I pulled up my contacts list and dialed Mrs. Haggerty’s cell phone. “It’s ringing,” I said, blinking at her window through the smoke. I nearly cried out with relief when she picked up on the third ring. “Mrs. Haggerty?”
“If this is about my car’s extended warranty, I’m hanging up.”
“Don’t hang up! It’s Finlay Donovan. Thank god, you’re awake!”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m on a new medication for my cholesterol and it makes it hard to—”
“I’m sure it does, Mrs. Haggerty, but this is an emergency! I need you to look out your window.”
Vero gripped my arm, our eyes watering from the smoke as we waited. After what felt like four hundred years, Mrs. Haggerty’s window got brighter, as if she’d opened her blind.
“I can’t see anything. I don’t have my glasses on. Hold on a minute. I’m sure they’re here somewhere.”
“We don’t have time for you to find your glasses!”
“It’s not polite to shout.”
“I’m sorry. Just… forget about the glasses,” I said, fighting back a cough. “I need you to go to my sister’s room down the hall. Roomthree nineteen. I need you to knock very loudly on her door and tell her to call me. Tell her it’s an emergency.”
“Well, okay then. I’ll just get dressed and—”
“No, Mrs. Haggerty, please! There’s no time to get dressed. Just hurry. It’s a matter of life and death.”
“Well in that case—” The call disconnected.
“What happened?” Vero asked as I stared at my phone.
“I don’t know! She cut me off.”
There was a loud smash as Wade kicked the doorknob loose and disappeared inside the pump house. His phone light glowed through a thick haze of smoke as he studied the pumps.
Nick watched the numbers rise on the indicator panel, his phone pressed to his ear.
My cell phone rang. “It’s Georgia!” I said as I connected the call. “Georgia—”
“Do you have any idea what time it is?” she mumbled. “And why is Mrs. Haggerty in her nightgown in my room?”
“I need you to have someone turn off the simulator in the fire tower!”
“The what?”
“The fire tower!” I shouted, swatting at the smoke. “We need someone to turn it off!”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Look out your damn window!”
There was a prolonged bout of grumbling, then the screech of her blinds. Georgia swore. “Who the hell’s running a simulation in the middle of the night?”
“I don’t have time to explain.”
“Where the heck are you?”
“On top of the fucking fire tower, Georgia! Turn it off!”
“I’m on my way!” The line disconnected. I covered my mouth with my sleeve.
Wade burst out of the pump room. “Nine hundred degrees!” hecalled out to Nick. “The emergency shutoff isn’t working and the pumps won’t start.”
