Chapter 14 - The Fire Alarm
At 3:17 p.m., Carter Tower's fire alarm sounded.
A metallic voice ordered everyone to evacuate. Employees streamed toward the stairwells, their faces pale beneath flashing lights. Maria Torres took charge of the lobby as calmly as she'd handled every emergency drill.
“Don't run. Use the east exit. Stay together.”
Benjamin was halfway down the stairs when he smelled smoke. Not the faint smell of overheated equipment. Thick, oily smoke, coming from the lower service level.
He pulled the alarm station's emergency phone. “This is Benjamin Carter. Smoke on B2, possibly the electrical room. We have people in the stairwells.”
The fire department was already responding.
Outside, Naomi stood with Caleb, who had insisted on leaving the hospital against advice once he heard she was threatened. She gripped his jacket so hard he winced.
“Sorry,” she said.
“Don't be. Just don't let go.”
Firefighters entered through the service doors. Within minutes, they reported a small but deliberate fire near a bank of storage cabinets. The sprinkler system contained it. Nobody was seriously injured.
But somebody had used the evacuation to enter the executive records room.
Malcolm raced back upstairs only after fire officials cleared the area. A secure rack stood open. Two drives were gone. The intruder had avoided cameras by using an old maintenance passage that didn't appear on the current floor plan.
Benjamin did know the passage. He had designed it as an access route for early wiring work.
“Who else had those plans?” Ruth asked.
Benjamin's answer came like a confession. “Richard. Me. And anyone Richard gave them to.”
A security technician replayed footage from the service door. Through smoke and falling water, a person in blue coveralls had entered carrying a gray tool bag.
The figure turned toward the camera for less than a second.
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It wasn't Benjamin.
It was Maria Torres, the guard who had greeted him every morning.
