Floor 199, Cloud Tower
The route back to the rim of the tower was a nightmare. The floor was strewn with more debris than ever – material shaken from the roof by the shockwaves produced when the spikes smacked into the building. In places, the floor had simply given way, leaving wide, ragged holes through which could be seen the shattered mess of the floors below. To make it worse, new fires had started and many of these were produced by noxious chemicals bursting from their containers and combusting in the air, the flames whipped up by the gusting wind off the desert.
The party headed towards the southern face of the triangular tower. This was considered the safest bet because the wind was blowing in from the southeast. Either of the other two faces would have meant the force of the wind could propel anyone on the nanonet over the edge. On this side, the gusts pushed them back towards the building.
Running onto the main walkway that stretched between the central area where they had been sheltered and the shops of the periphery of the tower, they could see out to the desert through blasted walls and shattered windows. Steph, Mai, Frank and Craig stumbled in front of the others, carrying Chloe on the makeshift stretcher and fighting the wind blowing straight into them.
‘Through there.’ Stephanie gesticulated and nodded towards a jeans shop.
The floor was strewn with sodden clothing, bits of crumbled ceiling and an oily slurry. Clothes racks lay in tangled piles, the counter had collapsed at one end, sending a computer into a furrow in the stone floor. A freestanding mirror had tumbled on top of it, the glass smashed into thousands of pieces, shards everywhere. They heard a sound starting to build. It was instantly recognisable – the whoosh and rumble of a big helicopter heading towards them.
Steph and the three men edged their way across the floor, trying to keep Chloe horizontal as they stumbled over the shattered marble. Five metres from the devastated wall, they had their first clear view of the nanonet. It stretched out of sight to their left and right and lay like a silver carpet, reaching about 4 metres out from the side of the tower.
The outer wall of the shop had been smashed up, leaving little more than a pair of pillars and a few daggers of glass around the window frame. A low parapet lay on the inside of the wall. It had crumbled. Just a few teetering columns of bricks and concrete remained.
Craig slipped on the wet floor and stumbled. ‘Argh!’ he exclaimed and cursed, but he just managed to stop himself going down.
Chloe slid to one side of the stretcher and groaned. The other three compensated, bringing it level. Two more steps and they lowered Chloe to the floor. Steph crouched down to check her vitals using her wrist computer, then straightened and walked carefully over to the wall of the tower. The others held back. Looking out anxiously towards the distant horizon, it felt as though a universe of empty space lay just beyond the wall. As they watched, the chopper descended into view a few metres beyond the edge of the nanonet.
‘This is Oman 1. Squadron Leader Mike Grosvenor.’ The pilot’s voice boomed through Steph’s headset and she set the comms to speaker so everyone could hear the instructions. She looked up and could see the two pilots in the cockpit of the Chinook.
‘Good to see you,’ Steph said.
Then there came another sound, a higher-pitched noise. From the east of the opening in the wall, the nose of Silverback edged forwards into view. It was just a few metres from the chopper.
‘Steph? It’s Dimitri,’ Godska’s voice came through the speaker. ‘The RAF chopper will take everyone off the nanonet, including you. I’m going to hover here and lower a carrier for Chloe. Gina’s copiloting.’ Steph caught a glimpse of a second person just behind Dimitri. ‘She’ll come down with the cable,’ Dimitri added. ‘You concentrate on the survivors.’
‘Copy that,’ Steph responded and she saw a panel open in the underside of the Silverback. Gina disappeared from the copilot’s cockpit and a few moments later a narrow metal platform at the end of a Maxinium cable began to descend towards the nanonet. Gina, dressed in a cybersuit, gripped the cable tightly with both hands.
‘Okay, come on, everyone,’ Steph hollered over the cacophony. They all looked petrified. One of the women from Charlotte’s party started to move forwards.
The shop shook violently. The tremor went on for several seconds. The remaining slithers of glass inside the window frame that opened out onto the desert came loose and dropped to the floor. One of the women screamed, but the sound was swallowed up in the tremor’s roar.
Steph ran forwards and gripped Frank by the arm, pulling him towards the nanonet. Carmen was jolted out of her terror and dashed to join them. Steph stepped over the parapet and onto the nanocarbon mesh. With a little encouragement, Frank went with her, Carmen close behind, holding her husband’s free hand.
‘Don’t look down,’ Steph instructed.
Carmen and Frank kept eyes forwards as the chopper descended to within half a metre of the nanonet. As it came in towards the tower, Steph grabbed Frank and Carmen.
‘Go!’ she yelled, giving them a gentle nudge. The couple stepped forwards and more or less fell into the mid-section of the chopper. Two RAF personnel were there ready for them.
Steph span around. The rest of the survivors were clustered close to the wall. Another explosion rocked the building. Its epicentre was some way off on a lower floor the other side of the tower, but the entire structure shuddered. Steph swayed but managed to keep her balance. Glancing over to the east, she could see that Gina and the stretcher were touching down on the nanonet platform.
‘Come on!’ Steph screamed towards the remaining survivors.
Abu, Craig Bannister and his father Geoff eased themselves onto the platform. Steph took Abu’s hand and guided him out. ‘Look at the chopper, Abu. Nowhere else.’
The boy did as he was told and in three paces he was in the arms of the RAF men. Craig helped his father onto the nanonet and together they edged forwards and leapt into the Chinook.
Steph looked over to see Gina edging her way along the platform towards the shattered wall of the tower. The pilot ducked in close to where Chloe lay on the stretcher. Another group appeared at the window, stepped over the parapet and onto the platform. Steph waved them towards her and one by one they edged across the nanonet and rushed into the chopper.
Taking two paces back towards the wall, Steph felt the building tremble again. This time, the explosion was closer. She gripped the edge of the window frame to brace herself, feeling a shock of pain as a hidden length of razor-sharp glass shot through her glove and pierced her palm. She screamed, just managed to stop herself from falling backwards and dived into the building, the reverberations of the latest shock still juddering the floor.
Charlotte Emmington, Mohammed, Saeed and Jessica were the last four remaining. Steph glanced towards Chloe and saw Gina easing her up, supporting her under the shoulder.
Gina saw Steph. ‘I’ve got her,’ she said into her comms.
The nanobots had made some progress and Chloe’s condition seemed to have improved a little. She could hold her head up and follow Gina’s instructions.
Steph turned back to the others. The tower shook again, more violently than any of the other times. It really felt as though the end was near. A huge chunk of ceiling plunged to the floor at the front of the shop, close to where it opened onto the main gallery. Steph shot around just in time to see a 20-metre-long steel beam thrust up from the floor of the main walkway beyond the door to the shop. With a terrible crunch, it cut through the air and reared up like a whale breaking through the surface of the ocean, the sound of wrenching metal and shattering stone reverberating around the mall.
Steph saw Saeed rushing onto the platform – the other three were close behind him. The Arab was a metre onto the nanonet when there came a sound like a knife slicing through silk. It was such an intense, high-pitched noise it echoed around the shop louder than any of the rumbles and crashes of the Tower’s death throes.
Saeed disappeared. Steph and the three survivors between the tear in the platform and the wall were so stunned, they merely gaped in disbelief. Mohammed was the first to recover. He dashed forwards, pulling up short of the rent in the platform. He could just make out the fingers of Saeed’s good hand gripping the ragged edge of the tear. He crouched down and could see him, his filthy, ripped thoub billowing around him like a parachute, his face cut through with terror. The man was saying something but Mohammed could not hear a word above the barrage of noise. He extended a hand but couldn’t reach Saeed. Mohammed took a step back and lowered himself onto his stomach. Steph shouted to him and edged out onto the platform.
Putting out both hands, Mohammed grasped Saeed’s fingers in his. Then he lowered first one hand then the other to grab the man’s wrist. Soon, he had Saeed under the shoulder and started to pull him up. Saeed’s head reached above the flapping fabric of the platform, his face drained of blood. He gripped the net and yanked himself over the edge of the chasm.
Steph appeared at Mohammed’s side and took some of the strain, grabbing the material of Saeed’s robe and hauling him onto the nanonet like a catch aboard a fishing trawler. Saeed managed to lever his legs over the edge, grunting and gasping for breath.
Then came another explosion from the tower. They all felt the platform rock. Steph turned to see that Gina and Chloe had reached the stretcher suspended from the cable. She saw them sway and then Gina gripped the cable and lowered Chloe to the metal tray.
A loud ripping sound . . . It was unmistakable and dreadful.
Steph span back and heard a muffled cry. She was just in time to see Mohammed slip through a new tear in the platform. His arms flailed around. He grasped at the tattered edge of the nanonet but it slipped through his fingers. He plunged into empty space, his mouth open, his scream nullified by the cacophony.