9:00 AM
Mimi was bored. For some unaccountable reason, she had woken up. And couldn't fall asleep again.
With a sigh, she admitted defeat and rolled out of bed. Roger muttered something to himself and curled up, pulling most of the blanket with him. Mimi eyed him, and briefly considered pushing him off the bed, just because he was still asleep and she wasn't. But what was the point? Shaking her head, she found reasonably clean clothing in the closet and pulled it on. She didn't have to go to the club until that afternoon, so why should she care what she wore now?
The kitchen was empty, and decidedly boring. So was the bland cereal that claimed to be breakfast. A few minutes of examining various cupboards yielded nothing further, so Mimi resigned herself to Cornflakes and plopped down at the kitchen counter. Reaching over, she flicked on the radio.
Static. Great. What an exciting day this was looking to be. She tried a few different channels, without much success. Finally, she found something resembling voices, and adjusted the tuning a little.
Crackle crackle yes, Jim, we have visual confirmation crackle buzz unidentified airplane crashed hiss crackle hiss one of the Twin Towers at the World Trade crackle crackle...
Mimi frowned. Picking up the little radio, she brought it over to the open window. Immediately, her reception improved.
...assuming this was an accidental collision, but we really aren't quite sure what's going on up there. World Trade Center One is on fire, the upper stories are on fire, you can definitely see the smoke from here. We're awaiting confirmation on damages. This is quite an catastrophe, Jim, but we're hoping that the damage will be isolated to this one building. Okay, I'm approaching the building, I'm about two blocks away. There is a gaping hole in the -- wow, this is really amazing. A number of rescue crews are being dispatched, and the entire World Trade Center is being evacuated as we speak. I haven't heard any reports on casualties as of yet, Jim, but as soon as we find out -- oh my God!
The voice on the radio was drowned out by background noise, loud. The static kicked in again. Mimi stared at the radio for a second, then carefully put it down on the window sill. She quietly went back into the bedroom and shook Roger awake.
he mumbled.
Roger, honey, I think you should listen to this....
* * * * *
Joanne was listening to the same radio report, but with significantly less static. She hastily pulled up the shades covering her window, and stared down the avenue. She had always been able to see the Twin Towers from her office. And now, sure enough, one of them was belching thick, black smoke.
She stared at this for a few minutes. Then she looked hard at the other, undamaged Tower. And watched a bloom of flame appear on its previously unblemished side.
* * * * *
A hell of a lot of firefighters and EMS workers were ordering Collins to get the hell out of there. He ignored them steadily, and they were too busy to enforce their halfhearted demands. Besides, he had taken charge of his own situation, and was calming down people in the lobby and making sure those in his little section didn't trample each other in the course of evacuation. So the well-meaning professionals eventually gave up and left him to his own devices.
Collins felt very good about himself. In a disaster situation, he was aiding the evacuation of a major world business building. It was noble. It was daring. It was something Angel would have been proud of. Stepping outside to point out the nearest medical personnel to a man with a bleeding leg, he mentally dared the world to do its worst.
The world obliged.
Collins didn't see a damned thing, but he heard the explosion. Without thinking, he dropped to the ground, covering his head with his hands. A light shower of soot and debris particles covered him as the second Twin Tower burst into flames, ninety-odd stories above the plaza.
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