It was almost another hour before the phone in the elevator rang, again, interrupting a question that Peter was asking the men who were stuck in there with him. Varsto was closest to the elevator panel – and the phone there – so he reached up and caught it from the holder.
"Yeah?" They all watched him, gauging his expression to see if they could determine what he was being told. "Yeah. Thanks."
He hung the phone up, and King spoke up – being the only one with the familiarity (and lack of fear of the man) to ask him.
"What did they say, Nick?"
"They're going to shut the power down for a minute and then reboot and everything should be set," he reported. "They didn't want us to freak out when the lights went out, again."
"How long, boss?" Ray asked.
"Another fifteen minutes, or so, they think."
"Good."
Varsto looked at Peter.
"You're pretty smart."
The boy smiled at the compliment; he'd heard it before, of course, but coming from a mobster that was pretty cool, right?
"Thanks."
"What are you going to do after school?"
"Go to college."
"To do what?"
Had any high school kid ever been interrogated by a mobster? Peter didn't know, but he wasn't worried, really.
"Be an engineer, I think."
"Trains?"
Another smile, this time even more relaxed.
"Not like that. I'm going to build things. Robots or computer programs. That kind of thing."
The man wasn't the only one to give him an impressed look. All of them were looking at Peter oddly.
"What year are you?" one of the bodyguards asked.
"I'll be a senior, next year."
"Wow." He shook his head with a smirk. "My sister's kid is a junior and he's still trying to figure out what shoe goes on what foot."
Some of the men chuckled.
"Do they pay you to do this decathlon thing?" Varsto asked Peter.
"No. It's just for fun."
"Is there a lot of money in engineering?"
Peter shrugged. Tony was an engineer, and he had a lot of money, but Peter didn't think that that was where he made most of it. Not something he could tell them, though.
"Yes, let's not tell them that your dad is a former weapons dealer who used to be called the Merchant of Death, or something," Alec told him, amused. "We're doing well to keep them from asking about your family. Let's keep it that way."
"I'm not sure," Peter admitted. "I think so."
"Well, if you ever need a job, come to the west coast," the older man said. "I could use someone with your brains."
OOOOOOOOOO
"Did he just offer Peter a job?"
"Relax, Pep," Tony said. "I don't think he was serious."
To judge from the way Peter was smiling, he didn't think so, either. That was a good sign, since they were both certain that Alec was keeping an eye on the minds of those men in the elevator, after all. Between the ancient dead sorcerer and Peter's own spider senses – not to mention the mind stone – if something was going to happen pertaining to the men in the elevator with him, Peter would know about it in plenty of time.
"When are they-"
The lights in the elevator went out, completely – as did their feed from the surveillance camera. Before either of them could become concerned, there were a couple of flickers and some weird feedback, and the lights came back on – as did the video. Everyone in the elevator was looking around, but no one was panicked from the looks of things.
The benefit of being forewarned, after all.
"Shouldn't be too long, now…" Tony said, mentally comparing how he would solve the reset and how long it would take – and then adding a few minutes because whoever the technician was, she wasn't him, now was she? "They'll reset everything, run a quick diagnostic, and then they'll start it back up once they're sure there wasn't any damage to the system when the short happened."
"Minutes?" Pepper asked, still looking concerned. "Hours?"
"Not too long. Minutes."
"Good."
She didn't say it – and neither did he – but they were both expecting something horrible to happen. It was just too much to hope that Peter being stuck in an elevator with mobsters could end in a good way with everyone getting rescued and just walking away. They were hoping it, of course, but Pepper knew that Tony was tense, and that the only thing that was keeping him from being right there in the convention center to help out was the fact that he'd draw attention to himself – and then to Peter.
Attention they couldn't risk.
Barnes was there in the convention center lobby keeping an eye on things – and keeping Romanoff and the others informed with eyes on everything going on as the repair was happening. With his skillset (and both Tony and Pepper were certain he was at least as formidable as Steve) and a couple of unobtrusive SHIELD agents dressed like chaperones for the competition they knew things were under as much scrutiny as they would be if Tony were there, as well.
Mostly.
He looked over at her, his hand already covering her own.
"Don't you have a meeting?" he asked, pointedly.
She rolled her eyes.
"It can wait fifteen minutes. I had refreshments put out for them."
OOOOOOO
Bucky was standing next to the elevator when the door finally opened. He wasn't right in front of it; that was the convention center manager and a middle-aged man in a very expensive suit who had entered the lobby (from the stairwell) in the company of three younger man, all well-dressed and all of them watching the area intently as they followed the older man toward the desk, first, and then to the small crowd around the elevator.
Barnes didn't need to be who he was – or have Natasha Romanoff's voice in his ear – to know the three toughs were henchmen and the suit was clearly someone up the hierarchy ladder. He did need Romanoff to tell him it was Vladimir Varsto, cousin of the mob boss that was stuck in the elevator with Peter. He watched him, without watching him, and kept an eye on all three men, even though he knew that SHIELD was watching them, also.
They didn't do anything crazy, though.
There was a soft ding that announced the arrival of the elevator – finally – and the doors opened to show that none of those inside the car (for almost 5 hours) were injured in any way. The men filed out, immediately being intercepted by the convention manager who was apologizing, profusely, for what had happened, and Peter walked out behind them, carrying his notebook but looking far more young and innocent when in the company that he'd been keeping.
Barnes watched as Varsto shook Peter's hand and several of the other men had slapped him on the back, joking with the boy good-naturedly before walking over to join their other companions. Peter exchanged a quick word with Joel King, as well, in the guise of another handshake and pat on the back, and then the boy extricated himself from the group simply by walking to the side and disappearing into the crowd.
"You okay?" Barnes asked as he sidled over to stand next to Peter, acting like a worried chaperone and not a worried former assassin.
Peter nodded.
"Yeah. Is Tony here?"
Bucky smiled and shook his head.
"He was told that he needed to stay as far away from here as they could keep him," he replied. "To keep them from learning he was there – and wondering why a billionaire superhero would be worried about some unknown kid stuck in an elevator."
"Oh. That makes sense."
"Romanoff wants you to go meet her in your room, though," Barnes added, passing on a message that was give not him, just then. "She wants to check on you."
"I'm okay."
He was pretty thirsty, really, but that was just from talking so much while reading off questions for the men in the elevator.
"Tell her that."
Peter smiled, too, and nodded.
"I will."
