As quietly as he could, Shane cracked the door open and tried to size up what was happening in the hangar.
The screams had stopped, but Shane could not tell what that meant. Through the crack in the door, he tried to see what was happening on the far side of the hangar. The plane in the middle of the building blocked most of his view. Shane tried to peer under the plane and managed to see two figures. One was nothing more than a pair of legs; his upper body was not visible. The other was on his side. That one was Steve.
Slipping through the door, Shane began to circle around the room on the opposite side of the main entrance. With the plane between him and the others, he thought he might get close enough to get a shot off. As he moved silently through the room, he stayed low, keeping his eyes on the pair of legs he could see through the gap under the plane. As he moved, he saw Steve rise to his hands and knees.
"I know you're here, Donovan." Cal's voice echoed through the room. "You'd better come out now or I'll blow his head off." Before Shane could even think about his response, he saw the legs crouch and Cal's torso came into view. So did his gun, which was only a few inches from Steve's head.
He'll kill him, Shane said to himself. After Mike, Shane had no doubts about what Cal was capable of doing. Shane reached the edge of the plane, and snuck a glance around in Cal's direction.
"Did you hear me, Donovan?" Cal still had the gun pointed at Steve, but he was looking around the hangar. "You don't want his blood on your hands, do you? He's stuck - can't do a thing. 50,000 volts from a taser will do that." Cal laughed. "So come on out. Hide and seek's over. Or I will kill him."
Shane shook his head in frustration. Why couldn't you have waited, Steve? Shane needed a new plan now. While he had a possible shot at Cal, there was no way a shot - even one perfectly placed - could ensure that Cal would not kill Steve.
An idea came into Shane's head, but it seemed terribly weak. But he had no real choice, did he? With a sigh, Shane raised his arms and stepped around the plane.
"I'm here, Cal," Shane announced, moving forward. "So now that we're face-to-face, how about we discuss this and then you agree to let everyone go?"
"Uh huh," Cal barked, spinning away from Steve and facing Shane. They were now about 40 feet away. "Drop the gun."
"Okay, Cal." Shane stopped momentarily. "I'm putting the gun down." He let it drop to the floor and kicked it off to the side.
"What are you doing, you idiot?" Steve yelled, apparently having found his voice. "He'll kill us both."
Shane ignored Steve's protest, took another step forward, and focused on Cal instead. "No gun, Cal. I'm completely unarmed." Shane continued to close the gap between them. "Now, let's be reasonable men. The Salem PD knows you're here and they're on their way. Nobody's going to let your plane take off. So that leaves you with two options. Either you kill us all, and by 'all,' I mean Kimberly too. Or you surrender now and go back to prison." Shane made a point to emphasize the word "back."
"You forget my other option," Cal snarled. "I can go down fighting, starting with taking out both of you."
"That's not you, Cal." Shane was now only about 15 feet away. Logic and reasoning were not going to get through to him, but Shane had to keep talking. Hopefully, Steve would catch on. "Think back, Cal. Back to that time you were in the POW camp. Back then, you fought tooth-and-nail to survive. You wouldn't toss that away now. After everything you went through back there."
As he talked and moved closer, Shane let his arms lower gradually.
"Come on, Cal. Think of the man you were back then." Come on, Steve. Come on.
Cal waved the gun. "No closer," he shouted. "And don't talk about that. You don't know anything about what went on there."
"I do," Steve said from where he was still on his hands and knees. Steve was about 5 feet to Cal's left. Shane was facing Cal, but standing to his right. He and Steve were still about 15 feet apart. Their eyes met briefly, before Steve continued. "They took me and locked me up and nearly killed me. So I know exactly what you went through and I know how hard it was to come back." As Steve finished he looked at Shane with a narrowed eye.
"That's absolutely right," Shane said. He spoke evenly, even as he stared down the barrel of Cal's gun. "Listen to Steve. And think about Kim. You don't want to hurt Kim, do you?"
Cal scowled. "Don't talk about Kim. You don't love her." His finger began to tighten on the trigger. "Not like I do."