Once again outside the building in the smoky night air, Alex breathed a little easier. People had gathered around the front gate of the embassy to watch the smoke billow up from the building. At least he no longer saw the glow of flames or sparks, although they could flare up at any moment. Alex and Taylor hurried along a stone path bordered by a thick hedge.
He hadn’t gone more than a hundred yards before he spotted the breaker box fastened to the wall. After lifting the gray lid, he shined the light inside and threw the main switch.
“Our security chief,” the aide said, “will want a report about this.” The aide left them to find Ira Hanuck, Chief of Palace Security.
Alex had known that eventually he’d have to test his disguise and come face-to-face with people who knew him well. He’d been hoping to put off a meeting until Ira had gotten used to seeing the handyman around the embassy before ever having to have a direct conversation with him. However, tonight’s difficulties had moved up the timetable considerably.
Knowing she wouldn’t remain behind, he led Taylor into the smoky building, determined to rescue the trapped people and to get out fast. Using the flashlight, he illuminated the walls and floor to get his bearings and spoke above the noise of the fire sprinklers and raining water.
“Look for a fire extinguisher,” he directed, heading toward the stairwell that would lead to the burning offices.
As they moved deeper inside, the smoke thickened and he took Taylor’s hand to avoid losing her. When she didn’t immediately jerk away from his touch, instead allowing her hand to remain within his, satisfaction threaded through him. At least he had made progress on one front. She trusted him a little more than she had before.
“There.” She pointed to an alcove with soda and snack machines. “A fire extinguisher.”
He released her fingers and handed her the light. It took a moment to figure out the release mechanism. The extinguisher came free with a thump and proved heavier than he’d expected.
She shined the light on a metal label attached to the extinguisher. “It says—”
He didn’t take the time to allow her to read the directions. The mechanism was simple enough. He snapped open the nozzle handle and pulled back the trigger. Foam sprayed, arching in front of them in a gratifying whoosh.
Leaving the vending area behind, they headed toward a stairwell that should take them upstairs to where the aide had said people were trapped. He reached for the doorknob, intending to enter the stairwell.
“Wait.” She tugged him back. “Touch the door first to see if it’s hot.”
Good idea. He released her hand and did as she suggested. The metal door felt cool beneath his fingers, and he reclaimed her hand. “We can go on.”
Emergency exit signs lit the stairs in an eerie glow, and with the dissipated smoke, it no longer seemed as though they were swimming through a viscous cloud. He expected the sprinklers to take care of the worst of the fire and hoped he could break down the door and free those who were trapped before any flames blazed up again.
Despite his hurry, before opening the second door that led out of the stairwell, he paused to place his palm on the door to check for heat. “It’s cool.”
She tugged him back. “Stand back as far as you can, okay?”
He leaned forward, then shoved the door open with his foot. When no flames shot through, he used his arm to prop open the door and peek around it.
Here, the smoke was thicker than Turkish coffee. He could barely see two feet ahead. “Grab onto me. I don’t want to lose you.”
He took a quick, short breath, the acrid taste settling on his tongue, his lungs protesting with a series of coughs. He felt Taylor grab his shoulder strap where the material connected to the waist of his overalls.
His soaked clothes slowed his movements but added protection from stray sparks. Alex shuffled forward, peering through stinging eyes into the dark gloom. He heard the crackle of flames before he saw them and slowly blundered down the hall and through a doorway. With the smoke so thick, Alex didn’t even know whose office he’d entered.
The sprinkler system seemed to have already doused the flames, leaving behind the stench of burned plastic, leather and rubber products. He eased one foot in front of the other, expecting to trip over furniture, a wastebasket or even a vacuum cleaner left behind by the cleaning crew. But the office appeared empty. Without exiting back into the hallway, he moved into the next office, advancing slowly, wondering why he heard no screams from those who were trapped.
He yelled. “Anyone here?”
No one answered. Were they already suffering from smoke inhalation and unconscious?
Taylor tugged on his overalls. “Fire.” She coughed. “By the far wall.”
The flames were neither bright nor hot, more like a flicker of yellow and orange in a black sea of fog. But as he approached, a gust of wind swirled the smoke and the flames hungrily licked toward them.
Alex depressed the lever on the fire extinguisher. Foam hissed out in a rush, smothering the flames. He stamped out stray sparks and prayed they were done. But as soon as one part of the fire died, another flame rose to take its place.
“We need a second extinguisher.” She made the statement and let go of him at the same time.
“Don’t go.”
She paid no attention and the smoke swallowed her up. He debated turning back but the growing flames demanded his attention again.
A moment later he heard her scream.
TAYLOR BUMPED into someone. Someone who couldn’t possibly be Alex. Someone silently skulking around in the dark. Powerful arms came around her, and she let out a shout.
“Are you hurt?” the stranger asked in Hungarian-accented English.
About to ram her knee into the man’s groin, she delayed after hearing concern in his tone. “Who are you?”
“Chief of security, Ira Hanuck.” His hands steadied her, then released her. Through the smoke she could barely make out more than his bulky silhouette. “Are you a secretary?” he asked. “I heard people were trapped up here and came to help. You need to vacate the building right away. It’s not safe.”
Well, duh! “We need another fire extinguisher.”
“We?”
Alex shouted to Taylor. “Are you all right?”
“Yes, darling,” Taylor told Alex, using the endearment to remind him they had to keep up their cover as husband and wife. Then she spoke to Ira, hitching her thumb over her shoulder. “My husband is putting out the flames back there so he can reach a door that is jammed. People may be trapped and he could use some help.”
Ira bent and lifted a second fire extinguisher. “You should leave the building. I’ll find him.”
“I’ll help you find him,” Taylor insisted. “This way.”
She led him back toward where she thought she’d left Alex. “Honey? Where are you?”
“By the window.” He coughed, his voice sounding hoarse and raw.
Since she hadn’t had to carry anything, she’d protected her lungs from the smoke by breathing through her shirt. Alex had been carrying the heavy extinguisher and hadn’t had the luxury of straining air through his sleeve. He didn’t sound good. On the one hand, he sounded nothing like he had earlier and the smoke in his lungs would help disguise his voice. On the other hand, severe smoke inhalation could put Alex in the hospital.
She and Ira followed a trail of foam and tromped through three singed and soggy offices before they caught up with Alex. Here, the flames were highest. In the brightness, she could see Alex’s face smudged with soot. A perfect disguise—if he lived through the fire.
She wanted to tug him to safety, but he was clearly determined to reach the door behind the flames where she could hear someone pounding.
Oh, God. People really were trapped in there. All along she’d had doubts.
With Ira’s help, the two men saturated the fire with foam. The sprinklers continued to rain down, soaking any stray sparks. Slowly, the men beat back the flam
es. They’d extinguished the last spark.
“Stand back!” Moments later, Alex used the fire extinguisher as a battering ram against the door. Nothing gave. He withdrew a screwdriver and removed the hinges while Ira stood guard with the extinguisher.
Finally the door clattered to the floor and two frightened women hurried out. Soaking wet, their clothes reeking of smoke, they appeared unharmed.
And then sirens screaming, the fire trucks arrived and men rushed toward the building with hoses and ladders.
Minutes later firemen helped the two women outside. Taylor peered out the window to the front gate where a heavy man with a thick Russian accent shouted at paramedics, refusing to allow them into the embassy. Any moment, she expected him to pull a weapon to keep back the police and paramedics.
Tired, out of adrenaline, Taylor shook her head at the scene below. “The man’s crazy.”
“Who? General Vladimir?” Ira asked.
“Is he the one refusing to let the paramedics inside?” Taylor asked.
“Their presence is no longer necessary,” Ira told her.
“Flames could spark back up at any time. We need to get out and let the firemen do their job,” Taylor said. She didn’t understand these people. Security precautions were one thing, but smoke inhalation could kill them just as dead as terrorists. She had the distinct feeling that both the security chief and the general had something to hide. Could they be in ca-hoots with one another?
She heard voices echoing down the hall and joined Alex to present a united front to the strangers. Taylor wasn’t the least surprised to learn that the general and another man had come up to survey the damage with a group of firefighters.
Ira growled at both men. “What are you doing here?”
“The fire started in my office,” a wide-shouldered man with a kind face answered gently. “Even this old fisherman is curious about how the sparks started.”
Taylor realized that the “fisherman” was Anton Belosova, Vashmira’s secretary of state and someone Hunter had warned them about. She couldn’t help liking the diplomat on sight. He had a kind face and walked as if he carried the weight of his country’s future on his shoulders.
So far, none of the men had looked closely at Alex. In his sodden clothes, with his hat pulled low and his face filthy from soot, she imagined he appeared nothing like the prince of Vashmira the three powerful men were accustomed to seeing. However, the sooner she and Alex left, the less chance the men would have of discovering Alex’s identity.
She reached Alex’s side and took his hand. “You should come breathe some fresh air, dear.”
“Not yet.” The general stopped them. “You’re the new handyman, correct?”
“Yes, sir.” Alex spoke hoarsely and Taylor suspected he didn’t even have to disguise his voice. The smoke had taken care of that problem.
“Would you mind taking a quick look into Anton’s office? I, too, am curious about the cause of the fire.”
“My husband is not an arson investigator,” Taylor protested. “Ask the firemen to help.”
Alex headed into the office where the fire had started. “Won’t hurt to look. Besides, we can’t turn on the electricity until the wiring is checked.”
“Tomorrow is soon enough,” Taylor insisted. She wanted Alex out of here. Any of them could recognize him, and she had no idea how much he really knew about electrical wiring. With the water from the sprinklers still running, they all stood in puddles of water. She didn’t need a degree in electrical engineering to know that any of them could easily be electrocuted if someone “accidentally” turned the main breaker switch back on.
“I’m okay,” Alex insisted.
“You breathed in a lot of smoke. It won’t take but five minutes—”
Alex pulled her into the secretary of state’s office and flicked his light around the room. “We’ll just take a quick look.”
Why was he being so insistent on searching the place now? Did Alex think one of the men had come upstairs to hide the evidence of their arson?
Ira pointed to a dark black blotch on the wall. “By the look of that charred drywall, the fire burned hottest over there.”
“Next to my desk,” Anton murmured.
Alex knelt and shined his light on two wires. “I can’t be sure, but these wires appear to be stripped.”
“Stripped?” the general asked.
“Missing their insulation,” a fireman who’d accompanied them explained. “If two stripped wires cross, they spark.”
“Was this deliberate?” Anton asked Alex.
Alex shrugged. “I don’t know, sir.”
The fireman kneeled closer. “Could be arson. Could be an accident. It’s difficult to say.”
Ira frowned at the general and the secretary of state, ignoring Taylor and Alex. “We’ve just arrived. We hadn’t even visited these offices. So there was no sensitive information—”
“I’m afraid there was.” Anton sighed. “I sent file attachments ahead, so I would have the material when I arrived.”
“What kind of attachments?” the general asked.
Anton hesitated, clearly he didn’t want to speak in front of the gardener, the handyman and the fireman. “Political documents.”
Taylor tugged on Alex. “I want the paramedics to check you out before they leave. Come on, honey.”
Alex stood and she hoped this time she’d succeeded in convincing him to leave. He casually placed an arm over her shoulder, and she didn’t mind at all. She just wanted to escape while their cover held.
But Alex wouldn’t be hurried. “Sir, there’s one other thing you might need to know.”
“What?” the general asked with impatience.
“That locked office door?”
“Yes?”
“The lock was melted from the outside. As if someone had put a torch to it.”
“You’re saying those women were deliberately trapped,” Taylor added. She watched the three men’s faces carefully and decided she wouldn’t want to play poker against any of them. They didn’t reveal surprise. They didn’t react at all. Would the sprinklers have put out the fire without the help from the extinguishers? It was almost as if they had expected that the fire had been deliberately started and that the arsonist had meant for the sprinklers to put it out before it went too far. But why?
Had someone stolen information from the secretary of state while the building was being evacuated and risked the lives of innocent secretaries to do it? That made no sense. If they’d been in Anton Belosova’s office long enough to set a fire, they undoubtedly had had the opportunity to steal information then.
Four offices had been singed by the fire. Perhaps the arsonist had been interested in information from another office. Perhaps the fire had been a diversion to make it easier to steal something from another more closely guarded part of the building. Until she had the opportunity to speak privately with Alex, she couldn’t even formulate her suspicions.
“Come, dear. I’m tired and tomorrow I have to fertilize the roses.”
Alex hugged her to his side. “You were a big help.”
Together they exited the offices and headed back to the stairwell, leaving the three men behind. As before, the smoke wasn’t as strong here, and beside her Alex breathed in several large gulps of air.
“Do you think—” Alex began.
“Shh.” Taylor slipped out from beneath his arm and placed her hand back on her weapon. “Did you hear that?”
“I can’t hear anything with the sprinklers running,” Alex complained.
As if the system had heard his statement, the water suddenly stopped. Either the sensors had kicked in or someone had turned the sprinklers off.
However, the ceiling continued to drip. Taylor heard a footstep and spun around and gasped as a silhouette emerged in the flickering light from above them. The security chief had followed them.
Ira spoke, keeping his voice low. “Glad I caught up with you folks.”
�
��Why?” Taylor didn’t like the way he’d sneaked up on them and her suspicions kicked in.
Ira reached into his pocket, took out several hundred dollar bills and offered them to Alex. “I have some special equipment I want you to install for me when you repair those walls.”
“What kind of equipment?” Alex asked.
“Spy cameras.”
Chapter Six
Alex ignored the money that the security chief held out to him. “Spy cameras?”
Ira issued his order, almost as if he were talking to a moron. “Before the walls are repaired, I want you to install the fiber-optic wiring necessary to run mini Webcams.”
Duh? Did the security chief think he would run the wires after the new drywall was up?
To keep the insult from showing on his face, Alex looked down at the hundred-dollar bills. “Sir, I’ll need the funds for this to come through channels. Am I to understand—”
“You needn’t understand. I’m authorizing the work and paying for the materials. What’s to understand?”
At least the money wasn’t a bribe. However, from Ira’s annoyed tone, it was clear that Alex had over-stepped the boundaries of his position by questioning the security chief. He wanted to ask if the chief would put his orders in writing but didn’t want to raise the man’s suspicions.
Without another word Alex accepted the money and stuffed it into a soggy pocket. “It may take a few days—”
“The sooner the better,” Ira told him before departing as quickly as he’d arrived.
In all his years at the palace, Ira had never spoken to Prince Alexander except with the most polite deference. Tonight, the man had revealed that Alex had never really known him. Sure, the security chief could have been worried about the fire, but that didn’t excuse his rudeness. On the positive side, Alex now had a little more confidence in his disguise. The downside was that Ira might have sent someone to start the fire so he could install his cameras.
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