The other three men all turned their heads and listened but shook their heads. "I hear nothing over the sound of the motor and blades moving." Dustin told him.
Walter took Dustin's flashlight and looked down and watched the blades. He began nodding. "I'm going to have to go down that shaft." He swung his backpack around and shoved his laptop back into it.
Toby who had moved back up to the doorway after Richard entered the room to continue listening. "Insane genius said what now?" Toby asked as he walked on into the room.
Walter looked up. "I don't have time for you right now."
"Hey Paige, you might want to know that Walter is about to commit suicide to try to rescue you." Toby told her over their coms.
Walter glared at Toby.
"What's Toby talking about Walter?" Paige asked as she began coughing.
"I don't have time to advise you Paige." Walter told her as he touched his coms and then pulled it out and stuffed it into his pocket. He looked at Dustin. "Give me your utility tool I might need it."
Dustin picked it up and closed it and handed it to Walter. "You better not die boss. And I will owe you an ass kicking after this is over."
Richard was on his phone talking to maintenance trying to get them to cut power to the section of the building they were in.
Walter gave Dustin a quick flash of a smile as he took the tool and put it into his backpack.
Toby was grimacing as Paige was yelling through her coms. "Forget it Paige, he took his coms out." He told her.
Walter walked around the exposed shaft and stood with his back to the opening and squatted with his heels just over the lip of the shaft. He began nodding and then he fell backwards into the shaft.
Richard freaked as he dropped his phone and tried to grab him but missed as Walter disappeared down the shaft. They all closed their eyes and waited to hear the sound of either a scream of pain or the moist shredding of a living body.
Suddenly there was a loud crash on the ceiling of the room Paige was in and then that section of the ceiling gave way and crashed on down into the room with Walter on top of it.
Paige moved over quickly as she was struggling to breathe and coughing. She grabbed Walter up in her arms and hugged him fiercely before she began kissing his face. Walter groaned in pain but he relished the soft kisses and the feel of Paige's hands against him pulling him into her.
Walter smiled through the pain even as he began coughing. "Help me up Paige, please. We don't have a lot of time." He looked up and even with the large hole he made in the ceiling, the smoke pouring into the room was still growing thicker.
Paige nodded and struggled but finally they both stood up. Walter hobbled over and accessed the computer inside the room. "There is a Trojan running on this computer." He told Paige between coughs. He pulled out his laptop and plugged it in and began running his latest anti-virus on the system.
"Walter? Walter, are you okay boss?" Layla cried into her coms.
Paige smiled even as she continued to cough. "Layla, he's a little worse for wear but he's okay and accessing the computer system in here."
Everyone on coms breathed a sigh of relief wherever they were.
Walter's laptop identified the Trojan and began cleaning it from the system. A few moments later he read a system message saying the Trojan was cleaned and he began working at the computer system. A few moments later they all heard a clanking noise as the security door was raised up and Happy quickly yanked the inner door open.
Smoke immediately began spilling out into the hallway and Happy rushed in along with Layla. Layla grabbed Paige as Happy grabbed Walter and helped them out of the room. Paige was trying to fight Layla to keep hold of Walter.
With the Trojan removed the normal ventilation system kicked in and began expelling the smoke. The smoke that was pouring into the room slowed to a stop in filling the control room and now they heard the grinding noise stop.
As they emerged from the room and they could see clearly now, Paige lunged back and fiercely grabbed hold of Walter and began sobbing. Richard's medical personnel who were on scene tried to take charge but Sarah stopped them cold and began giving them orders. They nodded in acceptance of her medical license and put O2 masks on Walter and Paige. Sarah began trying to examine them for any further injuries. Her task made more difficult as Paige clung to Walter as she cried softly.
Layla stepped up. "Hey Sarah, give them a few moments. Clearly other than smoke inhalation they are basically okay. Let Paige get through what she is feeling and then you can finish examining them."
Sarah nodded and ordered the medical personnel to give them a moment. They didn't like it but complied as they stepped back and gave them some time.
"Walter, I am so sorry. I completely over reacted. I treated you so badly in front of your friends and then I helped create a company to compete against you. Can you ever forgive me?" Paige cried softly through the oxygen mask and into his ear as she clung to him. Her body was experiencing small convulsions as she cried against him.
Walter was nearly in tears hearing her words as well as having barely saved her life. "Of course I forgive you, you are everything to me. I'm so sorry I didn't tell you the truth about the lecture. I'm still so in love with you."
"I don't give a damn about the lecture anymore. I'm still so in love with you too Walter. I don't think I will ever love anyone else the rest of my life." Paige told him honestly.
"And I still am not sure how to deal with that information. But I think we need outside help. Sarah has been helping me, but I'm too damaged emotionally and you don't deserve that in a partner." Walter told her with all honesty.
Paige looked at him in shock. "You're seeing Sarah too?"
Walter nodded. "For you, I'd do anything."
Paige smiled as she shook her head. "We could continue to use Sarah's help that is true Walter. But you are not damaged. You've always been you, improving everyday. It was me who gave up and rather than help you I let us as a couple flounder in a place that wasn't healthy. I didn't tell you what I was feeling or how you could help or see things so you could grow and correct things that you were doing that were bothering me. So while you hid the truth about the lecture I was doing much worse by hiding my feelings. Sarah thinks it is a reaction to how I always felt with my Mother. I want us to start over." Paige pulled back and looked into his eyes as she held his cheeks between her hands.
Walter smiled as he tilted his head and pushed this forehead against hers. It was the best he could do until the masks were removed.
Richard, Dustin, Terry and Toby arrived just before Paige was able to release Walter so Sarah and the medics could examine them. Terry looked at Layla and she moved over smiling at her husband. Terry mouthed, "They made up?"
Layla nodded with a big grin as she moved into his arms.
Sarah was mainly concerned about Walter's back and was pressing and prodding all around on it. And while he had some tender spots she was confident that he didn't do any serious damage to his back.
Toby whispered to Happy. "I guess I'm just not good enough anymore."
Happy shook her head. "We caused this. We abandoned Walter and he naturally found others to take our place. We can't fault him for that."
Dustin nodded as he heard Sarah declare Walter was okay and he stepped up and shocked everyone as he slapped Walter's back as hard as he could. Walter grimaced and cried out.
"You lunatic, how did you know you wouldn't be killed doing that stunt?" Dustin demanded.
Walter glared at him for a moment as he struggled with the pain. "Didn't you hear the noise the blades we're making? They were timed to a waltz. All I had to do was a simple calculation of gravity, acceleration and time my jump properly and I'd pass through unharmed."
Team Scorpion stared at their boss in disbelief. "You risked everything on a simply waltz tempo? You freaking lunatic." Dustin nearly screamed at him.
While not happy herself Diana stepped up and grabbed Dustin and dragged him back away and down the hall. Layla stepped up next to Sarah and nodded. "Yea, we're going to have to have a sit down about this boss. That was really idiotic."
Walter glared at her. "Not when you know math and science. The fall wasn't high enough to do much damage."
Layla nodded. "I get that boss, what I am talking about is, what if whoever the lunatic was that put that meat grinder in there had put spikes or something on the ceiling? You could have been impaled on something. Landed on a bunch of broken glass, nails anything potentially, even exposed electrical lines. The four of us are your friends even if you hold back on some of us. You are also our employer and most of us left pretty good jobs to be part of your team. I get why you did it, you love Paige and you'd cut your arm off to help her. But we need to know you value us too."
Layla turned and hugged Paige. "I'm really happy you are okay Paige. We've barely got our friendship started and I'd be upset if it was cut short. I can tell I am not getting through to him just now. I'll leave it to you to make him understand."
Paige smiled as she returned her hug. "I'll do my best."
They finally got Walter and Paige to lie down on the gurneys some medics brought up after Walter and Paige were brought out of the control room, and began wheeling them away to the infirmary for observation and to decide if there was a need to send them to the hospital or not.
Richard stood with Terry's supervisor watching everyone travel down the hall. The man looked over at Richard. "That was a risky stunt sir. How did you know it would work?"
A man and woman stepped out of a room close by and stepped up to them.
Richard smiled. "Well I got to admit I didn't expect Walter to fall down the chute like that to save her but in hindsight I should have. Walter will almost always take the most expedient route, at least when it comes to saving Paige." He looked at the man who joined them. "I'm still surprised you came up with this idea to get them back together. Why would you do it?"
Toby walked around the corner of a hallway he had slipped into as everyone else left. "Actually it was my plan. Borrowing a little evil genius from Veronica and getting Tim on board it was pretty easy to manipulate the situation."
Tim nodded. "No matter how it turned out for me I still loved Paige at one time and working with Walter while frustrating it was still valuable experience. And while I might have been able to love Paige as much as Walter does she was never going to love me as much as she does Walter. So to honor both I had to do whatever I could to help get them back together. Veronica figured if I came back and acted like an ass it might speed up their reunion."
Veronica smiled. "Still, it was a bit risky. None of us counted on Walter doing what he did. Of course if your maintenance men had been a bit quicker and shut off the power."
Suddenly the power in that wing went out.
The 5 people shook their heads before laughing.
"That was really great timing guys." Richard said out loud. Richard looked at the supervisor. "Get the team in there and tear it all out and apart. I don't want anything left of it. I suspect Walter will come to his senses tomorrow and want to try and investigate it. I want to be able to tell him we already did. And I'll give him our findings."
The man nodded as he turned and walked away.
"I knew something wasn't right. I never would have imagined you guys would have conspired to do this though." Terry said as he stepped out of the control room.
"Terry?" Richard said shocked.
"You couldn't just leave this in Sarah's hands? She's done more for those two than any of you even together." Terry said angrily.
Richard shook his head. "We didn't even know she was working with them."
Terry stepped up until he was nose to chest with Richard and looked up. Richard saw the anger on his face. "Shows what you know. Walter and Paige had their first outing last Saturday. Now with this farce, who knows what damage you may have done to them if this is found out, they were just getting to a good space mentally and starting to trust again."
Toby started to speak and stopped as Terry glared at him. "Don't you dare say another word you quack. You might be brilliant, you might know a lot but for all of that all you have ever done is antagonize Walter. You bully and alienate those you call your friends. You all disgust me." Terry turned and began walking down the hallway.
"Terry, wait, what are you going to do?" Richard asked.
Terry turned and stared at him. "Well first when I get my wife home I am going to explain to her what you maggots have done here. Then I am going to start looking for a new job."
"You're not going to tell the others?" Veronica squeaked.
"I'll leave that to my wife to discuss privately with Sarah and see what she thinks. I'm not about to tell them when it could damage the trust they have built up to this point. They are going to feel used and manipulated and who knows how it will impact their relationship." Terry growled as he turned and kept walking.
Richard called out as he began walking quickly to catch up to Terry.
Toby sighed before he looked through the dim lights of the emergency light boxes at Veronica and Tim. "So what are your plans now?"
Tim smiled. "We'll take the underground passage back over to the parking garage and I'll drive Veronica back to her motel and then I've got to visit with my folks and pick up my wife before we had back to Jordan."
Toby nodded as he reached out and shook Tim and Veronica's hands.
Tim looked at Toby. "So what is your plan?"
"Well I got to go act indignant some more in the medical bay and then figure out the fallout if Sarah decides to tell them what we've done here today." Toby told him as he stood there with his arms crossed.
Tim nodded. "Good luck."
Toby nodded and walked down the hallway.
Greetings! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas or Friday if you don't observe it. Was a pretty sedate time here. Had dinner with my Mom and younger brother. I've tried but the last few days have been a bit harder to write. Other than editing the last 2 chapters over and over I haven't really done much writing. Chapter 11 is the last thing I have worked on. Spent waaaaay too much time playing Sims 4.
Franxine, Susan - So glad to hear from you both, was getting a little worried about you. Keep getting better Franxine!
Lucy, Railman, Marie, Margaret - Originally chapter 9 ended with Walter disappearing into the shaft, so I don't think chapter 9 really counted as a cliffhanger! LOL But yes, I do hate cliffhangers. Even if I have made use of them in the past. lol
Lucy - Nope, they weren't surprised, since Happy had taken Sylvester over to see Florence the first time, and probably others I didn't write about. lol And now you know who was behind it!
Margaret - IG is short for Instagram, another social media platform. It is centered more around pictures. It seems to be a bit beyond me as I struggle to do anything with it. I mainly created an account to follow certain friends and celebrities I like that mainly use it.
Marti - Yep, I tried to keep it like the show, while Walter could potentially be replaced, there still needs to be that one genius with superior creative thinking to lead them. As for uniting...well, we'll have to wait and see how the next chapter or 2 plays out. lol
To the Adventure! -Tim