All Kate could do was shiver when she saw Kyle with a bomb vest strapped to his chest. She was glued to the screen trying to find something that would tell her where he might be. She studied everything from his demeanor to the material the building had been built with. She could find nothing. It was until she looked down at the bottom of the screen where she saw the note leaning up on the chair next to Kyle.
"His life is in your hands, Rodgers. You have twenty-four hours to save his life. If you don't your pumpkin will be a widow."
"Rick get in here now," Kate yelled.
Rick came into his office and noticed the look on his wife's face.
"What is it, Kate? What's wrong?" He asked.
All she could do was to point to the computer screen. When Rick looked down at the screen his blood turned to ice. Someone was calling him out and they were using his son in law to do it with.
"Kate we need to find him before Alexis sees this."
"Rick I think that it is going to be essentially impossible because she already knows. She was the one who called us."
"Damn it! What are we going to do?"
"You're going to do what you always do. You're going to find out who did this and you going to put them away very, very long time."
"You're right. And I will. I'm going to need some help on this so I'm going to call Smitty and Kang and we'll see what we can find out together."
It was then when Rick took command of the situation. He sat down at his desk and started to make calls.
Xx
Colin watches as the man he wired up with a bomb vest tries to get out of his current situation. He knows that this will be next to impossible. He has a secondary fail-safe in place that will become active if anyone or anything tampers with the vest.
He watches his laptop and he sees the website increase with viewer traffic. This has worked out far better than he thought it would. He is sure that by now the bastard who killed his father is watching and wonders what he will do in order to disable the bomb. He might have told a little white lie though. The note he left with the twenty-four-hour deadline was just a joke. He had no intention of letting Kyle live for that long. He was lucky if he had two hours left at that.
Xx
Rick got a hold of Smitty and Kang and told them to meet him down at BDU headquarters. Once they arrived, he pulled up the website and Kyle was still standing there with the vest attached to his body looking petrified. They are against the clock now because an hour has already ticked away, they still have no idea where he could be.
Rick whoever this is is very efficient in the way they built this vest. It looks like no matter what you try to do to disarm it, it will detonate. And that's not if whoever built this has as a backup built into it. If you can find Kyle and you are able to get to where he is, the man who built this vest could simply push a button and detonated from anywhere in the world. So, you're taking your life in your own hands if you decide to do this." Kang told him.
"Smitty what are you thinking?"
"Boss it's not a matter of what I'm thinking. Kyle's a dead man no matter what we do. The vest has over two pounds of what looks like to be plastic explosives. And I agree with Loto there is no way that whoever orchestrated this is will let you live through it. It seems that he has a death wish and plans to carry it out. I hate to say it Rick but your son in law won't survive this. You're going to have to find out who you pissed off in the past and deal with it."
"Guys I can't let that happen. Kyle is my daughter's life. If I don't even try, what will that look like to her if I don't do anything?"
"Rick look at the screen. There are at least two fail safes on this vest. There is a secondary power supply and look here there is an independent triggering mechanism." Loto points to the screen to show him. "My guess is that he would activate this if he is out of contact with what he sees on the feed on his screen," Loto told Rick.
"So this is a no-win situation." Rick states.
"To me what to do." Rick pleads with them.
Loto just looked at Smitty and nods.
"Rick there might be a chance but it's a risky, slim one at that," Loto tells him.
"Tell me."
"We think or rather hope that Kyle still has his phone on him. If he does and his GPS is not disabled, or the bad guy didn't destroy it we might be able to locate him. But there is a caution that should be taken here. This guy who has taken him has no doubt anticipated you coming for him and I can guarantee you that he has wired the location for everything that might be a threat to his succession in this kidnapping. He will blow that location to kingdom come where ever it might be." Smitty tells him.
"Run the trace on his phone. Time is moving fast... and in the wrong direction." Rick demands.
By the time the trace is complete a precious hour has ticked away. They can see that Kyle's phone is on Staten Island in or around 141 Industrial Loop Rd. But there is one thing they are not quite sure of. It seems that there are two locations his phone could possibly be at and they don't understand why. The second location is in a residential area of Port Richmond on the North end of the island. There's only one solution to this problem that they can think of. Rick and Smitty will take one location and Loto and Dave will take the other in the residential area.
The ride out to Staten Island seemed to take forever. Rick was getting antsy just watching Smitty drive wanting him to floor the gas pedal and get the truck to at least exceed the speed limit. But he knew that the current traffic situation prevented that. He thought about how his daughter must be feeling now and wants to put her mind at ease and return home with Kyle safe and sound. Seeing the neighborhood they are driving through he knows that they will be at the industrial complex soon. He takes in his surroundings hoping to find some sign of whoever took Kyle. When he looks over to Smitty he is doing the same thing.
"Rick I have a bad feeling about this."
"So do I. But I need to get to him before it's too late."
Xx
Colin watches as the Bomb Disposal Unit truck makes a pass around the warehouse where his soon to be victim stands tied to a support stanchion. They are cautious he'll give them that. He knows that the other BDU truck out in Port Richmond had arrived and after finding nothing to do with his victim they left and were currently heading to the warehouse complex.
The bastard gets out of his truck and cautiously walks towards the front entry door while his partner moves to the rear of the building. Colin takes one last look at the monitors in front of him and sees that Kyle has just about given up the fight to escape. This is good because his body is slack and will be plastered all over the walls of the warehouse when he flips the switch to terminate his life. He looks at the timer that's attached to the remote detonating device and enters 45 seconds into the timer. With the timer now active, he shuts down the laptop and stows it in his backpack. On the way out the door of the hotel room less than five blocks away from the warehouse, he activates the timer.
Standing outside in the parking lot facing the warehouse complex he waits. Looking at his watch he counts down the final seconds before the detonation will level the warehouse and kill Kyle in the process. He is not one to count on killing the bastard who killed his father with this event because he knows that's not how life works. He could never be so lucky. He would need to figure out another way to deal with him because he knows that this is far from over.
When his second hand on his watch hits 12 there is a loud blast and the ground underneath his feet shakes. He grins a little knowing that he has just hurt the Rodgers family in a big way.
Xx
Rick knows that there might be a way to get Kyle out of this in one piece. Well, at least he hopes there is. He has made his way into the office area of the warehouse and everything looks fine. The warehouse has been vacant for a while due to the amount of dust coating the desks he sees as he walks by them. Almost at the last office, he sees a very large picture window to his right. From his vantage point he can see Kyle tied to a support beam in the middle of the warehouse. It's then when he notices the look on his face, it's one of loss. At first, he can't understand why he is looking like this but realizes just a second too late that he knows something that Rick doesn't. The blast is instant. The ensuing fireball that engulfs the warehouse is moving at light speed. Rick is thrown back by the concussion of the blast into and through the first wall of the last office he had just passed. He comes to rest halfway through the second wall and is knocked unconscious.
Smitty had just been ready to open the back door to the warehouse when they explosion ripped through the ground floor. He was just about to open the door and his hand was on the handle when the door was blown off its hinges. His arm being so close to the door was wrapped around the door and was broken in an instant. The concussion of the blast knocked him to his feet 15 feet away from the door. It knocked him unconscious when he hit the ground.
Alexis looks on in shock as she sees the bomb vest detonate taking away from her the only one thing she truly loved most in this world. She is oblivious to the hand of her mother on her shoulder that is attempting to comfort her because at this moment right now she can't fathom how she will cope with raising his children without him there with her.
Loto and Dave heard the last from a mile away and drove like it was a stock car race to get there as quickly as possible. When they pulled up to the scene it was total chaos. The building that once stood there was now lying in pieces all around the parking lot. The damage to adjacent buildings was just as bad as the main building that took the brunt of the explosion. The crater that the vest created was about a foot and a half deep by six feet in diameter. They were small fires burning around the office areas but nothing that couldn't be put out with a fire extinguisher. Dave took care of that while Loto looked for his boss and Smitty.
