Dave continued in a strange business like. ‘Nick, may I suggest you get all those people down to the bottom floor immediately. I’ll get Graham to drop some more ropes on the roof before he heads up to Brisbane. Make some rope ladders, hurry! That building could tumble anytime, the sea is systematically eroding the foundations. Out.’
‘Roger that Dave. Out’
Nick turned to Karen. ‘Graham’s coming back from Camp B with more ropes. I hope Bobby doesn’t get it into his head to come back and force Graham to let them board the Liberty.’
‘I don’t think that’s in their plans. Besides, Bobby saw how impossible it would be to get to it.’ Karen replied. ‘The wind up there’s so strong Graham could hardly hold the Veto still. There’s no way he could land. He’s risking his life up there.’
Nick looked around at the scared faces of the hostages. They would have to move fast. ‘Alex you come with me. We’ll get the ropes while Karen gets everyone organised.’
Karen’s face was white and her hands trembled. Nick gently touched her arm.’You okay?’ he asked.
She grabbed his wrist. ‘I’m just so frightened. Please hurry back.’
Nick though for a moment, then grabbed one end of a rope the looters had left and wound it around the steel handle of the exit door to the landing then tied it around his waist. He handed the loose end to Alex. ‘Here. Tie yourself on. Just in case.’ He grimaced. ‘It’s not long enough to reach past the next floor. Karen, hold onto the rope and when you feel it pull three times untie it and I’ll pull it up.’
Alex and Nick made their way up the stairs to the rooftop treading carefully over the cracked steps that were broken in places and pulled away from the wall, all the while wondering if the building would remain standing. More than once they were precariously close to the edge and in mortal danger of falling. Nick jiggled the rope back and tied it to each landing as they climbed.
Once on the roof they had no time to catch their breath before Graham arrived in the Veto, and the wind and downdraft from Liberty lashed them fiercely as they battled to catch the ropes and the sling Graham was sending down. Liberty was being buffeted every which way by the strong wind, any moment threatening to crash onto the roof. The noise of the wind and the jet thrusters was deafening and Nick felt his eardrums about to burst.
Graham signalled, and he jerked Liberty away from the roof creating a force that beat against their chests, almost knocking them to the ground. All hopes of rescuing any of the people with Liberty vanished.
Nick put some of the hostages to work after hauling the bundles of rope down from the roof.
The looters had not returned to where the hostages were huddled together on the remains of ninth floor. Alex looked like death, his clothes were smeared with blood when he had attended some injured people, and his dark springy curls drooped around his face, yet he remained calm as he offered sympathy to Margaret’s father .
Then another sound joined the howling, hot wind; that of an outboard motor racing away from the building. Nick moved quickly where he could see the fleeing speedboat, his mind racing in tune with the wine of it’s motors, then an enormous ear splitting explosion roared above the other deafening noises. Instinctively Nick ducked then looked in time to see a huge flame, topped by a pall of thick black smoke billowing skyward from the surface of the water.
‘The speedboat! Shit!’ Dave had wired it! He had no intention of letting them escape! Nick groaned as he thought of Margaret, the poor innocent girl they had taken hostage. Now he understood Dave’s reticence. He turned to see her father slither down the wall sobbing. He rubbed his forehead and ran his fingers though his hair but strangely felt a detachment.That poor man. So much tragedy…so much pain….
Nobody spoke, they had no more tears or words to describe the horrors they had faced, afraid of what was to come. Nick chose some of the stunned hostages and showed them how to make a rope ladder, hoping to snap them into action, hoping they could make a ladder long enough to reach the surface of the sea, because the sling Graham had dropped would be very dangerous, especially for the children. He planned to use both. They worked together silently tying the knots while he went down stairs to see what they were up against.
Nick moved carefully down the emergency stairs, sharply conscious of the need to tread very carefully, testing each section before placing his full weight on the stair. Jagged cracks crept down the outer walls beside him, which in places had been torn from the building and thrust into the sea. The fixed Navilon panels inserted in the exterior walls for natural light had shattered, exposing the stairs to the open air on every landing, allowing the wind to whistle and whine through the building. He rounded the corner onto the seventh floor and stopped sharply. The stairs before him fell away to a void seventeen metres below, where the angry sea swirled and pounded the forest of vertical steel girders that had been driven deep into rock to support the entire structure. Chunks of broken concrete and reinforcing clung to sections of the horizontal checkerboards of steel girders that provided a base for each concrete floor.
He returned to the hostages and began checking all the knots in the ladder.
‘I need three volunteers to help me get the ladder downstairs.’
Three men immediately stepped forward.
‘It’s a bit tricky getting down there. What’s your name?’ Nick said to one of the men in his thirties who had so far not uttered a sound.
‘J…J…eff.’ He stuttered. ‘Jeff. Sawtell.’
‘Right Jeff. You look like a strong bloke, you’ll be in the middle. Tie yourself to the railing on the next floor where you can, but before you do, test it’s stability, then pull the rope tight so the others can use it as a second safety hold.’ He turned to the others. ‘One of you do the same as Jeff, go right down to the last landing and tie on. The other will help me drag the ladder Okay?’
It took them over half an hour to get the ladder in place, where Nick secured it and dropped it down through the checkerboard of steel to the water, relieved to see it almost reach the thrashing sea surface. He and the third volunteer returned upstairs to ready the group for the descent.
Nick began tying the rope around each person. ‘I’ll go first and help each of you onto the ladder. Karen you’ll be second last. Alex you go down after Karen.’ After they were all tied safely together he surveyed their pale faces. ‘Now whatever you do I want you all to stay close to each other and hug the inside wall. Hold onto the rope and the railing as you go down and watch your feet. We’ll all be safe if we take our time. If one of you stumbles the other person behind you will break your fall, so you can’t fall far.’ I hope, he thought silently,or we’ll all go with you. ‘Any questions?’ None came forward as his eyes roamed over each hostage imparting his outer confidence, hiding his internal trepidation. Nick’s leadership had come to the fore and he had succeeded in calming them somewhat, which in his mind was the most important thing. Panic causes mistakes and they couldn’t afford any.
He instructed everyone again to hug the interior walls, and they followed like timid sheep in single file, backs against the wall as the wind wailed around them.
Above the noise of the wind and roaring sea another frightening sound prevailed. The steel groaned and creaked, and the incessant wind whistled and howled through the grids, creating an eerie, ghostly sound that made the hairs on the back of Nick’s neck rise.
His attention was diverted as four rubber ribs from the Mittagong came into view below them and men in orange all-weather coats threw ropes to secure them to the buildings girders.