Sam groaned and slumped down onto one of the oversized laundry bags. "That's not going to be easy. God, I'm glad you're all right, though. I felt really bad about leaving you there. Look, here's what's happening. Sara is upstairs and she has Nina and Purdue. I need to get help, but I can't get to the phones and they've got people who won't let me outside. We need to get out. We need to get them out."
Julia Rose was quiet, pensive, considering what Sam had just told her. She looked around at the piles of sheets and heavy cotton bags. "Give me your lighter," she said. "I know you have one, you always have one. Give it to me."
It was clear what she was about to do, yet Sam's heart was in his mouth in disbelieving anticipation. Her hand trembled as she took hold of the lighter. She walked across the laundry to the far end, selected a pile of sheets beneath a smoke detector, then flicked the lighter open and held it against the cloth.
"It's better this way," she explained, as she waited for the flame to catch. "If we just broke the glass on an alarm or opened a fire door — that would activate a different symbol on the alarm system than if it's started by genuine flames. This way they'll definitely evacuate." She watched with satisfaction as the flames took hold and a thin trail of smoke spiraled up toward the ceiling.
Sam dragged a few sheets from the nearest pile and laid them over the laundry sacks, making sure there were no gaps that could act as a fire break. The farther the fire spreads, the more time this will buy us, he thought.
"Wait!" Sara held up a hand, stopping the acolyte in his tracks. "Let go."
The acolyte released Purdue without question. Nina tried not to let her hands tremble, afraid of both showing her fear and accidentally slitting Jefferson's throat. Purdue scrambled to his feet. He waved at Jefferson's left hand. "There!" he wheezed, trying to get his breath back. "There! In his hand!"
"What's in your hand?" Nina demanded, squeezing Jefferson's trapped arm.
"I was bringing these to Sara," he replied in strangled tones, opening his fingers to let Purdue see what he was carrying. "What's the matter?"
Without answering, Purdue snatched them from Jefferson's hand. Two small pendants attached to leather thongs dangled from his fingers. He squeezed each one gently, popping them open to reveal that they were truly USB devices. "We have them," he smiled. "All three. Now let us—"
Nina never heard the end of Purdue's sentence. Before he could finish, the air was torn by the screaming of the fire alarm.
Chapter Thirty
Sara's lovely face contorted into a snarl. "Go find out if that's genuine!" she snapped at the acolyte, and then turned her gaze to Nina. "You don't mind if we break up your little hostage situation, right? You want to know too?"
The acolyte pushed past, forcing Nina to relax her grip a little to avoid cutting Jefferson's throat by accident. Nevertheless, she did not let him go. "Jefferson, you need to give those things to me," she growled.
"Nina," Jefferson spoke through gritted teeth, trying not to move. "You can't stop this. It's important. It needs to happen. Just accept—"
"Jefferson, just fucking listen to me. I really don't want to hurt you, but I swear I will. Give them to me now."
"Jefferson," Sara's voice was soft and dangerous. She rose from her seat, pulling herself up to her full height and gliding like a snake across the floor. Nina deliberately repositioned the knife, drawing Sara's attention to the way the point was pricking at Jefferson's jugular. "Listen to me. These people are trying to destroy everything we've built. We can't allow that. There's no price too high, you know that. You know that."
Nina forced her hand to stay steady. It was trying to shake, wanting nothing more than to let Jefferson go. I can't do this, she thought. They're going to call my bluff. They know I'm not going to cut his throat. All they have to do is wait because in a moment or two we're going to have to get out of the building and I'm going to—
A flash of movement behind Sara caught Nina's eye. Purdue was on his feet, his hands closing on the sides of Sara's head. Swiftly, elegantly, he delivered a sharp twist. The crack brought the bile up in Nina's throat. She flinched, letting go of Jefferson.
Before Sara's body had hit the floor, Purdue reached out and pulled the keys from Jefferson's hand. He grabbed Nina and hustled her out of the room, leaving Jefferson behind. The last thing she saw as the door closed behind them was Jefferson dropping to his knees, calling Sara's name.
In the dingy stairwell, Sam and Julia Rose crouched and waited. They could hear the fire alarm and the sound of people beginning to make their way down the brightly lit, guest-friendly stairs above. "We should stay down here in the staff area until there's a bit of a crowd in the lobby," Sam suggested. "No sense in moving too soon and making ourselves too visible."
When they judged that the evacuation was well underway and they would have sufficient cover as they left the building, they crept to the top of the "Staff Only" stairs and joined the flow of guests into the lobby. The receptionists were out from behind their desks and directing people out of the building, uttering calm reassurances that although this was not a drill, the fire department was on its way and that everything was under control. If only they knew how untrue that is, Sam thought.
"Excuse me," he called, collaring one of the receptionists. "I'm just a bit worried — I left my friends in their room and I think, er… One of them is injured, she's got a bad ankle, and I'm concerned in case she—"
"It's ok, sir," the receptionist smiled back, continuing to wave people past. "We have fire marshals who will do a sweep of each floor. They'll check each room. We won't leave your friends behind. Now I'm going to have to ask you to step outside."
Countless bodies surged past Sam, carrying him along in their wake. It was all he could do to keep sight of Julia Rose. The jostling crowd half-dragged him out of the Verbena and across the street. It occurred to Sam to look in the direction from which the flashing blue lights had come earlier, to see whether there genuinely had been an incident. Sure enough, there was a police car — though whether it had been there for some time or was newly arrived, it was impossible to tell.
Sam bobbed about in the mass of people, holding his head as high as he could, scanning the crowd for Nina and Purdue, and keeping a lookout for Sara or the acolyte or anyone else who would give him reason to run. What are we going to do now? he asked himself. The hotel staff will find the dead acolyte. They're bound to notice that Nina and Purdue are both hurt. God only knows what's been going on up in that room. I've no idea whether they ever got those keys. And now we've set fire to the hotel, and I'm just hoping Nina and Purdue will get out alive and that I'll have figured something out by the time they do. And what about Julia Rose? What am I going to do about her?
Up on the fourth floor, Nina pulled Purdue's good arm around her shoulder and moved as fast as his stab wound and her limp would allow them to go.
"You're never going to manage the stairs in that state," Nina muttered, looking at the laceration. She half-helped, half-dragged him toward the elevators and hit the call button. "We're in luck," she said, as she heard the mechanism working. "They're still functioning." Purdue managed nothing more than a weak smile in response.
The doors slid open and they stepped into the bubble of glass. The elevator that had arrived first was the one that faced out over the street, offering a view of the Las Vegas Strip, the distant desert, and the crowd on the road below. That's good, Nina thought, we're in clear view of everyone, we'll be safe. I'm sure we will.