On the fourth floor a vent cover in a dingy closet clanged to the ground, followed by Parker's duffel bag and then the thief herself. She shook the dust off and then approached a small electrical box, pulling out her tools and skillfully picking the lock. She popped the small door open and then called out to Hardison. "Alright, I'm at the electrical box on the fourth floor."
"Perfect. All you gotta do is splice in the device I gave you, and then I'll be able to access everything wirelessly from the here," he said. "Do you see a red wire?"
She eyed the contents of the box carefully. "Yes."
The hacker smiled. "Cut it."
After a few moments of silence, seven floors suddenly went dark. Parker cringed, and back in the van Hardison's smile quickly wilted as he saw the results on his screen.
Nate paused to look around as his floor was also plunged into darkness. "Parker, Hardison, what's going on?"
Hardison flipped through a few large sheets of paper, double checking the schematic. "Uh, you cut the red one, right mama?"
"I cut one of the red ones," she answered. "You want me to cut the others, too?"
Just then Nate's phone rang. "Hold on a second guys," he said as he grabbed the device out of his pocket. He didn't even bother to check the caller ID before answering. "Eliot listen, we –"
"WHAT THE HELL NATE?!" The mastermind winced at the volume of Eliot's disgruntled voice, and quickly pulled the phone away from his ear. He waited a few moments for the flow of obscene words to fizzle out before lifting it back up again.
"Listen, Parker may've cut the wrong wire, so can you hang tight for a few minutes?"
"Hang tight?! Yeah, sure, where the hell do you think I'm gonna go?!" Despite Nate's playacting voice, the hitter sounded like he was pretty much ready to kill someone. Anyone. At that moment the mastermind was thankful he was alone in that elevator.
"Great, gotta go bye." Nate hung up before he enraged Eliot further and quickly pocketed his phone. He turned his attention back to Parker and Hardison, who were busy arguing with each other about who was to blame.
"There's only one red wire, mama. I've got the schematic right in front of me."
"No, there's half a dozen red ones. It's literally like a bag of Twizzlers in here. Cold, rubber-coated, 120 volt Twizzlers..."
Nate rejoined the conversation, his tone slightly exasperated. "Parker, why didn't you ask before cutting if there was more than one?"
"He asked if I saw 'a' red wire, not 'the' red wire," she explained. "Hardison this is totally your fault."
The hacker was clearly offended at her immediate blame. "What?! I'm out here in the parking lot. It's not my fault you went all Chuckie on the wires and –"
Not wanting this to escalate any further, Nate quickly went to his I'm squelching this argument voice. "Okay guys, clearly they did some additional upgrades since those schematics were filed. Parker, just strip the ends, twist the wire back together, and we'll go from there."
The thief bit her lip, eyeing the jumble of wires in front of her. "Uh, yeah, that might be a problem."
The mastermind fished a small flashlight out of one of his other pockets, clicking it on. "Why is that a problem?"
"Well, I forgot to pack wire cutters in my bag so I may have just, you know, ripped the whole thing out with my hands. Unless we can get Hardison through that vent, I don't think we're gonna be fixing it anytime soon."
Nate rubbed his eyes, scrapping the vent idea and mentally moving to the next plan in line. "Hardison, how many elevators did we lose?"
The hacker switched his screen to a 3D view of the building's electrical system, the failed circuits highlighted in red. "All of them. Plus the lighting on floors three to nine and the phones in the entire building. And the Wi-Fi. Seriously, that last one is just tragic man."
"The guards start their rounds in approximately..." Nate shined the light at his watch. "...eight minutes, if the elevators aren't working by then we're gonna have a serious problem. Sophie, can you distract them a little longer?"
Back in the lobby the grifter whispered softly into her com, turning her face to hide her words from the guard. "On it."
She then turned back and flashed them another lovely smile. "You've been so helpful, guys, I really appreciate it. Before my taxi gets here, could I ask you just one more question?"
The guards looked at each other then smiled, neither of them paying any attention to the screens behind them. "Of course," one said. "Anything you need."
"You're too kind," Sophie replied. "Now, I was wondering if there were any good attractions near the museum on this side of town..." She reached over to point out another area of the map, bumping her coffee and spilling it all over the map, desk and keyboard in the process. "Oh dear, I am so sorry! Let me help you with that..."
Nate smiled as he listened to Sophie work her magic, then turned his attention back to the hacker. "Hardison, anything I can do from here?"
The hacker zoomed in on the other electrical circuits. "Yeah, get to the basement and we can run jumper wires from the panel there to backfeed power into the elevator system. You'll need to splice a lot of wires to get enough amperage and you gotta do it just right, or the word 'problem' won't even begin to cover it." He hit a few keys and brought up a more detailed diagram for the box, cringing slightly at what he saw. "Also, a couple of 'em are high voltage."
"Lovely," Nate muttered to himself as he moved into an empty room. He threw his bag on the desk and unzipped it, grabbing a maintenance uniform out of it and quickly changing into it. Then he grabbed his bag and stepped out, closing the door behind him. "Heading there now, talk me through it."
.
.
.
Halfway between floors eighteen and nineteen Eliot was pacing in what little space he had, thinking about their current situation. Nate had already known there was an issue before he'd called him, which told the hitter that they must've lost more than just this one elevator. Not good.
He knew most people would find being stuck in an elevator unsettling – and in a pitch black one even more unsettling – but his only concern was the team's safety. If they weren't able to fix this their cover would be blown, and he wouldn't be able to do a damn thing to get them out. That was unsettling. With his com not working he had no idea what was going on, and he had no choice but to just wait it out and hope for the best. It was not a predicament he was particularly fond of.
He stopped, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath to calm his nerves. They'd been in tight situations before, and so far had always managed to pull it off. He hoped this wouldn't be the first time they couldn't.
.
.
.
Just shy of ten minutes later a group of guards chatted amongst themselves as they approached the elevators to start their rounds. The first to reach the panel pushed the UP button and waited. After a few seconds nothing happened, so he pushed it again. When he was unable to summon either of the two other elevators he pulled out his two-radio. "Jeff, we may have a situation –"
Ding. The elevator door opened, the interior lit and inviting. The other guards looked at each other then shrugged, filing inside. The first press transmit again as he stepped in after them. "Cancel that, all clear."
The entire team took a sigh of relief from their respective locations. In the basement Nate closed the cover for the electrical box and put his wire strippers back in the bag. "We need to get it together guys. The event hasn't even started and we're already halfway through the alphabet."