Tonton said.
"Good evening, folks," Errols said as he climbed back up to his cab.
Δ
The fire alarm went off at 0422 according to Wally's bedside chron. Damn it, he thought. Oh-dark-thirty, of course! They had experienced two minor warehouse fires in the past and they had both occurred at oh-dark-thirty. Why the hell can’t these fires break out during working hours, Wally wondered. He staggered out of bed, pulled on sweaty coveralls and ran downstairs towards the warehouse, almost colliding with Tonton on the way down. The two of them had night duty, which meant they slept in guest quarters over the warehouse. They snapped open the interior door and charged into the cavernous, pitch-black warehouse. Willie hit the switches and the white ceiling lights began flickering on.
"What’s going on?" It was the owner, on the comset.
"We're investigating, Boss. Tonton and I. No fire so far."
"Well, if you find a fire put it out. And if you can't handle it yourself, call the fire department. That's what they're there for. But let me know in advance whatever happens ’cause we've still got plenty of guests here and if I'm going to have to explain why the place is surrounded by the fire department, I'd like to get my story straight."
"It's here. It's the new shipment," Tonton said. His fire extinguisher had highlighted the source.
"Damn! It’s hot as hell!" Wally exclaimed. The two large dropboxes were side by side, radiating a fierce, scorching heat.
"But there's no fire!" TonTon said.
"Open the damned dropboxes. The fire is inside."
"You open it! It's too damned hot!"
"All right, we open one. Crack the seal."
"Are you sure we wanna do this?"
"We've got to see what’s happening before we call the fire department." Wally swung a crowbar at the dropbox's vac seal and it snapped open. A wave of superhot air burst forth and hit them like a speeding aircar. They staggered back. They could see no fire in the dropbox, but through the heat haze they could see a rectangular metal container that filled the dropbox and it was glowing red hot. Wally's face was scorching hot. He retreated further from the blast of superheated air, gasping for oxygen.
"All right, call the fire department. I'm not opening that sucker."
Δ
When the fire pros arrived they popped open both dropboxes and then got to work on one of the metal containers. They were both red hot and the scanners reported they were made of steel. They looked seamless, but a tech scan detected a seal in the first one and the fire fighters opened it. By then the warehouse was full of smoke and the two dropboxes and steel containers were hissing with steam from high pressure water jets and bubbling chem fire retardent and bursts of carbon dioxide. When the seal cracked open, the fire within blasted forth in a fierce eruption just like a volcano, shooting up to the ceiling, dropping the firefighters to the floor. They got up again and strangled the flames with foam and vac and carbon dioxide, flooding the container and whatever was in there. Then they did the same to the other steel box.
"What a bloody mess," the boss said from behind the barricades that the firefighters had erected inside the warehouse. The place looked like it had been hit by a bomb. "What a disaster. Now what the hell was that?"
"Wrong question," one of the firefighters answered him, staring grimly into the first steel container. "You mean who the hell was that?"
"What?"
"There's a body in there. Not much left of it – burnt to ashes. This is a steel coffin. And the body was strapped down by steel chains. Quite securely. I wonder if he was alive when they put him in there."
"There's a body in this one too," another firefighter said, peering into the other steel coffin. "Poor guy. Time to call the cops."
Δ
"That's amazing," Arie said. We were seated on the open-air Tea Terrace having a light breakfast while watching Quaba's double sunrise, and it was a stirring sight. Honeyhair was by my side, and