Chapter 10 - The Night They Burned the Hangar|
The fire started at 2:17 in the morning.
I know the exact time because I was awake when my phone rang.
Sleep had become almost impossible.
Every time I closed my eyes, I heard Aaron's emergency call.
Every time I drifted off, the whiteout became the smoke-filled sky over Syria.
Scout was lying beside my bed when Lena's name appeared on the screen.
I answered immediately.
"Jess?"
Her voice was frantic.
"The north hangar is on fire!"
I was already standing.
"Where are you?"
"Outside the maintenance entrance."
"Get away from the building."
"Jess, Nina's inside!"
My stomach dropped.
"Why?"
"She was collecting her belongings after Grant suspended several staff members."
"She called me because she smelled smoke, and then the alarm went off."
I grabbed my coat.
"Have you called emergency services?"
"Yes."
"Then do not go back in."
I ended the call and ran downstairs.
The drive to the airport took less than ten minutes.
By the time I arrived, orange flames were pulsing behind the hangar windows.
Thick smoke rolled across the roof.
Firefighters were deploying hoses while Chief Brooks directed the response from a command vehicle.
I parked well away from the emergency access route.
Lena was standing beside the fence.
Her face was white.
"She called from the storage office," Lena said.
"Then her phone died."
I looked toward the building.
I knew that office.
It was near the rear corridor, beyond a row of locked supply cages.
There was an emergency exit nearby.
But if the corridor had filled with smoke, Nina might have been unable to reach it.
I ran toward Brooks.
"Nina Alvarez may still be inside!"
He turned immediately.
"Where?"
I showed him the location on a hangar floor plan.
He called over two firefighters.
Then he looked at me.
"You're staying outside."
I knew that tone.
It was the voice of someone who had spent too many years pulling people out of burning buildings.
"Chief, I know the layout."
"And you're going to tell my crew everything they need."
He pushed a radio toward me.
"You're not entering that building without protective equipment."
I wanted to argue.
Every instinct in my body was screaming at me to run inside.
For one terrible moment, the hangar wasn't a hangar anymore.
It was a burning aircraft.
Nina's trapped voice became Noah's.
And the smoke pouring from the roof became the black cloud rising above a shattered fuselage.
I couldn't breathe.
My heart hammered.
The world narrowed.
Someone touched my shoulder.
I recoiled so sharply that Lena stepped back.
"Jess?"
I stared at her.
But I wasn't seeing her.
I was seeing desert sand.
Blood.
Fire.
And Noah's helpless face.
"Jessica!"
Chief Brooks' voice cut through the noise.
"Look at me."
I struggled to focus.
He stood directly in front of me.
"You're at Silverwood."
"You're standing outside a hangar."
"My people are going in."
"Tell me where the storage office is."
I swallowed.
Then I pointed at the floor plan.
"Rear corridor."
"Second door on the left."
"There's a maintenance access passage behind the supply cages."
"If the main corridor is blocked, the crew can approach from the east-side service entrance."
Brooks repeated the information into his radio.
The firefighters moved.
I stood beside Lena, shaking uncontrollably.
I hated myself for it.
I hated that my body could still drag me backward through time without asking permission.
But then I heard Noah's voice in my memory.
You saved my life.
Not because I was fearless.
Because I had kept trying while I was afraid.
I pressed both feet against the pavement.
I named the things I could see.
The fire truck.
The fence.
The yellow hose.
Lena's blue jacket.
The snow falling beneath the floodlights.
Slowly, the world returned.
The radio crackled.
"Fire team located one civilian."
"Female, conscious."
"Preparing evacuation."
I almost collapsed.
Lena grabbed my hand.
Minutes later, the firefighters emerged carrying Nina.
Her face was streaked with soot.
She was coughing, but she was alive.
The paramedics placed an oxygen mask over her mouth.
I rushed toward the ambulance after the medical team waved me closer.
Nina caught my sleeve.
"Jess."
"Don't talk."
She shook her head.
"Someone locked the storage corridor."
I froze.
"What?"
"The outer door."
She coughed.
"It wouldn't open."
A paramedic gently moved her hand away.
"We need to get her to the hospital."
I nodded.
Then Nina grabbed my sleeve again.
"Silver case."
I leaned closer.
"What silver case?"
She pulled the oxygen mask down just enough to whisper.
"The man who started it."
"I saw him leaving with a silver case."
My blood ran cold.
"Did you see his face?"
She nodded weakly.
"Paul Voss."
The paramedic replaced the mask.
The ambulance doors closed.
I stood in the snow, watching its red lights disappear.
Then I turned toward the burning hangar.
The north building contained maintenance records, equipment storage, and the small office Whitmore Defense had temporarily rented.
If someone wanted to destroy traces of unauthorized contractor activity, it was exactly the kind of place they might target.
Chief Brooks approached me.
"Fire's being contained."
"Nobody else is missing."
"Thank you for helping with the layout."
I looked at the flames.
"Chief, Nina says somebody locked her inside."
His expression hardened.
"I'll pass that to the investigators."
"And there's something else."
I told him about Paul Voss.
About the silver case.
About the records in the north hangar.
Brooks immediately contacted law enforcement.
Then he looked at me.
"Jessica, don't go looking for this man yourself."
I gave a bitter laugh.
"Believe me, Chief."
"I've had enough fires for one lifetime."
But something bothered me.
A person trying to destroy evidence would usually avoid attracting attention.
Burning a hangar was spectacularly reckless.
Unless the fire was covering something more important.
I looked toward the access road behind the maintenance building.
Through the flashing emergency lights, I could see a black SUV pulling away from the far parking lot.
Its headlights swept across the snow.
For one second, I caught sight of the driver.
A broad-shouldered man.
A heavy dark jacket.
A silver watch on his left wrist.
I knew that posture.
"Chief!"
I pointed toward the vehicle.
"That may be Voss!"
Brooks called the information over the police radio.
I watched the SUV disappear into the storm.
Then my phone vibrated.
A message appeared from an unknown number.
YOU SAVED THE WRONG PERSON AGAIN.
I stared at the words.
The sender wasn't just threatening me.
May you like
He wanted me to relive the worst night of my life.
And for one terrible moment, I wondered whether he knew something about Syria that I still didn't.
