Author: Eva
E-mail: sailorgel2000@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: got nothing to do with Stingers etc..

Here is the fic that took me months to finish… Well, it's set 
somewhere around the fourth and fifth season, when all the old people 
still were there and everything was as it used to be.. hope you will 
find it amusing, and please give me some feedback, even if it is good 
or bad! By the way, the things I've written about electricity here 
really doesn't agree with reality at all! Sorry for that, but I 
haven't got a clue what is right or wrong :)
WARNING: People with claustrophobia should think twice before reading 
this fic! (hehe, just kidding)

*****************
        STUCK IN A LIFT
*****************

ONE DAY AT THE POLICE HEADQUARTERS...

Mac was on her way up to Chatterly with some files concerning a fraud 
case that had just been solved. She felt tired and in a pretty bad 
mood. Last night she had been eating dinner with the guys from 
homicide and drug quad. It had just been a `business' dinner, but at 
the end of the night it had turned out in a way that now was causing 
Mac's bad mood, not to speak of the weak headache that was growing 
stronger and stronger by every minute inside her head. She just HAD 
to get hold of an aspirin soon...


MEANWHILE, ONE VERY SPECIAL PLACE...

Oscar and Pete were sitting in the `heart' of the police 
headquarters. In front of them lay dozens of wires in different 
colours. There were fuses, cables, couplings, complicated electrical 
devices, in other words everything that made the building's air 
condition, telephones, lightswithches, computers and every single 
little electrical thing, work. 
  Oscar had come there to change a fuse. Pete, that reluctantly had 
agreed to be his assistant, sat there too, not having a clue what all 
these devices were. Because no one had managed to get hold of an 
electrician, Oscar had been asked if he could do it. It seemed like 
the people at HQ thought he was some sort of fully-educated 
electrician that unfortunately worked as a cop. As a matter of fact 
Oscar didn't have the slightest idea on what to do, but he was happy 
to get the opportunity to, perhaps, learn something new.
  "Right, let's see what happens when we take this green wire..." he 
said and gave a small device looking mostly like a large sim card to 
Pete. "...and couples it with this blue one..." He took the green 
wire and stuck it into the small device which had a blue wire coming 
out of it in the other end. Nothing happened.
  "Oh well... I didn't think that was gonna work anyway." Oscar 
turned around to try and find some more opportunities among the wires.
  "I'm glad it didn't explode straight in my face" Pete replied and 
let go of the device with the wires.
  "You know, Stonie", he said, fishing something up from a plastic 
bag he'd carried with him. "This is actually very boring, so I 
thought I'd bring this with us!" He showed Oscar some bugging 
equipment. Oscar got a shocked look on his face when he saw what Pete 
was holding.
  "Just to have some fun, mate! I'm sure it won't make any harm!" 
  "Hah, that's what you think" Oscar said and raised his eyebrows 
ironically. But then he couldn't bare to smile, and Pete knew he was 
with him.

AT THE FACTORY...

"Oh God, I'm tired of doing all this paperwork!" Danni sighed and 
lent back in her chair. She looked at Angie, who was typing 
energeticly on her computer. 
  "Angie, aren't you sick of this?"
  Angie suddenly was typing very slowly, a moment later she had 
stopped.
  "Oh yeah..." She fell together over the keyboard, and hid her head 
in her arms. Danni could hear her saying into the table: "I think I'm 
gonna die soon if I don't stand up from this chair and get something 
to eat!"
  Danni jumped up. 
  "Then come on! Let's take a break! Mac's not here anyway, so why 
are we really bothering sitting here?" She went over to Angie, pulled 
her up from her chair and towards the exit.
  They bought themselves a hot dog each, then went for a stroll in 
the park.
  "I wonder how it's going with Pete and Oscar", Danni said. 
  "I'm sure they'll make HQ explode" Angie laughed.
  "Yeah, that would do both of them good." Danni laughed too. "Those 
two bastards will soon see that it doesn't work leaving us with the 
paper work."
"Nope, we won't do it for them anyway!" Angie agreed.
  "Hey, let's call them!" Danni suggested. 


MEANWHILE, IN THE CONTROL ROOM...

"All right, we have to couple this deivce with some of these wires if 
we're gonna bug anything", Oscar tried to explain to Pete.
"You got any idea of which wire, then?"
  "Well..." Oscar looked at the swarm of wires in all different 
colours. "I think it's some of these red ones here in the corner, 
actually." He took up a few red wires. Pete had removed the top of a 
black box that was among the bugging devices. He looked down into the 
box's contents, pulled out a few wires and fastened them to the end 
of a small coupling device.
  "Now it's just to stick those red wires up in the other end here, 
and we have a bug!" Pete grinned. 
  "At least that's what we hope we have, mate", Oscar said. "Hey, you 
must turn on the electricity first."
  "What?"
  "Take that switch you got, and stick it into the socket over there."
  Pete had just done what Oscar said, when his mobile rang.
  "Shit.." he muttered, took it up from his pocket and pressed a 
button.
"Hello, it's Pete... Oh, hi. ... What? Ah..well.." Pete looked like 
he had troubles finding the words, and Oscar stopped up and looked at 
him.
  "No, we're not doing anything bad..." Pete continued while staring 
at all the bugging equipment that lay on the floor. "No, I mean it 
Dan, everything's fine, it's all going as planned... what? Hey?! 
That's not fear! No, you're NOT coming over to HQ! If you do, then... 
then both you and Ang are in BIG trouble, you get me?! ... Bye!" Pete 
hung up, with an unpleasant look on his face.
  "And YOUR reaction definetely didn't make them think there was 
something fishy going on", Oscar said with a sigh.
  "Well, what could I do?!" Pete protested. "Our only hope now is 
that somebody discovers them and throws them out."
  "Let's get on with the bugging."

WITH DANNI AND ANGIE...

They sneaked inside the headquarters. With the help of a fire 
emergency map hanging on the wall near the entrance, they found the 
control room and headed in its direction.
  "Hey, where are you two going?" A man in a dark suit suddenly 
stopped in front of them, looking rather suspicious.
  "Um..." Angie had troubles finding the words. "We.. we are just 
going to get our new passports!"
  "Then come with me, because you are walking in the wrong 
direction", the man said and started walking down the corridor. 
  "Shit.." Angie muttered to Danni as they had to follow him.
  They went to the lift, the man pressed the button, and in few 
seconds, the door opened. They went in.


CONTROL ROOM...

"Try these", Pete said to Oscar and handed him some wires they hadn't 
seen until now. 
  Oscar hesitated.
  "Hey, what is it?" Pete looked at him.
  "I'm not sure if it's such a good idea to try those", Oscar told 
him. "I think I remember having read somewhere that wires with this 
sort of pattern are very dangerous to couple."
  Pete grinned. "Then go for it, mate! A little excitement will just 
make the day brighter, don't you think?"
  Oscar sighed, looking at Pete. Then he shrugged, and took the wires.
  "In you go", he said and put them into the device. Pete in the mean 
time backed off a little bit, but he was ready to push the green 
button and turn the electricity on.
  "You ready?" he asked Oscar. Oscar gave him a nod.
  "One, two, three, go!" Pete pushed the button. 
  All of a sudden, Oscar, who was holding the electrical device, 
started to tremble in a horrible way, and Pete could almost see how 
the electricity surrounded his body. His hair was standing straight 
up, snarling and crackling, while luminous sparks looking like 
lightnings stood up from it. There was no way Oscar could get his 
hands off the device when the electricity went through him like this.
  Pete stared. "Oh gosh! Oscar Stone, you look like a luminous ghost, 
from a Disney movie or something!" He was about to laugh, then he 
realised the seriousness of what he was looking at.
  "Shit, shit, shit!" He quickly hit the off-button, and the 
electricity was cut. Oscar managed to pull his hand away from the 
device, then he sat swaying for a couple of moments, before he fell 
forward and hit the floor with his face.
  "Stonie! Oh shit!" Pete quickly bent down beside him and shook 
him. "Wake up!"
  Oscar regained his conciousness little by little, but there was no 
doubt he was pretty shaky.
  "Oh, I feel siick..." he muttered, being held up by Pete.
  "I think you ought to rest a little while, mate", Pete said and 
slowly laid him down on the floor again. Oscar closed his eyes.
  Pete pulled back a bit, and took a look at all the equipment.
  "Didn't think it was that dangerous", he muttered to himself and 
was about to grab the plastic bag, when he heard a sound.
  Pete froze. The thing he heard, came out of one of the ear phones.


BACK TO THE TWO UNLUCKY ONES...

Angie, Danni and the man came out of the lift and the man followed 
them to a desk where a young woman was sitting.
  "Mary, will you take care of these two for me, please? They've come 
to get their passports."
  "No problem, Max." The lady smiled and the man, whose name 
obviously was Max, went. 
  Angie and Danni were feeling quite uncomfortable as they stood by 
the desk, staring at the lady.
  "Your names?"
  They didn't say anything, just couldn't help it. The lady looked at 
them, in the beginning in a friendly way, but as time went on she 
became more and more irritated.
  "Do you want me to call for my boss?" She asked at the end, staring 
at them sharply.
  Angie and Danni didn't know what to say. But luckily, they were 
interupted in the next moment.
  "Angie! Danni! What are you doing here?" They turned their heads to 
the left and discovered Brian Gray.
  "Oh, Brian!" Danni grabbed the opportunity. "I'm so glad to see 
you! You see, we've been sent by Mac, we're going to.. well, can't we 
take it in your office?"
  Brian looked at his watch. "Oh, Dan, I'm really sorry, but I have 
to rush to a meeting, it's very important." He smiled at her, then 
slapped her shoulder. "But we can take that later, can't we? I'm sure 
we'll find some time later on." He winked, then went down the 
corridor.
  "Ew!" Danni said with a gross and looked at Angie again. "What is 
it with that guy? Does he really think that every woman he meets, 
thinks he is a real hunk?"
  "Don't ask me, Dan. Just forget him." Angie looked in the desk 
lady's direction, but she was gone. Angie then looked around in the 
rest of the room, but there weren't any one there.
  "Hey, Dan, we have the chance! Let's go find the control room!" 
Danni cheared up, and they sneaked into the corridor.


WITH PETE AND OSCAR...  

Pete had taken the ear phones on and sat listening. Oscar's 
electrical shock had caused a bug, and it was a real good one! Pete 
wasn't sure about what place he was bugging yet, but it sounded like 
a lot of people went in and out all the time. He thought about the 
entrance, or maybe the lift. It was probably the lift, because he 
could hear people pressing buttons from time to time and there were 
this weak sound, perhaps the door which opened and closed.
  Oscar suddenly groaned and moved a little. Pete's eyes moved from 
the equipment and over to Oscar's face.
  "You okay, mate?" he tried.
  "Ah... Church, you bloody bastard..." Oscar murmured. "You could 
have killed me..!"
  "Yeah, I'm sorry for that. But you were in it, too, remember?"
  "Oh, stop it.."
  Silence followed for a little while. Pete listened to a lady and a 
man that probably stood in the lift together.
  "Isn't it a lovely weather today?"
  "Oh, it really is.. it's such a pity I have to stay in the office 
all day long."
  "Ha, ha, yeah, I guess it is, Sharon. So, how's your family doing?"
  "Well, Ben has just started at school, he seem to get..."
Pete took off his ear phones and went over to Oscar. He put the phone 
close up to Oscar's ear.
  "You hear this? We have a bug." 
  Oscar slowly got up and put the ear phones on. A smile came to his 
face as he listened.
  "Good on ya, Church! It's great!"
  "Oh..yeah.. thanks mate!" Pete smiled to himself, knowing fully 
well that he really should be thanking Oscar for it. 


MAC...

She had just finished at Chatterly's office and was now heading down 
again. Mac found it the best to head back to the factory, to sort out 
the rest of her paper work and be sure that Danni and Angie did what 
they were supposed to. Luckily she had found an aspirin in the bottom 
of her hand bag, and the headache was getting weaker now. 
  She stopped by the lift and pushed the right button. The door 
opened a little while later, and a man and a woman came out of it. 
Mac smiled at them, then went in. 
  She pushed the ground floor-button and the door closed behind her 
with a rustling, soft sound.
  Mac had always liked the lift. There was a sort of a secret and 
mystical atmosphere in here, but she didn't know why. It felt somehow 
good to be all alone inside this lift, and she had to think of her 
and Bill... It would always be a special memory for her, she missed 
Bill when she thought about it. 
  

BUT BRIAN GRAY FORGOT...

"Oh shit!" Brian slapped his forehead. He just remember that he had 
to speak to Ellen and Chatterly about that fraud case.. He turned 
around and went in again. He had seen Ellen sitting at Chatterly's 
office, if he was lucky she was sitting there still. He had to hurry.

  
AND HE WENT TO THE LIFT...

When the door opened, Brian faced Mac. 
"Oh, Ellen, there you are! I was looking for you!"
"What do you want, Brian?" Mac walked towards the entrance, Brian 
followed her.
  "I need to speak to you and Chatterly about that fraud case, I want 
to know..."
  "Okay, okay, let's go to Chatterly." Mac turned around and went 
inside the lift again. Brian just managed to press himself in through 
the door before it closed.
  They stood in silence as the lift started moving. Brian was just 
going to say something when the floor suddenly started shaking and 
strange sounds were coming from outside. They looked frightened at 
each other.
  "Shit, what's happening..?" Brian whispered to himself. Mac didn't 
know how to react.
  Suddenly, there was a big thump, and the lift stood still.
  Mac felt her heart starting to beat faster. The lift had just 
stopped! And the door didn't open! They had to be stuck!
  "OH, SHIT, ELLEN, WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO??!!" Brian roared.


CONTROL ROOM...

"Church, what the hell was that?!" Oscar suddenly got up, lifting his 
hands to his ears.
  "Give me that!" Pete tore the ear phones off Oscar's head.
  "Hey you!" Oscar shouted and tore them back. "Find the other ones! 
Didn't you bring two?!"
  Pete was just going to shout something back, but managed to keep 
his mouth shut and started looking for the ear phones.
  "Hey, this sounds just like Brian Gray and Mac!" Oscar exclaimed 
with a grin on his face.
  "Oh yeah?" Pete found the other ear phones and put them on. He 
became totally quiet as he listened. So became Oscar.
  It was obvious that something interesting was going on inside the 
ear phones. "Oh gee..." Pete said in an incredulous tone, and moved a 
little to get comfortable. "This is gonna be amusing!" He grinned at 
Oscar, and Oscar grinned back.
  Then the door suddenly got flung up and Danni and Angie came 
rushing in.
  "Surprise!!!" shouted Danni and waived her arms. Angie followed her 
with a big grin.
  "You didn't excpect us coming, did you?!" she smiled and settled 
beside Oscar. Danni bent down beside Pete, grabbed his ear phones and 
put them to her head before Pete had time to protest.
  "Oh, you guys!" he moaned. "Why'd you have to come here and visit 
us? What's so funny about that?!"
  "This!" Danni exclaimed with eyes wide open, listening. Pete sighed 
as she told Angie about what she heard. Angie's mouth opened in 
shock, and she stole Oscar's ear phones at once.
  "Oh gosh, this is unbelivable! Mac and Brian in the lift!" 
  "How on earth did you manage..?" Danni stared at them.
  Pete tore his ear phones back, and assured with a supercilious look 
in his face:
  "We certainly won't tell ya! When you two come bursting in like 
this, ruining our secret, we gotta be allowed to leave some things to 
ourselves!"
  "I guess they managed to bug the lift with the help of this 
equipment", Angie stated, and made Pete and Oscar want to burst out 
in anger.
  "All right every one, I guess we have cleaned up the little secret 
now", Danni said with a smile. "Let's concentrate on what is actually 
happening here. Okay with you guys?"
  Pete and Oscar sighed, then nodded. Angie couldn't be more agree.
  "Hey, we'll share this one, and so you and Pete can share the other 
one", she said, eagerly. They all put their ear phones on.


WHAT HAPPENED IN THE LIFT:

"Mac, what are we gonna do?!" Brian asked, sounding like he was at 
the edge of panic.
  Don't get claustrophobia, don't, don't, don't... Mac repeated to 
herself inside her head until she felt pretty calm. She turned to 
Brian.
  "Okay, we are stuck, but there have to be something we can do." She 
looked around. In the roof was a small hatch.
  Brian seemed to have discovered it in the same moment, and he 
raised his arms to see if he could open it. 
  He tried to move it several times, but the hatch was stuck. Brian 
sweared, turned away from Mac and looked down in the corner.
  "What about an emergency button..." Mac let her eyes run over the 
panel with the buttons, but she couldn't find any special one. There 
were just numbers.. 1, 2, 3, 4... She sighed, feeling helpless.
  "Some one will have to find us in not too long!" Brian turned 
around again, facing Mac. "The lift is being used all the time, 
people will naturally think it's strange when it doesn't work!"
  "Yeah, you're right, Brian." Mac bit her lip. She remembered 
something. Something about the lift, but she wasn't sure what. But 
Brian remembered it instead:
  "Oh shit!" Furious, he started to walk around and around in the 
small room. "Don't you remember that there's been some trouble with 
the lift not long ago?!"
  "U-huh", Mac replied with a groan.
  "Then, people won't find it strange if it doesn't work! They're 
used to it! They'll find it... NORMAL!!!" He put his hands to his 
head and grit his teeth in fury.
  A hopeless feeling came over Mac, she sat down on the floor and 
leaned her head against the wall. There was no point in being angry, 
they just had to accept that they perhaps would have to sit in here 
for a long time. And nobody would notice them being dissappeared. At 
least not for a while. She looked up at Brian.
  And with all people in the world, she had to be stuck together with 
Brian Gray! That idiot! She thought of the dinner last night. It was 
Brian, nobody but Brian, who had caused it turning out to be a 
disaster for herself. And now, she probably had to deal with it.
  Brian looked a little bit calmer now, and he sat down beside Mac. 
They sat in silence a little while, staring at the wall. Then Brian 
asked:
  "Ellen, did you enjoy dinner last night?"
  She just knew this question had to come.
  "Uh.. it was.. okay."
  "Really?"
  Not really, she thought, but didn't want to bring it up. She nodded.
  "Well, I don't remember much out of it, as a matter of fact", Brian 
said and laughed. "But I do remember one thing."
  "And that was..?" She didn't want to hear the answer.
  "Well, it was about you. You didn't want to dance with me. Why 
didn't you?"
  Mac sighed. "Please, Brian, can we talk about something else?" She 
tried to squeeze away the thoughts of herself, sitting there in a red 
dress, with drunk Brian trying to make a move on her the whole night. 
It was just too horrible.
  "Ellen, you know I've always thought of you as a special person", 
Brian continued. "You're..."
  "Have you really.." She interupted him and gave a sigh. "Well, then 
I think it's time for me to state, for God knows how many times, that 
I am NOT interested in you the same way that you seem to be 
interested in me! Okay?" She knew she had been a little harsh here, 
but still, she got up and met Brian's eyes from the other side of the 
room. Brian looked at her, didn't seem too hurt.
  "Ellen, you don't understand! What I mean is.."
  "No, Brian, NO!" Mac sent him an ice cold glance.

IN THE CONTROL ROOM...

There was a spread athmosphere of amusement and laughter inside the 
small room. Everyone sat with tears in their eyes, not knowing what 
to say or do.
"Hey guys, this is better than a comedy!" Angie giggled. She looked 
at Danni's and Pete's faces. Danni sat, trying her best not to show 
her grin, and Pete sat smiling, his eyes looking like he could see 
everything in his thoughts. Oscar was the only one that had a little 
rest of sensibility left.
  "Um, shouldn't we call some one? A lift inspector for instance?"
  Pete turned his head. "Why? This is just way too funny! At least we 
have to see what happens next!"
  "Yeah, I'm totally agree with Pete", Angie said. Danni nodded as 
well, and Oscar gave up. 
  "All right, this IS after all the funniest bugging we've ever had", 
he smiled and put his ear phone back.


THE LIFT...

"Mac, come here..! I'll explain it to you!" Brian had got up as well, 
now stretching his arm out so that he nearly touched Mac.
  "Leave it, Brian." Mac felt how she had blushed, annoyed and a bit 
uncomfortable with the situation. Little by little she started to 
worry about what he could be thinking of doing with her inside this 
tiny room. 
  Brian suddenly pulled his arm back again, lifted up his bag from 
the floor and pulled out a bottle of red whine.
  "Would you like some?" He asked, smiling gently to her.
  "No, thank you", she answered calmly. "I can't believe that you are 
actually bringing red whine with you to work, Brian. What's the use 
of it? Bothering even more women, perhaps?"
  Brian smiled and had to shake his head. "You're unbelivable, Ellen. 
Well, if you don't want anything, I can take it myself." He found a 
plastic cup inside the bag, and a corkscrew from inside his jacket. 
He opened the bottle, poured the wine, and took a sip. He looked like 
he was going to settle with the wine for a while. Mac relaxed, and 
sat down on the floor again.


THE CONTROL ROOM...

"HE'S the unbelivable one here!" Oscar laughed and was just as much 
in it as the others.
  "Poor Mac!" Angie laughed. "I really feel sorry for her! I really 
do!"
  "But it's just so COMIC!!!" Danni slapped her knees, couldn't bare 
to giggle hystericly. Pete had found his handkerchief, he was wiping 
tears off his eyes, not being able to keep serious either. 
  "Oh, I'm SO gonna tease Mac about this when she gets out of there!" 
Danni had to take a deap breath and try to relax a little bit. 
  "And now that bastard is probably getting drunk in there, together 
with Mac!" Angie shook her head, but couldn't hide her smile.
  Pete followed Danni's example, he managed to pull himself together 
and took a look at the others.
  "Hey guys, we are the only ones who know about this. We have to do 
something before Brian gets too drunk. You know.. well, think about 
Mac. What would you feel if you were in a situation like that?"
  "I would've gone into hysteric fits of laughter", Angie answered.
  "I guess you wouldn't." Pete smiled firmly. 
  "All right, it's probably for the best to Mac if we do something." 
Oscar agreed.
  "I say we call the switchboard, they can probably find us an 
electrician or something", suggested Pete. "You okay with that, Danni 
and Angie?"
  They both looked a little dissappointed, but shrugged and agreed to 
the plan. Pete pulled out his phone and hit a number. After having 
spoken to some one, he hung up and said with a sigh:
  "Well, they said they was gonna send someone, but it might take a 
while..."


IN THE LIFT ...

Brian sat sipping to his red wine, and as time went on, his mood 
became better and better. Or, as Mac thought, worser and worser.
  "Hey, Ellen, don't you wanna dance with me ..." he mumbled and took 
a couple of reeling steps towards her. "I can hear music ... yeah, I 
really hear it .. can't you hear it, too?"
  "NO!" Mac shouted, and made him back away a little bit. She got up 
from the floor, irritated and a little in despair, but tried the best 
she could to seem calm and safe.
  "Oh, come on .." Brian said and grabbed her around her waist. He 
started jumping around in the lift while holding Mac fastly, not 
letting go of her. Poor Mac was forced to dance together with him.
  "Brian, stop it, you idiot!" She protested, but Brian didn't notice 
her. "STOP IT! Let go of me!!"


IN THE CONTROL ROOM ...

"Oh shit, she's in trouble", Angie said, suddenly looking more 
serious. "Are we gonna do something about it, or not?" 
Pete stood up, now looking at the others with a determined look on 
his face.
  "Yeah, I say we do something before this gets any worse. It 
allready is very bad, of course, but this can turn out in a much 
worser way if we sit still and let it happen."
  Oscar pulled himself together and managed to wipe the smile off his 
face. "But how are we gonna do it?"
  They all looked at each other for a few seconds, and it seemed to 
Pete that the rest were looking as if they waited for his reply. He 
stared back at them and didn't know what to suggest.
  "Hey, I know!" Danni suddenly rised her finger and stood up from 
the floor. "We find the opening to the shaft, and one of us can hoist 
himself down and open the emergency hatch on top of the lift!"
  "Himself, hey?" Pete said.
  "I think that was a real good idea!" Oscar looked 
enthusiastic. "But who is gonna be the lucky one?"
  "Not me." Angie said quickly and backed away. 
  "Definetely not me either", Danni continued and went over to Angie.
  Pete and Oscar looked at each other, both a little sceptical, and 
it didn't seem as if any of them wanted to do it.
  "Well, think if someone dicovers us ..." Oscar said.
  "We will all get suspended", Pete added. "And perhaps get offered 
psycological help or something."
  "Well, someone has to do it, and we have to decide it quickly!" 
Danni took a sharp look at the two guys. "This is all about the 
honour of our boss, we have to save her!"
  "Yeah, loyalty to the detective senior sergeant", Angie said and 
saluted, before she burst out laughing.
  Pete gave a deep sigh, and said, since Oscar didn't seem to want to 
say anything:
  "All right, I can do it. Ocars's too much of a sissy anyway."
  "Hey, I'm not!" Oscar protested, but couldn't do anything now that 
Pete walked out of the door and obviously ment what he'd just said 
about saving Mac. The others stood hesitating for a couple of moments 
before they decided to split up. Angie was going to stay in the 
control room and continue to bug the lift, while Danni and Oscar 
should go after Pete.


IN THE LIFT ...

"I don't want to dance with you, Brian! Get your dirty hands off 
me!!" 
  Mac managed to twist out of Brian's hold, and ran to the opposite 
corner of the lift. Please, let this come to an end soon, or I don't 
know what I'll do, she thought to herself.
  Brian stood looking at her for a little while, drunk and with his 
left arm against the wall. Suddenly, his eyes looked a bit murderous, 
and Mac felt her heart starting pounding harder. Then his look 
changed and became almost entreating. He strechted an arm out toward 
Mac, begging her with his eyes to come forward, but Mac stood 
motionless in the corner. 
  "I like you Ellen ..." he muttered and came toward her. "So why 
won't you dance with me? It's such nice music right now, a really 
beautiful song .. don't you hear?"
  Mac had to take a deep breath to keep calm, because she felt how 
the anger rose inside her. A few seconds more now, and she would hit 
him ...


IN AN EMPTY CORRIDOR ...

"Thank God I found this rope", Pete sighed there he stood beside the 
little hatch in the wall which was leading out in the lift shaft. He 
had tied the rope around his waist, and was now about to open the 
hatch.
  "Here, let me help you", Oscar said and grabbed the handle of the 
hatch. They both pulled as hard as they could, and suddenly the hatch 
went up. 
  "Gee, watch out guys, you nearly fell straight into me!" Danni 
exclaimed, having backed away a few steps.
  Pete leaned forwards and looked inside the little hole. It looked 
as if it was just big enough for a man to climb through, and Pete 
fastened the end of the rope to a bolt on the wall inside the shaft, 
before starting to climb in.
  "It's really a large shaft", he exclaimed with his head inside 
it. "Long way down ... glad I'm not afraid of heights."
  "Wish you good luck", Danni said while Pete's legs dissappeared. 
  "Hey, it's possible to stand in here!" his voice sounded. "I'm 
gonna climb over to this big beam just beside me, and put the rope 
over it. Then I will hoist myself down ... I can see the lift, it's a 
couple of floors below me."
  "All right, we're closing the hatch!" Oscar replied and let the 
hatch go. It banged towards the wall, and inside the shaft, the 
echoes of the sound went like thunder between the walls.
  Pete startled of the sudden noise, but regained his balance and the 
control of the rope. He climbed up on the beam, reasured that the 
rope around his waist sat as it was supposed to, and started hoisting 
himself down towards the lift.
  How on earth am I gonna get up to the hatch again, he thought 
inside himself, and found out that he hadn't thought of how to bring 
himself and hopefully Mac, out of there. Well, well, there had to be 
some sort of sollution, he just couldn't figure it out right now. 
  Suddenly, the rope got cought in a nail, and Pete could't hoist 
himself further down.
  "Shit!" he exclaimed to himself, tried to pull the rope, but it 
felt as if it had stuck somewhere. 
  He nearly had given up, when the rope loosened from the nail, and 
he fell several metres downwards, before managing to get hold of the 
rope with his hands again. 
  "Help .." he muttered to himself, a little shocked by the sudden 
fall. But now he hang just a few metres over the roof of the lift, 
and with a few more strokes, he managed to get his feet in touch with 
the floor. 
  "Guys, I'm down!" he shouted up towards the hatch, and a little 
light came in as Oscar lifted the hatch up and looked down at him 
with a grin on his face.
  

CRISIS INSIDE THE LIFT ...

Brian was now chasing Mac around in the lift. Mac herself was 
terrified, but managed to twist away from drunk Brian every time he 
came to close. She just dived under his arm, and Brian was too drunk 
to understand what was happening.
  "Mac, come here!" He roared while running after her, around and 
around in the tiny room. 
Mac was in despair, she would have done anything to get away from 
there in that moment, but couldn't do anything else than trying to 
escape Brian.
  Suddenly, they heard a sound from outside. It sounded almost like 
someone shouting! Macs heart started to beat in a little more hopeful 
way, but she continued to run around. The dizzieness of running in 
circles was almost making her stumble. 
  Then Brian stopped and looked upwards. He reeled and fell into the 
wall, but managed to keep himself on his feet. 
  "Ellen, what was that?" he asked while holding one hand to his 
head. 
  "I don't know", Mac answered breathless, keeping herself as far 
away from Brian as possible. 
  Then the hatch opened, and a familiar face appeared. 
  "Hey Mac, are you okay?"
  "Pete!" Mac exclaimed, feeling how the relief ran through 
her. "Thank God! Please, get me out of here! Brian has gone crazy!"
  "Yeah", Pete replied. He strechted his hands down. "Here, grab my 
hands and I'll try to pull you up."
  Mac did as he said, and with a little struggling, she managed to 
get half her body up the hatch. 
  "Hey, nice view from here, Ellen!" Brian laughed. "Nice that you 
had a skirt on today!" 
  Mac felt how he grabbed her feet, trying to pull her down again, 
but she kicked his hands off while she got pulled up through the 
hatch by Pete.
  When Mac was safely outside the lift, Pete put his head down the 
hatch and roared to Brian:
  "You bastard! Don't you dare speaking like that to my boss!!! I'll 
get you suspended for the rest of your life!!!" 
  And with that, he closed the hatch with a bang, leaving Brian there 
until the professional guys came.
  "Thanks a bunch, Pete, you don't know how much you saved me right 
now. Brian had gone totally nuts, he was even drunk because he'd 
brought with himself red wine!"
  "Yeah, it's really terrible." Pete stared down at the closed hatch 
with fury in his eyes. "Well, then it really was nice that we decided 
to save you."
  "Yeah", Mac replied, while looking around in the shaft. "Don't know 
how you found me, though. But how are we gonna get out of here?"
  Pete gave her a short smile. "That's a good question. A real good 
one!"
  "But I've got the answer to it!" Oscar's voice suddenly sounded. 
They both looked up, and could see Oscar staring down at them. 
  "Angie, Danni and me can pull you guys up! At least we can do so 
with Mac, but I don't know if we are capable of hoisting you, Pete!"
  "Don't you worry, I can climb up myself", Pete replied, however a 
bit unsure of how he was gonna manage that. 
  Anyways, he removed the rope from his waist and tied it around Mac 
instead. While the three people outside the hatch pulled of all their 
strength, Mac climbed up the wall while putting her feet on the beams 
beside the walls and holding on with her hands. When Pete saw how 
easy Mac managed, he decided to do the same himself, and a couple of 
minutes later, they both were out of the hatch and together with the 
others. 
  "Righto, we did it!" Oscar and Danni grinned, while Angie gave Mac 
a hug and Pete rolled the rope together. 
  "Now we better get out of here before anyone finds us!" he said and 
started walking down the empty corridor.
  "Yeah, good idea, Pete!" Angie said and followed him. The others 
came as well, walking in the back. 
  "Uhm .." Pete suddenly remembered something and leaned against 
Angie. "What about the bugging equipment? Is it still in the control 
room?"
  Angie smiled. "Nope, I've taken care of it. Don't you worry."
  "Where've you put it?"
  "In the trash can."
  "What?!"
  "It's fine! We can come back tomorrow and get it! The trash can 
ouside the control room don't get emptied very often, believe me!"
  "How can you be sure .." Pete muttered, but found out that it was 
the best to leave it there when Angie thought it was safe. They 
didn't want Mac to find out about what they'd been doing anyway.
  When they came down to the ground floor, two men in blue boiler 
suits stood in front of the lift. They were carrying a lot of 
equipment with them, and one of them was taking the panelling with 
the buttons apart.
  "You guys electricians?" Oscar asked. 
  "Yeah, we are. Somebody called and complained about this lift. It 
seems to be stuck, so we had to get here."
  "You bet it's stuck."
  The electrician lifted a phone to his ear and spoke into it. 
  "Marsters, are everything going okay in there? ... Okay ... No, I 
don't think there's people in it ... you can just let it go if that's 
the easiest way. Awright."
  Oscar was just gonna say something, but the electrician interrupted 
him.
"A few seconds now, and it'll be fine again."
  They could hear a loud noise coming from inside the shaft, almost 
as if something fell very quickly to the ground. A big thump came 
from the basement, making the floor almost quiver. Oscar startled, 
but didn't say anything. His face had got a worried look.
  "Awright, I think we've sorted the problem, mate." The electrician 
pushed the ground floor button, and a little while later, the lift 
had come up and the doors opened.
  The sight that met them, made the electrician stare. 
  Brian Gray came stumbling out of the lift, looking like he had been 
beaten up by a herd of oxen. He fell to the ground a few steps later, 
and was laying still, almost like he had fainted.
  "Oh, shit, I didn't think there were people in it!" The electrician 
exclaimed.
  Pete, Oscar, Mac, Angie and Danni couldn't bare to raise their 
eyebrows in surprise. An oppressed giggle came from Angie, which soon 
infected Danni, and in the end they stood desperately trying to hide 
their laughter. 
   The electrician hit a number and lifted the phone to his ear. "Is 
this the emergency central? I think we need an ambulance to the 
police headquarters."
   
  ************
THE END
************