A/N thanks for the reviews :)
Life has been busy for me. I'm teaching a lot the next few months, and my family all just recovered from a stomach bug!
Here is another little chapter for you...enjoy! :D
"Damn it!" mumbled Commander Sam Sheppard as he slammed down the phone. He was getting thoroughly pissed off with the stodgy, bureaucratic fat cats who were making all the decisions from thousands of miles away. They were seeing the executions but it wasn't as real to them as it was to Sheppard. He dialed the phone again, pounding the keys so hard his finger was throbbing when he was finished. He was so sick of the red tape and hoop jumping.
"I want a secure vid-link with Abdul Singh right away! They've threatened to kill three more hostages in the next half hour! I'll be damned if I'm going to sit by watching more innocent people die because you people won't get up off your asses to do something!" shouted Sheppard. The voice on the other end was ranting and yelling at him in return causing him to pull the phone from his ear in irritation. Sheppard had been around the block enough times to know what he was doing, and he wasn't going to listen to anymore rhetoric and conjecture. He was finished playing around.
"Do it now!" he said, slamming down the phone again.
He glanced at his watch irritably, all the while pondering the game in his head. Stall for time as much as possible. Don't give the hostage taker anything without getting something in return. Dosa had agreed to let two of the injured men go free. It wasn't much, but it was something. Make him think. Wear him out mentally by constantly forcing him to make decisions. Slow things down. Never make promises or threats you can't keep. Sheppard knew that Bridger knew all these little game plans as well as he did. Bridger would be playing the game well; he could count on that. Sheppard thought about the brief conversation he'd with Bridger. In all the dealings he'd with the man, he was never more impressed than now. It had been obvious that he had things well under control in the room. Dosa had allowed him to use his phone and establish a vid-link directly with him. Sheppard had spoken to both Bridger and Dosa together. From the short conversation, Bridger had succeeded to give him a huge amount of information unbeknownst to Dosa. Sheppard now knew there were six armed gunmen in the room. Six hostages had been killed and two others seriously injured. Bridger was slick at discreet hand signals, and Sheppard had been watching closely for any and all communication. Somehow Bridger had accomplished to develop a kind of rapport with Dosa, the man insisting to only deal with him. As much as Sheppard didn't like the idea of someone so close to the situation being the negotiator, it would need to suffice for now. Sheppard would be play the authority and Bridger the negotiator. At least Dosa was allowing Bridger to communicate. Perhaps having someone who seems more vulnerable would be an advantage. It was more than evident that Bridger knew the game well.
Sheppard glanced around the room that he had secured. It was one of the offices in the hotel. They had stripped it of all nonessential items, leaving a large desk and several chairs, computer equipment and so on. Sheppard had paperwork spread across his desk, computer access to vid-links in and out of the hotel, and several phones lines linked out. Since he'd been first on the scene dealing with the crisis from the get-go, he'd been able to keep the upper hand with HNT. Sheppard already knew the situation with Liberation group well since dealing with it several weeks ago during the crisis at the UEO headquarters. The SWAT team was working with the UEO Special Ops team to be ready to intervene when the time came. He'd expected a war with the civilian group, but they had been quick to submit to the UEO authorities. Sheppard was grateful for that as it was one less hassle for him to deal with. For now, they needed to bide their time well. Sheppard was convinced Bridger had this and could handle it, and until he saw evidence to the contrary, he was going to keep things consistent. Bridger had already managed to get two hostages released, and it had only been a couple of hours. That in itself was encouraging.
One thing remained unsettled in his head as he thought of his conversation with Bridger. Bridger had told him to give a message to his son. Sheppard didn't know that Bridger had a son nor did he understand why the message seemed so crucial at this particular moment in time. A knock was heard at the door at the same time his vid-link rang.
"Enter," he commanded as he hit the button on his link. He saw Commander Hitchcock enter the room, followed by her father. He raised a finger to silence them as he spoke to the person who appeared on his screen.
"Do you have that link for me?"
"Yes, sir. We are patching it through to you directly."
"Hold tight, Lieutenant, and I will let you know when to uplink it."
Sheppard held his finger on the link as he started patching another link through to the conference room. The face of Bridger came on-screen.
"We have the link, Captain." Sheppard couldn't mistake the look of intense relief that flooded Nathan Bridger's face. Sheppard puffed out a breath of air as he patched through the video link, wondering what the hell was going on in that room.
oOoOoOoOseaquestOoOoOoOo
Lucas put his hand to his temples, massaging some of the tension from his eyes as he stared at the screen. He'd broken through the encrypted vid-link and had seen the entire conversation between Sheppard and Captain Bridger. He had to admit, his pulse had increased tenfold when he saw the man's face. One part of him felt immense relief while another part of him was quickly losing his grip. He saw the gunmen in the background, as well as the expression on Admiral Noyce. Lucas wasn't stupid; he knew things were bad.
"How are you holding up?" Lucas felt himself jump noticeably as he turned to see Mitch sitting beside him. His face was white with fear as well.
"Six gunmen. Six hostages dead. Two wounded."
Mitch furrowed a brow. "How do you know all that?"
"Captain Bridger was making hand signals for Sheppard. He's become the negotiator. He scratched his head, tapping his index finger and thumb six times indicating six gunmen."
"How…"
"Trust me, I just know."
Lucas proceeded to show Mitch a few of the signals that Captain Bridger had used perfectly discreetly. The terrorist was none the wiser.
"No one would know it unless you're familiar with hostage negotiations."
Lucas could see the confused look on Mitch's face. It wasn't normal for a kid his age to know so much about this kind of thing. But Lucas didn't live the life of a normal teenager in any way. Of course, Mitch didn't know that, and Lucas just didn't feel like explaining everything to him. He was too distracted and his anxiety level kept increasing.
Lucas had been trying to get another message to the captain on his com-link but hadn't had any success. The message kept bouncing back to him, and he couldn't figure out why. He'd heard the message for him from the captain, and he was searching his head for what it meant. Captain Bridger had said to tell his son he was safe, he loved him and they'd watch the 2010 World Series game together when he came home. Captain Bridger hated baseball and only watched it because Lucas loved it. And why the 2010 series? It was eight years ago. What was the captain trying to say to him? Lucas felt a warm hand on his shoulder, causing him to jump.
"Are you ok?"
Lucas took a deep breath and shook his head. If he was going to make it through this he knew he was going to need some help. As each minute passed, he became more and more unglued.
"No."
It was such a simple word for Lucas to say, but it was a profound one. He could see Mitch staring at him. He didn't know the man at all yet somehow Mitch had latched onto him. He wasn't sure if it was out of obligation or what. The man didn't need to stay with him yet he had. Lucas felt comforted by his presence.
"I'm not okay."
Lucas shut his eyes tightly to hold back the tears in his eyes. He was trembling all over. He was scared, he wasn't thinking straight and he felt confused. He was close to having a full-fledged panic attack, and it was all he could do to hold himself together. His feelings and emotions were just too complicated to explain to Mitch.
"I'm scared too, Lucas."
"I just can't sit here doing nothing. I don't want anyone else to die." Lucas felt tears brim his eyes, and he frantically blinked them back. Mitch placed a hand on his arm to comfort him. In that moment, Lucas' eyes grew large as he saw the vid-link he had secured spring to life with the face of Abdul Singh.
oOoOoOoOseaquestOoOoOoOo
His heart was still racing in his chest as Nathan breathed in deeply, trying to stay calm. Things had gotten entirely too tense for his liking. Dosa had seemed to cooperate somewhat with him after their initial conversation with Sheppard. He'd agreed to release the two injured men. His gunmen had opened the back doors and tossed the men out the doors. Nathan had breathed a sigh of relief when they were safely evicted from the room. At least those men would survive. He'd seen Jonathan slip something into one of the men's pockets before the gunman grabbed them. Nathan knew his first in command was a shrewd man and whatever he'd done was going to make a difference to their plight. It was just difficult when they had no way to communicate with one another.
After the injured men were released, Dosa had ordered his men to pick two of Nathan's crew for execution. The men had brought forward Kristin and Ben forcing them to kneel down by Admiral Noyce. Nathan felt his heart beat faster in his chest when he saw the terrified look on her face. Ben had fought to stop her from being chosen, earning him sharp jabs in the chest with the back end of the rifle. It was easy to see Ben had sustained injuries from the blows. The rest of his crew stood by helplessly watching, gritting their teeth. It was all Nathan could do not to rip the men to pieces with his bare hands. He had to remind himself to breath and remain calm. It would have been too easy to lose control and that wouldn't help anyone.
Dosa glanced at his watch again. "Five minutes, Captain and sadly, three of your friends die. It seemed that killing young women didn't do anything—maybe killing these three will."
"Killing people isn't going to make them work any faster. Mr. Dosa. We have certain protocol that must be followed. I promise you I'm doing the best I can here."
"It's not good enough, Bridger!"
Nathan rubbed his temples as he caught eye contact with Kristin. Tears pooled in her eyes but she hadn't let any fall since she was forced to her knees. Ben was beside her, a look of pain on his face but he kept a brave façade.
"You're cowards! Killing innocent women for no damned reason. Why don't you let her go? She's a doctor for Pete's sake. She can help you!" shouted Ben, a wheeze apparent in his voice.
The information seemed to pique Dosa's attention and he walked closer to Kristin, brushing a hand across her shoulders. Nathan sucked in a breath as he watched him touch her.
"You're a doctor?"
Kristin nodded. "Chief medical officer on SeaQuest."
"Such a pity." He pointed to the bodies lying in the middle of the room. "Any hope for those people?" Nathan saw the sneer on the man's face. When Kristin didn't answer, Dosa grabbed a fist full of her hair and pulled her head back to look up at him.
"No," came her soft reply.
"Soon there will be no hope for you either." He released her hair and stroked her head as he stared at Nathan. "She's a handsome woman, Bridger. Such a pity." Nathan chewed his lip as he felt the gun dig deeper in his back. From the corner of his eye, he could see the gunman behind him smiling at Dosa in amusement. He felt so helpless to do anything but watch. Then, as if in slow motion, Ben threw himself at Dosa sending him flying off the podium onto the floor. Before Nathan even had a chance to move, the gunman behind him fired his weapon and Ben fell to the floor.
Gasps could be heard in the room as Kristin cried out and leaned towards the fallen man. In that moment, the vid-link rang and Sheppard appeared on the screen.
"We've got that link, Captain."