and only part of the front siding gone. Located high enough up the hill, the water damage was minimal and he wondered if it could be repaired. Suddenly hopeful, he hurried up the steps and opened the door. The living room was gutted and the back half of the house was gone. Sam slowly closed the door, walked across the porch and sat down on the steps. "Well Lord, at least I've got my Max. That's more than most folks. On the other hand, couldn't you have left me a pair of softer, kinder shoes?"
He fretted for a time more and then the Ham Radio call he'd prayed for came over his transistor.
"K7PNO."
"PNO, go ahead," Sarah said.
"K7PNO relaying a message from Candy Taylor. Boys safe, injuries are slight and car burned. Beth Slater unaccounted for."
At KMPR, Collin Slater bolted. He ran down both flights of stairs, yanked open the front door and raced into the street. With tears in his eyes, he abruptly stopped. He put his head in his hands, slumped to his knees and cried out, "No, Beth, no!"
*
The blue chopper, complete with "HDA1" lit up on the side panels, glided through the air above Vancouver, British Columbia. Standing in wait atop the ten-story hotel, Evan Cole kept his eyes glued to the approaching dot. Steadily it drew closer, its long blue blades whipping the air and its engines filling the afternoon breeze with sound. A few feet away, a doctor and a nurse waited beside a gurney, and Michelle stood beside her husband and daughters. Slowly, the helicopter descended until its hydraulic legs touched down on the chopper pad.
Instantly, the doctor and nurse shoved the gurney forward. At the same time, Jackie opened a side door, let down the folding steps and then disappeared back inside the body of the air crane. Apprehensive, Michelle and Theo took a step forward and paused, while both the Doctor and Nurse climbed into the chopper.
Evan Cole did not move. The slow turning blades generated wind, mussing his hair and fluttering the collars of both his shirt and jacket. His pant legs waved and his jaw tightened, relaxed, and then tightened agai
n.
Finally, the doctor rushed back down the stairs. Theo bolted forward and reached out two strong arms just as Jackie and the nurse brought Seely to the door. Her hair was streaked with dried blood and below the cut on her head; a dark bruise discolored her right eye. Her left lower jaw was swollen, her white blouse was blood stained and both legs of her blue jeans flapped with rips and tears. One shoe was missing.
She didn't look his way, her pain-ridden eyes fixed instead on the steps and the long awaited soft bed of the gurney. She hardly recognized Theo and when the gurney rolled past Michelle, she only half-heartedly smiled, and then her eyes drooped and closed.
Less than six feet away, Evan Cole looked on. He watched them take her to the waiting elevator, nodded as Michelle glanced his direction, and then bowed his head when the door closed.
Suddenly, Jackie was standing beside him, "I drugged her."
Evan turned to stare, "What?"
"Don't worry, I've got a doctor friend who supervised the whole thing. She's going to make it. I monitored her heart all the way back and sent the tape to my doctor friend. Her heart looks great for what's she's been through. Just give her time to rest. Meanwhile, fill her room with flowers."
"Did you tell her about me?"
"I tried, but who knows how much she heard. The poor thing is exhausted, and drugged. I was hoping it would wear off a little sooner, but it hasn't."
Evan smiled and wrapped his arms around Jackie, "How do I thank you?"
Jackie giggled and cocked her head to one side, "Well, you can start by giving me a bonus. I've suddenly become homeless."
"Done."
"And you can hand me that basket. We ordered take out on the way in."
"You'll go back then?"
"There are a lot of people still in trouble in Seattle."
With his arm still around her, he scooped up the basket and walked her back to the chopper. He waited until she climbed the stairs, handed her the basket, moved back, waved and watched her close the door. The chopper's blades took on speed and in a matter of moments; it became nothing more than a dark speck in the distant sky.
Seattle Quake 9.2 (A Jackie Harlan Mystery Book 1) Page 24
