Page 9 of Girl Anonymous
“Rescuing you.” Now that she’d plunged into the inferno, now that she’d replaced the old terror with this moment, Maarja could place her anxiety on ice.
“No!” Mrs. Arundel took a hard breath, coughed, and dropped her forehead onto the carved rug and mumbled…something that sounded like the F-bomb.
She’d probably suffered a blow to the head. That compounded by oxygen deprivation would explain her odd behavior.
Maarja looked around for the wheelchair. It was close at hand, overturned when Mrs. Arundel had been hurled out. Smoke rose from the leather seat, but otherwise it was intact. Thank God. Unthinking, Maarja reached for the metal frame.
Mrs. Arundel snapped again, “Don’t touch! You’ll burn your fingers.”
“Right.” That was so right. Maarja realized that here and now, the wheelchair would serve as a roasting pan.
Mrs. Arundel painfully lifted herself onto her elbows. “Maarja, I beg you, save yourself!”
Steadily, Maarja replied, “Andyou. I will saveyou.”
Mrs. Arundel stared at her in frustration, then gave a littlelaugh. “Of courseyou have to save me.” Tears sprang to her eyes, and she wiped at them. “That’s fate, is it not?”
Maarja’s hopes for anonymity were dashed. Mrs. Arundel did know, and Maarja felt sick. “I guess it is.” An admission the flames would consume if Maarja failed Mrs. Arundel now.
“Can you drag me out of here?” Mrs. Arundel asked.
“Yes.” In the short run, that made more sense than the wheelchair. Yet Mrs. Arundel and Maarja were about the same height and weight. No way Maarja could perform a fireman’s lift. How would Maarja get her any farther? Into the elevator? Or, if the elevator had been sabotaged—for this bombing was a malevolent act—down the stairs?
One problem at a time, Maarja.“I’ll use your throw to pull you.”
“Good idea!” Mrs. Arundel pushed herself over onto her back. “I trust you. Move briskly, young lady!”
Maarja removed the moving blanket from her own head, felt such heat from the fire she knew her eyebrows had singed. She covered Mrs. Arundel to protect her from the flames. Grabbing the throw in her hands, she braced her feet and yanked.
Mrs. Arundel moved about twelve inches.
The flames leaped twenty-four inches.
Incentive.
Moving in jerks, walking backward, one pull at a time, she hauled Mrs. Arundel across the rug. Mrs. Arundel’s dark scarred, emaciated legs dragged limply behind them. When they reached the hardwood floor, Mrs. Arundel’s body slid more easily, they moved more quickly, out of the library and into the elevator foyer.
The air was better here.
Mrs. Arundel pushed the blanket off her face. “There. I’m safe! Now you run!”
Maarja did. She ran to the elevator and pushed the button.
It didn’t light up. Of course not. The system had shut down. Maarja reported, “Elevator’s unavailable. We’ll take the stairs.”
“I can’t take the stairs! I can’t walk. You saved me.” Mrs. Arundel made a shooing gesture. “Go get help!”
Inside the library, the flames crackled with joy as they consumed the books, shelves, paint and furnishings. With every passing second, the heat and smoke grew exponentially, greedily sucking up the oxygen.
Oh, God. Dear God. Let me do this!
“You are not safe, and I’m not leaving you!” Maarja leaned down, grabbed the throw, and once more started the process of walking backward, yanking Mrs. Arundel toward the stairs. She had no idea how she was going to get the fragile lady down three flights to the ground floor. She wondered if, hoped that, Alex would run up the stairs, open the door, and arrive to help Maarja carry Mrs. Arundel down.
She wouldn’t; they’d trained for such a situation and Alex would perform her duty. Right now, Alex and Serene were thrusting the fine art into the van, locking everything and racing away, down the road to some random destination. There they’d be joined by other Saint Rees Fine Arts Movers guards and everything would be taken to a safe, hidden place and stored until this crisis, whatever it was, was over.
Maarja would somehow make this work…because she had to.
The stairway door slammed open, slapping the wall, barely missing Maarja’s butt.
