Giving the logistics of channel 72 news, and where they were placed in Boston, they had the advantage over their competitors when it came to breaking the news first in the Rixton area. On this day that meant more than any time before. They were able to report on the massacre at Rixton 25 minutes before the more prominent news channels showed up, the ones with the alphabet jumbled up in their names. Because they turned up before anyone else, that meant the other channels had to keep up with channel 72, and the only way to do that was to use the live feed from channel 72 with a nice little courtesy image on the top left of the screen that said “Channel 72 news feed” which gave the struggling news channel some exposure, it also made the selling of their live feed quite lucrative.
Sandra stood in front of her colleagues to address them of the situation at hand. The news room is abuzz with anticipation as the whole workforce of Channel 72 is stood in front of her, including camera men, journalists and even the owner Bob Sinclair.
‘As you know today has been a monumental day for channel 72 news. Our hard work has paid off in providing the world with uninterrupted coverage of the shocking events at Rixton. We have been lucky enough to be able to succeed at presenting such a professional news cast with such a small workforce. That being said, today’s success has been made possible due to everyone who works here. Without you people we would have sunk long before today’s breakthrough. That being said, I have some bad news. The FBI and local police have authorised the censorship of the Rixton massacre. What that means is that no news station, including ours can run a story on this case. The reason that the decision was made, is because the authorities believe that if we ignore the story then the extremists that have taken M.I.T hostage will not have the spotlight needed to succeed in their mission to instil a revolution and a public uprising. The censorship also includes broadcasting Connor Chase’s live video link when he addresses the public about his crimes. He said he would be releasing a live feed every hour for the next 12 hours, which means we can’t broadcast any of those hourly video streams. Again the authorities insist it will help flush him out. They have profiled him as the sort of killer who murders as a statement, so taking the cameras and coverage away from him will take away his ability to make one.’ says Sandra.
Her boss Bob Sinclair shakes his head mimicking the general response to the speech.
‘What if it just makes him make a bigger statement? Remember he did not have cameras on him when he murdered those 15 people at his house.’ Bob sighs inwards and shakes his head again.
Eighteen
The M.I.T building had been turned inside out; all of the PC’s and paper files dealing with the business of the company had been placed in the middle foyer of the building. The mass of computers and hard drives formed an incoherent pyramid that reached near to the top of the ceiling. There was a man on a ladder with a hammer. He was searching for something, and then he found it. He took a swing with the hammer at the fire sprinkler that was just above the mass of hardware that had been piled up underneath it. The thud of the hand held tool was heard echoing of the walls. Only one swing was needed to completely destroy the sprinkler. The man on the ladder gave a satisfied gaze that followed the debris of his handiwork as the plastic and metal shards hit the floor. He made his way down the ladder and stood in front of the pyramid pileup. He bent down and grabbed a rather large jerry can filled with petrol. He started to pour the petrol on the base of the piled up documents. He covered all the bottom of the pyramid making sure to go around and form a crude circle covering the bases of the pile up. He threw the jerry can into the heap and got out a box of matches. He lit a cigarette with his match and took a couple of drags. He smiled briefly before flicking the cigarette into the heap of documents and walked off into the atrium, closing a heavy security door behind him.
‘The fire is lit sir. All of the documents and hardware we have found will be destroyed.’ He said to the man that was waiting for him, Connor Chase.
‘Ah good. Just one thing, are you sure that the fire wont progress and reach us?’ Connor asks
‘No sir. The metal door in front on the foyer will stop the fire spreading, and once it reaches the outside of the building we will be long gone.’
‘If you ask me it seems a bit risky setting fire to a building you’re planning on occupying for a further 10 hours.’
‘That’s the whole point sir. We will be able to block out any incoming attempts at gaining entry to the building. The front passage of the building is the only known entrance that the feds will be able to get to.’
‘What about the fire exits?’
‘Each fire exit is armed with a sensor mechanism that will set off a kilo of C4. The blast will take anything out in a 400 yard radius. The roof has five men on it sir; each armed with stinger missile launchers with an anti-aircraft lock on system, plus each man has an RPG, just for fluency and freedom of attack.’
‘What if they do come in from one of the exits, does that mean we get blown up as well?’
‘No sir. We are situated in the middle of the building 7 stories up. There are no fire exits on that floor, only lift shafts and two stairwells, which will both be barricaded off until our job is done here, and then with the covering fire and support of the five sentry guards on the roof, an apache will land and take us away to our destination.’
‘Good, let’s get this show on the road then’ says Connor
Nineteen
Frank has been sitting down near the phone now for about one hour. He is under the impression that he will be getting a phone call. He knows that Connor Chase would be majorly pissed at the fact that they cut his line to the press. He wasn’t sure whether or not it was a good idea anymore. Sure the upside was that nobody else would be able to witness his heinous crimes and copy them, making the police’s case load bigger than it already was. But there was the danger of Chase going nuts and killing all the hostages because his demands were not being met. Frank knew that he did not mention anything about demanding to be center news or anything of those sorts. He did know however that the state, no matter how many hostages Chase had would not be agreeing to a new amendment, especially from such a violent lobbyist like him.
Frank was sitting alone in his personal office that was given to him by the DA. Frank thought that maybe the only reason Eddie gave him an office was because of the guilt that he may have felt about Frank being fired. Frank knew that Eddie’s position meant he had to be careful of who and what he indulged in, and nobody would support a DA that indulges in people of Frank’s calibre. Frank’s thoughts were rambling so he decided to turn on the TV to see if any of the news channels were finding ways to get the big days story out, bypassing the cease and desist order that the Boston PD had enforced.
The news channels were all complying as he skimmed through all of the news channels. Most of them were reporting on other world events like the prime minister of England being involved in a car crash a few days ago. It was old news but the channels had to make do with what they had, or rather what they were allowed to have.
Frank was bored so he lit up a cigarette. He smoked the cigarette slowly due to the fact that he was running low, his 20 pack was now cut down to a mere 3 cigarette’s including the upside down one for good luck.
He was nearly falling asleep when the door to his office was abruptly opened and Chief Shaw walked in.
‘Alright laddie, No time for small talk Frank, you need to come to the incident room.’
Frank sprung up off his chair trying to present an alert state, even though he was feeling run down.
‘Are you okay?’ Asks Shaw
‘Yeah I’m fine, just feeling the long hours Chief’
Shaw starts to laugh out loud. Frank thought of how strange that reaction was due to the situation at hand, but some people deal with it differently he thought to himself.