Scott was glad that he was recording everything from John's watch. When he heard "kaboom", he decided to rewind the disk and play it back at a higher volume. They had very sophisticated audio equipment on TB5 just because some rescue calls are so hard to hear. He activated the special noise filters, put the headphones on and listened to the playback very carefully. He could barely make out what the three men were saying. But he definitely heard the command to go set explosives on the roof.
He quickly called his father. "Dad! I just heard that those men are planning to booby-trap the roof so that no one can land on it. Do you have the jammer?"
Before Jeff could answer Scott, Brains had the small electronic jamming device on his lap. He also brought out the thermal imager. He checked the one, checked the other then looked up at Jeff. "H-h-he's in the e-e-elevator right now".
Jeff said, "Perfect. We can stop the elevator and with him stuck in there, he will be out of the picture, at least for the time being. Turn off the power to that elevator."
With a flick of a switch, Brains turned off that elevator halfway up to the roof. The boring one was stuck between the 41st and 42nd floor. Now they know the kind of people they are dealing with, smart, ruthless, greedy, very dangerous men. If they start to threaten the hostages, Jeff had no doubt that they would probably make good on their threats.
2 minutes away from the roof.
John had heard the leader yell 'kaboom' and figured he was talking about wiring something to blow. He couldn't risk anyone hearing Scott's voice so he didn't switch the watch to 2-way communication. He waited a few minutes then softly whispered, "Did you find out what they are planning on blowing up? If yes, send through a vibration." He felt a vibration, good. He continued, "Were you able to handle that problem?" Again he felt another vibration. He took a deep breath and let it out.
Virgil landed the helijet on the rooftop as gently as he does TB2. Even if someone stood on the roof with their eyes closed they won't have heard him land, it was that soft. They gathered in the passenger compartment for one last review. Jeff was staying as was Brains. Jeff was going to contact the police, get put through to the gunmen and start negotiations stalling for time. But he had to have it quiet so that the kidnappers couldn't tell where he was calling from. All he needed was to have a noisy jet or a car horn go off and the guy on the other end could hear the noise in stereo. Brains was staying there to man the electrical stuff. He could play with different electrical sections of the building, turning things off and on with just a flick of a switch. He could also see where people were inside the building. He gave each of the Tracy boys a tracker so that he could identify each of them. Even though most of the employees were still in the building, locked into their sections by security, the stairways and elevators were empty. So the thermal scan would pick up anyone taking those routes. Unfortunately he couldn't pick out the gunmen from the other people in the conference room. That was not within his capability.
"Ok, boys, good luck and be careful!" Jeff said to his three sons. They all carried small packs with them holding the items they would need. Only Virgil had the larger laser cutter, which was slung over his shoulder. They paused for a moment then they exited the helijet and headed to the door. Brains communicated that there was no one behind the closed door and no one on the stairs. They headed down the stairs for one flight then went inside to the equipment room. The top floor was not the location of the big offices, as most people expected, they were one floor below. This floor contained generators, watertanks and air conditioning units. There is one freight elevator that traverses the entire length of the 90-floor building. They did not want to take the regular elevators because they are too close to the conference room and did not want to alert the gunmen that someone was using them. But the freight elevator was on the other side of the building. Unless the gunmen decide to walk around, they shouldn't hear it. The three Tracy men rode the elevator down in silence each of them sure that the other two could hear their heart pounding. It was a long ride. The silence was a nervous silence. They were used to going against Mother Nature not hostage rescue. The elevator stopped at the 2nd floor, one above the conference room. Virgil was going into the men's lavatory and cutting through the floor. Gordon and Alan were going to each of the stairwells on either side of the conference and wait just inside the doors. Brains would give them enough warning if anyone left the conference room heading towards the stairs so that they could put at least one flight between them. On the signal they were both to enter the conference room simultaneously and hopefully between them and their other two brothers, they would be able to subdue the armed men. According to John's watch there are only two of them in there right now. Gordon was at the door closest to them right now. He should be able to slip right in and put the drop on them. The doors have electronic locks and Brains can release them at anytime. If the hostages weren't in there, they could simply just lock those men inside.
Jeff waited about a minute after his sons left. Then contacted the police. He got the number from Scott. The police patched him through to the dark haired man. "Mr. Tracy, you kept me waiting a long time. I don't like to be kept waiting."
Jeff answered in as deep and grizzly of a voice he could muster, "What the hell do you want?"
The leader replied, "Now, now, Mr Tracy, be nice. We won't want your handsome son here to get hurt, would we?" He motioned John over to the phone.
Jeff, sounding impatient said, "I want to speak with him."
The phone was tilted towards John in such a way that the kidnappers could listen in. So in keeping with the character he was portraying, that of not getting along with his dad, he said, "I'm here, no thanks to you."
Jeff was not surprised at the response. Luckily Scott had filled him in with the discussions going on in the conference room including John's negative responses. He responded with, "Listen you little snot, if it were just you in there, you could join those men for all I care. Can't you do anything right? Let me speak to the man in charge."
"I sense a little discord in the family." He said to Jeff with a smirk. "But no matter, if you don't meet my demands, he will be the first to go. My demands are simple: 50 million and a helijet by midnight tonight. No cops. Only you. I want you to be flying that jet. And don't say you can't, I know you can fly just about anything under the sun Mr. Air Force Astronaut Tracy." And he hung up without waiting for a reply from Jeff.
Jeff sat there. He said to Brains, "He didn't give me much time to stall. I sure hope the boys work fast. I will call back in a couple of minutes and try to argue." Brains looked at Jeff and said, "You m-m-may not b-b-be a professional hostage n-n-negotiator Mr. T-T-Tracy, but I would t-t-trust you with my l-l-life anyday."
All Jeff could say was, "Thanks Brains."
Virgil knelt on the floor in the last stall of the men's lavatory above the conference room. According to the building plans there was an identical one just below him. He was going to cut through the floor, but not the ceiling below that. He opted to cut the floor into small pieces instead of one large one that could break under it's own weight and crash through to the stall below. When he finished cutting the hole, just big enough for him to fit through easily, he listened very closely, trying to determine if anyone was in the room below. When he thought the room was cleared, he slowly lifted a ceiling panel up a ½ inch and put a small monitor through the opening. He saw that it was empty. He quickly lifted the whole panel, slid down to stand on the toilet, he left his bag up inside the ceiling and replaced the ceiling panel. Now at least it doesn't look like he came in through the ceiling.
He sidled over to the door and knelt down. Slowly he cracked the door open. He could see John standing next to two men by the wall right next to the phone. He recognized them as the gunmen. He was going to open the door just enough to squeeze through and sneak to the nearest chair but luck wasn't going to be with him. Blue-eyed creep looked in his direction just as the door was about 4 inches open. Virgil quickly backed away and let the door close on it's own. He quickly got up and headed to the corner of the room.
When he saw the door slightly ajar, blue-eyed creep bolted towards it leaving John and the leader confused. Creep barreled into the door full force flinging it open with a bang. When he saw Virgil standing near the last commode, he flung himself at him, pinning him up against the wall. With his forearm at Virgil's throat he used his other arm to search him for weapons. He growled, "What the hell are you doing in here, man?" Virgil choked, "I had to go." Creep growled some more, "Where the hell did you come from?" Virgil again tried to reply through the chokehold, "I was sitting just outside, man. Where do you think I came from, the ceiling?" Virgil sure hoped that by saying the truth he would throw this hoodlum off. The creep looked up at the ceiling then back at Virgil giving him a dirty look because he was made to look up at the ceiling. "Get on with your business and get back outside."
Virgil's heart was pounding as the creep was just standing there. Virgil started to go through the motions then looked at creep with a seductive smile across his face, "Are you 'interested' in what I am doing?" The creep just looked at him, saw a handsome, well built man in a tight shirt, then suddenly his eyes flew wide open in anger. Virgil hoped this guy wasn't going to blow him away with that statement. He just wanted him to leave. Creep leveled his gun at him and Virgil threw his hands up in the air, "Hey man, I'm sorry, but you were just standing there, and there ain't no other way out of this place? It really is just a misunderstanding." Being the true homophobic that he was, creep backed up to the sink furthest from Virgil, scrubbed his hands while watching Virgil the whole time. He flashed another angry look in his direction. Then with that creep turned and stormed out of the lavatory. Virgil collapsed against the wall. "That was too close." He thought to himself. "Dumb idea! Remind yourself NEVER to pull that stunt again." He washed his hands and looking over his shoulder towards the door reached up for the paper towels. But instead of pulling out a towel or two, he reached further in to where he hid the two guns. When he saw creep heading towards the door earlier, he had seconds to remove them from his person and stash them someplace where he hoped no one would look. Now he put them back in his ankle holsters and exited the washroom.
John saw Virgil exit out of the room that just minutes earlier the creep had blasted into. He tried to hold back any hint of recognition. Virgil just looked in their general direction and sat down in the closest chair he could find. Creep was just explaining to the dark haired fellow what happened. Virgil rubbed his neck a little. It was a bit sore from the stranglehold. John took advantage of that and asked the leader if it would be ok if he checked on his employee. He looks to be a bit shaken up. The leader hesitated, was about to say 'no', but couldn't think of what wrong could happen. "Ok, but make it fast. I don't want you there long enough to plan anything."
John walked over to Virgil. Virgil looked up at John then over at the gunmen. During the split second that John obscured his vision, he said, "gun in ankle holster". John then knelt down beside Virgil. In looking like he was comforting him, John put his hand on his brother's hand. Creep saw that and went "ewww". The dark haired man looked at him and said, "what the hell do you mean by that?" To keep the 'advance' that Virgil made at him in the men's room a secret, he just said, "oh nuthin'." They saw Virgil nod his head yes, rub his neck, then John got up and left. They didn't see John reach down and remove one of the guns from the holster. Since he had a suit on, he could put it in his pants pocket and the jacket would hide the way they hung with the extra weight. Virgil couldn't say much to warn John what was going on, but John would take his cue from Virgil when the time was right. Virgil was now ready to give the signal to Brains to unlock the doors and let the other two in.
Suddenly they heard a muffled bang.