Frank moved his way along the hospital corridors resisting the urge to remove the protective helmet which was making it so much harder to see where he was going. Sweat trickled down his brow as he attempted to keep to a steady jogging pace, somewhat difficult under the layers of kevlar he was sporting at the Chief's insistence. Not that he minded, he would be roaming the halls in a chicken suit if it meant he was allowed access into the hospital. Just being in the same walls as his brother calmed him somewhat although he wouldn't be rid of the icy shard of worry in his stomach until he'd laid his own eyes upon Joe once more.
"OK Martin now where?" he said into the mask's inbuilt microphone talking to the weedy, tech officer from earlier who was now directing him to the floor where the hospital housed its formidable power supply.
"You're coming up to a door which leads down into the basement," came Martin's tinny voice in his ears "head down there and you should be at the entrance to the room."
Frank jogged a little harder at his reply seeing the doors in front of him. He burst through them and skipped down the steps, taking them two at a time. Finally reaching the bottom of the staircase, he shoulder barged his way into a room which looked like something out of Star Trek. He paused for a second to take it all in, blowing out his cheeks and pulling the mask over his head to get a better view. There were huge towers of flashing lights and wires all linking computer systems and power supplies and god knew what to god knew where. Holding the mask in his hand, he pulled it up to his mouth to speak into the mic.
"Ok Martin I'm in. I'm going to take a look and see if I can figure out what's going on down here and get back to you."
At Martin's affirmative, he dropped the hand holding the helmet to his side moving forwards to see if he could make heads or tails of the system. The more he looked the simpler it became. Each section of the vast room was broken down into floors and each floor into its component parts. He knew Joe and the Marchettis were on the third floor in the fifth section so he followed the wiring and the and the trail to the third floor system.
Tracing the power lines was a little time consuming, but when he reached the area dedicated to the third floor he knew immediately he had found the right tower. Someone had obviously been trying to isolate the switch which would cut off the lights in the fifth section, the physio department, but had found the task a little more advanced than they were expecting and instead had rammed a lethal looking hunting knife directly into the centre of the tower. Luckily whoever had engineered the system had had the grand idea to keep each floor separate from the others so that if one system went down, the whole hospital wouldn't be affected. The less than delicate addition of the blade had killed the physio department and every other part of that floor, but the rest of the hospital's power stood in good working order.
"Martin, we have a problem," Frank stated into the microphone.
"Go Frank?" Martin replied.
"No...wait," Frank replied as a buzzing came from his chest pocket. The pocket on his shirt where he had rammed his phone knowing it would likely end up pressed against his skin under the tight fitting vest. A strategic placement incase Joe had the chance to or needed to get in touch with him again.
Ripping off his gloves, Frank forced his hand down the neck of the vest, fishing for his cell and ripping it out to his eager eyes.
'West entrance open.'
What the heck did that mean? Frank thought to himself re-reading the text, thoroughly confused for a moment before remembering Joe mentioning how both the exits to the department had been deadlocked shut when the Marchettis had stormed the place.
"Martin I need the Chief, now!" Frank said, not even daring to wonder how Joe had managed to open the door but knowing instinctively it would have been the sort of foolhardy thing which would earn him a slap upside the head the moment he clapped eyes on him.
Chief Collig nodded and barked out a "loud and clear," at the message Frank relayed back to him. Turning to Paul, the other tech officer in the command centre, he asked if it would be possible to replay the footage from the last half an hour on the monitors.
Paul replied with a yes and got to work searching through the stream and taking it back to about the requested time.
"Now, I need you to fast forward it but slowly," the Chief said, leaning into the monitor which had been dedicated to the task.
Keeping his eye on the mostly black figures of the Marchettis, he watched for the moment Joe had managed to cross the room without them noticing and open the door to the area. He'd found out about all the details of the department in question as well as the hospital and knew it operated on a system of the reception area housing the security button to open the entrance.
Not seeing Joe at any point, his eye was instead drawn to the erratically moving figure of one of the Marchetti clan. He attempted to ignore the retreating and reappearing figure until all at once he was crouched behind the reception desk.
"Stop!" he yelled, causing Paul to jump slightly. "Take it back."
Paul complied and the Chief indicated where he wanted the footage to be replayed from, this time at normal speed. They watched as the figure walked through a door and disappeared for a few moments before returning and carrying on his way.
Ezra's eyes narrowed slightly and he reached forward, clicking the buttons he'd seen Paul use to rewind the tape. Allowing the man to walk into the room again, he scanned the figure with a higher level of scrutiny than before, and then again when he exited the room.
"He didn't," the Chief said to himself, hardly believing what he was seeing. That boy had watched too many detective shows as a child. "I'll kill him. I am going to kill him," he said stepping back from the monitor and pulling a hand across his face whilst shaking his head. He watched in disbelief as the now undeniable form of Joe Hardy nonchalantly made his way across the room from one door to another culminating in a quick trip behind reception before disappearing into a final room and not returning.
"Er Chief, you might want to look at this.." Martin said. He'd been watching the Chief's monitor with one eye and keeping half of his attention on the live stream. After so many minutes of seemingly little action, the room had suddenly erupted into a flurry of movement. Not having sound was detrimental to finding out the source of the sudden motion but the Chief had a good idea it was probably linked to whatever Joe had done to the original guard before his little wander around the waiting room. His suspicions were confirmed moments later when two of the clan dragged a third out of the first room Joe had exited. Arms still tied behind his back, the second they were free they flew to his face as he rolled around on the floor in obvious pain.
The biggest shape stepped forward, grabbing the forehead of the man before him and bringing it up so he could get a good look at his face. After staring for a moment he threw the man's head forward and left him lying on the ground stepping away from him and gesturing in obvious anger at the rest of his group. He clearly assigned two of his people with the task of finding their would be hero and motioned with his gun towards the hostages who had started getting a little rowdy at the current events.
The smallest black figure captured his attention for a moment and his head whipped to what was obviously the only female member of the group. After listening to her with his head cocked to one side, he crossed the room in three huge strides before pulling his hand back and sending her crashing to her knees with a vicious looking slap. Leaving her on the floor, he whipped around clearly agitated and gesturing wildly.
"Oh lordy Joe, keep out of that mad bastard's way," the Chief said to himself before tearing his eyes from the monitor and grabbing the radio linked to his scout team's receivers.
"OK fellas, status report?" he asked into the mic.
"Approaching section five now sir," came back the slightly broken reply of the scout leader.
"Change of plan boys," the Chief replied after explaining the situation to him "I want you to secure the area around that waiting room whilst we figure out what to do with these maniacs. Do not engage unless necessary. If they come out guns blazing...shoot to kill."
"Understood."
Apologies for the delay between posts. My original plan of every three ish days is falling apart somewhat at the moment. This past fortnight has been entirely too hectic but hopefully I'll be able to get back on point soon.
Thanks to everyone for your reviews. All comments and critiques are welcomed as usual!