Francisco when they were working on the interior.”
Shevelson was contemptuous. “Your work in Boston was really important, wasn’t it? And have you really done anything more than spin your wheels in San Francisco?
It never occurred to you that Leroux might simply have wanted you out of town during the construction? That if you had stayed here, you would have asked to be site supervisor, and if you hadn’t gotten it you would have been over here every day anyways checking? Then what would you have done when you discovered that Leroux was cheapening it little by little? Blown your stack and quit? But Leroux got what he wanted.
He got you-and he got you out of the way.”
“You’re right,” Barton agreed angrily. “I would have blown my stack.
But there’s one difference between us, Shevelson: You knew. I didn’t.
Why didn’t you go to the city officials or to the Fire Department?
You knew what he was doing. You knew all the violations; what did you do about them?”
“That’s.the point,” Shevelson said slowly. “There really weren’t any violations. Oh, maybe a few minor ones here and there,. But nothing major. And nothing I could prove.
Some coincidences perhaps, like the sudden change in city fire codes eliminating pressurized stairwells. My case was essentially an emotional one so I took it to the papers and the television stations and, nobody did anything but Quantrell. Now, God knows, I’m sorry about that.” Shevelson stood there for a moment, his face drawn, fighting to keep his anger on the inside. Barton and Infantino kept silent and waited. “Everything he did was Perfectly - - . legal. A little chintzing here and a little chintzing there until finally the building was a weak version of what it was meant to be. Maybe it was no more dangerous than other buildings in the city, but this was one that I built.” He cocked his head at Barton, the expression on his face that of a man who doubts that he’s really being understood.
“You want to know who writes the fire codes in this city, Barton?
Ask the developers. Ask the people who own the buildings; they’re the ones who write the codes.
The Fire Department inspectors come around and it’s cut and dried.
Are the valves set right? Do they work? Is the fusible on a fire door installed properly? But there are other questions to be asked and nobody seems to be asking them’ Why did this city remove the requirement for pressurized stairwells from its fire code? How come New York required neither pressurized stairwells nor smoke shafts until 1973? Why did Los Angeles allow shingle roofs-one of the greatest possible fire hazards -for so long? Who brings the political pressure to bear?
This city isn’t unique, Barton.”
He was making an indictment and a plea for understanding all at the same time, Barton thought. And at least for the moment he could see beyond the facade and understand the contempt Shevelson felt for lesser men. He had met so many of them.
“Where’s all this leading to?” Infantino asked impatiently.
“We’ve still got a fire here.”
And it wasn’t out yet, Barton thought. But Shevelson had reminded him of something: The building was his; he was kidding himself if he thought he could walk away from it. He twisted the blueprints around so they were facing Shevelson. “What are the risks we don’t know anything about? I could spend all night looking for them; you probably know them by heart.”
Shevelson was suddenly all business. “Assume the worst. There are probably few of the duct holes that are properly fire stopped and the building is peppered with them. Dangerous and sloppy, but I’m sure it was fast, easier, and cheaper; the utility people had to make a buck and Leroux wasn’t paying much. So they chintzed, too. You can assume the building has very little fire integrity. You can also assume that some of the main girders are exposed in places where ducts pass directly beneath them and are strapped to them for support. Or maybe conduits are strapped to them. In either event the fireproofing would have been scraped off the beam and five will get you ten it was never replaced.
It’s standard practice-and in a big fire, it can buckle a floor on you.
But your big worry is probably right here.”
He took the cigar out of his mouth and pointed the lighted end at a ‘portion of the blueprint. “The utility core. The old-fashioned method of building a fire-rated core wall was to make it from terracotta blocks and then plaster over that. What we use now is Pyrobar. It has a high fire rating but, structurally speaking, it’s not very strong. The bad design feature is that there are some, storage rooms, both those for the building itself and those for commercial and business tenants, that share a common wall with the utility core. Now remember that the gas, electric, steam, and some of the phone lines go directly up the core. It’s conceivable that if one of the storage rooms should catch fire and burn out of control, you’d be in for trouble, depending on the fire loading. And in storage rooms, it’s usually high.”
Barton looked up at Infantino. “What are the chances?”
“Not very good.” Infantino didn’t seem impressed. The one storage room fire we’ve had is under control. He glanced over at Shevelson.
“But thanks for bringing the Prints; it’s a help to know where things really are.”
Shevelson managed a quick smile. “I remember some professor saying a high-rise building is the biggest machine there is but nobody’s written an operating manual for it yet. These were the best I could do.” He stared down at the prints for a moment, then glanced around again at the lobby. “It’s a beautiful building,” he said quietly. “It’s mostly yours, Barton, but a good piece of it is mine, too. I had to do what I could; I wouldn’t even have held up Leroux, much as I despise him.”
“You didn’t despise him at the start, did you?” Barton suddenly asked.
For a moment Shevelson was lost in thought.
‘No, I didn’t. At first, I thought he was one of the most capable men I had ever met.”
Another load from the scenic elevator suddenly emptied into the lobby. Barton searched the faces of the people getting off. There had been how many loads so far? Ten?
Eleven? Leroux had to be on the next one.
And so did Jenny.
CHAPTER 42
For Ian Douglas the world had become an infinity of stairs that led steadily upward. Scramble up a dozen steps; rest for a moment on the concrete landing; then climb another dozen. Occasionally he would try a doorknob, hoping that one of them might not have closed completely, and they could gain entry to a floor. After a dozen attempts, he gave up trying.
And there was always the smoke-first the odor, then the slight haze in the air. The haze was building, and it was getting increasingly difficult to breathe. To add to his difficulties, Albina’s twisted ankle had worsened on the thirtieth floor, and he had been forced to half carry her up the succeeding flights. He felt that he had long since passed the limits of his physical endurance; he stopped to rest more frequently. He would begin to climb ;again when he started coughing and saw that the smoke was getting thicker, slowly filling the stairwell.
They were on the forty-fifth floor when he realized he couldn’t go much farther with the burden of Albina and with his increasing difficulty in breathing. Albina was coughing steadily now, and it was obvious that it was all Jesus could do to drag himself up the steps.
Fortunately, he seemed to have shaken the withdrawal symptoms; the realization of personal danger must have flooded his system with enough adrenalin to overcome them. But they had to rest, Douglas thought, even at the risk of letting the smoke build up even more. He sat down on the landing steps and for a moment yielded to a fit of coughing.
“You go on,” Albina said quietly. “Send firemen down for me when you get to the top. Take Jesus with you and go on.”
He considered it, then rejected it. She was already weakened; she couldn’t take much more smoke. And there was something else. For the first time Douglas was in a life-and-death struggle and he desperately wanted to win.
All of his life the world had considered him weak, despite his muscle and bulk. He wanted to prove it wrong, but nobody would think it unusual if a man saved himself he would have to see to it that all three of them
