Part 15 (1/2)

The combination of ammonium nitrate and diesel fuel was the same explosive compound that had been used to blow up the World Trade Center in New York the first time, as well as the Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

There was a good chance the trailer was going to blow up.

My daughters!

Before I could think the situation through, I found myself on the ground. On my b.u.t.t. I'd landed hard. With no warning.

With even less warning, I was on my back, staring up at ribbons of black smoke in a blue sky. I hadn't fainted. Nor had I tripped. There had been no explosion. Not yet.

Struggling to a sitting position, I peered around to see what had taken my legs out from under me. There was nothing around me, no man or woman, no dog, no offending object.

I rolled to one knee and regained my feet, only to fall again.

Day 3: Worse headache, dizziness, falling down.

It was the second time today I'd fallen.

Taking a glove off and placing the radio mike to my lips, I said, ”Dispatcher from Edgewick Command, we're going to evacuate. We have indications of large quant.i.ties of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil on the premises. All incoming North Bend units stand by one-half mile away. We have ammonium nitrate and fuel oil. Lots of it.”

Reaching my feet unsteadily, I grabbed the sidewall of the trailer for support and then let go. The metal wall was as hot as a pancake griddle. I moved slowly at first, more confidently after a few steps.

When I reached the front of the trailer, I realized n.o.body on scene had heard my radio transmission.

Ben and Karrie were still in the smoky front doorway. I reached into the smoke and slapped Ben on the rump. ”The place is filled with ammonium nitrate. Abandon the building. Now!” Twisting her head around, Karrie looked at me through the mask of her SurviveAir face piece. ”I mean it! Out!”

Reaching up into the cab, I turned the siren on and switched it to the abandon building warning, a tone we'd never used except in practice.

I dashed to where my daughters and Morgan had been. The old woman was there, but my girls and Morgan were missing. Choking on my own dry throat, I called out my daughter's names. ”Britney? Allyson?”

”Daddy?”

The three of them were watching me curiously from the other side of the maroon Chevrolet. Judging from the looks on their faces, I'd been bleating their names like a maniac.

I stepped between them, picking up Allyson under one arm, Britney under the other, adjusting their skinny little bodies as I ran. ”Follow us, Morgan. You, too, lady. Everybody out of the yard. It's going to blow up.”

Behind me, I heard the old woman complaining that her purse was in her car, that her Robitussin was in her purse. I didn't have time to quibble and was happy to see that despite the complaining she followed us.

On the other side of the street, I set my daughters down and looked back as Ben, Karrie, and Ian ran across the road behind us. ”You girls hide behind that motor home. I'll be with you in a minute.”

Something in my voice told them not to ask questions.

I jogged back to Caputo's driveway just as a black pickup truck pulled into the drive and plugged the opening.

I stepped around to the darkened driver's window and found myself confronting Steve Haston. He wore full bunking gear and a white chief's helmet. He'd never been a chief. For the last five years he hadn't even been a volunteer. Then, I noticed he had Newcastle's gear on, Newcastle's gear that had been hanging on a hook in the firehouse for the past month, the gear n.o.body had the heart to dispose of. The coat was too short in the arms by about five inches.

He said, ”The fire's behind you, Jim. You got everybody going the wrong direction.”

”Get your truck out of here. Even if this place wasn't a powder keg, n.o.body parks their personal vehicle in the driveway at a fire scene. You know better than that.”

”Powder keg? What are you talking about?”

”The trailer is full of ammonium nitrate.”

He laughed. ”Ammonium nitrate? Isn't that fertilizer? By the way, you'd better tell Snoqualmie to get down here. They're back a ways pulled off the road.”

”The trailer is on fire, and it's going to blow. Now get the h.e.l.l out of here.”

”No can do, buddy boy. I'm taking over as incident commander.” By now everybody else was off the premises. Accompanied by a thick, fast-moving plume of black smoke, flame began to emerge out the front door of the trailer. The pump on Engine 1 was still running, although somebody'd shut off the siren. ”I've decided, in light of how you people lost control of the department with the health issues and so forth, that somebody needs to get on board and take charge. I guess that's going to be me. Now you get those people back in here and fight some fire.”

”Good-bye, Steve,” I said, walking away. ”I'll see you get the best funeral the city can afford.”

”What?” he shouted out his window. ”What?”

Moments later Haston's truck sped across the road in front of me. In reverse. He parked on the lawn in front of a ranch-style house about seventy feet beyond where my girls had taken refuge. The way he was driving, we were lucky he hadn't run over anybody.

We were not quite directly opposite Caputo's place, s.h.i.+elded by a motor home, as well as by a small hillock on the edge of Caputo's property. I figured we were almost two hundred yards away, but somehow it didn't seem far enough. I had no idea how much ammonium nitrate was in the trailer or how much of an explosion it might produce, or even if it would would explode. Years ago in Kansas City, when a burning construction trailer blew up and killed six firefighters, windows were knocked out over a mile distant. The noise was heard ten miles away. explode. Years ago in Kansas City, when a burning construction trailer blew up and killed six firefighters, windows were knocked out over a mile distant. The noise was heard ten miles away.

Like a mother bird spreading her wings, I opened my bunking coat and enveloped my daughters under the fire-r.e.t.a.r.dant Nomex material. When I motioned to Morgan, she gathered close, too. ”Is there really a bomb?” she asked in a small voice.

”I guess we'll find out.”

As we huddled, I began to have misgivings. In my twelve-year career, I'd never seen anybody anybody pull everyone out of a fire building. I was going to look either prescient or remarkably stupid. It was possible I'd misread the evidence. After all, what had I uncovered? An injured dog, some empty sacks, a couple of oil barrels. pull everyone out of a fire building. I was going to look either prescient or remarkably stupid. It was possible I'd misread the evidence. After all, what had I uncovered? An injured dog, some empty sacks, a couple of oil barrels.

And why would Caputo turn his trailer into a makes.h.i.+ft bomb?

Stump blasting. Of course. He'd been blasting stumps. Why hadn't I thought of that sooner? Now that I thought about it, stump blasting made a whole lot more sense than anything else. Whether or not the materials were inside the trailer was another story.

Beside us now, Ian Hjorth said, ”Did I hear you say bomb?”

Ben Arden unbuckled his backpack and dropped his self-contained breathing apparatus into the gra.s.s. ”We could have had it out in another few minutes.”

”I'm going with my gut here,” I said.

Ben and Ian exchanged glances. I knew they were both wondering whether I'd lost my mind.

The radio traffic was atwitter, both from the dispatcher and from the units waiting half a mile down the road. Everybody wanted details.

It was at this point that Mayor Haston stormed over to us. I had a feeling if not for the fact that my girls were with me, he would have thrown a punch. He was that angry. I'd heard a rumor that when Newcastle fired him from the volunteers, they'd nearly come to blows, that Haston had a hair-trigger temper. This was the first time I'd faced it. I knew he blamed me for the fact that our wives had run off together.

”I don't know much,” Haston said, standing over me, his helmet akimbo, ”but I know that trailer's burning like a box of kindling. It kind of makes me wonder about you, Swope.”

”You're right, Steve. You don't know much.”

”You got everybody into a lather at the meeting. Could be you're just one of those people likes to run around crying wolf.”

It had been more than three minutes since we'd evacuated the property. ”Steve, the way I figure it, this is a no-brainer for you. I'm right, you get to live. I'm wrong, you'll look good for wanting to go back in.”

”Don't hand me any of your bulls.h.i.+t. I want your people back in there. Now.”