The quiet one felt the elevator stop. He pushed some of the buttons to see if it would start again. He took out his cell phone to try to call the dark haired fellow, but he couldn't get a signal. He looked closer at the panel and saw both 41 and 42 buttons lit up meaning he was most probably between floors. He checked around for some kind of release button but couldn't find one. He then tried to pry the doors open with his hands. When that failed, he took out his pocketknife and unscrewed the panel. He traced several wires to what looked like the elevator brakes. He wanted to leave them alone. He traced the floor wires, and then he found what he was looking for. The wire to the latch keeping the doors closed. He didn't know enough to be able to unlock the door by cutting or overriding the wires, but he could see the actual lock itself. He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out the C4. He looked it over, pulled a pinch off, molded it between his fingers, studied it, and pulled off a pinch more. He placed this on the level that held the elevator doors shut. He tore out 2 two-foot pieces of the wires to the floors knowing he wasn't going to need to use this elevator anymore. He wanted to save what he had in his pocket for the roof, if it wasn't already too late. He wired the C4, then stretched the two pieces as far as he could and touched his ends together.
There was a resounding bang as the C4 destroyed the lever that locked the doors. He took a peek at the lever and found it gone. He grabbed the doors and they slid open with ease. He found that indeed he was halfway between two floors. Angered about the whole thing, he hoisted himself up onto the 42nd floor. He looked around and decided he had better head back downstairs first to see what has happened if anything. He started taking two and three steps at a time not daring to get stuck in another elevator.
Brains had been monitoring Virgil and was waiting to receive the go ahead from him, when he realized that the guy in the elevator could have a phone. He pulled up the jammer and with less than a second to spare, he jammed all phones. He could undo individual phones, like Jeff's as needed, but he would have needed much more time to jam only the gunman's particular frequency. He was working on opening up Jeff's line again for another round when they heard, or more like felt, the small blast. Brains studied the imager trying to see if anything in particular was going on. Jeff was on the line to Scott who was watching the room through John's watch and told Jeff that the blast did not come from there. But the gunmen did react when the blast occurred. Brains then saw the once stationary figure of the elevator on the move.
Gordon's watch com vibrated. Gordon opened up the link, "What's up?" Brain's face appeared on the watchface. "It s-s-seems that the g-g-guy stuck in the elevator has g-g-gotten out and he is h-h-headed d-d-down your stairwell. H-h-he was 40 flights up, b-b-but he seems to be m-m-moving at quite a c-c-clip."
Virgil whispered into his watch, "Is everything ok? One vibrate for ok, 2 for not ok." He felt two vibrations. "Shit" he thought to himself. He felt himself sink. He felt deflated, he had been all set to go. He had no idea what was happening outside this room. If necessary, he and John would be able to take these two guys alone, but the chance of a firefight was increased. That increased the chances of a hostage getting hurt. Now it was hurry up and wait. He was a man of action, waiting was not one of his fortes. John looked over at him. Since Virgil could see the gunmen behind John, he just looked past him until he saw that neither of them were looking in his direction. Then almost imperceivably, he shook his head 'no'.
The two kidnappers were discussing what to do. Creep said he would go see where the other guy was. But the leader said no. Maybe that was what the cops were trying to do, split everyone up. No, they were to stay here and wait for the boring guy. He shouldn't be back yet, it would take longer than that to rig the roof. But he couldn't understand why he hadn't heard from him on the cell phone. But just in case the cops had him, he didn't want to do the calling. He'll wait to hear from him. He also didn't want to tie up the line when he might get some good news from Mr.Rich-beyond-belief Tracy.
Gordon replied, "Oh great!" He turned off his watch and listened. He could just barely hear him. He wasn't trying to be quiet, but he was still several floors up. Gordon looked through the window in the door to the first floor. He quickly deducted that there was no place for him to hide. He didn't want to go downstairs and face all of the security guards and police sitting in the lobby. He looked up and decided to climb one flight and hoped he got into the 2nd floor before the kidnapper made it down far enough to witness the door closing. He took off up the flight of stairs making not a sound. He opened up the door to the 2nd floor…'squeeek'. "DAMN!" he thought. He stopped dead and just held the door still trying to see if he could still hear the gunman flying down the stairs. Nothing. That guy had heard the door. Gordon looked around. He knew he was going to have to face the gunman now or else he would make it back to his friends and let them know that there was help on the way for the hostages. He quietly hailed his watch, "Brains, is the gunman just flying down the stairs or his is stopping to look on each floor?" Brains watched the figure in the stairwell that he knew wasn't Gordon. "He is g-g-going straight d-d-down, uh, no w-w-wait a minute, he is s-s-starting to check e-e-each of the f-f-floors."
That was all he needed to know. He took off his shoes and socks and scattered them down the hall, while still holding the door open. He then backed into the stairwell letting the door squeal shut. He went ½ flight down. He sure wished his pounding heart would quiet down. He felt that for sure the gunman would hear it.
Boring guy wasn't trying to hide his whereabouts. Whoever was in the stairwell already knew he was coming. He decided to start checking several flights down. He could tell that the squeaking door was not near. He started looking through the windows of the doors on each floor. He wasn't going to open each door because he could get clobbered before he saw the other person. He came to the second floor looked so quickly that he almost didn't see it.
Gordon thought for sure that the gunman was going to keep on coming down the stairs and shoot him before he could climb up to him. He didn't have his own gun drawn because he didn't want to alert the other two gunmen by using it and if he wanted to get this guy, he needed both his hands free. His luck depended on surprise. Gordon ducked just out of view for that split second that the gunman rounded the corner. Then the gunman backed up. This is what Gordon was waiting for. The gunman was studying the hallway through the glass. He saw one shoe in the hall. He strained to see if there could be someone hiding just on the other side and was satisfied that no one could hide outside is line of vision. He turned the knob, slowly opened the door, and heard the squeak. He knew he now had the right floor.
Gordon flashed up the stairs barefoot, not making a sound. He reached the gunman just as he was preparing to peer through the open door. Using his momentum and elbow, Gordon plowed into the gunman using his elbow to smash his head against the metal door. As the gunman recoiled from the hit, Gordon used the Aikido moves he had mastered and used the gunman's own force against him. Gordon sent the gunman flying back into the stairwell. He followed the gunman across the landing and bodyslammed him against the wall. At the moment of impact the C4 came flying out of the gunman's pocket. Having worked in underwater demolition, Gordon recognized the plastique immediately. The gunman also realized right away that the explosive compound left his pocket. He dove for it, as did Gordon. They were grappling on the ground knocking the C4 around as they tried to make a grab for it. Gordon got an elbow in the face, knocking him away. But he recovered before the gunman could get the C4. Gordon dove for it just as the gunman tried to knock Gordon's hand away. But he missed the hand and hit the C4. It flew over the edge and down the central opening all the way down to the basement. The fraction of time that the gunman was stunned at losing his explosive Gordon reacted. They were both still prone on the floor but Gordon raised himself up and came down hard with his fist into the side of the gunman's face. The gunman's vision blurred, then turned black. He was old cold.
Gordon sat back against the railing, fighting to catch his breath and trying to get his heart to stop pounding so hard. It was now that he realized he wasn't getting as much air through his nose as he thought he should. He put his fingers up to his nose, then looked. "Dangit" he thought, "that a-hole broke my nose!" He got out his tissue and tried to stop the bleeding fast so that they could get on with the rescue.
After just a moment, he hailed Brains. "I got the gunman in the stairwell" "G-g-gee, your n-n-nose doesn't l-l-look in that good of shape G-g-gordo" Brains said upon seeing his face in the monitor. "A-a-are you o-o-ok?"
Gordon nodded yes then said, "Let's get this show on the road. Give me a few seconds to get back to the first floor."
Virgil felt the watch vibrate. He checked to see if the gunmen were paying attention to him or not. When he saw he was clear he hid his arm with the watch under the table out of their view but where he could see it. He kept it on mute, but still wanted to see them. Brains' face showed. He gave the thumbs up sign. Virgil whispered, "Are we ready to go?" Brains nodded yes. Virgil whispered, "three, two, one…"