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Whoever was out there wasn’t worried about stealth, their heavy boots shuffling across the floor hatever they were doing A few seconds later, coiven up But then the strong scent of diesel reached theine they’d used to block it

Suddenly they heard a new rippling sound, followed by a loud woosh, as a growing holocaust raced across the warehouse floor

Oliver reared back, fear bordering on panic “Fire! There’s no escape!”

Reency services that the Payton warehouse was on fire “Please hurry Mr Payton is trapped inside Please hurry,” she repeated in her best uptight tone

Sa it was still connected to the outside water hydrant He ai fire, opened the valve, and was rewarded with a lame spurt

Reuisher from the rack on the wall One tith both hands and it broke off in a cloud of dust, along with an avalanche of mu happened

“Nohat do we do?” Oliverinto the corner

Sam and Remi’s eyes locked on each other for a ht never see tomorrow In unison, they turned and stared at the old Ahrens-Fox puine

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Sa the worst of times, and it took him no more than ten seconds to calculate the odds He held his focus His eyes still locked on the big red fire engine—not just any engine, it was an Ahrens-Fox, the Rolls-Royce of firefighters

His childhood passion ca his bicycle to a fire station with his pals, helping the firee for a free ride, with siren shrieking, bell ringing

The fireine was a massive four cylinders behind the radiator, and anickel-plated ball that increased pressure enough that it could throater onto the roof of a forty-story building

On occasion, the firemen would show the boys how to open certain valves so they could shoot water over a cornfield behind the station

As Sao, when he felt he had to work a coed the distance frohty feet for acceleration, then add theof the flat tires

At best, it was a toss-up