Jahnni realized she wasn’t walking. She focused and noticed that he wasn’t walking anymore either. He was looking at her. He tipped his head sideways and asked, “Deep in thought or is your mind wandering aimlessly about nothing?”
“Oh, I’m just, uh... making plans for when we get out of this outlandish situation,” she answered with pink rushing to her cheeks. “Just trying to keep my thoughts clear... to be open.”
“Be careful. Watch your step,” he said with a tenderness that made her heart skip a beat.
Beau turned and walked on with a confident gait. His footsteps carried an echo that bounced off the walls with a slight ping which made him look down and check his boot. Jahnni watched him walk in a smooth rhythm as he stepped over the twirled copper slats that encircled their current ‘room.’ The spacing was almost perfect for his pace, but each step for everyone else was longer then shorter as they approached each copper coil. This twirling thing inside this pipe reminds me of a candy cane. Or a barber pole, Jahnni thought.
They trudged on, running on adrenaline. Crutch seemed to be playing less and less of his game. “Where’s your earbuds?” she asked.
“I took them out so I could make sure I didn’t miss anyone talking to me,” he answered.
“Are you doing okay? What’s going on in your head?” Jahnni said, trying to make conversation so she could get a feel of his anxiety level.
“I’m good. I’ve been afraid before and this isn’t even a close comparison. I’m just going with the flow, you might say.” Then after he walked a few more steps, added, “I hope my mom’s not worried. My dad too. I wish I could let them know I’m okay.”
“I know. As soon as it’s possible, we’ll make sure they know you are,” Jahnni said, almost in a whisper.
The walls were cold. “The steel reminds me of an underground bunker at a training ground I stayed at a couple years ago,” Beau began sharing. “Steel has a way of talking to you. You feel it, weird as that sounds. It’s stoic, firm, inflexible so that outside forces would have a difficult time getting past them... or destroying them. As brutal as it would be for this pipe to fall on you, once inside its round encompassing form, you feel enveloped in safety. A dichotomy of purpose,” he said without looking up.
Jahnni turned around to look behind them and her eyes followed the coiling copper as it circled and circled in a never-ending pattern from one end of the pipe to its conclusion, where they started from.
“Mr. T,” she summoned ahead of her, “why is the other pipe, copper I think, spiraling around the steel pipe again? I’ve tripped on it a couple times so I don’t think this big cavernous pipe was meant to be walked in, right?”
“It is scientific method. When water pushed through this portion of process, it keep water spinning. Like I tell young boy. Centrifugal. Very fast centrifugal,” he clarified... sort of. “It help clean water... like nature.”
Then he stopped and pointed up. “Okay, here we are. Once I climb ladder, I see handle for next place we must go,” Mr. T declared. “This fun, yes?”
“Well, I’m not quite sure I would use the word... fun... exactly,” Jahnni replied. “Maybe, rousing. Or possibly motivating, in a survival sort of way. Probably electrifying, but not necessarily a good spine tingling, more like being hit with lightning and living to tell about it,” she muttered to whoever wanted to know how she felt.
“Ah... I have not been down here in a few years... no... decades! We will be safe as soon as I help us get out. You will see Miss Janie.” He assured her.
They stood at the bottom of another metal stairway that was secured to the walls of the pipe. Mr. T put his hands on the railings and pulled to check the strength. “Beau, could you please double check for me... these railings? I see some worn places on brackets up higher. I’m sure okay, but just want to be sure for everyone else,” he requested.
“Sure Pops. I’ll climb up to the top first, too. You can just tell me what to do when I get there.” Beau added.
They waited patiently as Beau climbed the ladder, checking the security of the brackets. “It’s fine up here Pops. The brackets are very secure. Once I open this lid, what should I expect? Is there anything I need to look out for?”
“Not... yet. We will come up when you get it open,” he answered.
Jahnni thought it seemed simple enough. Beau grabbed a rubber-coated handle that was like a left facing paddle and flipped it up and around clock-wise. Everyone heard the door’s release on the oval shaped door.
Jahnni noticed the shape and thought to herself, hmmm... this is kinda shaped like a plane door that they swing out, or in, depending on the type of aircraft. Or maybe a door one might find in a submarine.
After Beau pushed the opening forward and to the side, he poked his head through the opening. He climbed the last few railings and stepped onto a platform that sounded like grated steel when his boots landed on it, “Come on up guys! How about Pops first, then Jahnni, Crutch, and then Samantha can be the caboose!”
Mr. T started climbing first. As soon as there was enough clearing from his feet, so she wouldn’t get smacked in the head, Jahnni started climbing too. Crutch grabbed the side railings to pull himself up but froze. He snapped his head to the right and whispered to Sam, “Did you hear something? I heard something back there.”
Sam looked that direction but shook her head, no. She let out a loud Shhh to those above her. They froze also and looked down to see what the problem was.
“What?” Beau whispered down. “What is it?”
“Crutch thought he heard something,” Sam whispered up then turned back to listen. “Oh... Oh... I hear it too!” she answered in a loud whisper to Beau. “It’s voices. Yes... I can hear it! Oh, my gosh! Someone’s coming! I think they are coming down the stairs back there!” she shakily whimpered. “Crutch, go, go, go... quick. Don’t look back. Just climb!”
Beau had just helped Pops through the opening when he reached down and grabbed Jahnni’s hand. Then he just grabbed her other hand, practically pulling her up to the scaffolding through the air. She shuffled to the side but kept peeking down to see what was happening.
“Ahhhh... hurry Crutch! I think they are running this way! Up, Up, Up!” Samantha whimpered again as she climbed up right behind him.
Crutch jumped through the opening and Beau immediately reached for Samantha. She tripped on the last rung that her foot tried to catch and started sliding down a few feet before she caught her grip. She started the climb again, but she was shaking as the foot falls coming from the other direction were getting louder. “Give me your hand, Sam!” Beau ordered in a firm whisper.
Sam reached up and Beau reached further down and grabbed her other hand as he did with Jahnni and hauled her up through the air. She bumped her knee on the edge of the landing as she was clearing the opening but she didn’t seem notice. Jahnni stood and anxiously spun left and right, seeking an escape route. She pleaded with Mr. T with her eyes, as if to say, what now, but he had not noticed she was looking at him yet. He too was looking around.
Jahnni asked Mr. T, “What should we do? Where should we go?”
Beau quickly, yet carefully started to close the hatch opening. “GO! Pops... take them and go!” The rubber casing made a sucking sound like it sealed when he pushed it closed.
Jahnni heard them on the other side and froze while the others ran with Mr. T. She stood a few feet from Beau, but waffled back and forth a few steps trying to decide whether to wait or go. It was muffled but she could clearly hear them slamming into the staircase as they started climbing.
Beau grabbed the handle and locked it into place.
He scanned back and forth from the door to the wall... then quickly whipped off his belt and wound it around the handle’s post. He then looped the other end of the belt through a ring on the wall and pulled it tight, bringing it towards the buckle end that was wound around the handle. Pounding came from the other side as someone tried to move the handle and push on the door. He pulle
d the buckle end as tight as he could, trying to make it reach and finally got the buckle clasped. It was stretched across the door so it held it from being pushed forward and opened from the other side.
He turned around to see where the others had gone and saw them on the other side of the large cavernous room on the scaffolding. Mr. T waived at Jahnni and Beau to hurry and was also motioning Sam and Crutch to go through the door he was holding.
Beau grabbed Jahnni’s hand and started running; his boots so noisy as they clanked on the open grates. He ran around a piece of machinery situated in the bend of the corner, careful to maneuver Jahnni around it. Jahnni was glad for the help as he pulled her along. Her mind rushed through scenes of shooting, bullets bouncing and pinging off all the metal she saw around them. She imagined someone getting shot, possibly Crutch. She thought of the possibilities if Beau shot first. None of the scenes flashing in her head led to a good feeling. Now that the thoughts were rumbling through her head as they ran towards the door, she realized that it was Pops that was leading the way. I guess it’s still going to be a group effort.
Mr. T had climbed through the door with the others by the time Jahnni and Beau reached it. So many doors around here. How did he know which one to choose? Beau slowed their pace and practically pushed her through the door as he grabbed the door casing to swing himself in.
He paused next to Jahnni before he began closing the door, then turned to look back at the other opening that was being slightly secured by his belt. Jahnni leaned under his arm to see what he was looking at. He left the door open about two inches as they quietly watched the door that Beau tried to secure after they all made it up out of the pipe. They saw the door being shoved over and over from the other side, and the belt finally unraveled and fell from the handle. They were coming.
“Well, it held long enough, I guess,” Beau whispered for Jahnni to hear. “Shoot, that was my favorite belt.” They pulled their heads away from the crack of the door as fast as they could, then quietly shut the door, not waiting to see who it was that forced their way past the door.
Mr. T led them through this big office room that appeared ghost-like, like no one had been there for many years. Large and small monitors were embedded into the walls, switches and knobs in different colors were obviously in a designated pattern near each screen. The screens had a greenish color to them. The walls were painted an ugly shade of yellow that Jahnni was sure hadn’t made a comeback yet in DÉCOR, or House Beautiful... much less Architectural Digest. Chairs were pushed up against the desks like a school room from yesteryear.
Turning the corner and heading towards the back wall, Beau said to Jahnni, “This room is probably like all the surrounding rooms, in relation to the inner area with the scaffolding. I noticed that there were no windows, except on each door that faced inward. I also noticed, there may be approximately 3-4 floors below this one of similar resemblance to this floor. I don’t know what this building is. Below the airport is obvious. Accessed through that gigantic water pipe was odd, but obvious. But why?”
“This way Miss Janie. I take you all to safer place, so we...” Mr. T stopped mid-sentence to listen to the banging noise in the near distance. “Uh oh. Follow me,” he ordered, instead of asking.
He pulled open a door on the outer wall and Beau held it open for the rest to go through. Mr. T already began trotted forward along the scaffolding which appeared to surround this commodious mysterious structure. They shut the door behind them and ran to catch up, which wasn’t that difficult, given his age. He darted to the left down a skinny hallway after glancing behind them. Quietly, he pushed a door open and motioned for them to follow and silently they entered the door he was holding open. Once inside, with no lights turned on, they just stood silent in the dark only hearing each other’s nervous, unsteady breathing. Jahnni heard Beau’s gun scuff against its leather holster. She assumed he was still against the door, weapon in hand, the first encounter if someone came through.
Faint running footsteps could be heard coming closer, and closer, the banging of their feet reverberating through the walls. Then the footfalls faded as their pursuers continued forward in an obvious attempt to catch up to them, not knowing that the group had taken a side route. Once it felt clear that they were much further away, Mr. T flipped up a switch and lights randomly blinked and flickered on until the room was lit with a brighter, but still dim light. Although still frozen in place, they looked around to get their bearings.
“Is this... a bathroom?” Crutch asked.
Jahnni piped up first after looking around, “Yes, we are in a restroom. A lady’s restroom.”
Mr. T was already walking across to the other side of the row of sinks and motioned with his arm to follow him. Still trying to make their footsteps light, they gathered towards him and waited for him to explain where they should go next. He pointed forward to another door and pulled on the handle.
“Wait a minute,” Samantha whispered, “Isn’t this the big room that we just came out of?”
“Yes, yes, it is,” Mr. T confirmed. “And now, we go back in it this way.”
Beau let everyone go in front of him as he kept an eye on the door they entered, that led them into this bathroom. He glanced around and flipped a switch to turn the lights off.
Back they went to get to the inner scaffolding that they first came to when they crawled up out of the large pipe. Mr. T kept up a brisk pace as he kept looking back to check if they were still there. He stopped momentarily to glance down before swinging his leg over and down onto a metal ladder. After nodding for them to follow, he went down and down until his feet hit the next floor. He glanced up again and nodded as he saw them also climbing down and glance toward him once they also touched the floor. He swung his foot over and started climbing down another metal ladder. Once again, glancing to be sure they were following, and nodding to them with an encouraging smile to keep following. Down he went, carefully, but as fast as his aged legs could move. They followed him again, to a floor, then after gathering there, down one last stair rail. Once on the bottom floor, he waited for the rest.
“This place is eerie, Jahnni. Have you ever been down here?” Samantha whispered, hoping Jahnni could hear her. “Where are we?”
After about 10 seconds, Jahnni whispered back, “Not only have I never been here, but I didn’t even know this place was down here. You’d think that maybe, if it was somewhere that someone could stumble upon, that we would have heard about it. It looks old, like it’s been here awhile too. Maybe it’s some kind of underground emergency bunker or something.”
“Oh Janie,” Mr. T interjected, “no one could, how you said, stumble... on this place. To get here is big secret. I don’t know who follow us but I think we should not wait to ask their names.”
“You’re right, we need to go. Whoever that is, they may have decided to back-track by now Pops,” Beau interjected, with a voice that Jahnni could tell was meant to stress the need to keep moving. “Where do we go now? All I’m interested in right now is getting us out of here safely. No bullets. That’s a last resort, as I’ve said before. Once we get out, I’ll explain everything to the teams.”
Chapter 20
Above the Fray
“Let me get this straight,” Carolyn, the station manager for First Class Air said as she raised one eyebrow and tilted her head forward. “You’re telling me, that my best agent, one of my supervisors, is a terrorist? And she has one accomplice and possibly three hostages... three passengers and one is a U.M? I’m sorry, Perry. That does not sound like Jahnni. She is as steady as a rock and probably one of the most trusted people in this entire airport!”
“I’m so sorry to be the one to give you this news, Carolyn,” Perry Prattle said in an airy half-whisper. “I am just as shocked as you are. But we have been following up on some leads and had been tracking her. It seems that she has threatened to blow up the fountain... with a bomb!” Perry rushed the words out even faster now. He spoke as if he was trying to sh
ove the words into her head. “Oh! In fact, she left a suicide note that must have fallen out of her possession when she attacked one of my men. He’s in the hospital right now getting checked out,” Perry said as he rummaged through his pockets for the note. Carolyn watched his face as he unfolded it and handed it to her like he was revealing a secret weapon.
Carolyn shook her head in disbelief as she reached for the note and held it by the very tip of a corner, trying to keep her fingerprints off the body of the note. Her other finger gently opened it. She scanned the room, then looked back down at the note. She didn’t say anything or make any noises while she read it. Perry waited. Finally, after standing silent for 30 more seconds, she looked up at Perry.
“This note doesn’t say why she is doing this. There are no demands. Why would she take hostages if there isn’t a trade? There is always a trade to get demands met. And why would she take hostages if she takes the time to write out a suicide note? This isn’t something Jahnni would do.”
“Well, I don’t know, Carolyn! I’m not the one who orchestrated this! I only know so much. She attacked one of my men! That’s a criminal assault right there. She’s dangerous, I tell you. Oh, and she bragged to my man that she is armed. She is carrying a weapon, Carolyn! I don’t think you know her like you thought you did.” He finished his speech then stood there like a mix between a victim and a man who thought he was in control of his own chaos.
Carolyn stood there for a few more seconds as she pondered something. “Why haven’t you given this to the Homeland agents or the FBI inside? This is evidence... don’t you think?”
“Oh, uh, I, well, uh, I forgot I had it in my pocket. I was going back to my office to get it and hand it over,” Perry answered. “I mean this is a disturbing situation. I simply forgot at first. In fact, hand me that back so I can give it to them right away.” He reached out to pluck it from her grasp.
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