Being Frank Chapter 4: The Devil's Calling, a london's burning fanfic

LONDON'S BURNING

The Great Escape

Chapter 4: The Devil's Calling

Blue Watch received a call late afternoon when a warehouse full of fireworks caught fire in the middle of their ground. The two Blackwall appliances were quickly on the scene and Geoff Pearce immediately issued his orders.

Adam Benjamin had not spoken to his colleague Sally Fields about the text messaging incident the previous night (of which he remembered every word). He knew that now wasn't the time as they prepared to battle the fierce flames of the inferno. They controlled a hose line together. He felt her touch his shoulders, and tried in vain to keep his mind on the job. He had to remind himself that it meant nothing, especially if she did have feelings for Frank Mooney.

As the fire progressed, more crews were called in. Fireworks exploded everywhere, illuminating the evening sky with bright colours of red, orange and green. Evening drew closer but the fire continued to rage out of control. D.O. Ross arrived on the scene to take command of the incident, which now required the attention of six pumps, with more on the way.

Adam and Sally were taken off the hose and tasked to locate a hydrant as the crews were going to need more water to fight the flames. As they approached a neighbouring warehouse to locate the hydrant, Adam decided that it was now or never.

"About what I said yesterday…"

She looked at him. "How much had you had to drink?!"

"Um… just a couple… of pints…"

"Perhaps you should try a jazz club?" she suggested. "There are plenty of sophisticated ladies in there, that's if you can handle it!"

She carried on walking, away from him. He frowned, and then smiled to himself as he caught her up.

"I thought we were going to a wine bar anyway?"

"Yeah, well, the last time I went to a wine bar… well, it was with Sean Bateman."

"Oh, how about the jazz club then?"

"Joe."

"Oh… I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but you're gonna run out of places to go soon!"

She looked at him and allowed herself a small smile. "I don't want a relationship with anyone right now. Not after…" she paused. "Everything."

He wondered if she was talking about Bateman and Joe, or if Frank Mooney was in there somewhere. He decided that that was something else he wanted to know about.

"You and Frank?"

"Let's just look for this hydrant," she continued her search of a bush at the bottom of the old building, trying to locate the missing hydrant, as she spoke. "But for the record, there is no me and Frank."

"You know he's being harassed by some nutty copper."

She looked up. "No, but it doesn't surprise me."

"I don't think he's all there."

"Who? Frank or the copper?!"

Adam shrugged. Truthfully, he didn't think either of them had any sandwiches in their picnics, but he decided it was probably best not to burden Sally with it at this time.

She had found the hydrant, while he had been busy occupying his mind with his next move. They had to cut away a few overgrown weeds for clear access to the water supply and she didn't pursue the subject of Frank any more.

D.O. Ross gazed thoughtfully at his laminated plans of the stricken factory, and marked on some likely fire patterns with his heavy red marker.

"Sir…" Geoff Pearce rushed up to the mobile control room, slightly breathless. "Sir, we've had reports of a missing security guard!"

The D.O. sighed heavily. "Has that been confirmed?"

"On the second floor, sir. May I suggest we send a BA crew inside, sir?"

"Organise it Mr Pearce, if you think Blue Watch are up to the task?"

Pearce glowed with pride. "Oh yes sir, I'll get on to it right away sir," with that he bounded away in search of his crew.

"Firefighter Fields," Pearce called as Sally and Adam returned after completing their hydrant task. "BA, and you Firefighter Mooney. Persons reported, second floor."

"Sub?" Craig had overheard the orders. "Can I go in?" he begged. "Please?"

Pearce looked a little weary of the idea, but Craig looked so enthusiastic at the prospect of getting so close to the fire, that he agreed.

"Firefighter Mooney, BA control," Pearce reassigned Frank.

Frank looked far from happy with the arrangement, or the fact that he had been landed with Craig's job just because the lad's father was only a matter of feet away…

Sally, however, was glad of the change. Least of all because she didn't trust Frank. She had witnessed his ability as a firefighter, but still if he was capable of murder, what was to stop him turning on his 'mates'?

Craig was eagerly pulling on his BA set, with Charlie's help. He risked a glance towards the control van, where D.O. Ross was watching them. He wondered what his father was feeling right now. Was he worried? Proud? Scared perhaps?

Craig knew that this was his chance to prove to his father that he was serious about being a firefighter, and that he wasn't just there to be paraded about by the D.O. like some sort of pedigree dog.

Soon, he and Sally were ready to tackle the fire and locate the missing person. Frank snatched their tallies rudely, without looking at either of them.

"You're done," was all he said as he slotted the tags into the side of the BA board.

Ignoring his attitude, Sally and Craig disappeared into the smoke logged building, dragging a charged hose behind them.

In all the years he had known Sally, Adam had never felt sexually attracted towards her. True, he had considered her to be a bit tasty when he first arrived at Blackwall, but he usually thought that about most good-looking women. He admired Sally more than anything. After everything life had thrown at her, she had still been able to bounce back. Including whatever grief Frank Mooney had laid upon her recently.

Adam watched as Sally and Craig disappeared into the burning building. He didn't worry about them; there wasn't time as he had been tasked to connect the hydrant. He took the stand pipe and key from Blackwall's pump and headed back to the overgrown bush where Sally had discovered the hydrant earlier.

He did worry about Frank Mooney's attitude though. The man was becoming a liability, and he was beginning to have very few friends left at Blackwall. Adam figured that Frank had realised this a while ago, hence the reason for his sourness. Adam half wished Mick Callaghan would return to sort Frank out, but then Adam wondered what his boss would do, if anything. Mick wasn't the type to cause waves in what he considered to be a perfectly calm ocean, but then he often didn't see things that were staring him right in the face.

Adam wondered if someone should say something to Frank before things got out of hand. Perhaps Sally would? But then he realised that it wouldn't be fair on her.

"Hey, Sal, could you sort Frank out before he kills us all?!"

It wasn't her problem, Frank had made it Blue Watch's problem. Although none of the Watch felt able to approach him about it. Adam realised that he knew one person who would tell Frank Mooney exactly what they thought of him. Frank needed a good kick up the arse. If he wanted to change, then that was all well and good, but he wasn't doing anything constructive in that direction at the moment.

Inside the burning building, as fireworks continued to blast through the roof and light up the sky outside, Craig was in awe of the fire. He had only been inside one burning building before, and that had been with Frank Mooney, which had unnerved him, possibly even more than the fire itself or the dead body he had discovered…

Sally, in front of him, had put out her arm to stop him advancing. He didn't notice it until it was too late. Fireworks were whizzing and popping in all directions and they had to duck several times. Ahead of them, slumped against the tall outline of a processing machine, was the missing security guard.

They edged forward carefully to retrieve the body. Sally immediately checked for a pulse. She couldn't find one, but decided not to report her findings to Craig, who was still gawping at the fireworks.

"Let's get him outside," she announced as she grabbed the body under the arms.

Craig took the legs and together they carried the lifeless security guard outside where they met Frank.

Frank took one look at the burned body and wrinkled his nose as Craig and Sally ripped off their BA masks, glad to be able to breathe fresh air again.

"Oh no…" Craig got his first proper look of the body in the fading daylight.

"What?" Frank asked, with a hint of malice. "Haven't you seen raw beef before?!"

Craig didn't say anything but turned away quickly and headed back towards Blackwall's pump.

Sally glared at Frank. "So much for you becoming a new man!" she remarked as she went to join Craig and brief Pearce on their findings.

Frank shrugged to himself and looked up at the building, where the fire was still raging, although less savagely than it had been a couple of hours ago. What reasons did he have to change now? He knew that his recent attitude meant that he had few friends at Blackwall, but since when had he been concerned about that? He hadn't met anyone in his life that he could have called a true friend, except Sally. But even she didn't want anything to do with him anymore, and he couldn't blame her.

He glanced over at Blue Watch, who were tackling the fire from various positions. Sally was talking to Craig and Pearce by the pump ladder, as D.O. Ross joined them for an update. Adam was checking the open hydrant, which seemed to be leaking more water than it was pumping, while George and Charlie were yelling loudly about the lack of water from their jets.

No one was paying any attention to Frank as he stood beside the main entrance to the burning building, still clutching the BA board. He watched the dancing orange flames in awe. They seemed to be calling him closer, like they had done many times before. Daring him to challenge them. He had always resisted their pull by dousing the devil's calling card with a heavy spray of cold water.

But now he didn't have any water. He stepped forward, discarding the BA board as he did so, and soon found the bright fires of Hell burning all around him. He knew he belonged here, after everything he had done. Even after everything he had been through with his father, who hopefully was also somewhere around here. He knew there were no excuses for murdering someone just because they owed someone else a few quid.

The flames were warm and danced high above him, crackling loudly as heavy black smoke clouds circled and billowed upwards. Frank gazed into the fire. A flame curled out, as if motioning him to sit down in the middle of the circle of fire where he stood. He followed the order from the Devil, whom he knew would step of the flames very soon and announce that his soul would be granted eternal torture for his deeds in the previous life.

Frank sank to his knees and closed his eyes. He waited as a dark shape stepped out of the flames towards him.