These changes, as it proves, call for lower-quality material, simplified circuitry, or both; this would reduce costs for the electrical subcontractor, Paul Simmons, son-in-law of Bert McGraw, the general contractor, while eliminating the electrical-safety elements in the wiring of the building and rendering it sub-standard.

The reader is told that Simmons's company, having been on the verge of financial ruin because of a poorly bid electrical contract for the World Tower Building, reversed its fortunes beginning with the first of the change orders.

While Connors had masqueraded as an electrician to bluff his way inside, and most likely did not actually intend to kill anyone in the "Tower Room," he is ignorant of the truly high voltages that power the huge building: 13,800 volts from the Consolidated Edison substation.

The explosion his stolen bomb triggers not only electrocutes him "like a piece of bacon," but also cripples the transformers designed to reduce the voltage to usable levels and causes fires to erupt throughout the building, disabling the elevators and trapping the guests in the Tower Room on the top floor of the skyscraper.

When the doors to the fire stairs are found to be blocked by heavy crates containing radio and television equipment for the antenna mast, a rescue attempt is made by rigging auxiliary power to an express elevator.