Day twenty-five. Hide & Seek: Escape
'Sleep well, Captain. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.'
It had been a very long time since Jeff and his boys had all been in the penthouse of Tracy Towers. He only wished it was under better circumstances. The checks were still running, he and his boys had drunk far too much coffee. John and Virgil looked like they would be bouncing off the walls if nothing happened soon. It had been almost 48 hours since Scott had been taken.
An alarm sounded. John's head shot up, followed by the rest of his body as he charged over to the bank of equipment. He grabbed a laptop and came back over to the square of couches. He clicked some buttons and swept his hand up and the wall became a screen.
It was just darkness at first. But as the resolution cleared up they could see in the gloom what looked like a cage. Nothing happened for a long time.
Then something moved, there was a very slight groan and what had looked like just part of the floor moved.
Everyone was transfixed by the scene. Jeff was aware of John murmuring to EOS and he knew that the two would be tracing.
And then Scott sat up.
Scott stirred carefully. That horrific taste of sedative and the dizziness…ugh. He didn't want…wait. He was lying on the floor, not cuffed to the bar as he was last night. He moved, a light groan he couldn't supress escaping him, and sat up.
He waited for the dizziness to subside before moving. First order, getting out of the handcuffs. Shrugging his hands underneath him and pulling his legs in until his hands were now in front, Scott rested a moment before checking his cuffs out.
The cuffs wouldn't be a problem. A simple twist of the small links until they broke. It rang alarms in his head, his so-called Scooter sense ringing loudly. No way that should have been that easy. But he'd take the breaks and see where he could get.
Getting out of the cuffs had been one thing, getting out of the cage was another. Scott looked at what was on hand. His cuffs and his pants. Huh. Nothing there. He stood up and stretched, working the kinks out of his shoulders and back. His wounded shoulder pained him, but Deltane had been right, it hurt but not as much as it should have.
The lock on the cage was the next obstacle. It would usually need something to jimmy the lock, but he didn't have that ability. So Scott looked at the hinges. He said a silent thanks to Parker for lessons well learnt and used the cuffs to tap the pin up and out, then he simply hefted the door up and swung it open.
Out of the cage and escape was possibly on the cards. The door to the room wasn't locked, and that was the second clue that this was not really an escape. It was too, too easy.
He crept out into the corridor and he followed the path. Bare feet were soundless and he hugged the wall for a bit, but the absence of people and doors told him that it didn't matter. He hadn't failed to see the cameras watching his moves, but there was nothing more he could do but move forward until he was in a place where he could change the game.
There was a door at the end. It was ajar, a small slither of light the first he'd seen since he'd woken up. And Scott sighed. Walking through the door was definitely a trap. But unless he wanted to go back into the cage he really had no option. He just needed an opportunity.
He opened the door.
The family all sat on the edge of their seats, watching as Scott freed himself and made his way up through the corridor. Gordon muttered the entire time that it was a trap, and Jeff nodded in agreement, although he could see that his son really had no choice in the matter.
John and Kayo were distracted by the searches running, but they kept glancing at the screen. Tracing the signals was difficult, being routed and rerouted all over the world several times over. A job that they hoped would take minutes was taking too long, and John was growling.
It took Scott less than 15 minutes to get free and to the end of the hallway. They watched as he nudged the door open. The camera switched to one in the room. They could see the man waiting for Scott, the same man who had shot and kidnapped him.
They watched as Scott entered the room cautiously. He couldn't see the man waiting. But they all heard the click as the safety was taken off the gun.
Scott froze.
Jeff, Virgil, Penny and Sally froze.
Gordon leapt to his feet, shouting at the screen.
John swore.
Kayo swore worse.
EOS flashed red.
'Say hello to your Dad, Scott.'