Spy in a Little Black Dress - By Maxine Kenneth Page 0,51
fill with smoke. The fire was spreading. Jackie knew that they had only a few moments before they would have to abandon this room or risk getting burned to death.
“Reel three—where is it?” Jackie demanded of the projectionist again.
This time he seemed to understand what she was saying. He nodded and went over to a table that was piled high with cans of film. On their sides, they were all labeled DRACULA and numbered. Unfortunately, they were out of sequential order. But the projectionist was able to find one and handed it to Jackie. She looked at it with difficulty through the growing smoke and saw that it was labeled REEL 3.
Holding the film can firmly in her hand, Jackie said, “You better get out of here,” to the projectionist and pushed him in the direction of the door. He was starting to cough from the smoke. So was Jackie, who saw the Dracula cape lying on the floor and used it to cover her mouth and nose.
By now, the booth was thick with smoke, and the flames were consuming the nitrate film stock with the avidity of a starving beggar eating his first meal in a week. Coughing and sputtering, her eyes smarting from the smoke, Jackie made her way to the door, where she spotted a messenger bag used to transport film cans hanging from the inside doorknob. Removing it from where it was hanging, she put reel three in the messenger bag, looped its strap around her neck, and fled the projection booth.
Suddenly she remembered—the dynamite. The flames could set it off at any minute. Jackie ran back inside, risking the smoke and flames, and felt around until she stumbled across the explosives, which she tucked inside the messenger bag along with the reel of film.
She went down the stairway to the main floor. People were swarming out the emergency exits on both sides of the auditorium as well as the doors leading to the lobby. Ushers and the actors dressed as Dracula, Eva Seward, and Van Helsing had been pressed into service to make sure the evacuation of the theatre was an orderly one.
Jackie looked up and saw that the box Batista had been sitting in was empty. She wasn’t surprised at that. Instead of remaining in place and setting a calming example for the others, he had probably been the first one out of the theatre after she sounded the alarm. If he had been the captain of the Titanic, his watch cry might have been, “Women and children last.”
Jackie glanced over at the screen. Improbably, the movie was still playing. Only now it looked like Castle Dracula was going up in flames, thanks to the fire that continued to fill the confines of the projection booth. When was the fire department going to get here?
Jackie decided to leave through the lobby, which seemed to have the least crowded exits. The lobby itself was also starting to fill with smoke. Through its doors, the boulevard in front of the theatre was visible, and Jackie was dismayed to see three familiar figures waiting there: Moe, Larry, and Curly. Moe had his right arm in a sling, a painful reminder of Rosario’s pelota-hurling ability. As she watched, Moe stayed in place while Larry went to the right and Curly to the left so they could each watch one side of the theatre for her exit. How had they known she was at this movie premiere? The answer didn’t matter for now, because she had to get past them if she didn’t want a repeat visit to the crocodile farm.
Jackie retreated back into the auditorium, the flames now spreading beyond the projection booth. She needed some sort of disguise. Still clutching the Dracula cape over her mouth and nose, Jackie suddenly realized that she had one ready to hand. She draped the oversized cape over her shoulders and drew it firmly around her. She saw that it not only covered her entire body, but also came up high enough to shield almost her whole face. It also did double duty in hiding the messenger bag hanging down from her neck.
The auditorium was emptying out, and it appeared that the actors were no longer needed. As a group, they made their way to the back of the auditorium to leave through the lobby exits. When the mob of Draculas passed by her, Jackie simply joined them, mixing in as they left the theatre.