Chapter 226 Fire
The crowd cheered and walked south. Ashish, who had been standing on the sidelines watching the fun, could not resist the call of the dancing crowd and followed them.
He suddenly rushed out from the roadside and joined the dense, twitching crowd. He was not good at this, and his dance was wobbly and stumbling, but he still kept pushing towards the center of the dancing group.
He stretched out his arms to balance himself, as if stepping on a row of stones in a shallow river. Occasionally he would suddenly turn, lean to the side, and laugh.
The yellow shirt flashed in the crowd as he danced. The carnival procession moved along the long street, heading south and south.
The girls threw colorful paints, red, yellow, green...they exploded in clusters and fell like rain, landing on the crowd that kept pouring in.
The uncoordinated beats of drums led the mighty procession forward without stopping. Crowds of people on the streets continued to revel, inspired by their movements and joining in.
The noise grew louder and louder, and the already thunderous cheers now echoed throughout the entire street.
Mumbai was filled with such carnival crowds, and some narrow alleys were even blocked.
The team from the Sur slum always had a clear goal. It carried more and more people straight to South Mumbai and to the bustling Haines Road.
As the target drew closer, Amor gestured to the musicians, and the drumbeats changed, becoming more intense.
The men in the team slowly gathered forward, while the women and children gradually fell behind.
The Imperial Palace! Right before our eyes!
Amor raised his flag and shouted, "For the sun god, Surya! Purify sin!"
He led the charge, and the men followed him toward the magnificent building.
The musicians' drumbeats changed again, and they automatically separated from the group. The women and children followed the musicians and continued forward, and the entire group was divided into two.
There were a lot of security guards deployed around the palace, more than before, as if they were on guard against something.
Today is Holi. The person in charge of security has relaxed his vigilance and is standing at the door watching the fun with a smile on his face.
When Amor and his men rushed over, they had no time to react.
One, two, three... dozens of them appeared, and the security guards, startled, raised their sticks to try to disperse the crowd. Some even prepared to draw their guns.
But at some point, men began to have more tools in their hands: wrenches, iron pipes, and steel drills.
They are workers, so it is reasonable for them to carry some wrenches, hammers, etc.
The palace guards raised their guns in panic, ready to aim at the person holding the flag in front.
In a flash, a wrench flew over and hit him right in the face.
The guard fell to the ground with blood all over his face and screamed. The crowd rushed over and hit him with hammers and beat him with iron pipes.
In just a few hits, a hole was knocked in the head of the guard holding the gun.
Red and white were smeared all over the floor.
The others were so frightened that they screamed and ran away.
It was useless. There were too many people. The hundreds of guards in the palace were overwhelmed by the crowd in the blink of an eye.
The order Amor received was that no one should be left alive, and all the thugs in the palace would not be able to leave this gate today.
Ron knew that Lady Elizabeth had only been in Mumbai for two years, her foundation was still shallow, and all her team was in the palace.
She is not a Dawood gang, whose men are spread all over the city of Mumbai, making it difficult to wipe them out in one go.
The palace is her pride, but also the best target for concentrated fire.
Following the flag, the crowd rushing in from behind grew into hundreds, thousands... and tens of thousands!
The gate of the palace was like a collapsed dam, with a dark torrent rushing forward.
The people, wooden doors and railings that stood in its way were knocked open, torn apart and collapsed.
The torrent rushed from the first floor to the third floor. Every room they passed by was kicked open and the people inside were driven out screaming.
The sound of shattering glass, the sharp friction of metal railings, the screams and shouts of the crowd...
Under the impact of tens of thousands of people, the huge and heavy imperial palace became as fragile as a layer of window paper.
The carnival continued on the streets, colorful powder covered the sky, and people danced and laughed.
Suddenly, a white color appeared among the colorful powders. No, it was thick smoke!
The fire shot up into the sky almost instantly, and the heat wave forced the celebrating crowd to flee in panic.
"Burning! Burning!" people ran and shouted.
The fire spread so quickly that it was impossible to put out the fire. People could only stand at a distance and watch helplessly as the brothel was licked and engulfed by the flames.
Amor's troops had already rushed out of the palace, and they watched the fire raging along with the crowd on the street.
The musicians who had left earlier came back at some point, and the sounds of drums, flutes, and trumpets came in waves.
The team started moving again, and Amor led his men to turn north. They still had a place to attack, but this time it was for themselves.
The crowd of onlookers gradually dispersed, and soon only a sparse number of people were left on Haines Road.
The streets were like an overturned paint palette, a mess.
In a car in the corner, Ron slowly rolled up the window and closed his eyes.
Anil waved, and the driver started the car and drove away.
…
The fire in the palace burned for three days and three nights, and it was completely destroyed.
It was Holi, a festival of red, and Mumbai was abuzz with revelry. Even if the firefighters had wanted to rescue the victims, they were powerless.
Because it was difficult to move on the streets, the parade teams and floats blocked the streets and alleys.
It was not until the fifth day that the neighborhood returned to normal. The palace building was still there, as were the stairs and upstairs rooms, but it was all pitch black and there was no possibility of opening.
No one came to check from beginning to end, including the police. It seemed like they had received some orders.
In the streets and alleys, people gradually stopped mentioning the palace, and it seemed as if it had been forgotten.
But soon, two uninvited guests arrived on Haines Road.
"Are you sure you want to go up?" Ron sat in the car and looked at the black ruins.
"We have to see it with our own eyes," Mary said firmly.
"This fire burned for three days. She might have turned into a piece of charcoal by now." Ron spread his hands. "My people have been keeping watch here the whole time. No one came out until the fire was out."
"You underestimate her. She's an instructor and very cunning."
"Okay, be careful. I'm right here, I'll be there if you need anything."
Lady Elizabeth is Mary and Lena's obsession, and they must make peace with her.
The main facade of the palace was almost intact because it was protected by marble, but the metal sheets, wooden boards, and carved curtains on the windows had been burned to a horrible state.
The main entrance was blocked by a pile of debris, so the two could only look for an entrance from other places.
There is a narrow side street that leads directly to the back of the palace. Compared with the grandeur of the gate, this narrow alley is very dirty.
Mary and Lena stepped carefully over the black, smelly puddles filled with scum and around piles of greasy, pigment-stained garbage.
After looking at each other, they both held their breath. It was too smelly.
The walls and fences on both sides of the alley were hastily built with stones, bricks and cement. They looked very old and were covered with disgusting moss and plants.
They checked one building at a time along the street corners, and finally found the back door.
Mary pushed on a low wooden door set into the high stone wall, and it opened immediately.
The two walked into the spacious backyard, and the once luxurious and beautiful quiet resting place was no longer there.
Heavy ceramic vases were pushed over and shattered, and clods of earth and flowers were scattered on the ground, creating a mess.
The furniture in the courtyard was smashed and burned, and even the tiles on the ground had cracks in many places, as if someone had hit them with a hammer.
Lena found a blackened door leading into the house, which was not locked.
She nodded to Mary, drew the dagger from her waist, and pushed the door inward, making the rusty metal creak.
"Be careful, that Abu is not an ordinary person." Mary warned her.
"I've waited for this day for too long." Lena took a deep breath and stepped into the door.
It was dark inside, and the floor was littered with broken plates, jars, glasses, and other utensils among the black fragments of furniture and fallen beams.
Mary suddenly regretted that they should have brought a flashlight. In the pitch darkness, every step was filled with danger.
She carefully walked around the kitchen on the first floor and walked onto the corridor leading to the lobby.
Most of the rooms we passed by were burned out by the fire, and some of the ceilings had fallen down.
The charred bracket protruded from the hole above, like the remains of some giant beast.
Near the lobby, they found the stairs that Ron and Hela had taken to save her friend.
The wallpaper in the hallway, once so vibrant and rich in texture, was now burned and peeling from the bubbling walls.
The wooden staircase had charred, and the carpet on it had burned into curls of stringy ash.
Lena tried it with her feet and it seemed reliable.
"I'll go up first." She nodded to Mary and then stepped lightly onto the stairs.
"If something's wrong, come down immediately."
"I'm prepared. I brought something with me."
Lina held the dagger tightly in her hand and walked up slowly, taking each step lightly at first and then firmly.
The charred stairs creaked slightly, like the groaning of rotten wood.
When she reached the second floor, Lena looked around vigilantly, then whistled softly.
Mary went up the stairs following the path she had walked on, but halfway up, one of her feet suddenly stepped on empty air.
The wooden board couldn't withstand the two consecutive blows and broke.
Mary supported herself on the stairs in front of her with both hands, and nimbly flipped upwards. She stepped forward and quickly climbed to the second floor.
It was darker here than downstairs. The two leaned against the wall for a while to adjust to the situation before moving forward.
There was a big hole in the floor of the corridor on the second floor. Fortunately, Mary was alert and took Lena around it in small steps.
The traces of the raging fire were visible everywhere, with holes in many walls and blackened debris scattered in the corridors.
But some places are intact and look very clean.
The coexistence of its former grandeur and its current dilapidated state makes the building even more eerie.
Mary and Lena were walking towards the other end of the wide corridor when suddenly the floor beneath their feet broke open like thin paper.
The two of them suddenly stumbled, losing their balance and crashing into the wall beside them. The wall collapsed and they fell down together.
Everything happened so fast that there was no time to react. Fortunately, the wall wasn't completely hollow, and the two of them fell to the ground with a thud.
"Damn, the walls here are like paper." Lena cursed.
"They are just paper, wallpaper." Mary pulled at the rags in front of her.
It turned out that the wall they had just supported was actually just a layer of plywood with wallpaper with intricate patterns on it.
After the fire, this place had long lost its support.
"It looks like a secret passage." Lena stomped her feet hard.
"The rumors are true. She really does like to spy on guests in the secret corridor."
Mary dusted herself off and looked around. The corridor was very low and stretched forward, following the shape of the room and around the corner.
As they walked along the corridor and passed through the rooms, they could see the metal railings embedded in the walls, which were of uneven height.
Below the tall metal railing was a wooden staircase. Mary took a few steps and stood at the top.
Through the heart-shaped opening in the metal railings, the entire room was visible: a cracked mirror on the wall, a burnt bed, and blackened bedside tables.
"She just stood here and watched." Mary frowned in disgust.
"She is a lunatic and a pervert!" Lena cursed sharply.
The two didn't want to stay here any longer, so they moved forward. At a certain point, the slope of the corridor rose sharply.
Their intuition told them that going up from here would lead to the third floor.
Rumor has it that Lady Elizabeth is on the third floor and has her own secret space.
Mary and Lena looked at each other and simultaneously tightened their daggers in their hands.
(End of this chapter)
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