Chapter 1

1: 1

As captain of the Emergency Rescue Team, when the mall went up in flames, it was my job to charge in and find the source of the fire.

But the second I made it inside, the steel shutter behind me slammed down and locked me in.

Feeling the heat and black smoke closing in on every side, I spun around in terror, pounding on the door and shouting into my radio.

"Mia! Stop this! I'll suffocate in here!"

But hearing me scream, my fiancee, Mia Harding, ordered the team to pull out of the fire zone and called out to the crowd around her,

"Everyone, evacuate now! To stop the fire from spreading, we've sealed off the core burn zone! Once it's burned itself out, we'll move in and put it out all at once!"

I froze. The scorching pain crawled over every inch of me as I kept shouting for help.

"Mia! Open the fire door, now!"

That was when my trainee, Mia's male assistant, Christian Barnes, leaned in close and murmured to me,

"Captain Fox, didn't you always teach me that a few have to be sacrificed to save the many?"

"I already told the guys it was you who ran into the fire source, sealed off the ignition point yourself, and bought everyone time to get out."

"You don't really expect me to open the passage and let the fire spread back out and kill them all, do you?"

The flames behind me had already burned through my clothes, searing my back into raw, splitting agony.

I understood it completely now. They didn't just want to seal me in and burn me alive. They wanted my captain's post, and every piece of property I owned.

I stopped calling for help. I bent down and felt my way toward the other passage, the backup route.

Half an hour later, I made it out alive. Looking at that recording I'd saved, I turned around and reported them both to the Inspection Bureau.

You wanted to burn me and bleed me dry? Then get ready to answer to the patrol.

......

The flames licked at my back, the skin already split open, raw and weeping blood.

Watching me claw at the steel shutter, fighting to get out, my fiancee Mia Harding let out a soft laugh.

"Leonard Fox, what you're prying at right now is the only way out of the entire core burn zone. The moment it opens, the fire's going to spread."

She pointed outside.

"I already told everyone you ran in to smother the fire source, that you locked the door yourself and won't let us open it. You expect me to change my story now?"

"Take my advice. There's an old extinguisher in there. Make do with it and hang on a while."

She finished, covered her mouth, and burst into shrill laughter.

Hearing the gentle voice of the woman I was going to marry turn so cold and cruel, the betrayal cut clean through me.

A chill kept crawling up my back.

The flames surged at me again from behind, and I snatched up the extinguisher, spun around, and slammed the trigger.

But after only five bursts, the dry powder was gone.

"Mia! Enough! This extinguisher can't hold it back at all!"

I turned and pounded on the door, my voice shaking. "Open it, now! Or I really am going to burn to death in here!"

Behind her, the male assistant, my trainee Christian Barnes, looked at me with a sneer.

"Captain Fox, weren't you the one who taught us to sacrifice ourselves to save the rest? How come it doesn't work when it's your turn?"

"You're the captain. Isn't charging into the core burn zone exactly your duty? What happens to the public if you back out?"

He pointed at the fire behind him.

"The fire in there is raging right now. If you don't block the source and come out, you're leaving people to burn. Can you really live with that?"

Listening to him, I shook with a rage I couldn't hold back.

When Christian joined the rescue team, he failed every single evaluation. It was Mia who pulled strings to get him in through the back door.

Without my sign-off, he'd never have made it in at all. And now, of all things, he was doing this to me.

I quietly nudged the recorder closer and couldn't hold back the fury any longer.

"You've lost your mind, Christian!"

"I taught you to move in together and put the fire out with me! Not to throw me away!"

"What you're doing is assault during an emergency call! This is murdering your captain! You'll stand trial for it once you're out, you understand?!"

But Mia only laughed softly.

"Leonard, we can get out. You, though? That's a different story."

"Don't worry, though. Record any last words for me. Who gets your property, who takes over as captain... I'll be sure to deliver every bit of it."

She stared at me, a horrifying smile curling at her lips.

"After all, you're a firefighting hero. As your fiancee, no one would dare question a will I pass along."

Christian started cackling too.

"That's right, Captain Fox. If you were to say you're handing the captain's post to me, well, how could I refuse?"

"But don't worry. Mia and I will enjoy your property together, every last bit of it."

Hearing my fiancee say that, everything inside me went dead quiet.

Mia and I had nothing to do with each other to begin with.

If she hadn't picked up my keys in the cafeteria, we'd never have met, never fallen in love in the first place.

And without me using the Rescue Bureau's spouse policy to bring her in, she'd never have made it onto the rescue team at all.

Yet here she was, teamed up with my trainee Christian, trying to trap me in this fire and let me die.

I shut my eyes against the pain and quietly saved that last recording.

The flames swept at me again from behind. I dropped low and groped along, working my way toward the mouth of the backup escape passage.

My fingers reached it, and I could feel a current of air.

The passage led out. That much was clear.