‘The gymnasium and pool.’ She answered matter-of-factly.
“The gymnasium and the pool!’ The bandanna man parroted as he ambled toward the lift. ‘I’ll check it out, make sure this bitch’s not lying.’
They all held their breath as the lift door closed behind him.They prayed he would be stupid enough to see the gardens, pool and gym, decide there was nothing there and not continue onto the roof. Minutes ticked by as they waited in silence. The thin man had followed them around the apartment watching them closely, and now a smirk crossed his face as he watched Jilly stuffing jewellery into a pillow case stripped from the bed, and admiring the ring she had commandeered from Veronica’s finger.
Nick sat on Veronica’s chaise lounge in the corner shaking his head in disbelief.As if things could get any worse,he thought.Here we are facing the most terrible natural disaster and this bunch of imbeciles are picking pockets! They must know about the tsunami, how on earth do they expect to escape? Knowing they would surely die, he did not feel sorry for them. His curiosity prompted him to ask. ‘You do know about the tsunami coming, don’t you?’
‘Yeah. D’you think we’re stupid.’ Jilly said. ‘That’s why we’re here. All those stupid bastards left their places wide open, just asking for us to help ourselves.’
‘Just how do you plan to get away?’ Nick said.
‘We’ve got our bikes downstairs. Soon as we see it coming we’ll head for the hills. Probably be a fizzer anyway.’
Nick smiled inwardly at the thought of them trying to outrun a giant wave travelling at around one hundred and fifty kilometres per hour. Even if the streets were clear, they could never escape.
Ten minutes had passed as Nick and Graham nervously eyed the lift doors, flinching as they heard the hiss of the lift settling beside them. The bandanna man emerged grinning. ‘Nothin’ up there but a fancy gym and a fancier pool, you should see it. This bloody dude’s got too much money.’
‘He sure as hell doesn’t keep it here.’ Hud drawled as he unfolded his long legs and stood waving his gun in the direction of the lift, forcing them inside again.
The lift opened on the living area again and Hud pushed Nick into to the room. He looked toward the bandanna man and nodded toward the blown entry door.
Bandanna man grinned and left the room. He returned after number of minutes motioning his companions toward the lift. ‘Let’s try some of the apartments on the lower floors.’
‘It’s a private lift.’ Bill warned. ‘It’ll only take you downstairs and then to the foyer below us or the ground floor.’
Hud glared at Bill and the others. ‘You stay here, or somebody else will get shot.’ The lift doors closed in seconds and they were gone.
Chapter Thirty-six
Trapped
Nick turned to the emergency stairs beside the lift.
‘Wait!’ Graham urged. ‘Let’s make sure they’re gone.’ They watched as the lift stopped on the floor below Bill’s apartment. ‘Looks like they’re going to go out the way they got in.’
‘Just how did they get in Bill?’ Nick asked.
‘They would’ve come up the public lift that stops on the level below. Our housekeeper lives in an apartment on that floor, they must’ve found the key to the stairwell there.’
More seconds passed and Nick and Graham walked cautiously toward the entry door to the stairs that was now a dark hole in the wall. They climbed over the rubble into the stairwell. Nick climbed the stairs to the next floors to find the door to the pool room firmly locked.
‘Damn!’ Nick thumped the door. ‘He’s locked it!’ He yelled down to Graham who had descended to the lower floor and found that door locked also.
They returned to the foyer where Bill and the women waited, grim faced. Karen was pushing the lift button over and over, but there was no response. ‘It looks like they’ve disabled the lift somehow. I can’t get it to come back up!’ She said.
‘They don’t want us in their way.’ Nick said. ‘They’ve probably smashed the mechanism. Bill, they’ve locked the doors to the stair exits and taken the keys, is there any other way out of here?’
‘No, I’m afraid not, unless you can get the lift working. We’re stuck!’
‘We’ve got to get to the roof!’ Karen cried.
‘What about the balcony? Can we climb to the next floor from there?’ Nick asked.
‘There aren’t any balconies on the other floors.’ Bill explained. ‘Safety reasons. There’d be at least twenty metres of sheer Navilon windows between us and the roof top. The balconies below don’t line up with these on this floor either, a defence against spider-men.’
Graham punched at his sat-phone phone. ‘It’s no use I can’t raise anyone, the lines are jammed and my batteries are running down.’
‘Phone.’ Bill ordered, and his house phone merely beeped.
‘Bill I s’pose this’s a silly question to ask, but d’you keep any tools on this floor, anything we could use to force the doors?’ He asked.
‘Even if I did, you’d never get through those fire doors, they’re over a foot thick, and I’ve had special security locks put on them. Same as the one in our foyer, those bastards had to blast their way in.’
‘What about the lift? Could we prise the doors open and lower ourselves to the floor below?’
‘No, it’s our private lift, it goes all the way down the ground floor, with smooth walls all the way down, nothing to hang on, another security measure.’
The horror of their situation began to dawn on them. They were trapped!
It was four o’clock, eight hours since the first warning had been received. Nick knew it would be any time now. Sweat began to seep from every pore in his body. The sweat of fear. He had not counted on this. They had run out of time. He thought of the Liberty, sitting silently on the roof waiting, their only escape. It may as well be a thousand miles away!
‘Then there’s nothing we can do but wait and pray.’ Nick announced, walking away from the group to shield them from his fear. ‘I’ll be out on the balcony.’
Karen had cried herself out while trying to contact Brian, and sat on a couch beside Bill who was red eyed and silent. Veronica twisted a handkerchief in her fingers and whispered silently to herself.
Graham paced the room while Bill poured himself another drink.
The balcony on the north-east corner of the building off the living room faced the Pacific Ocean, and Nick stood there in silence, bracing his arms on the white aluminium railing. He lowered his head, focusing his eyes momentarily on the floor at his feet and clenched his teeth as the cold wind from the sea bit savagely into his flesh, drying the perspiration that moments before had drenched his clothing. He leaned over the railing and his eyes searched the building and the surrounding grounds below. Palm-studded gardens one hundred metres below formed an apron, reaching out and stopping abruptly at the long wide concrete dyke a mere fifteen to eighteen metres from the building, where the sea lapped its edge. There was absolutely no protection from the ocean and whatever wrath she decided to hurl against them. He shivered and retreated inside leaving the door open, moving swiftly to the next room for further inspection of the exterior of the building.
Darting from room-to-room Nick found every view similar. No escape! He reached the south-western corner that overlooked the Navilon-domed walkway. From this perspective he could see it in more detail, the cross spanning the southbound highway below converged with the others at a centre point, where they were supported by a steel column stationed on the grassed medium strip between the two highways. From there it continued across the northbound highway to link the two western towers of the complex. It was only two floors below, but there was no access from any point on the floor where they were trapped. His attention was drawn to two shadowy figures running along the walkway toward the south-eastern tower. It could have been the looters, but he was unable to tell from here.