Chapter 71

 

 

Nate and Don are rushing around the basement like a couple of men with bad cases of diarrhea looking for a toilet and they know there’s only one. Nate quickly finds the relay switches the Chameleon has inserted in the wiring connected to the basement elevator circuit breaker and the main power line coming into the basement. Evidently, the basement elevator gets its power off a feeder from the main power line, but the wiring is behind a wall.

 

In less than five minutes, he’s removed the switches and restored the wiring to its normal condition. Don is able to turn the water back on right away, but finding the means the Chameleon planted for starting a fire is proving to be very difficult. Nate joins him in the search, but the extra pair of eyes is no help at all.

 

What’s making their search even more difficult is the fumes from the accelerant that the Chameleon has spread around all over the basement. They’re having trouble breathing, their eyes are burning and watering so badly that their vision is blurred and they’re also dealing with nausea and dizziness.

 

Nate says, “We’re overlooking something. The Chameleon wouldn’t have poured this stuff all over everything here without a means of igniting it from a distance.”

 

Don looks over at him and a possibility suddenly comes to mind when he sees beads of sweat on Nate’s forehead. Don’s been sweating too, but he’s chalked it up to the tension of being in a dangerous situation. The next instant he yells, “The thermostat! You fixed the wiring, but the furnaces and air conditioners, they’re not making a sound.”

 

Sure enough, when they check out the thermostat they find that its guts have been removed and replaced with a little black box containing a small power supply, a relay and something that looks like a miniature ignition coil you’d find in a car. There are wires coming from the top of the ignition coil that stick out from the top of the thermostat about a quarter of an inch. When the thermostat’s in its normal position in the wall, the tips of the wires are barely noticeable.

 

Nate quickly cuts the wires coming from the power supply and going to the coil and then says with a sigh of relief, “Amazing. The man is amazing.”

 

Don says, “How could something that small provide enough of a spark to start a fire?”

 

“Don, this guy is a master at miniaturization. He’s made a living at it. I’m sure it would have worked if we hadn’t found it.”

 

“But, Nate, why did he go to all this trouble when he could have placed a device of normal size out in the open somewhere?”

 

“Don, this guy doesn’t think like you and I. He’s not firing on all cylinders if you get my drift, but he’s very smart and extremely cautious. He tries to plan for all contingencies. He did what he did in case someone figured out a way to get down here before he was ready to press the button. If someone did come down here, they’d see nothing alarming. This guy believes he’s covered all his bases, but he didn’t figure on a very smart janitor gumming up the works. That was some heads up thinking, guy.”

 

Smiling he replies, “It’s remarkable what fear can do isn’t it?”

 

Chuckling Nate said, “Let’s get out of here before we pass out. Walk slowly and don’t do anything that might create a spark. Go out the cellar door. We can leave it open and get a big exhaust fan going to suck out these fumes. Until we do that, this basement is still a very dangerous place to be. I’d disable the basement elevator again by throwing its circuit breaker, but I’m afraid that might create a spark and blow us up. Besides, KABOOM has never been one of my favorite sounds.

 

Once back upstairs in the lobby, Nate calls Tucker and gives him the status of the basement, then he calls the firehouse and arranges for them to bring over some big exhaust fans and then he calls Rex to let everyone there know what’s going on. Flipping his cell phone closed, he notices Don coming back from the stairwell door with a hammer in his hand.

 

“Nate, do you think you can get your firemen buddies to bring some extra gas masks along with those fans. The Chameleon has spread the same stuff he spread in the basement in the stairwells. Breathing in too much of that crap can’t be good for you.”

 

“You’ll get them. If there are fumes in the stairwells, you’d better be real careful removing those nails from the windows with that hammer. It would be safer if you covered the hammer with a thick cloth to prevent a spark from setting off a blaze.”

 

“I’m heading to my truck now to get some. I’m steering clear of the basement until those fumes are out of there. The stairwells are bad, but not as bad as the basement.”

 

Nate nods his acknowledgement and then begins to review in his mind all that he has learned since he entered the building. “So far, so good. We’ve been damned lucky to find what we did before the Chameleon could activate anything. I hope our luck holds out until this nut is nabbed.”

 

Then something he’s overlooked pops into his head. He quickly gets Tucker back on the phone. “Tucker, the Chameleon might have planted more ignition devices on the stairwells. Don told me that they’ve been sprayed with the same accelerant that we found in the basement. Doing so would enable him to start two or more fires at the same time, improving his odds of burning the building to the ground. Have your men look for a little black box that looks out of place. If they find any, tell them to open it up and rip out the power supply. The power supply looks like a battery. How are you guys holding up with those fumes?”

 

“We’re dealing with them, barely. Our vision is blurry, we’re dizzy and nauseous, breathing normally is out of the question, but so far no one’s passed out.”

 

“Well, hang in there. I’m going to call the fire station for some gas masks when I hang up. They should be here within ten minutes. I called them for exhaust fans just minutes ago and they’re being dropped off out front as we speak. Any sign of the Chameleon?”

 

“Nothing yet. It’s tough going walking up these stairs with these fumes suffocating us, so we’ve only managed to reach the sixteenth floor. Popeye and I are headed to the attic for a look see while my men search the floors below.”

 

“Okay, I’ll give a shout when the gas masks arrive.”