Chapter 24

TWENTY-FOUR

R ichard stood on the roof of the medical center across the street, having gained access to the building with his credentials. They didn't know it was so he could watch the fire burn. He could smell the smoke from here, along with the tang of something new.

He was evolving.

To the east, under the gray afternoon sky, the firehouse had collapsed in on itself. The office wing was nothing but rubble. Unexpected, considering he'd placed one device on that side and another in the operations wing.

Trees on the sidewalk swayed in a gentle breeze. As if unaware that a fire blazed feet away, determined to spread. Left unchecked, it would eat its way through the city, consuming fuel with every foot it gained. Taking over. Taking control.

Would the whole city burn?

Richard shivered at just the thought of standing here, watching it all go up in flames.

He caught himself before he descended into the spiral of those rapturous thoughts.

He had to focus on this fire.

Today.

Not the next step.

One of his devices here must have malfunctioned, but that wasn't entirely surprising given explosives weren't his usual method of destruction.

He'd rather it would've been the other side of the building, where he had seen them enter. He'd placed the device close to the load-bearing wall between the kitchen and bunk rooms. But that side of the firehouse hadn't collapsed completely.

Richard watched flames lick up from the rubble on both sides.

If occupants weren't dead now, they would be soon enough.

The old, swept away in the fire of purification. Making way for the new.

He was aware the firefighters had made a number of reports about the condition of the building—at least compared to the brass and their fancy headquarters. Complaints of disrepair at the firehouse. Requests for materials to shore up the structure and bring it back to code. But budget cuts had scraped renovation plans. The department didn't want to fix what wasn't broken beyond their ability to repair.

At least now, they would be forced to completely redesign their response team's base of operations.

Only two lives lost in the tragedy.

He watched the flames pick up. Someone on the sidewalk below him pointed to the destruction, calling out to a friend. A phone was drawn out of a pocket. A frantic request made.

But it would take time for the response. After all, he'd perfectly timed it so the house would be mostly empty, as everyone else was occupied by the incident at the school. A fire extinguished before it could reach its full potential was far too disappointing.

He was better than that now.

Richard Sylvana was the past. He had become something more, the old washed away and made new. Creation. Rebirth.

Fire was the only way to accomplish what had to be.

And with the two of them working this case as part of the taskforce, it was only a matter of time before things came to a head.

And so he had dealt another blow—this one fatal.