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She put the knife away. And carefully took the baby.
In less than a minute the cord was clamped and severed and, to Sachs’s relief, the infant was in the arms of her mother, who was sobbing—maybe in fear of another cable strike or the falling tower, though possibly from the birthing experience. Both, probably.
“Can she walk?” Sachs asked.
“Bleeding, a chair’s better.”
The mom: “Bleeding!You didn’t tell me I’d be bleeding.”
A cheerful response: “Yes, I did, ma’am. You’ll be fine.”
There was a wheelchair in the corner. The doctor and Sachs got the mother into it.
Sachs pushed the chair into the corridor.
Hell, both exits were now completely backed up. The severed cable had panicked everyone and that caused a crush. Several people had tried to carry the massive beds down the stairs but hadn’t been strong enough and pieces of furniture were sitting on the tops of the steps, jamming the doorways.
Rescue workers were trying to calm everyone and free the beds. This wasn’t working.
Sachs thought back to her promise to Rhyme that she would only wound the Watchmaker.
She now changed her mind.
She pushed the mother and baby toward the closest exit while Dr. Gomez, noticing with a frown that a nurse at the opposite exit had fallen, hurried toward her.
“I want a pain pill!” the new mother demanded.
Sachs ignored her.
Just then another cable broke free and exploded into the window where Dr. Gomez was walking to the injured hospital worker. The woman disappeared in a cascade of dust and glass shards.
No …
“Doctor!”
She couldn’t see if the woman had been hit. She parked thewheelchair next to the west exit and started toward where she’d last seen Gomez.
She still could see nothing of the strike’s aftermath; the smoke and dust were too dense.
Then she noticed something odd and paused.
On the linoleum floor in front of her, a shadow appeared and began to move.
What …?
It filled the floor, a latticework of black lines.
The shadow of the mast.
She turned to the window just as screams filled the corridor.
“It’s coming down!” someone cried.
Sachs dove to the floor and rolled against the wall, which she figured would provide some protection. Unless of course the crane simply caved in the entire floor, burying them all under a breath-stealing andiron of debris …
Claustrophobia …
At least she wouldn’t have to suffer that horror for very long; the collapse would ignite the gas and flammable solvents and burn everyone here to death within minutes.
