shellacked for the evening. The type of women whose lives didn’t extend beyond their ranch house, two kids, and TV set; this sort lived vicariously through their husbands. They’d give him trouble.
“Frank, I’m not going to stay here one more minute!”
She hung possessively on her husband’s right arm and Leroux half smiled to himself. He waited impassively while the slightly paunchy husband debated his chances of intimidating Leroux. “Who the hell are you?”
“Wyndom Leroux, president of National Curtainwall.
We own the building.”
“Frank, we’re leaving!”
Frank turned slightly. “Shut up, Gale.” Then he faced Leroux, somewhat less belligerent now. The fear in his voice was unmasked and genuine. “I think we ought to get out, Mr. Leroux, as fast as possible. I think we’re cut off-no firemen have come up here to evacuate us.”
“Probably because the inside elevators aren’t working or they’re too dangerous to take,” Leroux said quietly.
The man’s wife paled and he nodded. “You’re . probably right.
So what do we do now?” He was automatically looking to Leroux for orders. Leroux welcomed it; it was a situation he understood, one that he could handle. The flash point for panic in the Promenade Room was probably only minutes away. They were in no immediate danger-the firemen on the scene below knew they were up here.
Even though the phones were out and the inside elevators not functioning, the firemen would have taken the scenic elevator up to evacuate the diners if they had thought it necessary. The diners could still wait it out-it would be the smartest thing to do-but the man’s fear was very real and probably everybody in the room felt the same way. Physically, they were safe where they were.
Psychologically, the situation wouldn’t hold together much longer.
“I think we ought to arrange our own evacuation , Leroux said.
“If there’s panic in the room people will get hurt, and it’s even possible that someone in panic could jam the scenic elevator. If one Of You gentlemen will get the hostess, we’ll figure out a plan of action.”
The smaller of the two men jumped at the chance to be a part of the action. “Sure thing, Mr. Leroux!”
Team spirit, Leroux thought cynically. You could play on it like You would an organ. The man was back with Quinn in seconds.
“Quinn, what’s the capacity of the scenic elevator? I’ve never really noticed.”
“Ten-though You might squeeze in one or two more.”
“All right, circulate through the dining room and tell your guests that we’re evacuating and remind them to pick up their coats from the checkroom. Start with the tables farthest from the elevator; the people sitting at them will feel the least secure, they’re the ones most liable to panic when we start sending groups down.”
He turned and motioned to the two mell behind him.
“I’ll need your help in case there’s any panic or somebody tries to rush the elevator.”
“You can count on it.”
Leroux glanced at their wives standing nervously nearby, “We’ll send your wives down with the first load. My guess is that they’ve transferred all the cars in the basement to a public garage and your wives can pick them up for you.” Their wives had probably pushed them into trying to take the inside elevators in the first place, he thought. Get them off the scene and the men would be easier to handle-if they had to be handled.
He stopped briefly at his own table. “Thelma, Jenny, we’re sending people down on the scenic elevator. Get your wraps.”
“What about you?” Thelma asked.
A smile flickered briefly over Leroux’s face. “I’m running the operation.”
Thelma settled back in her chair. “I’ll leave with you whenever you’re ready to go, Wyndom.
“What about you, Jenny? Craig’s down there.”
“I’d be in his way,” she said stiffly, then managed a slight smile.
“I’ll stay here with you. It won’t be long, will it?”
“Maybe half an hour, not much more.”
“Just enough time to finish my wine,” she said lightly.
Leroux hurried back to the scenic elevator whose entrance was just off the foyer. He introduced himself briefly to those in line, explaining the system of the farthest table first-after the people already waiting in line had gone down, of course. He could see Quinnat the far end of the dining room dutifully explaining the situation.
One by one the farthest tables emptied, the diners going ‘to the foyer checkroom for their wraps and then forming a line. There was no panic. Once people knew they would be leaving shortly and there was a plan and Somebody in Authority was present, the atmosphere in the room brightened considerably.
There we’re minor problems, however.
“I didn’t come up the outside elevator,” one woman announced, her face white. “I’m afraid of heights; I don’t think I could stand it looking at the street from this high up with nothing but glass around me.”
Leroux smiled and handed her firmly to her husband who was already inside the elevator. “Just close your eyes and when you feel the bump, that means the elevator’s at the lobby stop.”
A man in his mid-forties who looked like a wrestler was the next to hang back. “How do we know this will be safe? I heard you telling your friends here that the elevators were running through the fire zone. Why is this one safe but the others aren’t?”
“The scenic elevator runs down the outside of a blank concrete wall all the way to the first-floor lobby,” Leroux explained patiently.
“There’s solid concrete between you and the fire and absolutely no way the elevator can stop at a fire floor.” He pushed the man inside and the elevator doors closed on his next question He was probably actually afraid of heights, like the elderly woman had been.
“Mr. Leroux?”
The dapper little man-who had been at the table directly behind them was standing in the foyer entrance, a worried look on his face.
“Yes?”
“You didn’t notice Miss Mueller get on the elevator, did you?”
Leroux looked blank and the man added, “She was my guest for dinner tonight. I went to the men’s room a few moments ago and when I came back, she was missing.”
Leroux turned to hand some more people into the elevator. Two loads had already gone down since the evacuation had started, but Miss Mueller had not been among them. “I’m sorry, sir, she hasn’t left yet.
Are you sure she isn’t talking to friends at another table?”
The dapper man shook his head, for the moment looking inexpressibly sad. “No,” he said slowly. “I’ve been through the room twice and she isn’t here.”
Leroux recalled the good time they both had been having and said, “Have Miss Reynolds check the powder room; she may be under the weather.”
The man smiled faintly. “Her father was a brewer. She could probably drink us both under the table.”
He went back into the room for another search of the tables and Leroux wondered briefly what could have happened to the woman. Then the elevator had come back for a third load and he forgot her.
It felt good to be immersed in the shuttle operation, but another half hour, Leroux realized, and he would be down in the lobby and it would be a different kind of reality. His mind couldn’t face it now and he doubted that he could face it then. And he still had no alternative plan of action, he still didn’t know what he was going to do, And then he wondered what Barton was doing down below and how he was holding up. He was probably taking all the gaff that Leroux would have if he had gone down first. But it seemed like a practical idea at the time and might still prove to be.
He also knew that as soon as he got down, he would lose the best employee he had.
CHAPTER 38
Tom Albrecht stirred restlessly in his sleep. He had been very tired when he got home and after putting the children to bed, he and Evelyn retired early. Working late every night on the new satellite instrumentation for the Air
