Chapter 3

The message flashed across the screen, and cold sweat broke out all over me.

I gripped my wife's hand, pushed her and our daughter behind me, and looked straight at the staff member.

“I can help get people out, but I'm not going into that fire.”

Hugh's eyes were bloodshot and bulging, and he clawed at me, trying with everything he had to shove me toward the luxury boutique.

“What are you standing there for! Get in there and save them!!”

“Go in through this store, the wall's thin, one hit and it'll break, the nursing room's right behind it!”

I looked at Hugh, cold.

“How do you know the wall in this store is thin?”

Hugh froze. He hadn't expected me to catch the crack in his story so cleanly.

But a second later he was wailing.

“My poor wife, my poor child, they could have lived, and a cold-blooded man like you is going to get them killed!”

Someone beside him jumped in right away.

“The whole place is about to go up, and you're acting like this?”

“You chose this line of work, so you'd better be ready to sacrifice yourself! Or is it because you slacked off in training, and now that it counts you don't have the nerve?”

The crowd wasn't listening to a word of my explanation. They'd already decided I was the firefighter, end of story.

If I rushed in now, I'd wreck the scene and let the fire spread into the boutique.

And then whether I made it out alive was anyone's guess, but the payout, that they'd collect down to the last cent.

Just then the staff member spoke.

“The fire department's already on the way.”

Hearing that they were almost here, Hugh didn't relax. If anything he looked more frantic.

“How long till they get here? The fire's getting bigger and bigger!!!”

Then Hugh rushed right up in my face.

“Joseph Cobb! Are you even human? Get in there and save them!”

I kept my wife and daughter behind me, their backs to the wall, and I planted myself in front of them.

Hugh screamed at me like a madman.

“Go save them, go now! You get your ass in there!!!”

The onlookers all started up again too.

“Saving lives is like fighting fire, one second too late and it's over.”

“We're all your witnesses.”

I let out a cold snort inside. Easy to stand back when it's not your neck on the line. The one who's supposed to risk his life isn't any of you, is it?

Hugh shouted at me.

“Do you hear that? My wife and child, their voices are gone now, any later and they'll be dead!”

It didn't move me. He kept roaring, working the crowd.

“You don't go in and save them, then you're the one who murdered my wife and child, and I'll never let you off as long as I live!”

Hugh's bloodshot eyes fixed on me, and then he leaned close to my ear and said, low.

“Your wife works at Victory Plaza, and your kid's at Blue Sky Preschool, right?!”

It hit me like a jolt, and my hands shoved him away before I could think.

“What did you just say!”

Hugh let himself drop with the push, hit the ground, and pointed at me, shouting.

“Everybody look, he won't save them, and now he's hitting me too!”

“My arm's broken, honey, baby, I wanted to save you, and now I can't even move.”

Seeing this, the staff member stepped forward to calm things down.

“Sir, please, take it easy. Even if you won't go save them, don't start causing trouble.”