47- C4

  I set about affixing the C4 bricks along the wall below the big window and across the very bottom edge of the glass. One at the east end, one in the middle, and a third at the west end. The C4 came with an adhesive that stuck to anything when the thin film cover was removed. I inserted the blasting caps into the puttylike substance and ran the wire along the ground, connecting each brick and culminating at the third explosive. I then fastened the wire to the stopwatch, which I programmed to go off at exactly 12:02 A.M.
...

  Looking back at my handiwork, I checked that everything was in place. I was confident the bricks were low enough on the window that Wilkins wouldn’t see them. Then I moved to the southeast corner of the mansion, prepared to slip off into the darkness and make my way back to Helen’s apartment.
...

  The entire building shook as if a tremendous earthquake had struck. The ceiling collapsed in huge chunks of concrete. The blast so surprised Cromwell that he dropped the picana and screamed like a baby. In his mind he was back in Iraq. Back inside that preschool center as it blew up around him.

  Despite my weakened state from the torture, I used that opportunity to leap for my Silverballer, which would have disappeared, buried under tons of falling rubble, had I not snatched it and continued to roll toward the pillar. I was banking on the hope that the column was acting as a support and that perhaps it wouldn’t tumble, and I was right. Nevertheless, huge blocks of cinder hit me and showered around Cromwell. I hoped he’d be killed, but he kept on yelling and moving toward the door. I aimed the Silverballer at him, but a mass of ceiling dropped between us just as I squeezed the trigger. Looking back at the entrance, I saw that the two guards had been crushed to death by large lumps of concrete. The only way out was by climbing over the rubble to the door, which, surprisingly, still stood in its frame.

  Suddenly flames erupted around me. The explosion had ignited flammable material somewhere in Wilkins’s office or down here, and the whole room became an inferno. Once again, I heard Cromwell cry in terror. Fire must’ve been his Achilles’ heel, after his experience in Iraq. I couldn’t see him; the room was filled with smoke and dust. It was difficult to breathe. I knew I had to get out of there or I would perish in seconds. I shoved away from the pillar and blindly made my way toward the door. A large amount of wreckage blocked my way, so I scrambled up on top of it. From there I made out a dark human shape scrambling over the mountain of debris in front of the entrance. Cromwell. I pointed the handgun and fired. I was sure I missed as he disappeared on the other side. He was free. I stumbled and tripped off the junk I was on and landed in a patch of flames. My suit caught fire. Too pumped up on adrenaline to notice the pain, I simply rolled out of the blaze into a mound of dust and ceiling particles, which extinguished my burning clothes. I immediately got up and started climbing the ruins in front of the door. Once I made it down the other side, I found myself in the hallway outside the demolished room. I quickly took stock of my body. My clothes were singed and would need replacing, but I hadn’t suffered any serious burns. The Silverballer was still in hand. I had survived and was, as they say in America, ready to rumble.

- Hitman: Damnation, chapters 30 and 34