Chapter 14

Danny was sitting on the step of the ambulance. Chin had brought him here because he had the impression that Danny was about to collapse. The doctor had given him something and slowly Danny had the feeling that he could think more clearly again. Attentively he looked at the collapsed building. Something caught his attention, but he couldn't quite pin down what. Chin and Abby joined him again.

"Feeling better?" Danny nodded, then pointed to the building.

"Do you see that?"

"Danny, please stop ..." Furious, Danny interrupted Chin.

"No, I'm not going to stop until, ..., until you've recovered their ...," he had to swallow, "bodies. I won't give up that long."

The fire department's incident commander joined them.

"Your colleague has a point. A small section there doesn't seem to have collapsed with it. If we're lucky, we might find," he gave Danny a skeptical look, "but only maybe survivors."

At that moment, Danny's cell phone rang and his eyes grew wide when he saw the name on the display. He quickly answered the call.

"Steve?" Relieved to hear his buddy's voice, Danny leaned forward and propped his free hand on his knee.

"Wait, I'll put you on speaker so Chin, Abby and the fellow firefighter can hear you too."

"Hey guys."

"Steve that's good to hear your voice. Are you ok?"

"Catherine and I are fine, a few bruises and scrapes. We're not alone, though. Max Carter, one of the nurses, is still with us, and his leg doesn't look good."

The head of operations took the floor.

"Can they tell me approximately where they are?"

"Yes, we were in room 120, but crawled through a hole in the wall into room 121. This one seemed more stable to us."

The director of operations nodded.

He pulled out a map of the building and placed it on the hood. Again and again he looked back and forth between the plan and the building.

"Ok do they have the ability to get any further?"

"Negative. Everything else is closed here."

"Okay, I'll take a look with my people to see how we can get to them. What's the battery level on their phone?"

"Only 50 percent left. It also serves as our flashlight."

"That's not much more. Please try to conserve the battery so that we can reach you. We'll install a repeater near them so their network will be more stable and the battery won't drain because of the network search. We'll be in touch."

"All right."

"Steve?"

"Yes?"

"Hang in there."

"See you later, Danno."

Danny hung up, wishing he could have just kept Steve on the line, just to make sure he and Catherine were okay. With Chin and Abby, he stepped up to the incident commander, who was giving instructions to his men. The squad immediately ran and began carefully clearing debris and rubble from the spot where they suspected the three were, and they also installed the repeater.

They had certainly been working there for half an hour when all at once shouts were heard and a cloud of dust rose near the rescue team.

"Everyone back, now!" Hectically, the head of operations waved his people back.

"What happened there?"

"Another piece seems to have broken in. We'll be right there, though."

Full of worry, Danny dialed Steve's number, but he landed on the box right away. Not good, not good at all. Nervously, he paced back and forth. Then he saw one of the team waving the paramedics closer and a person being put on a stretcher. Danny ran. It was the orderly with the broken leg. Next, Catherine came climbing out of the hole. Relieved, Danny took her in his arms and then passed her to Chin and Abby. But where was Steve? He could finally see his dusty mop of hair appearing in the hole. Danny ran his hands through his hair and breathed a sigh of relief. As soon as Steve was outside, Danny pulled him into a hug.

Steve patted his partner on the back, glad to see daylight again, too.

"Hey Pal."

"Hey buddy, good to have you back. I ... I couldn't get a hold of you."

"Sorry, I don't know why, suddenly my phone was off and wouldn't turn on. I guess I need a new one."

Then Steve greeted Chin and Abby. Steve then took Catherine in his arms again. She was pale around the nose.

"I think we'll go get fixed up and then we'll go see Mary. I'll see you tomorrow?" Chin, Danny and Abby nodded. They had one more perp to catch.