A POV back in Trenton, but there is a bit of action as well...

Sorry that things are taking a little longer to get posted. I'm writing the ending of this story from scratch and I want to make sure I get far enough ahead that I can make fixes if I write myself into a corner. I aplogise for this in advance and I could use all the encouragement you can give to hurry things along.

Steph's POV

I have been pacing the length of the conference room for the past 30 minutes. Tank got so frustrated with me that he eventually left the room. Hector stayed and was working on the search of the train yard building. I watched as he left the room and returned with a print out. He handed it to me and I took a seat and started to read the report.

Lula stuck her head in and asked if she could help. I held up the report and said, "Hector just got the search results. Maybe you can help me go through it?"

"Sure, gimme some pages."

I handed Lula a bunch of pages from the search and continued reading. It looked liked the building was owned by a shell corporation that was untraceable. I think I read about 10 pages that followed one link or another trying to determine the actual owner. There was a trail of shell companies and trusts and other non-descript entities. This probably meant that the government either built or owned the building, but they didn't want others to know they owned, built or even used the building.

I read for twenty minutes or so. I kept a close eye on the clock and knew that Lester and the guys wouldn't be far off from the warehouse. Lula was sitting beside me and I noticed her posture and demeanour change out of the corner of my eye. She stayed silent for a few more minutes and then she said, "Based on the size and construction of this building it sure did cost an awful lot to build. Look at some of these materials. Why would a warehouse need such complex wiring?

All of a sudden, a realisation hit me and my spidey sense went haywire. I looked up and both Hector and Lula were staring at me. I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and dialled Lester. After three rings, it went to voice mail. I tried again with the same result.

"Hector, call Lester. It's a trap!"

Hector punched Lester's phone number into the speaker phone and we all listened as it rang. Finally, after the third try, Lester answered.

"What's up? We're just about to go in?"

"No!" I screamed. "You can't go in. It's a trap. Lula noticed that the cost of construction for that building was a little overboard and my spidey sense is going crazy. I think they've rigged it somehow. I wouldn't be surprised if the simple act of opening the door causes the whole building to explode."

"OK Beautiful, we've got some equipment here that will let us look at the density of the walls. If there are explosives and extra wiring, this machine will tell us. Once we know where they are located, we might be able to drill a hole and insert a camera to figure out what's going on."

"Do you know if Ranger is in there?"

"Not yet."

"Call out to him. If he hears you, he might try to open the door and that won't be good."

"Hold on, I'll go to the door and find out."

We were all standing leaning towards the speaker phone, waiting to hear back from Lester. Tank and a few of the other guys on the floor heard me yelling into the phone and came to investigate. While we were waiting to hear from Lester, I filled them in. Over the next few minutes, we could hear movement and voices in the background.

"Good news. Ranger and Fiona are inside. They also believe that the building is rigged, but they can't see any evidence of it from the inside. We will just have to use our high-tech toys and see if we can figure out a way to get them out without blowing any of us up. I'm going to keep my phone on so you can hear what's going on, but I need to attach it to my belt so you might hear some ruffling as I move.

"It's the best we can do because we don't have any communications gear with us that would allow you to listen in. We only have short-wave radios and ear buds."

Tank leaned towards the speaker and said, "Your phone will do. Do you need anything? Are Ranger and Fiona OK?"

"Ranger says his hand is torn up a bit from trying to get out of some shackles, but other than that, they're fine. They haven't had much in the way of food and water, but that can be easily rectified once we get them out. Hal is setting up the scanner now. We'll have more information shortly."

None of us could sit still as we waited to hear from Lester. I resumed my pacing, Lula went on a coffee run and Tank was turning his chair from side to side. Watching the motion of Tank's chair was a little nauseating, so I focused my attention on a spot on the wall and bounced on my feet, trying to use up some of my nervous energy.

The last time I felt like this, the guys did a wonderful job getting my mind off Lester's rescue by taking us to the gym. I knew that wouldn't work this time. This time, it wasn't just Lester who was in danger. This time, Ranger, Hal, Ram, Vince and Woody were all in danger. Fiona LeBlanc was there as well, but I didn't know anything about her other than a few passing remarks that Lester seemed to be taken with her.

I was too worried about Ranger and the guys to even consider leaving this room until I know for sure that they will be OK. I wanted to talk to Ranger and hear his voice to confirm that he is no longer in danger. More than that, I wanted to feel his arms around me and listen to him speak Spanish in my ear as I fall asleep.

Hal's voice came in clear when he said, "There's some sort of plastic explosives lining the walls at regular intervals. Each joint in the frame is wired so we can't cut away part of the wall without setting off the explosives. The doors and the windows are also wired. Ram is going to climb up and see if there's any access from the room or the neighbouring building."

Several more minutes passed with movement and distant voices. Finally, after almost 10 minutes of silence, we heard Lester say, "We found an access point in the ceiling. It's going to be pretty tight for Ranger, but it's all we can find. George has taken the van to the nearest store that sells climbing gear. We'll cut the hole in the roof and when George is back, I'll repel in and get Ranger and Fiona harnessed up so we can all climb out."

Time passed slowly. Actually, that's an understatement. Every second that passed seemed like a minute. Every minute seemed like an hour. I leaned forward and rested my head in my arms on the table. I couldn't calm my mind. It was running through several possible outcomes with the building and none of them were good.

I heard a noise from the phone that sounded like a chainsaw. I looked around the room and made eye contact with Tank. His ESP was working fine so he said, "That's the saw they're going to use to cut through the roof. I'm guessing that they found a small section that had no wires or structural components."

The saw noise lasted for about 20 minutes. We could hear a lot of shouting once the sawing was finished, but it wasn't clear what was going on. The next clear voice we could hear was Lester's. "George returned and I'm harnessed and ready to climb down. It's going to be a very tight squeeze for me to get my shoulders through that hole. Ranger's going to have an even tougher time."

"Here I go."

Well, down Lester goes. What could possibly go wrong? The next chapter should come online tomorrow at some point. Keep up with the reviews. I like the encouragement.