Chapter 13 - The Hostages are Taken

Just as the final door in the hall closes, six gunmen and Gary Waters come up out of the basement where they have been working on the bomb. They are all dressed in black with ski masks covering their faces. It doesn't really matter because they don't intend to leave anyone alive when they depart the building, but Mr. Thompson insisted that they cover their faces. He says that it appears more sinister.

Thompson himself is not here. He is waiting several miles away, ready to detonate the bomb when the time comes. He is pacing back and forth in his office on Sepulvida Blvd. He hopes for everyone's sake that this goes off on time. He doesn't want to hit the button to blow up the bomb too early and lose Waters and the money. Well, the money anyway. He can always get another second in command, but he wants that ten million. He knows that as soon as Waters calls, he will wait exactly ten minutes and then hit the button. Waters will have plenty of time to get far enough away, and in all the confusion that the bomb will cause, they can easily slip out of L.A. and be long gone, without a trace of their being here in the first place.

With the pool closed for summer school, it made the basement the perfect hiding place, and they were undisturbed while putting last minute plans together. Everything has gone very smoothly so far and Waters doesn't see any problems. The ten kids they want are all in this building where they can trap them and get rid of them, when the time comes. No words are necessary. This group has the timing and application of their jobs down perfectly. Three of the group and Mr. Waters head upstairs to the classroom where Face is starting his lecture. The other three are moving down the hall to the Chemistry Lab. At exactly the same time, they burst into their respective rooms.

"May I help you?" Face asks with a note of disdain in his voice for their barging into his class.

He was just getting ready to explain to the students what is going down, but he didn't get the chance. He was hoping to give them a little forewarning, so maybe they would be able to help out and not panic when things started happening. Well, keep tap dancing and go forward.

Without a word the first gunman, shoves him face first onto the desk and places a zip tie around his wrists. With this action and the notice of the guns, the students start screaming and jumping up from their desks as though to take off, they no not where, but out of this room.

Waters yells, "sit down and shut up, or we start shooting."

The students obey, but the fear in their eyes increases as he moves further into the room, flanked by the other two gunmen.

"Do you have a problem with today's topic, or are you just against college in general?" Face asks.

"Shut up you, or I'll have you gagged, understand?

Waters is not a very friendly sort, but then most bad guys don't seem to have a sense of humor. Face sure hopes B.A. can find the bomb and figure out what to do with it.

"I'll come around and separate you into two groups. You will do exactly as I say, or you will be shot. Do you understand?" He doesn't really expect an answer, but looks at each of the fifteen students in the room and sees it in their eyes. Some do nod their heads as they agree with him silently. He walks by each desk, sending the group he wants to keep, to the window side of the room and the others to the door side.

Face is still face down on the desk, but he has managed to move a little to see what is happening. "Not yet, wait until the right time." He tells himself. Next, Waters tells the gunman closest to the door, to escort the students he doesn't want out the door. That only leaves the six hostages they want and Face along with the rest of the kidnappers. He tells the students to line up at the door, because he is moving them. One of the men pulls Face up and shoves him toward the door and he follows the kids downstairs.

"Boy it's not easy going downstairs with your hands tied behind your back," he says. "I sure hope I don't fall." They'll probably shoot me if I do, he thinks, and I might just want to be put out of my misery after a fall like that.

Downstairs in the Chemistry Lab, the same scenario is playing out. They grab Murdock and tie his hands with a zip tie, while separating out the four remaining hostages and turning the others loose. Then the group from upstairs is ushered into the lab. They place all of the students on the floor and put ties on their wrists as well. Face and Murdock are pushed to the back of the room and shoved to the floor. Then, Waters brings out a small video camera, and walks along the line of kids, making sure to get a good view of all of their faces as he goes.

"You can smile for the camera, or you can cry. I don't care, as long as we get a good view of your faces for your parents to see. That's right! Look up."

"Don't you want our pictures, too?" Face asks. "I mean, we have families who would be interested in seeing us, also."

"Shut up! You are just extra bodies and we can turn you into "bodies" very quickly." He points the gun at Face, and then laughs and moves away.

With the video finished, he takes out his cell phone and places a call. His phone must be on a different frequency, because he is able to get through. However, it must not be on the same frequency as the bomb, because nothing blows up in the process. Face thinks, "This could come in handy later on, if we can get our hands on that phone."

"Mr. Thompson, we have them all. … Yes, all ten. We also have two teachers. …Yes, I'm sure the whole campus knows by now. …Yes, everything is on schedule. I will make the demands as soon as I am contacted from the outside."

He hangs up the phone, tells everyone to stay quiet and then the terrorist-kidnappers go out the door and lock it behind them. They place a guard in the hall to keep an eye on the room, but they aren't really interested in the group, who will soon be dead anyway.

Murdock springs into action first. He has hidden a small syringe up his sleeve and he has just enough wiggle room to move it down into his hand. With his thumb, he pushes the needle as best he can into the plastic of the tie wrap and then depresses the plunger. The acid in the syringe, very efficiently, causes the plastic to disintegrate and Murdock is able to break the bond that is holding him. He moves slowly, in case they should look back in the window, toward Face to do the same thing for him. The gunmen didn't seem to expect any weapons on two college professors, so they didn't even search them. Face then pulls out a small knife and while soothing the students with his voice, moves down the line cutting their ties and freeing them.

"Look, stay calm, don't move until we tell you to. You're going to be fine. No sudden moves and keep quiet, okay? That's it, you're doing great. Just stay sitting here. We have a plan to get you all out, but we need a little time. Okay?"

Although the students are terrified, they are listening to Face and doing exactly what he says. His looking like a professor probably helps, that and the confidence he is exuding.

While Face is freeing the kids, Murdock is at the table where he starts to work on his "experiment". With the addition of a few more ingredients, he finishes up the mixture. The glass rod clanks against the side of the beaker, ever so quietly. He hopes this is going to work. There is a slight movement in the beaker, even after he stops stirring. He then turns on the hot plate and sets the beaker of greenish mixture on it. "I think it is working." He states more to himself than anyone else. Face has come to stand next to him, and Murdock doesn't even notice, because he is so intent on his experiment. That's why he jumps, when Face asks him, "How's it going?"

"I think it's alive." He uses his best Boris Karloff imitation and then laughs quietly, yet sinisterly as far as Face is concerned.

"Great. How long will it take? Those guys could come back at any time."

"It said in the recipe, that it can take five to ten minutes to cook and then it can take up to thirty minutes to become effective as 'a glue to end all glues'."

"Wow, that long?"

"Yeah, but it is going to be fantastic, a masterpiece. Just wait and see." He has a gleam in his eye that once again, almost scares Faceman.

"Right, okay, I'll go see if I can take a peek out the door."

Murdock doesn't even answer. His attention is all on his "growing" experiment. Face moves to the door, coming at it from the side. He peeks out and can see no one in the hall from the left. Then he ducks down, goes under the door and repeats the action to the right, with the same results. Okay, so far.

B.A. is on the third floor, looking around, when everything starts happening. He sees the students running from the front of the building, so he knows things are going down. He looks up and down the hall here on the third floor, but doesn't see, or hear anything. He moves to the staircase at the right end of the building and starts slowly heading down. He is almost half way down, when he hears the movement of the students on the second floor heading toward the stairwell. He presses himself as close to the inside wall as he can and holds his breath. If they come up, he's dead. Thankfully, they are moving down to the first floor and not toward him. He takes a long needed breath and starts slowly down again. He walks down the hallway toward the room that Face had been in. He goes in and looks around. They must have taken Face with the students, so everything is going okay. Now Face wouldn't have his gun on him, so where would he have hidden it? He starts looking through drawers, and finds the gun in the top left one. He keeps it in his hand and steps back into the hall and listens again. Not a sound on this floor either.

He once again moves to the stairwell, and slowly starts down. He can hear voices coming from somewhere down below, but he can't tell where. Just as he is about to take the last few steps, he hears people coming his way. He again freezes and holds his breath and once again he is lucky. The footsteps and quiet voices move to the door that leads to the basement. They go through the door and down. Funny, that door was supposed to be locked, because the swimming area is off limits for the summer session. He read that on a sign inside the janitor's closet. The janitor apparently didn't lock the door, or the bad guys had gotten in anyway. Dare he move any further down, or should he hold and see what happens next. Something tells him to hold and it is a good thing, because one of the gunmen comes over and sits down on the bottom step and lights a cigarette. B.A. has to inch himself back up the stairs without making a sound, because if this guy turns around, he will be spotted immediately. He manages to get up to the turn and though he doesn't know it, he is just out of sight when the guy looks up the stairs behind him, but sees nothing. He is too lazy and too absorbed in his cigarette to get up and go look. He just settles back down and finishes his smoke.

Down in the pool area, Douglas has finished putting the bomb together and has placed it in a large gym bag. He then carefully places the gym bag into a cabinet in the corner of the room. Next, he puts several kickboards on top of the bag, so no idle look into the cabinet would discover its whereabouts. He closes the door and locks the cabinet. Okay, the bomb is ready and waiting for Mr. Thompson to detonate once he gets his ransom and they get out of the building. Unfortunately for Mr. Douglas, he doesn't know the plan for him does not include getting out of this building.