CHAPTER ONE: PARTY CRASHERS

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters except for Stephanie Bowers.

Stephanie had dressed up for the first time in her life for this occasion. It was the Nakatomi Corporation Christmas party and Stephanie was invited in her father's place. Mr. Bowers had recently deceased, which was as devastating to his boss as it was to his daughter. He had been working for Mr. Takagi for about 3 years and was one of the most loyal employees he had ever seen. He had died in a brutal car accident, but that was already a few months ago. Stephanie's outfit tonight was from Mr. Takagi himself, which she gratefully accepted. She wore a light-blue silk dress that matched her attentive eyes and was decorated with pearl-white flowers with a matching white purse. Her blonde hair was tied into a clean bun with a few strands of hair falling down the side of her fair face. She was very self-conscious and would rather be at home reading or practising the piano, but tonight was for her dad.

The room was noisy and filled with supposedly respectable people getting drunk. Some were even fooling around in the offices that were clearly seen from the floor above. Close to the middle of the room was a vast waterfall in which crystal-clear water trickled into a large pond. Pink and yellow water lilies bobbed up and down in the water while lush greenery decorated the edges. The fresh scent entered her lungs. Large frosted Christmas trees that reached towards the ceilings and many holiday decorations were hung on the walls and railings of staircases. The Japanese had good taste, although the music presently being played was a little irritating. If there was piano instead of whiny violins, it would have been a beautiful song.

"Miss Stephanie!" An older Japanese man came walking towards her with a formal smile on his face.

"Mr. Takagi," she replied as she straightened herself up. The grip on her small, white purse tightened as anxiousness set in.

"It's nice to see you again. How are you doing?" He offered his hand gently and she shook it.

"Fine. Thanks to you, I now have my own apartment that I'll be staying in until I get into university."

"Oh, it was no trouble at all. How about high school?"

"I graduated last year. I went to a private one where I was able to take all the courses I need in one and a half years."

"You really are bright for a sixteen-year-old. And quite beautiful at that." Takagi gestured at her clothing.

"Thank you, but it's only because of the gorgeous dress you gave me." Stephanie rubbed her hands together nervously.

"I don't think so, my dear. It is the woman that makes the dress, not the dress that makes the woman." His smile turned from formal to warm and Stephanie felt more at ease.

"Thank you, sir." She watched him give a friendly nod and he joined the other guests.

A ding reached her ears and Stephanie turned to see an elevator opening on the other side of the room. A dark-haired man stepped out from the metal box, looking uninterested in the mighty scene before him. He seemed to be looking for someone. She watched him wade through the crowd. A half-drunk man grabbed him by the shoulders and kissed his cheek.

"Hey! Merry Christmas!" the man exclaimed and ran off. Stephanie stifled her giggle as the man wiped his cheek and muttered something. Soon the man disappeared inside an office with Mr. Takagi and she returned to gazing around the room. She had talked to Mr. Takagi and there was nothing here to keep her entertained in this room any longer so she decided to go visit her father's old office on another floor. She prepared herself for walking into the boisterous mob to get to the elevators. The employees that recognised her as Bowers' daughter either tried to avoid eye contact to evade awkwardness or they gave her sympathetic looks. It made her clench her teeth in frustration, but she kept on walking with a dignified face. Through the last of the crowd, she could see her goal and she was able to breathe again. But as she reached the silver doors, they opened, revealing several men with large guns. Stephanie froze as a hand reached out and covered her mouth. A man wearing a stylish suit stepped towards her, smiling from behind his neat, small beard.

"Don't want to ruin the surprise now, do we?" His voice was as dark and deep as his eyes and held a mild German accent. She recognised him at once: Hans Gruber. She had seen him on the television an awful lot, although she doubted if anyone else did. He smirked and she felt panic rush through her. Stephanie wanted to scream, to alert everyone, but she couldn't even muster a squeak. She felt like she was going to die from her heart beating so fast. Another set of arms quickly grabbed her and restricted her movements to just squirming, but she soon even gave that up.

The men filed out of the elevator, raised their guns in the air and began shooting the ceiling. Pandemonium broke out. Women screamed and ducked behind their male companions or ran off to seclude themselves to a room, but the offenders grabbed them and shoved them into the middle of the room. The couple that had been fooling around was now being dragged out from their private show. Soon, all the guests were grouped near the waterfall. All except for Stephanie, who was still in the arms of a burly, blonde man with glasses.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" The bearded man gently called out. "Ladies and gentlemen." He took a step forward as the noise was silenced. "Due to the Nakatomi Corporation's legacy of greed around the globe, they're about to be taught a lesson in the real use of power. You will be witnesses. Now – where is Mr. Takagi?" His dark gaze drifted across the crowd, stopping at every older Asian man. Tension pursued his deadly question until a throat being nervously cleared broke it.

"I am Takagi." The appropriate man stepped in front of him calmly but reluctant. Hans' threatening face turned into a warm smile.

"How do you do?" He took Takagi's hand and firmly shook it. "It's a pleasure to meet you." His henchmen grabbed Takagi by the arms and forced him to the elevator.

"What about this one?" Stephanie was shoved forth by her captor.

"Leave her here with the others." He quickly looked her up and down with a half-interested stare. Stephanie's wide eyes turned to Takagi. He gave her a comforting, but small smile and nodded. Unfortunately, the man saw this. "Or better yet, take her with us. She may be useful." He did not smirk this time; he only made his way back onto the elevator while two of his blonde followers shoved Stephanie and Mr. Takagi in as well.

Once in the refuge of the moving elevator, Hans began to hum to himself. Stephanie couldn't help but cock a brow behind his back and her fear unexpectedly diminished. One of the blonde henchmen noticed and his grip on her arm tightened as a warning. Her eyes hissed at him in agitation, but he only sneered at her.

"Nice suit," Hans said to Takagi. "John Phillips, London. I have two myself." Stephanie saw Takagi flinch at such an odd comment. The door opened and he quickly walked out. Stephanie took a peek at the floor they were now on and recognised it as one of the upper floors. The man was still humming, but he seemed more intrigued at the models that they passed. He would pause for a moment, let his finger trail the plastic building and then continue onwards until he reached a tall model of a tower.

"And when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer." He chuckled as he observed the model. "Benefits of a classical education." Stephanie furrowed her brows. This had to be one of the strangest, yet sophisticated terrorists out there, she guessed. Both she and Takagi watched him as he walked over to an even larger model and looked over it in awe.

"Oh that's beautiful. I always enjoyed making models when I was a boy, the exactness to every conceivable detail. It's beautiful."

"Is this what this is about?" Takagi's asked as they approached the model. "Our project in Indonesia? Contrary to what you people think, we are there to develop that country, not exploit it."

"I believe you. I read the article in Forbes."

Stephanie knew that this was only a businessman's conversation so she let her mind wander. The room they were in was large and elegant. The walls and floors were made of shiny, black tiles and Japanese ornaments hung at every wall. She noticed Takagi was now walking on his own without help from any of the henchmen, but when she tried to shake off the clutch of the terrorist he only gripped her harder. Her feelings for this guy became more spiteful. He had long, blonde hair and a constant grumpy face. Gruber reached out to Takagi's shoulder and began to lead him into another room through glass doors. Stephanie was pushed forward.

"Hey, watch it," she barked, almost tripping over her dress.

"Mr. Takagi, I could talk about industrialisation and men's fashion all day, but I am afraid work must intrude and my associate here has some questions for you. Sort of fill-in-the-blanks questions, actually." He opened the glass door and they stepped inside.

The next room was smaller, but still as cultured. Gorgeous tables were lined up aesthetically in the middle of the room. There was a dark man already waiting at a small computer built into one of them. One of the henchmen sat next to him, leaving the one with the glasses to watch over Stephanie. Takagi stood his ground and waited for the leader to take his seat. Once he did, he gestured for Takagi to look at the computer screen. Stephanie could not see it, but she had an idea of what it displayed.

"I don't have that code," Takagi exclaimed. "You broke in here to access our computer? Any information you could get, when they wake up in Tokyo, they'll change it. You won't be able to blackmail our executives, threaten our pro –"

"Sit down!" Hans snapped, his eyes turning dangerous again. Takagi obeyed and gradually sat down in the chair facing Hans.

"Mr. Takagi, I'm really not interested in your computer." He leaned forward slightly. "But I need the code key because I am interested in the six hundred million dollars in negotiable bearer bonds that you have locked in your vault. And the computer controls the vault."

"You want money? What kind of terrorists are you?" Takagi's eyes flickered to Stephanie to make sure she was all right. A soft laugh filled the room.

"Who said we were terrorists?" Hans' laughing stopped and his face grew stern. He pulled out a silver pistol from within his coat and began to unscrew the silencer on it. Stephanie's breath hitched and her heart began to pound quickly again.

"The code, please." Hans neatly placed the silencer on the table. Stephanie could see the shine of sweat that was building on Takagi's forehead.

"It's useless to you. There are seven safeguards on our vault and the code key's only one of them. You'll never get it open."

"Then there's no reason not to tell it to us." He rested the gun on the table, his hand remaining menacingly on it.

"I told you," the man by the computer muttered.

"It's not over yet," the blonde next to him replied. Hans looked over at them with a look that quickly shut them up.

"That's a very nice suit, Mr. Takagi. It'd be a shame to ruin it." He turned back to Takagi.

"I don't know it. I'm telling you! Get on a jet to Tokyo and ask the chairman. I'm telling you. You're just going to have to kill me."

"Stop!" Stephanie cried out, her voice cracking.

"Ah, yes. I had almost forgotten you were here." Hans stood up and walked over to her. His eyes bore right into hers as he towered over her, but she felt courage swell up in her.

"I know who you are, Mr. Hans Gruber," she whispered only to him. He smiled and gently took her arm.

"It is highly improper to know someone's name without introducing yours," he spoke into her ear. She shivered, but did not feel threatened.

"Stephanie Bowers." She did not care if he knew her name. It was not like it would be much use to him.

"Now, Miss Bowers, how close are you to Mr. Takagi?" He sat her in his chair, his gun in his hand.

"I hardly know him," she quietly lied. Hans raised a brow suspiciously.

"Oh, really?" He raised his gun to her temple.

"Leave her alone! She's just a girl. She's gone through enough already." Takagi was visibly shaking now. Stephanie closed her eyes, feeling slight tears mount in her eyes.

"See, I have ways to catch lies, Miss Bowers. Now, give me the code." His hand slid to Stephanie's shoulder, gripping it firmly as if to calm her. This delicate gesture confused her further, but she was more focused on the gun at her head.

"I don't have it! Kill me instead!" Takagi desperately bellowed.

"Okay." A monstrous bang shot out and Takagi fell to the floor.

"No!" Stephanie cried. She clasped her hand to her mouth and looked away, afraid that the gory sight before her might force her to be sick.

"We'll do it the hard way. Tony, see if you can dispose of that. Karl, better check on Heinrich's work," Hans said casually to his men. The blonde handed over some paper bills to the other, apparently losing a bet. Stephanie shut her eyes, her hands violently shaking from shock. She didn't think he would actually kill anyone.

A sound came from outside the room, getting all of their attention. The two blondes ran out of the room after the noise and began to check all the other rooms for the perpetrator. Hans quickly grabbed Stephanie and half-dragged her into the room they first entered.

"Nothing," one of his men said as he put away his pistol.

"See to Heinrich," Hans ordered, the last henchman coming up behind him with a coat hung over his shoulder indifferently. "Now… you can break the code?"

"You didn't bring me along for my charming personality," the henchman replied. Hans smiled at the man's wit and walked back to the elevators, pulling the recovering girl behind him.

The metal doors closed behind them once they were inside the metal box. At the moment, it felt more like a prison than an elevator to Stephanie. She caught the black henchman's eye. He was rather cute looking and didn't seem the criminal type at all; maybe more of a bookworm or techie.

"May I ask why this girl is still alive?" he asked, folding his hands playfully.

"Have patients, Theo. We are not here to kill people; only if they get in our way." Hans jerked Stephanie closer to him so his face was near hers. "And she won't be a problem, will she?" Stephanie looked at the man who had murdered the closest thing she had to family, but could not meet his cold eyes. The doors opened and they walked out into a new area: the vault room.

"Thirty minutes to break the code, two and a half hours for the five mechanicals at the minimum. The seventh lock, however, is out of my hands." Theo slid a stolen company card over an electric lock and a wall began to move slowly. Hans released Stephanie, trusting her not to be stupid enough to try and pull anything, and walked over further to get a better view of the now-exposed silver vault. He crossed his arms and stared hard at it, as if it would merely open by intensely gazing at it. They were only a few locks away from becoming richer than rich. Hans' trance broke and he became aware of the lingering silence. He turned back to his fellow crook.

"I'm sorry," Hans said, encouraging Theo to continue.

'The seventh lock- the electromagnetic seal. You do understand the circuits cannot be cut locally." There was tender worry in his voice and on his face.

"Trust me." Hans smiled assuredly and reclaimed control over Stephanie. He brought her down a hall that took them to a long staircase.

"Down you go, Miss Bowers," he commanded nonchalantly. Stephanie peeked down to see where it led and gave no objection. They were going back to the others.