by Bob Blanton
“Dumb luck,” Matthew said. “Are you Howard Marshall?”
“Yes, how did you know?”
The woman next to him turned, squeezing his hand tighter.
“Jamal Walker and James Reese are waiting for us at the back of the stage.”
“That’s a motley crew,” Colonel Marshall said. He turned to his companion. “Honey, I’ve got to go talk to Jamal. Will you be okay?”
“Yes, we will,” she patted her stomach. “You go figure out how to get us out of this.” She gave him a kiss.
“My wife, Sarah.”
“Honey, do you want to stay with me?” Sarah said to Emily.
“If you need me, but I should stay with Matthew,” Emily replied.
“I understand, if you need someone, you know where I am.”
Emily, Matthew and Colonel Marshall turned and headed off.
“So what hat did our three names come out of?”
“Guy named Fauget,” Matthew replied.
“What?” Colonel Marshall hissed.
“Wait until we get to Captain Walker,” Matthew whispered back.
The three continued in silence working their way through the dense rows on the stage.
When they approached Captain Walker and Colonel Reese, Colonel Marshall took two big strides and grabbed his hand. “Jamal, you old dog; where is Phylicia?”
“Flu,” Captain Walker replied, obviously relieved his wife was at home.
“Never thought I’d be jealous of someone with the flu, but I think we’re all going to wish we’d had the flu before this is over,” Colonel Reese said.
“Is Sarah with you?”
“Unfortunately; how about you, Reese, you bring a date?”
“Yes, Amanda Jackson, you remember her from the Christmas party?” Colonel Reese replied.
“Yes I do; I have no clue what that woman sees in you.”
“I’m sure she’s wondering the same thing right now.”
“Emily, that’s Amanda standing over there,” Captain Walker said, “could you take her over to Sarah?”
“Sure,” Emily said, “but then I’m coming back.”
“Up to you, I’m not trying to get rid of you.”
Amanda Jackson was a beautiful, tall blond. With her heels on she was easily five inches taller than Colonel Reese. Emily went over to her, and after a brief chat they headed off toward Sarah Marshall.
“Okay, now that we’ve exchanged pleasantries,” Captain Walker whispered, “let’s get down to business.”
“What’ve you got working?”
“Thanks to Emily and Matt here, we’ve got a line to the outside. We’re talking with the FBI terrorism response team. Agent in charge is Caruthers. Fauget is on tactical.”
“I know Caruthers,” Colonel Reese said, “worked with her in Afghanistan. She’s good. And we all know how lethal Fauget is.”
“Good to hear we can trust Caruthers,” Captain Walker said. “I’m going to check in right now.”
“Just how the hell is that phone working with the jammer, or was that a bluff?”
“No bluff, I tried mine before they herded us up here.”
“Me too, so I don’t know why this one works, but I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth; let’s just hope it keeps working.”
Matthew opened his portal so the cell phone could work.
Captain Walker fished the earpiece out of his pocket, and pressed One.
“Juliet here.”
“Ranger One checking in, we’ve assembled the team. How’s it going out there?”
“Good. Charlie finally called us with a list of demands. The usual, leave the Middle East, release prisoners at Guantanamo, turn over any prisoners we have, etc. He also wants an interview with a reporter.”
“I thought he was talking to the reporter already.”
“Yes, but we’ve got control of the telephone lines now, he doesn’t talk to anyone we don’t want him to. He’s threatening to start killing hostages. We’re stalling him a little, but we’re going to have to bring the reporter in soon.”
“I understand.”
“My fear is that once he’s got a camera crew, he’s going to take the place down.”
“That’s my guess, too.”
“Hold it; Charlie’s dragging two people out right now.”
Matthew moved his portal so that he could see what was happening. One terrorist was dragging a woman by the hair, another was dragging a man. They put both of them on their knees on the Playhouse patio.
“If you attack us or harm any of my men, I will blow this place up, Mohammad yelled. “Now, I told you I wanted to talk to a reporter.”
He pulled out a handgun and strode over to the woman. Matthew knew what was coming next. He zoomed his portal over to where Mohammad was and expanded it to about three inches and put his end at an angle by the floor. Mohammad pulled the trigger. Matthew saw the muzzle flash reflected off the stage floor. He rotated the portal up. The woman had fainted. “Thank God for that,” Matthew whispered to himself as he zoomed the portal over to the man.
Mohammed turned, took two steps and fired. Matthew barely had time to get the portal in place. He’d left his end of the portal at a slight angle near the floor. He softened it and kicked the man in the head. Bringing it up so he could look around, he saw that both the man and woman were lying unconscious. Matthew hoped he hadn’t hurt them and that nobody would notice that there wasn’t any blood.
“You may come and collect your trash,” Mohammad yelled. “I want to talk to the reporter in fifteen minutes.”
Mohammad and the other two terrorists turned and went back inside the theater. Matthew watched as two FBI Agents in flack jackets rushed in. They each grabbed one of the hostages and started dragging them off the patio.
“There no blood,” the first agent said.
“Shit, she’s alive,” the second agent whispered.
“What kind of game is he playing? Did he shoot them with blanks?”
Matthew turned and shifted his portal back to Caruthers, and looked at Captain Walker.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know. Lost the connection,” Captain Walker replied as he redialed.
Emily walked up, took one look at the ashen expression on Matthew’s face and rushed over to him.
“Are you okay?” she whispered in his ear.
“Yes,” Matthew gulped. “I’ll explain later.”
“Ranger One here, what happened out there?” Captain Walker asked as Caruthers came back on the line.
“Charlie just executed two hostages. Guess he wants to show us how serious he is.”
“Damn,” Captain Walker exclaimed. “They just killed two hostages,” he whispered to the other four.
Tears welled up in Emily’s eyes and she grabbed Matthew in a hug, “Oh no!”
“They’re, okay,” Matthew whispered to her.
“How?”
“Later.”
“If he’s killing hostages, it won’t be long now,” Colonel Reese said.
“Here’s Bravo,” Caruthers said, “He can give you a rundown on the tactical options.”
“Bravo here.”
“So do you have a plan yet?”
“Our options are severely limited. We’ve got free access outside here; they’ve got a spy up in a tree, but we know about him, thanks to the kid. Anyway, he’s not a problem.”
“Glad to know you’re getting something right.”
“Har Har, We’ve got the plans for the theater here. We could cut a hole in the back wall or take over the space below the stage, but those bombs would make a mess of things.”
“Open the door,” came a loud yell from outside the Command Center van.
“What the…,” Fauget said. He turned toward the door as one of the agents opened it. The two agents had the hostages in a fireman carry as they were running toward the trailer.
“Hold on a sec,” Fauget said.
The first agent hit the steps
of the van at a full run. He turned sideways just as he hit the stairs then bounded upwards. The second agent came in right behind him.
“What’s the hell is going on here?” Fauget bellowed.
“They’re alive!”
“What!”
“They’re alive; we wanted them in the van before anyone else noticed,” the agent gasped, fighting for breath between words.
“How can they be, I saw it on the monitor, it was point blank.”
“I don’t know; blanks? The guy’s got a knot on his head, but I can’t tell if they were knocked out or passed out.”
“Well get them in the back and keep this under wraps,” Fauget said.
“Ranger One, apparently Charlie doesn’t know how to use a gun, both these hostages are alive, no gunshot wounds.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Captain Walker said. “We don’t have time to figure it out, let’s just thank God for miracles and get back to the tactical situation.”
“Like I was saying, our options are limited. We could probably get quite a few out of there before the bombs go off, but there’s no way we get everyone out.”
“Okay, we’ll try to get a better assessment in here, Ranger One out.” Captain Walker hung up the phone.
“Well?” Colonel Marshall asked.
“By some miracle the two hostages survived the execution.”
“What!”
“Don’t know, and right now we’ve got more serious things to worry about. Let’s get the protocol lined out in case things change. Fauget is Bravo, Caruthers is Juliet, the guy in the booth is Charlie, and the rest of them are Whiskies.”
“And apparently that bastard has pinned Ranger on us,” Reese said.
“Yeah, I’m one; Marshall, you’re two; Reese three and Matthew here is four.”
Emily gave Captain Walker a look.
“And you’re five,” he said to her, giving her a smile.
“So what’s the tactical situation?” Reese asked.
“Bravo, says they’ve got control of the outside perimeter; they could open a hole in the wall or take the area below the stage, but with these bombs they don’t have many options.”
“We could try to disarm them if they’re not booby trapped. These two guards wouldn’t be too much trouble,” Colonel Reese said. “They’re standing at the front of the stage so the lights are blinding them, and they don’t seem too concerned about what’s going on here.”
“I don’t like those odds.”
“Sir,” Matthew said.
“Yes, son?”
“I saw one of the bombs.”
“We all see the bombs,” Colonel Reese said.
“No, I mean I saw one of them open.”
“What?”
Matthew squeezed Emily’s hand. “Emily and I were among the first on the stage. They were still setting them up. There was some problem and they had one open.”
Emily nodded her head in agreement with Matthew.
“And?”
“Well, I’m no expert, but it looked like a block of C4 pushed down into a bunch of nails. The detonator was wired to an attached cell phone.”
“What else did you see?” Captain Walker asked.
“That’s just it,” Matthew said. “I didn’t see anything else, just the cell phone. I don’t think they’re booby-trapped, at least the ones up here on the stage. Maybe the ones on the doors are, but not the ones in the barrels.”
“How sure are you?”
“I’m absolutely sure.”
Captain Walker looked at Emily.
“I trust him,” she said. “If he says there wasn’t anything else, then there wasn’t.”
“That’s good; when the time comes we might be able to disarm these.”
“One other thing,” Matthew added.
“What?” Colonel Walker asked, somewhat annoyed.
“I was thinking since the triggers are cell-phone operated, the jammer is probably blocking any detonation signal.”
“Sure, but they just have to turn it off,” Colonel Marshall said.
“I know, but if the FBI could start up their own jammer?”
Captain Walker got out the headset and pressed the speed dial, “This kid’s making us professionals look like amateurs. Call didn’t go through.”
Matthew opened his portal, “Try again; I had to try several times, once.”
Captain Walker dialed again, “Ranger One.”
“Juliet, over.”
“One of us managed a peek inside the bombs when they were setting up. Looks like they’re radio detonated.”
“So,” Matthew heard Caruthers say.
“Well, at least we’re not the only idiots,” Captain Walker said. “We suggest you set up a jammer of your own. If things go south, it might block the detonation.”
“What about communication. We don’t know why your phone is working, but another jammer might shut you off.”
“Sure, we’ll test it, if it does, we’ll set up a schedule.”
“Right, we’ll have one going in five minutes. Give me a call in ten so we can see if you’ve still got access.”
“Will do, Ranger One out.” Captain Walker hung up the phone. “Now what other options do we see? Matthew, you have anything else?”
“Not really.”
“Also, these guys have machine guns,” Colonel Reese said. “So even if we take out the bombs up here, we need to take those into consideration, and then of course, there’s that M60 sitting out there.”
“Yes, but I think Charlie’s getting ready to make his big move. They’re going to have to let the reporter in.”
“Well the way I see it,” Colonel Marshall said, “this back wall is designed to come out. It should be pretty easy to cut a hole in it; so we take out the four Whiskies on the stage, then we start moving people out of here before anyone notices.”
“Yes, we’ll have to rock and roll. We’ll have the machine guns from these guys, and once the wall’s opened, the strike team can bring whatever they want in here.”
“So the key will be that window of time between when they figure out we’re moving and when they can set off the bombs or grenades,” Captain Walker said, “and we’ve got no clue what’s below us in the basement.”
“Yes, but once we start we can just bust in on them. There’s a set of stairs leading down there back in the corner,” Colonel Reese said. “We’ll just have to play the odds.”
“Right,” Captain Walker said. “We’re going to need some help here. Can you two find out who’s here that’ll keep their heads when this starts going down? Spread them out along the front of the stage and have them get everybody behind the curtain line, that way we can drop it if we need to. We need to get everyone here on the same page, can’t afford having anyone panic. Then we’ll need some crowd control back here, ten on each side of the stage.”
“We’re on it,” Colonel Marshall said.
Aye, Aye,” Colonel Reese said with a smile. “I just love it when a plan comes together.”
“You and George Peppard,” Colonel Marshall laughed. “Let’s go find all the military and ex-military personnel in here.”
When Colonels Reese and Marshall left, Emily grabbed Matt’s arm, “There’s no time.”
“Okay, okay.”
“Captain Walker, we need to talk.”
“Sure, Matt, what’s up?”
“There’s something I haven’t told you. But I need your promise that you won’t tell anyone.”
Captain Walker got visibly angry. “Matt, I can’t believe you’ve been holding something back. Our lives are on the line here.”
“I know, but it’s a big secret and I can’t let anyone know. I need you to promise.”
“I can’t make a promise like that. But I can promise not to tell anyone unless I absolutely have to,” Captain Walker said. “What could possibly be that big a secret?”
“It’ll be easier if I show you. I didn’t exactly tell the truth about seeing the bomb
open.”
“Are you crazy, you could get us killed.”
“No I told the truth about how the bomb is constructed, just not about how I saw it. Now if you’ll stand here I’ll show you.”
Matthew positioned Captain Walker with the light shining over his shoulder. Then he opened the portal inside the bomb barrel and the other end in front of Captain Walker’s eyes.
Matthew brought the portal up. The four-inch image of the bomb’s inner workings was hovering in the air.
“Look.”
“What the…, how is this possible?” Captain Walker stuttered.
“That’s my secret. Now if you want to see what’s down below, I can show you that, too.”
Matthew moved the portal into the basement below the stage and panned the room for Captain Walker.
“My God.”
“That’s why the cell phone works, also. If I open it up to the outside with the opening away from the jammer, then the phone signal gets out.”
“I can’t believe this,” Captain Walker said, as he struggled to comprehend the impossible.
“It’s real,” Emily said. “We’ve done experiments to prove it.”
“So you’re in on this, too?”
“She’s the only other person who knows,” Matthew said.
“We’ll talk about what’s real later, but for now we use whatever we have. I can see why you want to keep it a secret. What else can you do?”
“This is the reason the hostages didn’t die.”
“What?”
“I can bring it up anywhere, and whatever energy hits one end goes to the other. So I just opened my end next to the stage floor; look, you can see where the bullets gouged the floor.” Matthew pointed to the spot where he’d set the portal.
“Amazing,” is all Captain Walker said.
Matthew moved the portal away from Captain Walker’s eyes and made it about as big as a saucer. He put his hand on it and pushed. “See, push on it.”
Captain Walker put his hand against the portal and pushed. The portal didn’t move.
“I’ve got the other end on the floor,” Matthew said.
“We’ve tried to drive a nail through it,” Emily said, “and it’s one way, see,” Emily passed her hand through the portal from the back.
“So you were able to block the bullets?”