Vanishing Point - Marc Cerasini [78]
Smoke filled the air around the hotel, most of it pouring out of the underground garage. More smoke, funneled through the tower as if it were a chimney, emerge through the shattered glass walls of the rooftop ballroom.
The area jamming ended with the destruction of the transmitter in the explosions. People on the grounds around the hotel, and passersby on Las Vegas Boulevard bombarded 911 operators. Soon sirens wailed in the distance.
Underneath the Babylon, secondary explosions rumbled as gas tanks from hundreds of cars began to cook off.
13THE FOLLOWING TAKES PLACE BETWEEN THE HOURS OF 12 A.M. AND 1 A.M. PACIFIC DAYLIGHT TIME
12:00:00 a.m. PDT
Babylon Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas
The fire alarm wailed, a deafening sound. Jack Bauer and Nina Myers entered the Babylon's chaotic security center, stepping over the shattered remains of the glass doors. A uniformed security officer moved to stop them. Nina flashed her CTU badge and the man backed off.
Unruffled amid the room's frenzied activity, a lanky, gray-haired man in a charcoal suit approached them. "I suspect you're looking for your agent," the gray man said. "Mr. Manning is over there."
Curtis stood at a work station, phone to his ear. He nodded to Jack, then returned to his conversation. Agent Manning was bruised and battered, but alive.
"What's the situation?" Jack asked.
"The Babylon is still standing, but I don't know for how long," the man replied grimly. "The balcony has mostly collapsed. The underground garage has caved in. There's a fire down there, too. More smoke than anything else, but the fire department reports that the chance of finding survivors is... minimal."
The gray man adjusted his tie with a long-fingered hand.
"You have electricity," Jack observed.
The gray man nodded. "Emergency generators are located in an outbuilding, so they were undamaged. We've even gotten some of the computers up and running and we're hoping to restore one or more of the elevators soon. That is our top priority."
"How many people have you evacuated?" Nina asked.
"Thanks to Mr. Manning's early warning, we managed to clear the casino and all of the clubs and restaurants. Some of the lower guest floors were cleared as well. But people are still trapped in the upper suites and in the ballroom at the top of the building."
Nina pushed her hair back. "What kind of numbers are we looking at?"
"Several hundred, at least," the gray man replied. "There was an event upstairs. The guest list says three hundred, but there's also the wait staff, bartenders, support — there may be as many as four hundred people trapped up there."
Jack nodded, a tight grin on his face. "Then no one's gotten out of the ballroom?"
The gray man shook his head. "Not since ten or fifteen minutes before the blast. That's when the elevators failed. The device that jammed our phones also interfered with the computers that ran the elevators."
"How about the stairs?"
"Since the explosions, the lower portions of the stairwells — the areas closest to the blast — have been blocked. Two stairwells have collapsed entirely. A third may be intact, but it's also filled with toxic smoke, deadly enough to suffocate anyone who inhales it."
The gray man paused, his hands fluttering around his tie. "I'm told the fire department sent two men up that stairwell, but carrying oxygen and all the other bits of fireproof gear, it will take them a while to reach the ballroom."
Nina faced Jack, comprehension dawning on her face. "You think the bombers are still up there, don't you?"
Jack nodded. "Lilly Sheridan was on the phone with me, waiting for instructions from the man who held her daughter hostage, when the jamming device kicked in and ended our conversation."
Bauer faced the gray man. "Curtis, Nina and I are going to be on the first elevator to go up," Jack declared.
Grim faced, Curtis appeared at Jack's shoulder. "I just spoke with Morris O'Brian," he whispered. "There was an explosion at Bix Automotive. It looks