Chapter 4 - The Power Failure
Down in the security control room, Marcus Vance was nursing a cup of black coffee while watching a dozen multi-angle security monitors. The wind outside was screaming at over eighty miles per hour, rattling the massive steel-and-glass frame of Rainier Crest Tower.
Suddenly, the monitors flickered violently.
A deep, subterranean shudder ripped through the building, followed by a deafening BOOM that echoed up through the concrete foundation.
The overhead fluorescent lights sputtered, buzzed aggressively, and then died completely.
Pitch blackness swallowed the control room for three agonizing seconds before the emergency diesel generators kicked in with a deafening roar. Overhead, dim, sickly red emergency strips flickered to life along the baseboards and hallways, casting long, bloody shadows across the walls.
“What the hell was that?” Vance cursed, slamming his coffee mug down on the console.
On the main wall of monitors, screen number four—the master power grid indicator—flashed a blinding crimson warning: SUB-STATION TRANSFORMER BLOWN. PRIMARY GRID OFFLINE.
Vance grabbed his radio. “Frank! Report! What just happened in sub-level two?”
Static hissed through the handheld unit before Frank’s panicked voice crackled back: “Vance! The storm surge flooded the lower transformer vault! The main electrical breakers tripped, and the backup generator intake is choked with water! We’re losing control systems!”
“Fix it!” Vance roared. “I don't care if you have to swim down there! If the building loses power completely, the smart-glass windows and security locks on the upper floors will fail or freeze shut! Get down there now!”
Before Frank could answer, another violent tremor shook the skyscraper. A massive gust of wind struck the upper fiftyth floor with the force of a freight train, twisting the architectural frame of the tower.
Inside the control room, Vance watched in mounting horror as a new indicator light flashed on his console: ELEVATOR BANK ALPHA – EMERGENCY BRAKES ENGAGED DUE TO VOLTAGE SURGE.
“No, no, no,” Vance muttered, frantically typing commands into his keyboard.
The computerized elevator control system—the pride of Northstar Global Logistics—was fully automated. In the event of a total power failure coupled with a severe mechanical fault, the system’s failsafe protocol automatically locked all elevator cars at their current floor to prevent freefalls, sealing the hoistway doors shut until manual override keys could be deployed.
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And right now, Elevator Car Number 7 was frozen halfway between the forty-sixth and forty-seventh floors.
Inside that elevator car, trapped in total darkness, was Emma Kane.
