3.
Sweets groaned as he woke. With squinted and blurred eyes he could see a streams of light across coming in the elevator car but he felt like he had a heavy blanket on him. As he came to more he realized it was very hard to breathe or move in general. He went to wipe the dust he felt on his face away but he realized that one arm would not move. Suddenly as he became more aware, a large amount of pain shot thru his body. He gritted his teeth at the pain and with his one good arm wiped his eyes enough to open them.
He found his heavy blanket. The second explosion loosened the debris above and dropped into the lodged car. It was now full of debris, and he was buried under it. A support beam had been severed and crashed thru the ceiling of the elevator and rested across Sweets. It was then covered by pounds of small debris that was almost like a sand – ground cement and other debris from the mall that filtered in to the shaft like a funnel. Most of the ceiling was gone and he now could see thru the top of the shaft well now.
Sweets was pressed against the wall of the car in a sitting position, pinned in place, one arm buried under the beam, which was buried under the heavy debris.
Sweets tried to move some of it with his one free hand but moving his arm much sent a deep pain thru his side and he knew his ribs must have been either cracked or fractured when the beam pinned him down.
Sweets had to be glad that his head was above the debris and he could breathe, mostly. He coughed a few more times as the fine dust in the air finally settled. He heard a sound and realized his phone was ringing. He was relieved but the feeling quickly went away when he realized his phone was buried, under the debris, out of reach. He thought the sound was coming from around his foot and he tried to search for it but his leg struck something sharp cutting it on what must have been a piece of metal so he stopped. Still the thought of being trapped here, or enduring another explosion that he would surely not survive encouraged him to try and stretch his good arm towards the phone again. The motion forward however applied too much pressure to his chest. He finally relented when he was about to pass out from the pain and lack of oxygen.
It occurred to him that if he couldn't tell him he was down here, they wouldn't have reason to come and look. He had to think of something.
"Sir you've called a dozen times." The agent said to Booth.
"We have to check." Booth said giving up on the phone.
"Sir it's much too unstable and we don't know if there will be any additional explosions."
"I'm going anyway." Booth said turning to limp in the direction of Sweets elevator.
"Sir," The agent said stopping him. "I can't let you do that, there isn't even a roof to go across anymore."
"You do have devices that can go in though, right?" Cam said and the agent nodded.
"I'll send in the device. If we can a read on your guy somehow surviving we'll go in – IF you people can assure me there won't be any more explosions." The agent said and they nodded.
"I don't like that guy." Booth said after he was gone.
"You don't like that's he's in charge while you are injured." Brennan said looking over Booth's bandage again. He needed to go to a hospital but he would have none of it until they got Sweets out.
"So let's figure out what the hell is going on so we can get Sweets out." Booth said and they began to pull up the evidence in their makeshift lab.
"Angela, are you still there?" Cam asked in her typical even tone.
"Um, yeah, I guess I am."
"Ange, you okay?" Hodgins asked sorting thru the evidence so they could examine it onsite, they didn't want to waste any time heading back to the Jeffersonian.
"Sweets, he, how could he, you know, two explosions." She stammered over her words.
"He's in there, he's alive. I know it." Booth said.
They nodded and hoped he was right as they went to work.
"While he's setting up the device we need to do our job. If we can figure out what happened we can figure out if there are any more explosions." Cam suggested in her 'level as always' voice.
"Right, do we have any idea who this guy was?" Booth asked.
"I'm running some partials now." Cam said putting some samples thru a machine under the makeshift tent. "Angela, can you run these thru your database?"
Angela nodded and immediately did so. Finn waited by her side anxious to do something to help.
"What about the explosion, how did those happen?" Finn asked.
"I had detected trace amounts of this material." Hodgins said scanning it once Cam was done. "But these trace amounts were not enough to trigger an explosion.
"In the area we were in." Booth clarified.
"Right." Hodgins said thinking. "The area the body was in was not the center of the blast."
They went back to the blue prints to study the area. The agent from before stopped in to inform them the robot was headed in to detect signs of life. The group nodded as the monitor was set next to them. They went back to work.
"The area of the blast is where Sweets was." Brennan observed.
"Which is why the hand was pointing towards the blast. The killer wanted us to find the body, he wanted to body preserved. He wants us to know who this guy is." Cam said excited and surprised.
"And I can tell you who he is. Ronald Fowler, he is a developer." Angela said over the computer screen.
"So the killer doesn't like rich guys?" Booth asked.
"Looks like he owned the mall that was being torn down." Finn said reading the profile on the screen on their side.
"This hand was meant to lead someone in the direction of that blast." Brennan observed. "He wanted a second victim."
"Well he's not getting one." Booth said with gritted teeth.
"Guys," Angela began in a voice that was not all that comforting. "I've got our killer."
They watched as she clicked her tablet and a video came up. A man with unkempt hair and wild eyes appeared on the screen in a cluttered room where he was obviously positioned before a web cam.
"I know you have found my trail of crumbs. You have by no surprise discovered Mr. Fowler. That beast of a man represents what is wrong in this country. That mall once sat on fifty acres of lush farm land. Turned into a materialistic paradise only to fall into ruin. And what did you learn? Only to build a newer one but instead of an "inside mall" you'll make it a "marketplace." And still nothing is learned. Well I am here to teach you. And if you think I'll only focus my rage on wealthy developers then I hope now you will see how wrong you are. The death of your fellow agent should prove you wrong. It took two blasts but I'm not hearing a peep out of him this time."
Though he couldn't see them the group froze. Booth was filled with a feeling of guilt as they all knew that what tipped the psycho off to Sweets survival was the phone call.
"Now I'm sure you're asking yourselves what I want." The man continued. "I want the American government to take control of our economy and stop this madness. If you do not then you will find more of the same, and their blood will be on your hands."
With a click the man turned the image off.
"Don't ask, I've already tried to track it." Angela said once the video was over. "It went viral a few seconds before I showed it to you guys. I'm sure it will be on the news in seconds."
"Do you think he was right, that Sweets is dead?" Finn asked.
"He must have something in there where he's picking up on sounds. He heard the conversation before and he hears nothing now." Hodgins proposed.
"So what is this guy, some sort of domestic terrorist?" Angela asked.
Booth rubbed his head as he processed all the information. "We'll get homeland security on that. Right now we stay on Sweets."
"You think he's…" Brennan began but was stopped by Booth.
They heard what he had, a distinct light sound. They turned to find it was coming from the monitoring device the agent had left to detect signs of life. They went closer to it to hear a distinct tapping pattern.
"It's Sweets!" Brennan said surprisingly overwhelmed with a sense of relief. That quickly dissipated after a moment. "If we can hear him then…"
"Let's go." Booth shouted as they left the tent though the tapping they longed to hear, they prayed would stop for a third blast would be only a body recovery.