David Morrell - The Covenant Of The Flame

Pulse rushing, she stooped, moved the chair away, and sniffed the stream of air.

A vague acrid smell made her shiver.

Smoke? Is that-?

Her throat felt stung.

It can't be smoke!

But the smell intensified, and with the next deep breath that flared her nostrils, she coughed.

Panic squeezed her chest. As she gasped, she straightened in terror, seeing a thin wisp of gray drift out of the vent.

Fire!

For a moment, her body refused to move.

Abruptly a spring seemed to snap within her, and she charged toward the bedside phone to dial 911. Instantly, her stomach dropping deeper, faster, she remembered that the phone had been dead the last time she'd tried it. Frantic, she tried it again. Still no dial tone! Jesus. She grabbed the cotton pullover that she'd taken off earlier and desperately put it back on. Then she clutched The Dove's Neck Ring along with the photographs and crammed them into her purse.

With a final look toward the air-conditioning vent from which an increasing wisp of gray drifted out and made her cough harder, she darted toward the bedroom door, yanked it open, and lunged out.

The hallway was dark. Someone, presumably the butler, had turned off the lights after Tess and her mother had gone to their rooms. Even the staircase to her left and the vestibule below it were shrouded in darkness. Only the glow from the lamp on her bedside table allowed her to see. She rushed to the right along the murky hallway and reached the door to her mother's room.

Urgent, she shoved it open and groped to flick at the lightswitch. The overhead chandelier blazed. She stared. Her mother, who lay in a canopied bed similar to Tess's, wore eyeshades, even though the draperies were closed. As a consequence, she didn't respond to the sudden gleaming light.

Tess coughed even harder. This room, too, was hazy from smoke wafting out of the air-conditioning vent. 'Mother!' She hurried toward the bed. Her mother was snoring. 'Mother!' Tess shook her.

'Uh…' Her mother turned onto her side.

Tess shook her repeatedly. 'Mother! Wake up!'

'Uh…' Her mother stopped snoring. 'I… What…?' Lethargic, she pawed at her eyeshades and clumsily raised them to her forehead, squinting through sleep-puffed eyes. Tess? Why are you…? What's the…?'

'You have to get out of bed! Hurry!'

'What's that…?' Her mother coughed.'… haze! It smells like…'

'Smoke! The house is on fire! Hurry, mother! You have to get out of bed!'

Shock jolted her mother fully awake. ' Fire ? She fumbled at the sheets and squirmed to raise herself. 'Quickly! Call the Fire Department!'

'I can't!'

'What?'

'I tried! The phone isn't working!' Tess said.

'It's got to be working.' Her mother reached for the bedside phone.

'No! I'm telling you, mother! The phone isn't…! Damn it, come on! We have to leave!'

Her mother strained to overcome her grogginess and raise herself. She wore a frilly, rose-colored nightdress. It had bunched around her knees, but as she lurched to her feet, its hem dropped toward her ankles. She pivoted in confusion, mustered strength, and shuffled toward a closet. 'Help me get dressed.'

There isn't time!' Tess grabbed her arm. 'We have to get out of here!' The room was thick with haze now. Both women coughed. 'For God's sake, mother, let's go!'

With a hand on her mother's back, Tess urged her toward the bedroom's open door.

But only when they reached the shadowy hallway did Tess stiffen with complete understanding. Dread flooded through her.

Jesus, she thought.

First the phone stops working?

Then the mansion's on fire?

It isn't a coincidence! It's not accidental!

They did this!

They think I know too much! They want to kill me!

Craig's right! Why didn't I listen ?

It was her mother's turn to insist on moving forward. 'Hurry!' She shoved at Tess. 'What's the matter! Why did you stop?'

Dear God, Tess thought, what if they're in the building?

Smoke detectors wailed. In the bedrooms. In the corridor. In the vestibule, the kitchen, and other locations downstairs. Their combined unnerving shriek made Tess want to clamp her hands across her ears.

But her panicked mind alerted her. No! They wouldn't just start a fire and run! They'd want to make sure I…!

What if they're in the house?

They'll try to stop us from getting out! They'll want our deaths to seem like an accident!

But if they have to, if we try to escape…!

They'll kill us before the fire does!

Tess, why are you stopping?' Her mother frowned, at the same time pressing the sleeve of her nightdress against her mouth, breathing stridently through it. 'What's wrong ! The smoke's worse! We'll suffocate if we don't - !'

'Mother?' As Tess's premonition worsened, a fierce startling thought controlled her. 'Whatever happened to father's handgun? Do you still have it?'

'I don't understand. Why would you - ?'

Tess whirled toward her mother. 'Just pay attention. After father died, did you keep it? Do you still have his handgun ?'

Her mother coughed. 'Why does it matter? We have to - '

'The handgun, mother! What did you do with it ?"

'Nothing . I left it where he always put it, the same as I left his other things.' Even after six years, renewed grief strained her mother's already fear-strained features. 'You know I couldn't bring myself to part with anything he owned.'

Smoke swirled behind them. To the left, in the vestibule below the staircase, the darkness was interrupted by a flicker as if from a hesitant strobelight.

The fire!

Tess cringed. She gripped her mother's shoulders. 'In the other bedroom?'

'Yes. That room's exactly the way it was the day your father said good-bye to me and went to Beirut.'

Tess fervently kissed her mother's cheek. 'God bless you! Hurry! Follow me!'

'But we need to…! I still don't understand!'

'I don't have time to explain! All you need to understand is I love you, mother! And I'm trying to save your life!'

'Well!' Her mother strained to breathe. 'That's good enough for me.'

With a terrified glance toward the flickering flames in the vestibule, Tess jerked her mother's hand and urged her toward the right along the hallway. 'Just pray, and do everything I tell you.'

She reached a farther door to her right and banged it open. In the darkness, she fumbled along the inside wall to find the lights witch.

'Before you… There's something I'd better tell you,' her mother said.

'Not now!'

But as Tess flicked the switch and the overhead light gleamed, Tess knew what her mother had wanted to explain. She blinked in astonishment.

This bedroom was the one that her father had used when he came home late at night after emergency meetings at the State Department, so he wouldn't disturb Tess's mother when he undressed to go to sleep.

But now the bedroom resembled the dilapidated interior of Miss Havisham's house in Great Expectations . Six years of dust covered everything, the carpet, the bed, the end tables, the lamps, the phone, the bureau. Cobwebs clung to the corners and dangled from the ceiling, making Tess flinch as if she were about to enter a nest of spiders. The rapid movement of the door she'd shoved open had caused dust to swirl, the cobwebs to sway, creating a haze that was emphasized by the smoke spewing out of the air-conditioning vent.

'Mother!'

'I tried to tell you.'

Horrified, Tess rushed ahead, each frantic footstep raising dust.

She swung her arms, clearing the cobwebs, repelled by their stickiness.