Author's note: Happy Scorpion Monday! I have absolutely no hacking skills and only know a tiny bit of coding so any and all hacking and coding mistakes in this chapter are all mine.

CHAPTER NINE

"No, absolutely not!" Walter had to yell to be heard over the howling wind and rumbling thunder. "There has to be another way!"

"There is no other way!" Paige shouted back. "We just can't leave them up there. I have to do this."

He stared at her, the rain plastering her hair to her scalp, her damp dress clinging to the swell of her belly. Deep down, he knew she was right. But, dammit, he didn't have to like it. Hundreds of different scenarios flitted through his brain, an overwhelming percentage of them ending with Paige lying bloody and broken on the ground.

Shaking his head, he shoved the gruesome scenes to the back of his mind. "Okay. Do it," he snapped.

She walked up to him, placing her hands on his chest. Murmuring a barely audible "Thank you," she slid her arms around his neck and kissed him hard on the mouth. "I love you."

"Love you, too," he said, touching her stomach, reluctant to let her go. "Be careful."

"I will."

Walter pushed his dripping hair off his face as he watched the cherry picker lift Paige up into the air. This was one of those rare moments he wished he could believe in a higher power. One who would listen to his desperate pleas to keep her and their baby safe.

ooooo

TWO HOURS EARLIER

Gravel crunched under the tires as the van carrying Team Scorpion to the Monterey County fairgrounds came to a halt. Walter helped Paige out of the vehicle, noticing the carnival midway has been mostly evacuated. A just a few hundred feet ahead, the hacked Ferris wheel still spun out of control, its passengers screaming in terror.

"Steve Harris, fair manager." A man about Cabe's age introduced himself as he approached. Walter wondered if the hot, muggy air or the dire circumstances were causing the man to drip with perspiration. "Whatever you need," Mr Harris added, "just let me know."

After thanking the man, Walter assessed the situation as he passed out comms and assignments. Happy headed to the malfunctioning ride, Toby was pointed toward the fair workers, Cabe to coordinate with local law enforcement.

With a quick squeeze of his hand, Paige walked over to speak to family members who were cordoned off by yellow caution tape into a nearby corner. As he watched her go, his earlier conversation with Toby kept nagging at the back of his brain.

He hadn't had a chance to confront her with the information the shrink had accidentally let slip. The noise of the helicopter coupled with the lack of privacy prevented him from broaching the subject on the flight north.

Why hadn't she told him she'd been having contractions? He knew from the research he'd done on pregnancy, she had obviously been experiencing false labor. He just didn't understand why she would keep it hidden from him.

Someone smacked his arm and he recoiled from the unexpected contact. "Hey, Walt." Happy's voice brought him out of his head. "You wanna come check out the control panel with me?"

"Uh, yeah, sure."

The mechanic grabbed his arm as he started to walk away. "Listen," she began, "I know you've got a lot on your mind lately, what with the trial and the baby and everything. . . But we need you to pull your head out of your ass and focus."

"Is this coming from you or Toby?" he asked petulantly.

"Does it matter?" she countered, letting go of him. "Lives are depending on that big brain of yours. So dump your baggage somewhere else or I'll do it for you. And I can guarantee you won't like where I stick it." With that, she stalked off ahead of him.

Walter sighed wearily as he followed. She was right. He needed to concentrate on solving one problem at a time. Even though they seemed to be piling up at an alarming rate.

Things had to get better, he thought with a shrug. He didn't see how they could get worse.

ooooo

It did get worse as Walter discovered an hour later as the team regrouped to compare notes.

"I've got bupkiss," stated Toby. "The carnies I've talked to aren't too thrilled about computerized rides taking their jobs, but none of them have the capability to pull off a hack like this."

"I've spoken to some of the people on the Ferris wheel by cell phone," Paige volunteered. "I don't think they're going to be able to hold on much longer."

"Neither is the structure itself," Happy pointed out. "The support struts are starting to weaken. And I can't just cut the power supply. The inertia caused by a sudden stop. . . Those people will become human projectiles. My hands are tied until Walt can override the hack." She glanced over at him speculatively.

Walter raked a hand through his hair. "There's some kind of AI I've never seen before that keeps overwriting my commands. As soon as I break through a firewall, another one pops up in its place."

"Well, the whole damn thing is going to collapse if you can't. . ." Cabe growled.

"Collapse. . ." Walter muttered under his breath. Dammit, the fix had been so simple he should have figured it out fifty-nine minutes ago. "The firewalls. . . If I can find the. . ." His fingers flew over the keyboard as lines of alphanumeric code scrolled down the screen. "I can collapse them like dominoes."

A few moments later, he'd found what he needed, and with a couple of keystrokes, had overridden the hack and rebooted the programming. "Happy, you should be able stop it now," he said.

"Okay, boss. Come on, dummy." She grabbed Toby and pulled him out of the control booth.

"Good work, son." Cabe patted Walter on the shoulder.

Walter slumped over the panel, wiping the sweat from his forehead, as he mentally cursed himself for not coming up with a solution sooner. Even after Happy's threatening 'pep' talk, his brain had drifted off into unproductive anxiety about Paige, the baby, the trial. . .

"Hey, Walter." Sly's voice in his ear interrupted his self-berating. "Just received a warning from the National Weather Service. There's a severe thunderstorm heading toward Monterey. They're predicting gusts up to 50 miles per hour and heavy rain with a possibility of dime sized hail."

"How soon until it hits?" Walter hurried out of the control booth, followed by a concerned Cabe and Paige. Looking up, he saw the ominous black clouds moving in from the southwest.

"Half an hour, tops," the human calculator replied. "Hopefully that will be. . ." His words were drowned out by a metallic screeching. "What the heck is that?" Sylvester shouted over the horrifying sound.

"The Ferris wheel." Walter watched as the ride shuddered to the ear-piercing halt, followed by several popping noises. Oh, shit.

He sprinted the short distance to where Happy was standing next to the manual controls. "What the hell happened?" he asked between gasps for air.

"The struts are breaking," she said with an frantic edge to her tone, one which raised the hairs on the back of Walter's neck. Happy rarely panicked. "I calculated the rate of deceleration needed to bring it to a safe stop. My math was spot on. . ." She turned to stare at him as drops of rain began to fall. "Those supports shouldn't have snapped like that . I think the wheel's been sabotaged."

"Dammit." Walter ran his hand over his face before turning to Cabe. "We've gotta evacuate those people now."

The agent nodded. "We've got crews on standby." The older man glanced up again at the darkening sky. "This storm looks like a bad one." The words were barely out of his mouth when a bright flash lit up in the distance, followed by a low rumble of thunder.

Things were definitely getting worse.

ooooo

Another half hour later, two fire trucks had parked next to the doomed ride and had begun extracting the passengers. Paige watched as she huddled with anxious family members and friends under one of the midway game awnings. It was providing little protection as the wind kept blowing the rain sideways, drenching them with every gust.

Jessica, one of the women she'd spoken to earlier grabbed Paige's arm. "When are they going to help my daughters?" she asked hysterically. She pointed to the car at the very top of the wheel, where two girls were trying to restrain a smaller girl.

"They'll be down as soon as possible," Paige replied with a calmness she didn't feel. "The others have to be removed first because of the. . ." A bright flash followed by an almost instantaneous clap of thunder interrupted her explanation.

High-pitched shrieks could be heard coming from the Ferris wheel. Paige glanced up to see the girls at the top clinging together. "Do they have a phone with them?" she asked their mother, who nodded. Within minutes, she'd calmed the girls enough they were at least coherent.

"Just a few more minutes, Sarah," Paige said to the oldest sister. "Okay?" She looked up again at the three girls, pleased they all seemed to relax a little. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Walter walking toward her.

"Okay," came the shaky reply.

"You've been on your feet for hours," Walter said as he came to a halt beside her. "You should rest."

"I'm fine." She did feel fine. Except her feet hurt. And her ankles. And her back. And she needed to pee.

He frowned at her like he didn't quite believe her. "You'd tell me if you weren't. Wouldn't you?"

"Of course, " she lied as she patted him on the shoulder. "I just need to make sure Sarah, Samantha, and Cassie make it off the Ferris wheel."

She watched as the cherry picker raised a firefighter to the top of the ride. The wind picked up, jostling the bucket and the man inside, and the rain became a bit icier. Walter put his arm around her, drawing her closer. He wasn't any drier than she was, but she still appreciated his warmth.

A scream of terror split the damp air. "Oh, God," Paige whispered when she saw the littlest girl, Cassie, almost fall out of the car in an effort to get away from the firefighter. She turned to the girl's mother, who face had paled.

"I thought she was over it," Jessica mumbled.

"Over what?" Paige asked.

"She's, she's a foster child. We think she was, she was. . .abused," the woman explained. "Strange men. . .they terrify her." Her eyes were damp with tears. "Maybe if they sent up a female fire. . ."

Paige heard Walter tut impatiently. "There's no time for that, the ride is about to fail." Loud grinding groans came from the Ferris wheel as if to punctuate his statement.

"Let me talk to her." Jessica handed her cell to Paige. "Put Cassie on," she requested when Sarah answered. "Cassie, sweetie, this is Paige," she said as the girl's harsh breathing filled her ears. "We talked before, remember?"

A faint "Yes" came over the connection. "I want my mommy."

"I know, sweetheart," Paige soothed. "You can be with her if you let the fireman help. . ."

"No!" The girl's shrill yell drowned out a clap of thunder. "No!" In the background, Paige could hear her sisters trying to reason with her. The rest of the team, along with several other officials, had gathered under the already overcrowded awning.

"Maybe if the other two girls come down, the little one will follow," suggested the fair manager.

"No!" cried a voice Paige recognized as the middle sister, Samantha. "We all go together."

"Let me go up," begged their mother. Paige shook her head even before Walter did. The woman was nearly crippled with fear. She'd been letting out little shrieks every time there had been a lightning strike.

"No," Paige stated. "Jessica, you're too emotionally involved."

"Well, you need to think of something, and you need to come up with it fast," said Happy. "That sucker's about to go."

The oldest girl, Sarah, spoke up then, "Miss Paige, then. Would that be all right, Cassie?"

The little girl must have nodded her consent because Sarah said, "She says okay."

"No." Walter spun Paige around so she was facing him. "You're not going up there. We could send Happy in. . ."

"Oh, yeah, put my woman in danger," Toby protested as he held onto his hat to keep it from blowing away.

"The only person in danger will be you if you ever call me your woman again in public," threatened Happy, raising a fist at the shrink.

"Shut up, both of you!" Walter rubbed the back of his neck as the storm grew wilder. The wheel creaked and moaned, and he could see it swaying violently with every gust.

"They know me, Walter," Paige said loudly, stroking his arm with her fingers. "I have to. . ."

"No, absolutely not!" Walter had to yell to be heard over the howling wind and rumbling thunder. "There has to be another way!"

"There is no other way!" Paige shouted back. "We just can't leave them up there. I have to do this."

"Okay. Do it," he snapped, shoving the gruesome scenes of her lying bruised and bloody on the ground to the back of his mind.

She walked up to him, placing her hands on his chest. Murmuring a barely audible "Thank you," she slid her arms around his neck and kissed him hard on the mouth. "I love you."

"Love you, too," he said, touching her stomach, reluctant to let her go. "Be careful."

"I will."

Walter pushed his dripping hair off his face as he watched the cherry picker lift Paige up into the air, the slow ascent growing more agonizing with every second. She was only a few feet from the car with the girls when the opposite side of the ride violently tilted downward with an ear-piercing wail.

Panic swept through him as the girls lurched sideways. Paige would never be able to reach them now. Or so he thought. He watched in horror as she leaned out over the bucket, extending her arms. "Grab on!" she yelled. "Hurry!"

"Paige!" His desperate plea went unheeded as she let the smallest girl grasp her wrists, pulling her into the cherry picker. As Paige rescued the second girl, Happy smacked Walter's shoulder.

"She can't get all three of them in that bucket. It's too much weight."

"Dammit." Anxiety bubbled up inside him. The mechanic must have sense his distress because she awkwardly tapped him on the back.

"She'll be okay, Walt. She's tougher than she looks." With that, she dashed over to the fire truck, yelling out advice to the operator as Paige reached for the last, and the largest, of the girls.

Walter realized what was about to happen about a second before it did. The girl's weight was more than Paige could lift and she had to bend too far forward. The bucket began to tip, threatening to send the liaison and the girls tumbling to the ground.