They say timing is everything. And in his case, it really is. He had made one more check of his explosives at the Guggenheim earlier in the day to make sure that no one had tampered with the blasting caps that were embedded in the Semtex under the dining floor and the surprise at each exit door. No one had.
He had time to pick up a quick burger and a coke from a burger joint not far from 90th Street. By the time he returned to the park bench across from his target there were already limousines pulling up to the entrance on 5th Ave.
The people dressed in their fancy tuxedos and elegant ball gowns would be regretting their choice in clothing when his masterpiece finally detonated. He eats his burger and sips on his coke as he watches as the body count only increases with every limo that arrives and departs. He has the wireless trigger in his coat pocket and that will start the first part of his plan. He'll wait until the event gets going but when it does watch out.
He is stunned to see that Tobias Michael de Chazal Astor pulls up in a stretch limo and gets out with his wife. He never thought that a man of his caliber would be at an event like this. He knows New York society then this man is 17th in line to take over the Astor family fortune. Maybe after they find him dead, they will listen to reason when he makes his demands. Now he wonders how many other high society New Yorkers will be attending tonight. He checks his watch one last time and decides that now is the time to set his plan in motion.
Two hours later…
Knowing that most people would start to panic at the sight of smoke from a possible fire, he depresses the button to activate the three smoke canisters that are hidden under the second unused bar in the lobby and waits. What happens next is what he had predicted. The people see the smoke but are not that shocked by seeing it and go on about their business. They would risk their lives rather than give up the cost per plate that they donated for the evening. If fear is what they want then that's what they'll get.
The trigger is activated and the bar in the dining room explodes in a massive fireball. The amount of the 8 ounces of C-4 he had hidden earlier turns four patrons and the bartender into human pincushions with the amount of shrapnel that is in their path. Their deaths are instantaneous. The bar itself becomes a weapon of sorts with the force of the explosion sent the bottles that were on the bar flying outward and have become makeshift missiles and they take a trajectory that sends them flying out into the dining room. They randomly hit people and in turn, kill them as well with direct hits to their skulls and other parts of their bodies.
When he depressed the trigger for the bomb under the dining area 30 seconds later after that chaos had started the floor falls out from under their feet. The star pattern he had put underneath the concrete in the basement against the main floor worked like a charm. The floor fell out from under them taking down 32 tables with it. At each table were 14 couples 28 men and women and not one of them would see the dawn of the next day.
The remaining few diners who had the luck to escape the second blast with only minor burns and lived knew that they needed to get outside and away from this carnage.
One of the servers was the first to lose her life. She and three others went for one of the doors that led out to East 89th street and the second the panic bar was depressed the circuit was completed and the C-4 blew the door and anyone trying to leave back towards the gaping hole that was once the dining room.
Heads turned to see what in the world was going on. The rest of the men and women who were thinking about leaving stopped when they saw the exit door blow up and take four people with it. Not knowing what was to happen next many of the people shouted to the lone man standing about twenty feet from one of the exit doors leading out to 90th street. They all screamed at him not to open the door but it was too late. He had a running start for the door and the other patrons followed closely to what they thought led to safety or so they thought. The second he pushed the panic bar the same fate faced him and the people behind him as what happened to the other people trying to exit onto 89th street. The C-4 detonated and threw them back into the gaping hole that led directly to the basement. Three of them snapped their necks when they landed in the basement, two ended up impaled on rebar from the concrete that lies below and the man who is later found out to be a busboy ended up plastered all over the ceiling of the Guggenheim.
Colin is happy with the way everything he has planned has basically come full circle. He estimates about 450 to 600 people have lost their lives at his hand and that is a good day for him. Maybe now the bastard will find out what it means to lose people. He gets up off the park bench and starts walking towards the subway station that's just South of him on 5th ave. As he does he deposits his dinner trash into a city garbage can. He will leave the rest of the unexploded ordinance to the BDU team that he knows will be showing up soon.
Xx
The call comes in and they scramble to get everything they need together to respond to the Guggenheim. Not knowing what they could be facing they take just about everything with them just in case.
Rick is out in his new Chevy Silverado BDU crew cab with the engine running anxiously waiting for Smitty to get in the truck. As he sees him come out of the BDU headquarters, he's got his hands full with just about everything he could imagine to take with him to the scene. He opened the back door of his crew cab and throws his stuff in and quickly gets in the passenger side of the truck. The second the door slams shut Rick has the car truck in drive and then speeding off to the Guggenheim.
"Central from BDU-1 over."
"This is central go BDU-1"
"Sit rep please."
"Multiple military-grade Semtex and C-4 detonations at the Guggenheim. People trying to leave through exit doors were blown back by explosions. Loss of life in the hundreds. EMS and FDNY responding ETA 4 minutes. Your status?"
"Myself and Lieutenant Smith are en route. Do not, I repeat do not let FDNY approach the scene or enter the building. If there is evidence of fire then they fight it from the street. All other BDU staff are en route with specialized equipment their ETA is about 11 minutes."
"Central acknowledges good luck, sir."
"I just hope that we're not too late."
"Me too Smitty, me too."
The rest of the ride is spent in silence. Rick does his best to dodge midtown traffic and gets to the scene in less than his original ETA. The minute he pulls up to the Guggenheim on 5th avenue he already sees the damage from the truck.
"Smitty our truck will be the command post. I need you to gear up and give me a report on what we are facing."
"On it Rick," Smitty says as he gets out of the truck and opens the rear door to retrieve his turnout gear.
While Smitty was checking out the perimeter Rick knew that people had died just by opening the doors. He was glad that the Department had worked out a deal with the Department of Defense for advanced bomb suits. This is what he is getting into now. The new suit compared to the old suit is so much better. Lightweight, better-placed armor, a helmet that could withstand debris hitting it at 633 feet per second. It also had shielded communications, an air circulation system, and an anti-fog face shield. The outer material is constructed from flame-retardant Nomex/Kevlar mix which protects him against burns. The suit itself was compared to walking in what amounted to be in old fashion suit of armor. He just didn't want to test it out right away. Once he suited up Smitty returned and gives him his complete inspection report of the Guggenheim.
"Rick there are about 168 people still alive inside the building huddled together in the southeast corner. Even though the FDNY is standing by there is no fire. There is however a huge 85-foot hole blown out of the floor in the center of the room. Everyone who was in its path is now lying dead or severely injured in the basement. The fall was about 50 feet."
"Smitty I'm going to need to inspect the doors or explosive material. When Dave and Herman get here, I want you to suit up and work the 89th St side by dismantling any C-4 or Semtex that you see blocking the doors. Then and only then will the remaining people be transported out of the building. I don't want anything setting off the remaining C-4. When Dave and Herman get here, they will monitor communications from out here."
"When do you want to start?"
"Right now. Until they get here you and I will start on 90th street. You man the radio and I will be talking to you."
"10-4"
Rick walks awkwardly towards the first exit door on 90th street. He is holding his helmet to his side so he can get a good look at what he could be facing. As he looks closer at the first door, he sees that there is no C-4 on the outside frame. Then he sees the door that they attempted to leave from to his left and moves to that door. The frame was blown outward but the door itself blew back into the building. Knowing that there is no threat of anything happening he puts on his helmet and enters through the very large hole in the side of the building where the door once stood.
There is a slight gasp when he enters from the people that are in the corner of the building. He waves to them and sets to work. the C-4 is still wrapped around the frame of the door and there are wireless blasting caps pushed into the C-4.
"Smitty I need you to enable the signal blocker. Give me a two-block radius. There are wireless caps here and I don't want to accidentally go boom if someone uses a 2-way device."
"You got it, boss. Give me a sec and don't touch anything."
Rick waits until he has a green light and when Smitty radios him back telling him that it's clear Rick pulls the blasting caps free of the C-4. He traces the leads back to the push bar and uses an Allen wrench to disassemble the panic bar for the door. Once he has it apart, he can see that anyone who would push the bar would activate the microswitch at the right side of the bar and detonate the C-4. He assumes that whoever wired this door up was smart. Almost disciplined. If the people did not evacuate the exits and huddle in the southeast corner, they would have all died. The door was wired to blow two ways. If they simply stood there waiting for someone to rescue them without pushing the panic bar, whoever set this up could have taken out the people and the first responders just by using a cell phone to activate the wireless blasting caps.
"Smitty is Herman and Dave here yet?"
"They are. I'm almost done suiting up."
"When you are there remove all the wireless blasting caps before you do anything else. The panic bars on all the doors are wired. So be careful when you disable the microswitch."
"Got it, boss, I'm heading over now."
It takes about 4 hours but between Smitty and Rick until they both get the building secure and all the C-4 safely packed away. The FDNY and EMT's that are on the scene quickly remove the remaining guests who are still alive. The total count is 171 people surviving the blast. Now comes the hard part. The M.E.'s office has requested every available medical examiner from all the boroughs to respond to the Guggenheim. NYPD & FDNY have been placing bodies in body bags in the basement for transport. They decided to keep the bodies in the basement that did not live through the event in a commercial cooler until they could be properly autopsied. In all of the 576 that perished that night only three survivors were pulled from the basement. Two were critical and one had been paralyzed from the waist down.
The BDU and FDNY were given commendations for the tireless work they did on that day by the mayor. But Rick never showed up for the award ceremony. He was busy trying to find out who was doing this because whoever it was was not finished killing innocent people, he knew that much.
TBC
