American Shutdown - Chapter 13: Third Floor Conference Room

“Mr. Soloff, I need to use the restroom,” Marsha pled with a tremor in her voice. “The other girls need to go, too.”

It took a while for Bernie to look up from his laptop and recognize Marsha’s request. He had been absorbed in his laptop ever since hanging-up on the negotiating team. During that time the five hostages hardly spoke or looked at one another for fear he would go into one of his rages.

“Damn, this is just like having a woman on an road trip. Always need to find the next bathroom for them,” Bernie quipped back. “I wasn’t counting on this. Who knows if they’ll believe me about not coming in here or doing anything stupid. Look, I’ll try to call them but I can’t promise anything.”

Next, Ishaan spoke up, “Bernie, what’s the big deal about coming into the building?”

“Let’s just say I was keeping busy while you were laying-off everyone with less that one day’s notice,” Bernie said looking at him with a glint in his eyes. “Hey, you hired me for my knowledge of communications networks, right? Well, let’s just say I’m applying it to a good cause, now.”

“We turned off access to the networks before 3 o’clock,” Ishaan reminded Bernie.

“Really, now. Well, you have one helluva surprise coming, Mr. Gilbert,” Bernie replied sarcastically. “By the way, do you have a live cell phone on you? Don’t make me frisk you. If you do, cough it up on the table, here. Right now!”

Ishaan pulled out his cell phone from his suit pocket and slid it over on the conference table to Bernie. At that moment he knew Bernie had hacked into the network and was planning to use it in some way to get what he wanted from his hostage takeover.

“Nice Samsung 6, Ishaan. What’s the matter, couldn’t afford an iPhone?” Sam laughed. “I think I’ll use it to call the office. Maybe I’ll let you talk to them about a bathroom run for the girls. How about it? You game for that? And none of that coded bullshit talk this time, right?”

“Whatever you say, Bernie. You’re in charge here,” Ishaan agreed.

Bernie dialed the 888 number. After a longer than normal delay Agent Ramos picked-up asking who it was.
Bernie responded by saying, “What’s wrong Agent Ramos? You didn’t expect to see this number coming in on your hot line. I’m testing Gilbert’s Samsung6. Comparing it to my iPhone.”

Agent Ramos broke in with, “You going to want to talk to Sam, again?”

Bernie shot back, “No, you’ll do. I’m going to hand you over to Ishaan. We’ve elected him to negotiate a potty break for the staff, here. I figure with him being an HR executive, he’ll be better at this than me. Here he is.”

Bernie slid the live phone back to Ishaan who grabbed it and said, “Agent Ramos. The girls here need to get to the bathroom. The bathrooms are right down the hall. They can also take the conference room decanters with them to bring back some water for us. We need to know that you’ll let them do that without any problems. Otherwise we’ll have to use the decanters for something else. Since there aren’t any closets in this room so that‘s not going to be pretty,” he reported to Agent Dean.

“OK, Ishaan. I get the picture. I’ll need some time to get our ducks in order over here. Wait for my go ahead. I’ll be calling you back on your phone,” Agent Ramos directed. “With a simple yes or no, say how you think everyone is. How are they’re doing.”

“Yes, Agent Ramos. Thanks for your help, “Ishaan said into his phone and slid it back to Bernie.
Bernie picked it up and said to Agent Dean, “I still like my iPhone better,” and hung up.

“Say, Ishaan. If you’re wondering why I had this bud in my ear, I was listening to your conversation with Ramos. It’s nice to know he cares about our office help. Let’s hope he lets them go to the head without incident,” Bernie again said with glee. “If and when he gives the go ahead, I’ll be picking it up on your phone, not you.”

Ishaan let him know, “Hey, you’re the boss, Bernie,”

Then, Trudy broke in saying, “I really got to go, too, or else I’m going to grab one of those decanters and pee in the corner. And, I mean it.”

All five in the room looked at her with amazement and then cracked a smile at the creativity of her shout out.

A safe space for conferences?

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American Shutdown by Benjamin F. Campanelli
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