American Shutdown - Chapter 10: Negotiating Team
Inside the negotiation team trailer was a mix of personnel and equipment reminiscent of movie sets about space alien invasions. Captain Mahoney wasted no time introducing Sam to the F.B.I.‘s hostage negotiation team leader, Special Agent Dean Ramos.
“Agent Ramos, meet Sam Palermo. He’s pretty sure the guy in there is a friend of his from work named Bernie Soloff. Have you guys been able to confirm that, yet?” the captain asked.
“Hi, Sam. Welcome to the team. We just aren’t sure yet but we do know Soloff wasn’t in the parking lot with the others. A few people who came out thought they saw him around the plant between one to three PM,” Special Agent Ramos replied to both.
He continued by saying, “We don’t have a way to talk to him yet. M-Mtek shut down all the communications networks but our communications tech specialist says it looks like someone else has tampered with it by preventing our people from cranking it up again. Sam, do you know anything about this stuff?”
“Not, directly. But Bernie does. It was his job knowing about the M-Mtek network,” he told Agent Ramos. “You going to let me try to call him out? Maybe my voice will get him to talk to us.”
Dean promised he would get him involved when they established a way to open communications with Bernie. It was going to be tough to do it safely and effectively due to the interior location of the third floor conference room and its lack of natural light.
“Grab yourself a cup of java, guys. I’ll be getting final clearance from central command on who and how to set up the final negotiating team.” Dean remarked, “Judas priest, Sam, where did you get those socks?”
Sam looked down at his red golf socks and told Dean, “I had totally forgotten about them. It’s a long story.”
As they walked over to the coffee table Sam was thinking about Bernie’s medical problems and whether his wife, Mimi, would know if he had been taking his medicine the last few days. Or if he carried his pills with him at all times. Bernie never showed a reluctance to taking his meds, at least not openly. For that matter, as far as Sam could tell, Bernie never let his PTSD stand in the way of his work or social life. Perhaps a lot of things were building up inside him and the news of the shutdown made him crack.
“Jim, tell me the police department wasn’t responsible for this coffee,” Sam joked.
“Nah, it’s the Fed’s brew. Why? Is it below M-Mtek’s standards?” Jim asked.
“Yep,” Sam shot back. “One thing M-Mtek had was good coffee. Pretty good food in the caferteria, too. I’m going to miss the coffee.”
With coffee mug in hand Agent Ramos came toward them and started filling it with the last dregs in the pot while saying, “Congratulations, Sam. You made the negotiating team. Welcome to the club. Your code name is going to be “Red Sox.” That should be easy for you to remember,” he smiled.
Agent Ramos asked Sam and Jim to come over to a small huddle room where a group of mostly F.B.I. staff were standing around waiting for their orders. Agent Ramos briefed them on how the operation was to proceed with negotiations. They would try to communicate to the office room with a wireless sound system geared to stream down though the roof from a hook and ladder above it. They felt it was the best way to penetrate the third floor interior conference room.
As for talk-back, the other overhead rigs would be equipped with high-tech sensitive receivers as well as standard motion, x-ray and heat detectors to help detect what was going on in the conference room and, if anything, in the other parts of the facility.
He announced Sam’s participation in the team effort was because he believed the guy in there was a close friend of his named Bernie Soloff. Agent Ramos wrapped-up the huddle meeting with a reminder that they would try to get the guy out alive but if it got hairy “they would need to do what they had to do.”
As they filed out of the room, each member of the group was handed a schematic of where they were to be posted around the facility grounds. The team began putting on their protective equipment, communication gear and checking their assigned weapons.
It reminded Sam of readying for nighttime patrol duty in Nam.
Sam snapped out of it when he heard Captain Jim say, “Come on, Red Sox. I’ve been assigned to make sure you don’t end up as a hostage. Here’s a vest in case you need it. Let’s get this show on the road.”
The negotiating team fanned out in around the plant. To the rear, there were concrete barriers with clear bullet-proof shields attached on top of them that had been placed for their protection. Military-style personnel transport vehicles and an armored truck were also in place, if needed. The hook and ladder and cranes were positioned at either end of the plant with their extended arms hovering over the roof.
Sam noticed that there were snipers on the off-site low-rise building rooftops surrounding the plant.
He and Captain Jim settled in a small pen made with a few of the pre-fabricated concrete panels. It had a staggered entrance to its rear that was also equipped with thick Plexiglas windows attached to the top of the concrete panels. There were some small tables around the back wall, one of which had a supply of Styrofoam cups and a coffee thermos. Another had the communication console set on it with associated gear. It looked like the communication equipment was entirely wireless because there were no coax or other hard wires to it except for a cable tied to a large DC battery rack outside the back wall of the compound. Sam thought everything looked good-to-go.
Agent Dean came over to Sam with a headset in his hand and said, “Hope you like your new surroundings, Sam. We got your favorite coffee.”
“Jim, before we get started trying to talk to this guy, I want Sam to listen to some audio we’ve captured with our listening devices to see if he can identify any of the voices as this guy Bernie,” Dean told them.
“Let’s do it,” Jim answered.
Agent Dean handed Sam a headset and ordered his techs to rack up the audio track for transmission to Sam’s headphone set.
Sam gave them the thumbs up when a test signal came thru his headset. Shortly after, the audio stream started piping though it. Immediately there was a terrible combination of high pitched screaming and more guttural yelling that made Sam wince.
Agent Dean noticed his reaction and said, “Yeah, sorry, but that’s what we got when we first tuned in.”
After a short bout of total cacophony, Sam could hear Bernie’s loud pleas to the others to calm down or he would “do something stupid.”
Sam pulled the headset off and told Agent Dean, “That’s enough. It’s Bernie’s voice. It sounded like he was hyper. He gets that when he doesn’t take his meds or hits his ball into a water hazard. Shit, it is him.”
“Ok, put the head set back on. We’re going to try having you talk to him through the roof,” Special Agent Dean informed both Sam and Jim. He then asked them to get up by the front Plexiglas windows and wait their cue for trying to talk him out.
Captain Jim and Sam took their places at the front of the pen. They heard Agent Dean’s set-up orders to start the negotiations with Bernie. It was game on.
Agent Dean’s voice blared from the speakers on the cranes as well as into their head sets, “This is F.B.I. Agent Dean Ramos. We think you are Bernie Soloff. Your buddy Sam is out here with us and he thinks you’re in there, too. If you can contact us by phone the number to use is 888-989-0000.” Agent Dean ended by further broadcasting to Bernie, “First, I’m going to have Sam try to get through to you. Here he is.”
Sam heard a faint click on his head set. He saw Dean give him the thumbs up cue, so he spoke into the microphone bud, “Bernie! Talk to me. It’s Sam. Use that number if you can. Talk to me.”
“Bernie! If you can hear this, call me on that 888 number - that’s 8-8-8-9-8-9-0-0-0-0,” Sam pleaded through his head set. “Look, Bernie, we can’t help you if you don’t talk to us. Hey, bud, I’m asking you as a friend. Call us.”
Noticing media crews inching in around behind the back parking lot perimeter, Sam pointed to them and said loudly to Agent Dean, “Are they picking up on the broadcast audio.?”
Dean responded by saying, “Well, it’s directly focused on the roof above the conference room. But, they must know something’s up by now - that we’re trying to talk to him.”
“Hold on, guys. The comm team is telling me they can hear some muffled talk going on inside. They’re trying to sharpen it up some more. Sam, I’ll tell them to patch you in if they get it clearer.” Dean added.
In tow with their equipment, media crews were setting up in the commercial parking lots outside the F.B.I. perimeter to the rear of the negotiating trailer. He saw members of the local police go over by them to establish better cone barriers and yellow tape fences.
The circus was on.
Suddenly, Sam heard a click from his headset and a clearer audio stream with Agent Dean‘s voice asking, “This is F.B.I. Agent Dean Ramos. Is this Bernie Soloff?”
Bernie had called the F.B.I. 888 number.
“Judas priest! Who the hell do you think it is? The C.E.O. of M-Mtek?” Bernie shot back. “So, what’s it to you?”
“Well, first, we want to know if everyone in there with you is OK. How many are in there with you and are they ok? Are you doing OK?” Agent Dean asked.
After a short lull during which Sam thought he heard Bernie ask the hostages if they were OK, Bernie got back on the set and said, “Well, at the beginning the young ladies had a hissy fit which caused me to have an even bigger hissy fit. But they’ve quieted down, now. There’s six of us. Seven, including me. Pretty soon were going to need water and bathrooms. It’s stuffy in here. Did the M-Mtek idiots kill the HV systems?”
“Don’t know. We’ll check it out,” Dean replied. “Look, Bernie, this has to be more on a give and take basis. If you tell us the names of who’s in there with you, we’ll promise not to bother you if the folks with you want to get to the bathrooms. By the way, where are the bathrooms?”
Bernie shot back, “Hey, Agent Ramos. You mean you don’t have a set of floor plans, yet? Give and take? You mean like M-Mtek’s give and take?”
“Ok, let’s do it this way. You let each person in there get on the phone to let them identify themselves. When they’re done we’ll back off and figure out a way to get them to the bathrooms. Do you have anything to put water in for them to bring it back to the conference room?” Agent Dean asked.
After another short respite, Bernie came back on, “Ok. Hey look. I don’t want to be a bastard, here. It’s a deal. But, whatever you do, don’t try to come in the building or up here on the stairs or elevator. Just don’t try to do it. Got that? Give and take, right? And, before we get started with the introductions, put Sam back on.”
With a gesture meant to ask if he was ready to go back on with Bernie, Agent Dean turned it over to Sam who said, “Hey, Bernie. What’s the deal?”
“Well, let me tell you something, old pal. You sure do get around. Most of these guys up here with me know you. You’re a celebrity. You should ask M-Mtek for a raise,” Bernie joked.
“Funny, I don’t feeling like a celebrity. Really, Bernie, moving right along here. We need to hear from the folks that are with you,” Sam said carefully.
“Yeah, give and take, my ass, Bernie quipped. One thing, Sam. Is Mimi coming to the plant? They going to let her talk to me, too?”
Sam looked over at Dean who was nodding his head, yes.
Sam answered, “Agent Ramos says, yes. And, last I heard before getting involved with this deal was she was coming down to the plant to be with Peg until things got all sorted out.”
Bernie continued, “How’s she taking this, Sam? She probably figured I was off my rocker, right? Women are smart that way.”
“Yep, you got that right, Bernie. We’ll let you know when she’s cleared to talk with you. Meanwhile, we got to get the hostage roll call going,” Sam pushed.
Sounding perturbed, Bernie responded to Sam’s tone of voice with, “Hey, I got it all right, here. Cool your jets, Sam. Besides, one of the kids here says you’re wearing red socks. And, don’t use the word “hostage.” This isn’t a screening of “Dog Days Afternoon” and I’m not Al Pacino. Just make sure when Mimi is ready she gets to talk to me.”
Agent Dean motioned to Sam that he wanted to take the conversation back. He interrupted it with, “Hey, Bernie. Let’s get going with the check-offs of the other people in there with you so we can let you get them to the bathrooms and store up on water. How’s that sound?”
“Just don’t forget - give and take. Don’t call them hostages and I get to talk to Mimi ASAP. Got that?” Bernie asserted to Agent Ramos.
“Got it,” Agent Ramos, said. “We’re good to go.”
Let's talk.
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American Shutdown by Benjamin F. Campanelli
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