Aftershock (16 page)

‘You stupid little bitch,' Harry screamed as he emerged from the hole close to where Kristy Sunshine lay in a heap, crying.

She pulled herself up and whirled on Harry, her face a mask of fury. ‘How dare you talk to me like that ... you ... you ... useless nothing!'

Harry's face turned pale. He looked at the floor for a moment and then to everyone's surprise, he laughed. It was a bitter laugh and it came from a seething rage. ‘I feel genuinely sorry for you, Kristy. You are so deluded. You think you're something
really
special. But actually, you're just a silly little girl. You might think I'm a nothing, but you're certainly a something ... A FUCKING AIRHEAD!'

Kristy flew at Harry, her fists flailing around.

Jim stepped in. ‘Okay, guys. Cut it out.' He grabbed the singer's arms and pulled her back. Harry shook his head and laughed again, which only made Kristy Sunshine more angry. ‘You retard!' she squealed and tried to pull away from Jim. He pinned her against the wall. ‘Stop it! Stop it ... NOW!'

She suddenly erupted into tears and slid to the floor, burying her head in her hands, her shoulders heaving.

Nick was looking on, confused. ‘Shouldn't we get out of here?' he said quietly.

‘At last. Someone talking sense,' Jim said. Then he walked over to his dead partner whose body lay close to the exit in the west end of the corridor. He knelt down beside him while the others kept a respectful distance. ‘I have to go now, Al,' he said softly, and ran a hand through the old man's sparse white hair. Then he turned and walked towards the door.

The others were there in a few moments. The door was closed. Jim kicked at the lock, but it was useless. Harry ran back to the barrier and found a large chunk of concrete. Returning to the door, he heaved the concrete at the handle. After three blows, he was exhausted. Jim grabbed the lump of debris and slammed it against the wood of the door above the lock. It gave on the second attempt. The wood shattered, sending small shards into the air and revealing a ragged hole about 3 centimetres in diameter. Jim went to raise the chunk of concrete again. There was a loud crack and the door sheared in two. Water thundered through, sending wood and metal hurling towards them.

Harry landed on the floor and saw the other three fly through the air. Before he could even draw breath, a great wave of water crashed over them, propelling them along the corridor, back towards the barrier of rubble.

Somehow, they all managed to grab hold of something solid in the wall of wreckage that had cut the corridor in two. The water slammed into them, then it rolled back, giving them time to draw breath. It churned around the walls of the corridor, losing some of its momentum. It came up to Harry's waist. Nick had pulled himself up onto the barrier, his head a foot clear of the surface. They were all shocked into silence, grasping at the barrier for dear life, none of them knowing what to do next.

The flood began to slow.

‘It's not a hull breech,' Harry spluttered. ‘Water must've built up in a cavity.' He pushed away from the barrier.

‘What're you doing?' Jim asked.

Harry said nothing, just waded through the waist-high water towards the shattered remains of the doorframe. Another corridor lay on the other side. It was narrower and shorter. At the far end stood another doorway. The door was gone, but the opening was completely blocked by rubble that had slid through from the far side.

It was then Harry noticed the water level was still rising.

He took a deep breath and ducked under the surface. He swam to the wall and pulled himself along, keeping his head under, trying to find where the water was coming in. He reached the blocked doorway without finding the source of the leak. Standing up, he waded over to the other side of the passageway and ducked under the surface again to inspect the far wall.

Three metres from the doorway, he found it. It was a roughly circular opening about a metre and a half wide. The flow had diminished thanks to a steel plate that had been pushed against the wall on the other side, blocking 70 per cent of the hole and leaving a gap about half a metre wide.

Harry's heart sank. They were trapped. They could try to block this hole but they couldn't just stay put in the corridor in the hope someone would rescue them before they died of hypothermia. The doorway at the end of the passageway was blocked, but water was gushing from an adjoining room. That meant that room must also be filled with water. Then he had a desperate thought. He resurfaced. The water was up to his chest now. Without wasting a second, he took another great gulp of air and dived under the water. He was just able to squeeze through the gap at the top of the opening in the wall. Once through to the other side, he swam a single stroke and reached for the surface.

There was a metre of space between the water and the ceiling. He looked around. It was a large room. Water was pouring into it through another hole in the far wall. Harry was about to swim over to the hole when he caught a glint of light to his left. He darted towards it.

It was the glass upper half of yet another door. He could see through to the other side. An archway led on to a wide open space. He could see a vast spiral staircase. It was the main stairs of Dome Beta. Diving under the water, he searched for anything he could find to smash the window. The first dive was fruitless. He resurfaced and took a gulp of stale air. Desperately, he shuffled along the floor of the room. He saw a grey shape in the murk, swung his arm around and felt a sharp stab of pain. Drawing back, he watched as a swirl of red enveloped his arm. Quelling the panic, he focused on the shape he had seen. It was a piece of metal shelving. One end was a sharp edge where it had broken away from the rest of the unit. He grasped at the shelf and pulled himself up through the water. Ignoring the pain in his arm and the red water at his chest, he gripped the door handle and crashed the piece of shelving into the window. It offered little resistance, shattering into dozens of pieces. One small shard flew into Harry's face and nicked his left ear. ‘Fuck!' he exclaimed and felt blood trickle down his cheek. Using the shelf, he smashed away the remaining fragments of glass clinging to the frame. He noticed the water level had dropped quite a few centimetres. Diving back under the water, he turned and headed back to the hole in the wall and the corridor beyond. When he tried to regain his feet, the water came over his head.

‘You can all swim, I hope,' Harry gasped as he pulled himself up the barrier. There was little more than half a metre of air above the surface now. Kristy, Jim and Nick had scrambled up the wreckage and were clinging on for dear life, barely managing to contain their panic. Nick had vomited, some of it was floating around his neck, and there was a line of yellow running from his mouth. His cheeks were deathly white.

‘There's a hole,' Harry said. ‘Leads to a way out. But it's a long swim, and I don't know if we'll have any air once we get into the next corridor. Come on, follow me.'

He swam to the doorframe, clinging to the wood for a few seconds then ducked down to peer into the adjoining corridor. The water was up the ceiling. He pulled his head back. ‘Damn it!' he hissed. ‘Okay, Jim. You go first. The hole is to your right. Once you're in the room and reach the surface you should be able to breathe, the water level is dropping there.'

Jim nodded and launched himself under the water. ‘Nick, you next.'

The boy was paralysed with terror. ‘Come on, Nick, you can do it.'

He stared at Harry. Then Kristy put her hand on the boy's shoulder. ‘I'll be right behind you.'

Harry looked at her in surprise, but she simply glared at him.

Nick dived down, kicking furiously, churning the water. There was barely any air space now and Kristy and Harry had to tilt their heads to breathe. ‘Follow me,' Harry said. Filling his lungs, he shot down under the water and he felt Kristy do the same a second after him.

Harry glimpsed Jim's feet as the American slid through the hole, and he saw Nick pull himself up along the wall, stick his head into the opening and propel himself forward. Swivelling around in the water, Harry was about to launch himself forward when he felt a rush of churning water. Something banged against his leg and twisted along his shin. He tried to kick it free, but it was stuck fast. He turned and went to reach down, but he couldn't move. He had put his foot through a smashed computer monitor and it had twisted around, trapping him.

Kristy was only 2 metres behind him. She saw Harry twist and caught sight of the plastic object wrapped around his foot. She was barely containing her panic. She had never been a strong swimmer. Her lungs were burning. Every fibre of her brain was telling her to go on, to push through the hole in the wall. She had to save herself. Nothing else mattered. But then, she caught a glimpse of Harry's face. He looked lost, overwhelmed, terrified. He gazed at her and she could see he believed he was going to die.

Pain rushed through Kristy's chest as she stopped, turned and clawed at the monitor. It was stuck fast. She yanked at it, feeling shards of glass rip her flesh, but it would not give. The pain in her chest was crushing her. The desire to open her mouth and breathe was almost overwhelming. She pulled again, and Harry twisted in agony as the glass cut him too. Then it gave, the plastic casing slid through Kristy's fingers and Harry's bloodied foot slipped free. She felt strong hands grabbing her by her wrists and pulling her. Then they were at the opening and Harry was shoving her through. She smashed her head against the edge of the hole and clawed at the jagged concrete of the damaged wall. With a last desperate effort, she pulled herself through and scrambled into the air, gasping as she saw Harry break the surface, his face blue and streaked with blood.

Michael Xavier approached the group of survivors in the Dome Gamma ballroom, and heard sobbing. A woman was on her knees leaning over a prone form. Taking two steps closer, he realised the woman was his wife. She was crouched beside an older woman. It was not until he bent down next to her he recognised one of the guests at their table, Sheila Hoffman, the wife of the architect who had designed the hotel.

Hilary moved her hand over the woman's face and closed her dead eyelids. Then she threw her head into her hands and wept. Michael put an arm around her shoulders and she melted into him. ‘There,' he said softly. Hilary sobbed and clutched at his shirt.

‘Why is this happening, Michael?' she managed to say.

Michael Xavier could not answer her. He knew that things had been made very much worse by the actions of his brother, but the man could hardly be blamed for the disaster. ‘I wish I knew, Hilary,' he said and put a hand under her chin. She pulled away, but he insisted she look up at him. ‘Come on. We have to focus, Hil.'

She surveyed his face, holding his earnest gaze, and clambered to her feet. ‘What are we going to do?'

Michael kept his arm around his wife's shoulders and led her back towards the others gathered close by. Hilary sat down, and Michael stood in front of the group. There were 14 of them, including Hilary, Michael, Johnny, and the two men who had come with them to check out the stairs and the exit. They were all injured in one way or another.

‘The staircase to the east of the building and the emergency stairs are both impassable,' Michael told them. ‘It seems to me we have only one choice. We have to go down to the lowest level using the escalators. There are three emergency subs there. Also, if any rescue attempt is to be made from the surface, a sub will have to hook up with the universal dock in Beta. Failing that, a sub may be able to dock with Dome Alpha. The only route to any of these is via the lowest level and the linkways.'

‘That's madness,' Johnny Xavier burst out. He had been sitting on a pile of debris close to the others. Standing, he walked over to his brother. ‘I know this building as well as anyone,' he said to the group. ‘You've all seen the devastation up here. It'll be far worse down there.' And he pointed towards the floor. ‘Besides, the escalators don't work and may well be severely damaged.' He started to pace in front of the group. ‘We have to stay put up here. Any rescue attempt will be made through one or other of the docks, but they will know we are up here and get through to us. If we go down they'll never find us.'

There was a heavy silence broken only by the crackle of electrical cables close by and the constant dripping of water.

‘The top of the dome won't last much longer,' Michael reasoned, letting his words fall like lead weights. ‘Stay here and you'll drown or be crushed to death. Going down is our only hope. The emergency bulkheads will cut off the top of the dome if pressure on the glass reaches a critical level. Johnny, you know that.'

‘What does he mean?' It was Hilary. She glared at Johnny, then turned towards her husband. ‘What do you
mean
, Michael?'

‘What I said. Look for yourself, Hil. All of you. Look at the cap.'

Heads turned towards the apex of the dome. It was just visible in the gloom. They could all see the cracks running down the sides of the dome.

‘It's designed to take the stress,' Johnny insisted. He turned to the gathering. ‘Believe me. Going down is suicide. None of us have any idea what is down there. The cap will hold.'

Michael whirled on his brother. ‘Why are you doing this, Johnny?'

Johnny turned away from the others and took a step towards Michael. ‘I know you find it hard to accept that you might be wrong about
anything
, Mike. But why should any of us believe you? Tell me that, brother. You built this hotel, you brought us all here tonight.' And he waved a hand back towards the others. ‘Why should any of us trust your judgement?'

Michael fixed his brother's eyes. Johnny broke away and spun on his heel. ‘It's up to each of you to decide what to do,' he said.

Michael had a hand to his forehead, his eyes closed. Then he looked up and walked over to Hilary. Their daughter, Emily, was next to her. Hilary had an arm around the girl's shoulder. Mother and daughter stared at Michael as he approached.

‘I'd like you to trust me,' he said.

Hilary flicked Johnny a glance then looked at the ground for a second. Pulling Emily with her, she strode forward and threw her arms around Michael's waist. He kissed her, then crouched to kiss Emily.

‘I believe we have to go down, and now,' Michael said, turning to the group. ‘But as my brother says, it's up to each of you to decide what's best for you.'

Craig Deloray, the Australian security man, stepped forward. He had improvised a sling from a strip of fabric. He was followed by two others, the engineer, Miguel Bandonis, and the financier, Sigmund de Silva.

‘Johnny,' Michael said, turning to his brother. ‘Please. You're making a mistake.'

‘I don't think I am, Michael. I think you are.'

‘Is that your final word?'

Johnny did not reply, just walked back towards those who had decided to stay.

Michael watched him. Then he took a deep breath, turned and never looked back.