When the avalanche toppled the high rise and tore up most of the roadway and parapet, Dunross and the others on its edge were hurtled down the steep slope, head over heels, brush and vegetation breaking part of their fall. The tai-pan picked himself up in the semidarkness, felt himself blankly, dazed, astonished to find he could stand and was unhurt. From near him came whimpers of agony. The slope was steep and everywhere muddy and sodden as he groped up to Dianne Chen. She was semiconscious, groaning, one leg twisted brutally underneath her. Part of her shinbone jutted through the skin but as far as he could see, no arteries were severed and there was no dangerous bleeding. As carefully as he could he straightened her and her limb, but she let out a howl of pain and fainted. He felt someone nearby and glanced up. Riko was standing there, her dress ripped, her shoes gone, her hair akimbo, a small trickle of blood from her nose."Christ, you all right?""Yes .. . yes," she said shakily. "It's . . . was it an earthquake?"At that moment there was another crackling explosion of power cables short-circuiting, and momentarily fireballs lit up the area. "Oh my God!" he gasped. "It's like London in the blitz." Then he caught sight of Phillip Chen in an inert heap around a sapling, sprawled headfirst down the slope. "Stay here with Dianne," he ordered and scrambled down the slope. Hanging onto his dread, he turned Phillip over. His compradore was still breathing. Dunross shook with relief. He settled him as best he could and looked around in the gloom. Others were picking themselves up. Nearby, Christian Toxe was shaking his head, trying to clear it."Bloody sodding Christ," he was muttering over and over. "There must be a couple of hundred people living there." He reeled to his feet then slipped in the mud and cursed again. "I've . . . I've got to get to a phone. Give me, give me a hand will you?" Toxe swore as he slipped again. "It's my ankle, the bloody thing's twisted a bit."Dunross helped him stand and then, with Riko on Toxe's other side, they climbed awkwardly back to the remains of the roadway. People were still standing paralyzed, others clambering over the first slide to see if they could help, a few of the tenants frantic and moaning. One mother was being held back, her husband already running falling clambering toward the wreckage, their three children and amah somewhere there.The moment they were on level ground, Toxe hobbled off down Kotewall Road and Dunross rushed for his car to fetch his flashlight and emergency medical pack.Lim was nowhere to be seen. Then Dunross remembered his chauffeur had been with them when the avalanche hit. As he found the keys to unlock the trunk he searched his memory. Who was with us? Toxe, Riko, Jacques—no, Jacques had left—Phillip and Dianne Chen, Barre … no we left Barre at the party. Jesus Christ! The party! I'd forgotten the party! Who was still there? Richard Kwang and his wife, Plumm, Johnjohn, no he'd gone earlier, Roger Crosse, no wait a minute, didn't he leave?Dunross jerked open the trunk and found two flashlights and the medical kit, a length of rope. He ran back to Riko, his back hurting him now. "Will you go back and look after Dianne and Phillip till I can get help?" His voice was deliberately firm. "Here." He gave her a flashlight, some bandages and a bottle of aspirin. "Off you go. Dianne's broken her leg. I don't know about Phillip. Do what you can and stay with them till an ambulance comes or I come back. All right?""Yes, yes, all right." Her eyes flickered with fear as she looked above. "Will there … is there any danger from another slide?""No. You'll be quite safe. Go quickly!" His will took away her fear and she started down the slope with the flashlight, picking her way carefully. It was only then he noticed that she was barefoot. Then he remembered Dianne had been barefoot too and Phillip. He stretched to ease his back. His clothes were ripped, but he paid them no attention and rushed for the barrier. In the distance he heard police sirens. His relief became almost nauseating as he broke into a run.Then he noticed Orlanda at the head of the line of cars. She was staring fixedly at where Rose Court had been, her mouth moving, tiny spasms trembling her face and body, and he remembered the night of the fire when she had been equally petrified and near snapping. Quickly he went to her and shook her hard, hoping to jerk her out of the panic breakdown that he had witnessed so many times during the war. "Orlanda!"She came out of her almost trance. "Oh … oh … what, what . . ."Greatly relieved, he saw her eyes were normal now and the agony normal, the spilling tears normal. "You're all right. Nothing to worry about. Get hold now, you're all right, Orlanda!" he said, his voice kind though very firm, and leaned her against the hood of a car and left her.Her eyes focused. "Oh my God! Line!" Then she shrieked after him through her tears, "Line . . . Line's there!"He jerked to a stop, turned back. "Where? Where was he?""He's … in my, my apartment. It's on the eighth floor . .. it's on the eighth floor!"Dunross ran off again, his flashlight the only moving speck of light on the morass.Here and there people were groping blindly, ankle-deep in the soaking earth, their hands cupped around matches, heading for the ruins. As he came nearer the catastrophe, his heart twisted. He could smell gas. Every second the smell became stronger."Put out the matches, for chrissake!" he roared. "You 'II blow us all to helllll!"Then he saw Casey . . .The police car following the fire truck roared up the hill, sirens howling, the traffic heavy here and no one getting out of the way. Inside the car Armstrong was monitoring the radio calls: "All police units and fire trucks converge on Kotewall Road. Emergency, emergency emergency! There's a new landslip in the vicinity of Po Shan and Sinclair Road! Callers say Rose Court and two other twelve-story buildings've collapsed.""Bloody ridiculous!" Armstrong muttered, then, "Watch out for chrissake!" he shouted at the driver who had cut across the road to the wrong side, narrowly missing a truck. "Turn right here, then cut up Castle into Robinson and into Sinclair that way," he ordered. He had been going home from another rebuild session with Brian Kwok, his head aching and exhausted, when he had heard the emergency call. Remembering that Crosse lived on Sinclair Road and that he'd said he would be going to Jason Plumm's party after he'd followed a lead with Rosemont, he had decided to check it out. Christ, he thought grimly, if he's been clobbered who'll take over SI? And do we still let Brian go or hold him or what?A new voice came on, firm, unhurried, the static on the radio heavy. "This is Deputy Fire Chief Soames. Emergency One!" Armstrong and the driver gasped. "I'm at the junction of Sinclair, Robinson and Kotewall Road where I have set up a command post. Emergency One repeat One! Inform the commissioner and the governor at once, this is a disaster of very great proportions. Inform all hospitals on the Island to be on standby. Order every ambulance and all paramedics to the area. We will require immediate and heavy army assistance. All power is out so we require generators, cables and lights. . . .""Jesus Christ," Armstrong muttered. Then sharply, "Get the lead out for chrissake, and hurry it up!"The police car increased speed. . . ."Oh, Ian," Casey said beyond tears, the petrified child still in her arms. "Line's somewhere down there.""Yes, yes I know," he said above the insane bedlam of screams and cries for help that came through the ominous grinding of the wreckage as it still settled. People wandered around blindly, not knowing where to look, where to start, how to help. "You all right?"