Chapter 95 third quarter

Decker put the phone down slowly. "Who is it?" asked the doctor. look out the window?Decker asked himself in horror, why?make me expose myself?Let me make myself a target? He suddenly remembered that Esperanza was not in the room, and he couldn't help feeling horrified.Esperanza went to clean the blood from the hallways and elevators.Did he start in the hall?Did McKittrick...? "Esperanza!" Decker ran out of the kitchen.He flung open the front door and rushed into the hallway, hoping to see Esperanza, but there was no one there.The pointer above the closed elevator door showed that the elevator was stopping on the ground floor.Decker was about to press the up button when he suddenly remembered how slow the elevator was.He rushed down the stairs.

"Esperanza!" Decker descended the stairs three steps at a time, his footsteps echoing in the stairwell.He ran to the third floor, then the second floor. "Esperanza!" he thought he heard a vague voice answer.Decker yelled, "Get out of the hall! Take cover!" He jumped down the six steps in one step and landed on the landing.He heard a heavy clang, like a barrel falling to the ground. "McKittrick and Renata are outside! Come upstairs!" He turned around the last flight of stairs, ran to the middle landing, turned around again, and suddenly saw Esperanza staring up, motionless. looked at him, startled.

Decker hopped down the remaining steps and slammed into Esperanza's chest, knocking him past the open elevator doors into a recess in the foyer. Immediately afterwards, a bright light flashed, and a thunderous sound shook the hall.A deafening blast of air came from the street and shattered the glass door of the hall.Decker and Esperanza hit the floor together.He felt shrapnel whizzing through the air, splinters of wood and metal and glass falling around him, fragments of rock smashing against the wall.Then there was an unnatural silence in the hall, as if the air had been sucked out of it.In fact, it was just Decker himself feeling short of breath.He lay beside Esperanza in the alcove, trying to move his chest to get air.He did it slowly and with pain.

He looked up through the smoke and saw shards of glass lodged in the wall.He ventured another glance out the open door of the foyer where they had parked the Oldsmobile in a no-parking spot in front of the building.That car was the source of the explosion, and it is now a twisted, mutilated, burning wreck. "My God," Esperanza said. "Quick. Go upstairs." They struggled to stand up.As Decker staggered toward the stairs, he glanced aside and saw a figure—outlined by the firelight but blurred by the smoke—run past the door.The man threw something in.Decker heard the thing hit the floor, and he and Esperanza rushed up the stairs.The thing bounced a few times on the ground and made a "bang bang" sound.Decker reached the middle platform, turned the corner with Esperanza and continued up.Down below, the thing hit something like metal hitting wood.elevator?The elevator door is open.It's a grenade rolling in...

Shockwaves from the explosion poured into the stairwell, slamming Decker and Esperanza to the ground.The limited space of the elevator shaft further enhanced the power of the shock wave, not only up and down, but also horizontally.The stairwell wobbled, the outer wall of the elevator shaft cracked, and plaster splattered everywhere.There was a fire all over the hall, and the smoke was billowing upwards. Decker and Esperanza struggled to their feet and climbed up.After they went up to another floor, the elevator door on this floor was blown open.Decker rushed past the blasted elevator shaft and saw flames and smoke inside.The door of an apartment flung open, and he turned hastily.An elderly man in his pajamas rushed out to see what was happening.He was dumbfounded when he saw the flames and smoke.Alarm bells went off.

"There's been an explosion!" Decker yelled. "The foyer is on fire! Is there another way out of the building?" The man moved his lips several times before speaking. "There's a safety ladder at the back." "Get out of there!" Decker climbed up again, following the unstoppable Esperanza, another floor.Other residents in the building also rushed out, panicking when they saw the smoke coming up. "Call the fire department!" Decker yelled as he passed them. "The elevator is blown up! The stairwell is on fire! Take the fire escape!"

He counted the wrong floors.I thought it was the third floor, but it was already on the fourth floor.The door of the doctor's apartment was open.He rushed into the kitchen to find Esperanza arguing with the doctor. "Don't touch her!" said the doctor firmly. "The sutures will open!" "To hell with the stitches! She'll be burned here! We'll all be burned!" "There's a fire escape!" Decker said. "Where is it?" The doctor pointed down the corridor. "Through the window of the empty bedroom." Decker bent over Beth. "We have to carry you. I'm afraid it will hurt you very much."

"Is McKittrick out there?" "What he said in the motel is serious. He and Renata are after me. Faster than I expected." "You can do whatever you want." Beth licked her dry lips. "I can handle the pain." "I'm going to open the window," Esperanza said. "Help us," Decker said to the doctor and his wife. The phone rang again, startling him. This time, he knew without a doubt who it was.He grabbed the phone and yelled, "Enough joking! For God's sake, stop!" "But we're just getting started," McKittrick said. "Let's make it more interesting, shall we? We've expected everything you've done so far. Now who's the fool?" McKee Trick suddenly laughed wildly.

Decker dropped the phone and turned to Beth, noticing her lying on a sheet of heavy plastic. "Is the plastic sheet strong enough to hold your weight?" "There's a way to know." Esperanza returned after opening the bedroom window. "You look up, I'll lift your feet." They used the plastic sheet to lift Beth off the table and out of the kitchen. The doctor ran out into the corridor to look, then rushed back, terrified. "There was fire in the stairwell and the elevator shaft." "I told you we needed help!" Esperanza looked back at him angrily, grabbing the part of the plastic that was holding Beth's legs.

"Take the jewelry," the doctor said to his wife, and rushed out of the room. "Don't forget the gold, you bastard!" Decker yelled.He bent down, grabbed the part of the plastic covering Beth's shoulders, and moved backwards into the bedroom.He hit the back wall, then turned and looked out the open window.The rain blew the curtains into the air.The night-shrouded safety ladder leads down to the back of the building, possibly a back garden.He heard the panicked residents of the building running clumsily down the metal safety ladder. "Conceivably," Decker said, "that's where Renata and McKittrick thought we'd go."

"What are you talking about?" Esperanza asked. "It's a trap. McKittrick knows the place. He has time to check out the structure of the building. He and Renata are waiting for us down there." "But we can't stay here! We'll be surrounded by fire!" "There is another way." "Up," Beth said. Decker nodded. "Exactly." Esperanza looked puzzled. "Go up to the top," Decker said. "We'll go through a few buildings, get near the end of the block, and go down another fire escape. McKittrick won't know where we're going." "But what if the fire spreads to other floors and blocks our way?" Esperanza asked. "There's no other way," Decker said. "We'd be easy targets if we were to carry Beth down this fire escape." He held Beth out of the window headfirst so her back rested on the ledge. superior.Then he moved slowly away from her and moved her out of the window.He felt the cold rain pouring down on him again.Soon, Beth was lying on the wet and slippery metal platform, the rain hitting her face. Decker stroked her forehead. "How are you?" "It could not be better." "it is good." "I don't deserve you." "You're wrong." Decker kissed her on the cheek. Esperanza crawled out to join them. "Whatever was in that bomb must have been high. The fire spread very quickly. The front half of the apartment was on fire." Decker looked through the rain curtain to the rooftop not too far from them. "We'd better get there before the fire gets to the roof." As they lifted Beth up, Decker heard sirens coming closer. "Not only will there be police cars, there will be fire trucks." Esperanza followed Decker up the fire escape. "With the police present, McKittrick and Renata won't do anything to us." "Or they'll take advantage of the chaos." Decker lifted Beth up. "The police didn't have time to figure out what happened." Flames rolled from one of the downstairs windows, illuminating them on the metal stairs. "Jesus, they must have seen us by now." Decker tensed.He braced himself for a bullet in his chest. "Probably not." Esperanza quickly climbed up. "Or even if they do, it's not easy to see that we're not going down but up." They came to a platform.Beth groaned as Decker was forced to turn her body with difficulty to go up the last flight of stairs.His shoe slipped on the wet, slippery metal surface.He wobbled and almost dropped his hand. "We're almost there." The fire was roaring. "A little further forward." On the other side of the building, sirens grow louder.Decker stepped back, feeling his hip hit the waist-high parapet of the roof.With all his strength he stretched one leg over the parapet, then the other.He picked Beth up, waited for Esperanza to follow, and then set Beth down.He breathed heavily and fell to the ground. "Are you okay?" Esperanza knelt down beside him. "Just need a break." "I can't guess why." Esperanza squinted through the rain. "But at least the wall will protect us from being targeted." Decker's limbs were numb with fatigue. "McKittrick and Renata will get suspicious if we don't go down. We have to get out of here before they guess what we're doing." "Stay a minute longer to catch your breath," said Beth softly. "Time is running out." Beth tried to stand up. "Maybe I can go." "No. That seam will tear open and you'll bleed to death." Decker figured: Go left, just a few buildings from the end of the block.The fire escape there was too close to where McKittrick and Renata were waiting below.To the right, there are too many buildings, and they may not be able to get out. Decker crouched down and lifted Beth up.After Esperanza lifted, they backed away from the parapet by the lights from the other buildings and the fire from the windows of the brownstone. "Behind you," Esperanza said, "there's an air duct." Decker steered around the waist-high barrier, turning his head so as not to inhale the plume of smoke from the pipe. "Elevator pulleys," Esperanza warned. Decker went around again.He could already see flames through the cracks in the building, which surprised him involuntarily. "The fire is spreading faster." There are more sirens screeching in front of the building. Decker looked behind him and saw that the adjacent building was one story higher. "How could we—" "On my right," Esperanza said, "there's a metal ladder fastened to the wall." Decker retreated under the ladder. "The only way I can think of to get up is—" He gasped. "Beth, I don't have the strength to carry you up. Do you think you can stand on your good leg?" "no problem." "I'm going up, and Esperanza holds you up. When I lean down, you reach up. I'll take your hand and pull you up." Decker corrected himself in his head— — by her left arm, the one that wasn't hurt in Santa Fe. He and Esperanza helped her to her feet and leaned her against the wall.Decker grabbed the ladder and scrambled up to the adjacent roof.Once up, he leaned over the edge, the rain on his back. "Are you ready?" Decker pulled her up hard.He felt distraught when he realized that his strength was almost exhausted and he could only lift her up a few feet. To his surprise, it was easier to pull her up. "I put my good leg on the ladder," said Beth, "just enough to lift me up a little at a time." Decker twisted his face in pain and pulled harder.Slowly, step by step, Beth came up.Decker grabbed her first by the hand, then her forearm, then her shoulder, pulling her up a little more.Then he saw vaguely the outline of her soaked head.He put his arms under her armpits and lifted her up to the roof.He put her down and lay down beside her. Esperanza's shoes clicked lightly on the metal ladder.He came up quickly, plastic sheeting under his arms.Behind him, flames burst from the ventilation ducts and elevator pulleys.The fire escape has been engulfed in smoke. "Even if we wanted to, we couldn't go back from there," Decker said. They spread out the plastic sheeting, placed Beth on it, lifted her, and trudged their way through yet another maze of pipes and houses.Decker tripped over a pipe.Then it hit a TV antenna. The flames reflected the edge of the building, as well as the adjacent buildings a little lower than it. "It won't be long," Decker said. There was a loud thunder, and a shock wave rushed towards him, knocking him to the ground.He let go of Beth and fell beside her, hearing her scream.That's when he realized— That's not thunder. That was another bomb. The sound of the explosion echoed in the night sky.Trembling, Decker sprawled on the ground, drew his pistol, and stared ahead on the roof where something that looked like a spire had been blown away. A voice shouted: "You were caught by me again!" My God, Decker thought, McKittrick is on the roof! "You fell into the trap again, didn't you?" McKittrick cried. "I warned you fairly, and you did what I wanted! Damn, you don't like You think you are so smart!" "That's it!" Decker yelled. "Our deal is over!" "It's not over if you're not dead!" The sound was coming from somewhere to the left, and it sounded like McKittrick was hiding behind the elevator cab.Decker crouched, gripping the pistol, ready to charge. "The police heard the explosion, McKittrick! Now they know it's not just a fire! They're going to cordon off the area and check everyone who's leaving! You can't escape!" "They'll think the inflammables in the building exploded!" Flammables?Decker frowned.It wasn't the kind of word McKittrick would normally use; he must have picked it up from a demolition expert.There was no doubt about it—Renata was teaching him. And she's around the corner. "Paint buckets! Turpentine! Cleaner!" McKittrick yelled. "The cops were terrified of those things when they caught fire! Now they're afraid of other things blowing up too! They'll keep their distance!" Behind Decker, flames shot up from the lower roof.We can't back down, he thought, but if we stay here, the fire will burn quickly. "Esperanza?" he called softly. "As ready as you are. Which side do you want?" "left." "I will outflank you." "Go." Decker sprinted at full speed through puddles of water toward one large vent pipe, then toward the other.But when he was about to rush to the elevator room, it was gone.A blinding explosion blew it to pieces.Decker was thrown to the ground, debris flying over him and falling around him. "You guessed wrong, Decker! I'm not there! I'm not to your right! Not where your friend is trying to sneak up on me!" Moments later, in that direction, the explosion knocked off a large chunk of the roof.Decker thought he heard a scream, but he couldn't tell if it was Esperanza or someone in the building. He was stunned and didn't know where to go.McKittrick must have loaded explosives all over the roof of this building and the roofs of the adjacent buildings, he thought.But if McKittrick started with a pay phone, how would he have the time? He immediately thought of the obvious answer.Instead of a pay phone, McKittrick used a mobile phone.He was making the phone call from the roof, while he was loading the explosives.It must have been Renata who blew up the Oldsmobile in front of the building and threw the Molotov cocktail in the foyer.She's in the yard below.In this way, no matter which direction we choose, up or down, we will fall into the trap. We've been caught, Decker thought, with fire behind and McKittrick in front. How about going through the fire escape in this building?Decker thought desperately as the roar of the flames grew louder.If we can get on the fire escape...the target is too obvious.I should have guessed that McKittrick had dynamite there too.Even if he wasn't pretending, we'd still be flanked by Renata in the yard and McKittrick on the roof. Decker couldn't think of anything better to do.He stood up frantically, trying to run again in the direction of McKittrick's voice.But as soon as he stood up, an explosion lifted the roof of the building in front of him, and a large piece of the building was blown away, knocking him back to the ground. "Naughty, naughty, idiot! You didn't even ask, 'Can I do this?'" Decker wondered, where was he?If McKittrick was on top of this building, he wouldn't have detonated the bomb he had hidden here.He can't guarantee that he won't blow himself up when he blows me up.So where is he? He immediately thought of the answer.He is on the roof of the adjacent building.The firelight showed the lower roof of the adjacent building, and McKittrick must have been on the wall ladder, or stepped on a box or some kind of maintenance facility.He hides there so he can watch from the top of the wall and shrink down when the bomb is detonated. Seeing that there seemed to be a head sticking out of the dark place on the other side of the building.Decker aimed his gun, but paused just as he was about to pull the trigger when he realized that all he saw was a moving shadow in the firelight. Behind him, the flames drew closer, and the storm did little to hinder their growth. "What's next?" cried McKittrick. "Waiting to be roasted? Or have the guts to kill me?" Decker thought viciously, yes, I just want to kill you.The solution was right in front of him, kindly gifted by McKittrick—the hole that the last bomb had made in the roof. A choking wave of heat rushed over from the rooftops behind Decker.He crawled through the pools of water to the black hole, grabbed the edge of the hole, stretched his legs down, hung his body, and jumped.