Rory (Hope City #7) - Maryann Jordan Page 0,87

Partridge Tower, but the ladder trucks and engines needed to be close. He leaned forward and looked up, his sense of relief filling him that there was no visible fire or smoke.

“Damn, look at all these people!” Shania said.

The sidewalks were jammed with black-suited men and evening wear-clad women, their loud babbling simply adding to the noise but barely heard over the continued scream of sirens. The police officers were calling out orders as they herded the gala attendees away from the building. “Keep on walking! Move to the end of the block! Do not leave until you have been accounted for!”

Climbing from the ambulance, Rory scanned the masses, desperate to land his gaze on Sandy, but knew it would be impossible to find a petite blonde on the crowded sidewalk in the dark right now. Hustling to the back of the ambulance, he looked toward the end of the block where a police blockade was already gathering attendees, knowing they’d need to take names for cross-reference and check who was missing.

His radio blared with instructions. “Base station at the corner of Market and Broadmore.”

“Engine five at three-forty-two pump.”

“Engine five, hook it up.”

“Smoke alarm—eighth floor. Casualties unknown.”

“Team four—lead—eighth floor. Team two—follow—sixteen down. Team seven—ten down. Team three—seven down.”

“Medic eleven, go in with Team four.”

At that, Rory jerked around toward Shania. He usually didn’t go into a building in full fireman’s uniform, but his captain determined he was needed as the fireman’s paramedic. Leaving her and Bobby to work with the other paramedics and EMTs on the outside, he ran to the fire engine. Reaching inside, he grabbed the pants, pulling them on over his uniform, jerked on the jacket, and pulled the Nomex hood over his head until his face popped out through the opening. Jamming his feet into boots, he picked up his paramedic equipment and hustled after the firefighters in Team four.

“Rory! Rory McBride!”

He turned at the sound of his name being yelled from the side, seeing Sandy’s coworker and her father trying to push past the police officers standing guard outside the lobby doors. “Let them through!”

The officer waved and the two men ran to him, both talking at once.

“I can’t find her,” Ted said, his face contorted with fear. “We were talking in the lobby, but I can’t find her out here.”

“She’s upstairs. I know she’s upstairs!” Todd gushed, waving his hands and gasping. “She went back upstairs to double-check the office. They were making sure everyone was cleared out and she wanted to check on the office and then lock up. She was only gone ten minutes when the alarms went off, and I never saw her come back into the lobby!”

“Christ Almighty. Please find her!” Ted said, his gaze begging as he stared at Rory.

Rory’s heart pounded, sure that everyone could hear it through the thick layers of his uniform. Trying to hold on to his shit, he stared at her father and said, “I’m going up.”

“McBride!”

Turning toward the call of one of the firefighters, he raced toward the lobby doors. Team four tramped through the brightly lit lobby with heavy booted footsteps. The lingering scent of food wafted by, not usually what they smelled when called to a fire. Moving past the white cloth-covered tables with the remnants of catered hors d’oeuvres, the scent disappeared as he pulled on his face mask, starting the oxygen as they entered the stairwell.

The equipment he carried on his back was different from what the firefighters carried since his were medical emergency supplies, but they were equally as heavy. The firefighters unrolled the hoses as they ascended, checking in with the team leader to see how to advance the initial attack line.

“Roll up first two?”

“No, drop through middle.”

The stairwell was clear of smoke, and in a single line, they moved upward, keeping track of the floors they passed by the large numbers painted on the walls. Once they reached the fifth floor, another firefighter began to unroll his hose, connecting it to the hoses that snaked to the lower floors.

More chatter came through the radio from various teams. “Floor two clear.” “Floor three clear.” “Floor eleven clear.”

Desperate to see if Sandy was on the eighth floor, he hustled after the man in front of him as they climbed, and the team leader called off the floor specs as they were being fed to him. “Stairs enter to the side of the lobby facing east. No residences. Three offices to the left. Three to the right. Alarm coming