Story 04 – Part 3 – Choose Your Weapon

“How long have they been in there?” Boomer asked, pointing with the baby monitor in his hand.

“About twenty minutes,” Vire said as she pulled out her cell phone. “I think it’s about time a psycho girlfriend called.”

“Fine by me,” Agent Driver said. “Between Jordan and Carmine that elevator has covered everything from ice fishing to good restaurants to cars. And some topics that I can’t believe an arms dealer would actually participate in.”

“That guy’s an arms dealer?” Boomer asked as Vire started dialing.

“Yes and no,” Agent Driver said. “It’s a little more complex then that. No big deal though.”

Vire waved her hand, interrupting the conversation, and everyone stopped to listen. The next ten minutes were really entertaining. Carmine cowered in the elevator as Vire yelled at him for not being on time. She kept accusing him of being with another woman and he kept trying to convince her that he was trapped in an elevator with two random guys.

In the middle of all that, Owens had Tech patch him through and announced that the elevator would start working in five minutes. That resulted in more freaking from Carmine. He even shoved his phone into Jordan’s face, begging him to help. After Jordan’s monotonic response, Carmine got the sort-of arms dealer to talk to Vire. After a while of Vire being an unreasonable pain, she finally agreed to believe Carmine.

“Driver,” Agent Michaels whispered. “Our emergency team is in place to assist the trapped elevator people. Bosere wants to know if we should pick up the target.”

“I say we just tag him for now,” Driver answered. “We want his cache and contacts here as well as other countries.”

“I’ll relay that.”

Vire finally let Carmine get off the phone after he meekly begged for her forgiveness and promised to buy her a gift of some sort. Once Vire hung up, she busted up laughing. Boomer shook his head and laughed as well. In high school, Boomer pulled off stunts like that without hesitation. That was why it was always entertaining to know that he was such a great influence on Carmine’s upstanding personality.

“Hey, Vire.” Boomer leaned over as everyone was watching the elevator people getting rescued by a handful of innocent EMTs and a few undercover agents. “You think I could start setting Carmine up with some of Tasha’s friends?”

“You mean you haven’t yet?” Vire demanded. “Trust me, he’s fine now. He just needed a chance to think coherently again.”

“That’s what I figured,” Boomer agreed. “He’s resilient. Want me to find guys for you?”

“What are you? A matchmaker?”

“Troublemaker.”

“Driver!” Agent Michaels’ startled yell grabbed everyone’s attention.

Agent Michaels was on the phone with someone. Tech was already hacking into security cameras trying to make sure the freelancers were still all right. Agent Driver had his gun out, looking around as if he expected an attack in the lobby. Tech finally waved his arms and everyone gathered next to the monitors, watching a gang shoot out happening near the parking garage.

“Go figure,” Boomer murmured. “Gangs decide to have a turf war at this time. Mister Arms Dealer probably sold them those weapons too.”

The microphones on the freelancers were still working, providing a strange mixture of amusement and relief. Jordan and Carmine were still in character. Carmine was being more scared about being late to his dinner date then being shot. Jordan was being slightly annoyed and cowering, but loudly wishing he had a sawed-off shotgun. The sort-of arms dealer was staying pretty calm, but Boomer got the distinct feeling that the dealer would pull out some other weapon and blow everyone away if things took too long.

“How about you nail the target and blame the gangs?” Owens suggested.

“Sorry,” Agent Driver said, “That would kind of defeat the purpose of the elevator.”