Page 28 of Hot Zone

“That was before my time, but my mom always took us there to watch classic Christmas movies every year. It was pretty rundown back then before the community theater got that grant to fix it up.”

“It was, and they did a great job with it. Hell, when I was teaching at the fire school, we used to use it to do evacuation training.”

“That was what we did in Houston where I went to school, too. Use a theater, I mean. At least we won’t have to evacuate the place this early in the morning. There shouldn’t be anyone there.”

We exchanged a look. “Another empty building,” I said.

“Yep, and right at shift change. That’s what I was about to say. This isn’t the first fire that was right at shift change. It’s almost like the guy knows what to do to cause the most chaos.”

“I know what you’re thinking, Fox, but I refuse to believe it’s a firefighter.”

“I don’t want to think that either. I have been going through the city’s employee files, checking for anyone who left under bad circumstances.”

“I understand why, but I don’t like the thought at all.”

I turned off of Eleventh Street onto Pecan, and I could see the smoke rising up from the roof of the Majestic from two blocks away. The flames licked high enough into the early morning sky that they cast an eerie orange light over the entire street.

This had to be our arsonist, and the Majestic was no small-time target. Its heavy, hundred-year-old timbers had weathered every storm this town had ever seen, its brick walls standing like a fortress. It even survived the 1976 tornado that took out half of the old downtown area.

I pulled to a screeching halt across the street from the theater and stepped out of my truck. I could feel the heat surging through the air, and even from there, I could tell the theater itself was a goner. Flames tore through the roof, crackling with a fury that only came from fuel and planning.

“You think it was him?” Fox asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “Don’t you?”

Fox nodded, and I sighed. There was no way this was an accident. It was too hot, too fast.

The two trucks from Station 69 pulled up, and as both crews poured out, I called out, “Focus on the other buildings. There’s no saving the Majestic.”

I heard acknowledgments and saw my people moving into position. We weren’t here to save the landmark theater today, as much as I wished we were. The arsonist—because there was no doubt in my mind that’s who we were dealing with—had seen to that.

Our job now was to keep this monster from spreading to the rest of the block, where small businesses and century-old buildings were packed tightly together. I keyed up my radio. “Dispatch, this is Chief Sheridan. You might want to dispatch that truck from Station twenty just to be safe.”

I didn’t know if we would need a third truck, but with so many businesses at risk, I didn’t want to risk it. I wasn’t sure he could’ve picked a better target if he wanted to do maximum damage to the city. The Majestic had been the heart of old downtown for as long as I could remember.

“Chief, we’re ready on the north end,” Robert’s voice said through my radio.

“And we’ve got the south,” Jax added.

Both my captains had jumped right in to cut off the flames before they reached McCoy’s Bakery and Silver Box Jewelry, the two stores that sat on each side of the theater.

I pressed the talk button. “Good. Keep those lines charged and be ready to pull back if you see that roof start to go.”

There was no time to hesitate. With the way the fire was spreading, if we didn’t act quickly, we’d lose more than just the theater. I could hear the snap and groan of old wood collapsing in on itself, the sturdy beams finally surrendering. The Majestic had stood for nearly a century, but today would be its last.

We moved like clockwork—every step calculated, every order precise. My team knew the drill, and as I watched them work, I felt that familiar mix of pride and tension. We were up against the worst kind of enemy today. Whoever set this fire had known exactly what they were doing.

Mars

It had taken me forever to get to the shop today. Traffic was backed up down Fourteenth, and I could see the smoke from what appeared to be a very large fire.

I’d been curious what was up, but it hadn’t taken long for me to find out what had happened, since it was all anyone who came in could talk about. The old Majestic Theater had caught fire, and apparently, multiple fire trucks and half the Vesper police department were in the old downtown area, doing their best to save what they could.

If I’d learned one thing from my house fire, it was that sometimes all they could do was extinguish the fire so it didn’t spread anywhere else, which would be a shame if that was the case with the historic theater. The inside had been so grand after the community theater got a grant to renovate it and going there for local theater productions had always been so much fun.

The shop had been busier than normal, so I hadn’t been able to check the news. I was tempted to message Samuel and make sure he was okay, but not only would that be a ridiculous thing to do since we were nothing but roommates, but it would also possibly distract him.

Mid-morning, Steven popped in with another box of Roxy’s Halloween stuffies. Her first batch had flown off the shelves, and even though it was only a week before Halloween, I thought there was a chance I could still sell quite a few more. People really seemed to like those.

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