The McIntrye building is located in down town Los Angeles somewhere between the Civic Centre and Bunker Hill regions. It is 24 stories high and like almost all tall buildings in the L.A. area follows a feature of a flat roof, the result of a 1974 fire ordinance which required all tall buildings in the city to include rooftop helipads in response to the devastating Joelma Fire in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in which helicopters were used to affect rescues from the flat rooftop of the building.
Jessica and Jo arrived at the building by 9:00am and by lunchtime felt famished. They made their way to Breadlam located on 826 East 3rd Street for a quick sandwich before returning to the office.
"There is so much choice of food" said Jo, as she and Jessica made their way through the huge revolving doors of the building. "What are you doing this afternoon?"
Jessica responded, "I'm going to be working with Paul all afternoon. He told me that he would love some feedback from a new swimming pool complex they are designing and being part of a swim team he wants some opinion on if it will work for competition as well as leisure. They apparently have to fit an Olympic pool into a centre that really cannot accommodate the size. To be honest I'm sure they have people who can do this stuff already. I think Paul is try to keep me entertained!"
Jo gave a laugh, "Well, I'm going to be with Aaron for a couple of hours and I'm getting off early! I'll get a lift from him back the The Palms so you can bring back the car. Technically, being 17 I'm not even allowed to drive in L.A on a UK licence - I need to be 18."
Both girls laughed and jumped in the lift that had just arrived in the lobby. Jo hopped out at the 15th floor and Jessica continued to the top floor where Paul's office was located. The higher the lift rose through the building the fewer the people crammed inside.
By time the lift reached the 24th floor and final stop Jessica was alone inside. The doors opened with a ping and Jessica exited into the plush executive floor. Paul's PA acknowledged Jessica and hopped into the lift and the doors closed. The space on the level was amazing and it was deathly quiet. The carpet felt soft under her feet as Jessica made her way to two large double doors. They opened automatically as she reached them and she saw Paul MacIntrye sitting at his desk looking rather casually dressed for the magnificent executive office in which they were located.
"Hi Jessica," he stood as she entered the room. He was wearing chinos and a grey hooded sweatshirt, "I like to keep it casual - I'm not a suit kind of guy I'm afraid - guess that is what happens when you work for a sports company!"
Jessica broke out in a smile.
"Can I get you anything?" Paul asked casually, "Drinks? Food?"
"I'm fine thanks. Just had lunch," Jessica replied, her stomach churned as they got closer and their eyes met. She look down shyly and felt her cheeks starting to burn.
"I'm sorry to get you up here like this but to be honest I don't really have much work on this afternoon! I needed some company and, well, kind of thought of you." Paul said the words without thinking. "Ooo - this is awkward!" he muttered realising his mistake.
Jessica blushed some more happy at hearing Paul wanted to spend sometime with her. "It's not really awkward," she replied back a little too quickly, "I'd love to spend sometime with you!"
There was a clear attraction between the pair and the statements they had just made simply confirmed the obvious. For a few moments the awkward silence continued, neither Paul or Jessica knew what to say. "Come and look at this view - the L.A. skyline is great at this time of year." Paul said suddenly, breaking the silence having found some distracting words.
Jessica walked over to the large panel glass window and stood next to Paul. He pointed out some of the surrounding buildings and places of interest, including The Staples Centre and Dodgers Stadium. They walked around the floor together alone talking about L.A. and how different it was to London.
As they got back to the sofas by the main desk there was a sudden rumble, Jessica almost fell and Paul caught her in his arms. "Are you ok?" he enquired holding her to him. Jessica beamed as their bodies were pushed close together. She could smell his lightly fragranced aftershave and felt the softness of his hoodie sweater top. Her body trembled as he helped her regain her footing.
"I'm fine, what was that?" Jessica asked.
Paul replied, "Likely an Earth tremor. Happens quite frequently here in L.A. Some say you haven't had the whole Californian experience until you feel one." He went on to explain, "The earthquakes of California are caused by the movement of huge blocks of the earth's crust- the Pacific and North American plates. The Pacific plate is moving northwest, scraping horizontally past North America at a rate of about 50 millimetres each year. About two-thirds of this movement occurs on the San Andreas fault and some parallel faults- the San Jacinto, Elsinore, and Imperial faults. You get used to them after a while, they are nothing to worry about. The buildings and high rises are designed to withstand earthquakes so you really are safe...unless of course 'The Big One' hits - nobody knows what devastation that would cause."
Jessica smiled feeling a little more secure, but sensing her nervousness Paul suggested they leave the MacIntrye building and get some fresh air. The made their way across the office floor and called the private executive lift - this was used exclusively by the MacIntrye family and company executives . It took a few minutes until it arrived. There was a ping, a statement that it had arrived, the doors opened and Paul led Jessica inside.
The lift started its descent down towards street level when the building started to shake a second time. The lights went out and the lift came to a standstill. Jessica and Paul were trapped helpless somewhere between floor 14 and 15. When the building stopped shaking emergency lighting came on and Jessica was visibly shaken she had to now contend with the inevitable claustrophobia of being stuck in the small dark enclosed space.
"Well," said Paul putting his arms around Jessica to comfort her, "I could think of worse people to be stuck in here with."
Jessica felt more relaxed when Paul spoke. He was calm and in control. He picked up the internal phone that linked to Aarons security control centre - the line was dead. He pulled out his cell phone - no signal. Paul tried to force the doors - they faced a brick wall. "I could try and climb up out of the roof trap door" he suggested, "but I don't really want to leave you hear."
Tears had formed in Jessica's eyes, she was terrified. Paul sat her down on the floor, then knelt in front of her. He wiped the tears from her face with his thumb and brushed back her hair behind her ears. "Listen," he spoke softly holding her hands, "Jessica this place is safe, the emergency system prevents the lift from falling. You will not be hurt. I am here with you and won't let anything happen to you do you understand?"
Jessica nodded silently and Paul gently kissed her forehead. 'I just hope that a lift trapped alert has signalled in security' he thought to himself. 'It will be up to Aaron and his team to get us out of here.'
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At the Venice Beach boardwalk Abi was still feeling sore from the piercing and was waiting for Leanne to return to the bench where she was sitting with some refreshment. It was particularly quiet, the beach was almost empty probably as most people had left to check on loved ones after the violent tremors. "Was that an earthquake?" she said aloud to nobody in particular.
"Yeah," said a passer-by, "Happens all the time out here, two in thirty minutes is a little less usual though. Lucky you're outside in the sun. They are pretty scary if you find yourself in the mall or one of the 'scrappers downtown."
Leanne arrived with some drinks, "Enjoy the quakes!" she said laughing. "Did the Earth move for you!"
Abi laughed and got up taking the much needed drink. "I needed a rest, but what I really need is to put on a dress or skirt. I didn't think about material brushing against me when I dressed this morning!"
Leanne laughed some more, "Why did you even want to get that done?! What ever made you..."
She broke off as she heard someone screaming for help.
"My car, help my girls, they are stuck. The tides is coming in..."
Abi jumped up onto the bench to see if she could see what the woman was screaming about. She could see a car had somehow crashed into what appeared to be a drainage pit - it had somehow left the road, probably during the earth tremors, maybe to avoid some falling debris or tree and it had flipped over and through a barrier. The Ocean tide was rising and the flood drain would fill with water. Leanne pulled out her mobile - damn - no signal - another likely effect from the earthquake. She and Abi ran toward the incident. The gentleman who had spoken to Abi had seen the commotion and joined them.
When they got to the vehicle they could see two children trapped inside. Water was filling the storm drainage system quickly. Usually the situation would not have been a major problem as the water could flow away, however the shockwaves had collapsed a wall meaning the water had no place to flow. Leanne and Abi climbed down the wreckage and tried to force a door - they were jammed. The gentleman passer-by passed them a piece of bent metal, and climbed down with the girls. "Lets use this to leaver open the door" he suggested. It was no good even with the three of them using all of their weight.
"Fuck this!" said Leanne picking up a large bolder, she threw it at the windshield which shattered. The man tried to climb through but his size wouldn't allow him in so Abi, being the smallest, volunteered to go inside.
"Be quick." the man said, "Don't want you getting stuck inside, the water is filling the channel fast."
Abi climbed into the vehicle and reached the young girl. She passed her over to the gentleman, who in turn passed her over to Leanne. The water was rising faster and the car was beginning to fill up. Soaking, Abi reached for her sister, and pulled her free from his child seat. Again she passed the youngster to the gentleman who again passed the child back to Leanne. By now all three of the rescuers were wet through.
A large crowd was starting to gather, some people had their mobile phones in their hands and had started to video the rescue, whilst others just stood watching. Nobody was trying to help except the trio of Leanne, Abi and the gentleman. Sirens could be heard as emergency service vehicles were trying to make their way through the busy stationary traffic.
"Abi, hurry up and get outta there," shouted Leanne.
Abi looked around took a deep breath and went beneath the water. What the hell is she doing Leanne thought to herself, there were only two children in the car. She surfaced a few moments later with a little black and white puppy in her arms. She passed the dog to the gentleman passer-by who then helped her out of the now water covered vehicle. "I had to rescue Lucky!" she said smiling, "I couldn't leave him behind!"
Spontaneous applause greeted the trio of rescuers as they made their way back to the boardwalk as two black and white L.A.P.D cars came to a stop at the scene, sirens whooping and lights flashing. An ambulance and Fire-truck joined them soon after. A Fox News helicopter could be seen over-head.
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In the Security Control office of the MacIntrye building lights flickered on and off. The usual big screen monitors were showing a grey fuzzy snow screen as the broadcast signals had been lost.
Aaron had a loud hailer in his handed and shouted, "Attention please everyone."
The room became silence and he put down the loud hailer. "Listen up people, we have a situation here. We need everybody to be calm and professional. I know you are worried about loved ones, but we need to ensure that everyone here is out of the building safely first. Understand this, you will have the time to be with your families once the building is clear."
Jo was stood beside him, her laptop in hand, pulling up an earthquake emergency plan. She walked over to the large screen pulled a HDMI broadcast plug and inserted into the HDMI port of the laptop.
Aaron was impressed by her quick thinking and acknowledge it with a nod. Everyone's attention was drawn to the big screen. "I want 24 teams of two to floor walk every floor of the building to ensure that it is clear of staff and visitors. I want everyone accounted for. Use the staircases as the elevator systems are likely to be out of action. Radio in any persons trapped or injured and we will co-ordinate an evacuation from the street. I want to ensure the building is clear in 30 minutes. If there is a further quake or aftershocks - stay safe - no heroics. Lets move!"
Aaron turned to Jo, "That was good thinking young lady, you could make a career out of emergency planning. Cool heads are key, good work. You're with me, my right hand for this op. Lets go!"
Joanne beamed a huge smile pleased she had impressed Aaron and quickly evacuated to the street as the Macintyre security teams searched the building as instructed.
Jessica and Paul remained stranded in the lift, it's emergency lights flashing on and off occasionally. The strain on the lift cables became obvious in the silence as they could be heard creaking by the two occupants.
"Its starting get hot in here," Jessica complained. Beads of sweat had started to form on Pauls forehead and he removed his sweatshirt, the blue striped t-shirt he wore underneath was stained with sweat patches. His muscular body could be seen through the material as it clung to him.
"You need to try and keep cool Jess" Paul said with concern.
Jessica reached under her dress and un-snapped the suspenders and removed the stockings that had been attached. She unbuttoned the three top buttons at the front of her dress, revealing a little cleavage that had become soaked with sweat from the heat. They heard banging at the doorways and suddenly felt the lift drop. Jessica screamed and started to cry. She cuddled closer to Paul.
The lift had dropped to floor 14 and someone was trying to pull open the doors. "Your the last two people in the building, I'm glad we found you Mr MacIntrye." The friendly faces of two of Aarons team greeted the pair.
Paul helped Jess to her feet and helped her out of the lift and into the air of the 14th Floor. Jessica took a big deep breath and then gave a shiver. Paul placed his sweater around her as she reached back into the life to get her shoes. As she picked them up and began to move away the empty lift suddenly plunged down the shaft as the cables gave way. There was a large crash as the lift hit the ground floor and a plume of smoke and dust raised up the shaft and out of the open doors. Jessica, Paul and their rescuers were covered. "Well, that was a little close" said Paul, placing his arm around Jessica. They all walked through the building down the stairs to the ground floor shocked and little shaken by the events of the day.
Joanne and Aaron were in the Command Tent co-ordinating rescue efforts with the team around them offering first aid not only to McIntyre employees but other office workers, emergency responders and members of the public.
"Wow - you look bloody awful," said Jo seeing the distressed state of Jessica. She put her arms around her and gave a huge hug, the dust and grub covering her clothes. Jessica's make-up was smudged her eyes looking like those of a giant panda.
"Is everyone out Aaron?" asked Paul.
"We got everyone. You wanna get outta here with these girls? Take 'em home?" Aaron responded.
"Sure - guess we won't be using any cars though." Paul had seen the below ground private parking was blocked by debris and emergency vehicles.
The mobile television behind Aaron was showing rolling news coverage of the mini-quake and live pictures from the coast where the Fox News helicopter was hovering over a rescue where two girls had ran to assist a wrecked overturned car in a storm drain.
Out of the corner of her eye Joanne spotted the developing news story, "Hey turn the sound up on that - Isn't that at Venice Beach?"
A member of the Security Team by the monitor turned up the sound. "...it is quite unbelievable..." came the voice of the reporter her voice being drowned by the whirring helicopter rotors. "We are over the top of an incident that had developed and was seemingly caused by today's magnitude 5 quake. If you are just joining us we have just witnessed two young girls and a man race to a wrecked car in that storm drain. It appears from here that at least two children and a dog were trapped inside. One of the girls smashed the front window and the smaller girl put herself at risk to dive beneath the flooding water to pull the victims from the vehicle. We are trying to identify the victims and rescuers as you watch these live pictures. Everyone involved is safe and being looked after by first responders on the scene....If you are a witness and have video please let us know - this is Fox News live from the skies above Venice Beach. Lets head back to Lance Littlepierce in our studios, Lance?"
In the studio Lance announced that the news coverage would be on going through out the day, thanked the team in the helicopter and appealed for video from the public of the rescue for a second time. He cut promptly to a commercial break.
"Abi is bound to have a video of that incident if she was nearby - she loves putting stuff up on social media" said Joanne, of course not realising Abi and Leanne were involved with the rescue effort.
Whilst Jo, Jessica and Paul watched the video feed from Venice Beach, Aaron had been making some calls. "Paul, I've got you a ride home. I've a helo coming for you but, to pick it up, you'll have to make your way to The Dodger Stadium. Should take you about 30 minutes on foot."
The Dodger Stadium is a baseball park in the Elysian Park neighbourhood of Los Angeles and is the home stadium of Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers. Opened on April 10, 1962, it was constructed in less than three years at a cost of around US$23 million. It is the oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball west of the Mississippi River, and third-oldest overall, after Fenway Park in Boston, and Wrigley Field in Chicago. It is the world's largest baseball stadium by seating capacity and is often referred to as a "pitcher's ballpark", the stadium has seen 12 no-hitters, two of which were perfect games. The helicopter arranged by Aaron landed within the stadium itself right in the middle of the outfield.
Paul led the girls on their way to the stadium to catch their waiting helicopter. Some streets were a mess, broken glass almost everywhere from broken windows that had either been smashed by falling debris or had come lose from the skyscrapers and toppled to street level. Some streets had seen cars collide and police had cordoned off areas where the danger from falling debris was high risk. Despite the mess it appeared as though downtown L.A. had escaped almost unscathed. The walk itself and helicopter extradition from the area and back to The Palms was largely uneventful.
The helicopter touched down on the very spot where the girls had landed weeks before and where their adventure in the US had started. Once inside the house the trio were greeted by the waiting Juliette. "Glad to see you back safely," she said offering drinks "Been something of an eventful day!" A broad smile crossed her face.
"Are Leanne and Abi back?" Jessica asked, concerned for her friends safety.
"Well, not exactly," replied Juliette, "but I do know they are safe."
Sensing that Juliette was not giving the full picture Joanne responded quickly, "If they are not here how do you know they are safe? Have they called?"
"Well, err, they haven't called but I've seen them and they are fine. In fact they are on their way back as we speak. I've got them on board a R.I.B. It is easier to get back on the ocean as the highways are all jammed with traffic and emergency vehicles."
Clearly hiding something, Joanne continued questioning Juliette, her time with Aaron had clearly rubbed off, "How can you have seen them if you haven't been in contact with them? That makes no sense Juliette! Are you not telling us something?"
Juliette took a few steps to the side, picked up a remote control and turned up the sound on the television behind her.
"Leanne Cox and Abigail Jones - both aged 18 and from London, England, were today involved in yet another rescue. Not content with being part of the hero group of British swimmers who saved the life of Hugo Wells last month, the pair found themselves at the centre of another rescue down on Venice Beach this afternoon...." A picture of Leanne and Abi was being shown and the news network was reporting on the events that occurred during the earthquake. The report continued, "We have eyewitness video streams of the pair breaking into a car that had left the highway and overturned into a flooding storm drain. Together with a man, named locally as Derek Chisholm, they plucked two drowning children and their pet dog from the flooding vehicle saving them from certain death. We are in the process of trying to locate the pair for interview who, we understand, were evacuated from the scene by boat. Stay with us as we track..."
Juliette switched off the broadcast. "I don't think I need to say anymore... so much for keeping you girls under wraps and away from the press here in the US!"