49
The hotel the group had come to loathe was on the verge of collapse. It had been burning all night, and its lower levels were now so badly damaged that the building was struggling to support its own weight. It groaned and shook. Windows shattered and showered the dead below with shards of glass. A lump of masonry sheered away from one corner of the building and hit the deck, crushing several of them. Others collided with the concrete block then shuffled around and carried on, oblivious. In the street below, a vast column of burning bodies now stretched along the full length of St Katharine’s Way, efficiently transferring the fire from the hotel to other nearby buildings.
When he heard the building collapse, Sanjay returned to the battlements to assess the damage. It had been hours sin
