heavily now, and we run toward the huge dark building and up the monumental entrance steps. The great hall is empty, except for the ear-splitting wail of the siren.
“It’s probably just someone having a smoke in their office!” he shouts.
I shrug, too worried to reply.
“It could be anywhere,” he tries again. “You don’t know that it is on your floor!”
A few people trickle into the hall, some with their fingers in their ears, none of them particularly concerned, among them a security guard.
“Hey!” I tap his shoulder to get his attention. “Contact your colleague! He’s up in the dome, the fire may be there!” He tries his walkie-talkie and shrugs; it’s too loud. Giles taps my shoulder and points at Steve, Nancy Benning and a handful of other, vaguely familiar people, who come running down the stairs of the east wing.
“It’s somewhere along the hallway on E-four!” Steve yells, but he hardly stops on his way out.
Even plugged by my fingers, my ears are beginning to hurt. I see Giles chewing on a piece of tissue, which he rolls into balls and pushes into his ears.
“Give me your keys!” he mouths, and before I can process the intention behind his request, I have handed them over.
“No! Giles! No!” But he’s off, and much faster than I can follow him. The staircase is deserted, and I can’t smell anything, until I reach the third floor. Someone comes down the stairs, but it is only the security guard, and he is coughing violently and shaking his head.
“The girl! Where’s the girl?”
“Don’t know! Locked in, doesn’t answer—there’s smoke up there! Come!”
“No, I must—”
“Are you all crazy?”
He clamps my upper arm and drags me downstairs, and struggle as I might, I have no chance against him. We reach the great hall just as the fire trucks arrive and the alarm is switched off. Like on the morning after a long night in a club, every sound is now muted, except the hammering of my own heart. I can’t hear what the security guard tells the fire fighters, but they run up the staircase with their gas masks and huge rucksack-like contraptions on their backs.
A megaphone sounds across the hall. “Keep calm and vacate the premises now! Please vacate the premises now!”
A few more people are trickling into the hall from all directions, and it is only the sight of the firefighters and the flashing engine outside that jolts them out of their irritation at being interrupted at their work.
Now I know what it feels like to be on the brink of madness. I’m so scared, I can only manage one second at a time.
Don’t panic.
Wait.
Wait.
Wait.
“Please, ma’am, you have to leave the building.” The crew leader comes up to me, and I realize what a nuisance I am to him for skulking behind a pillar.
“I will, in a minute. Look, it’s not dangerous down here. I have to—”
His face becomes even more impatient as something behind me catches his attention.
“No, sir, you can’t get in here! No—stop!”
“What’s going on?”
The voice stabs into me like a knife. Nick Hornberger, as big and broad-shouldered as any of the firefighters, stands in the middle of the entrance portal, staring. Without thinking twice, I rush up to him and slap him across the face, as hard as I can. My hand stings like hell, his cheek must feel worse, and he is not amused.
“Are you mad? What do you—will you restrain this woman?” He turns to the firefighter, who is staring at me, stunned.
“I had hoped you were stuck in a holding cell, being buggered by some Crips with schlongs like baseball bats!”
This makes him blench. “You fucking little do-gooder! Did you egg Giles on to hand the file to the police? I told him this would happen if he told you!”
“The police? No, we gave it to Louise Randall. Mary-Lou,” I add. “She reported you. And good for her!”
“There’s a fire in this building!” the crew leader asserts himself. “You can’t stay here!”
As if to confirm this, a loud groan rises from the crowd outside. I run out onto the landing; everyone is staring up at the dome.
“The dome’s on fire!” someone shouts.
Oh, God.
“Selena’s up there. And Giles has gone to fetch her. Did you know you knocked her up?” I am beyond shouting, but Nick’s eyes widen with sudden comprehension. It seems he didn’t.
And then I hear them, the firefighters’ heavy boots on the marble steps. The awful, intense nausea of fear rises in me again, and