And The Towers Fell Down
By Thomas Mc

Author's notes: This story contains references to the following other stories – Naomi , Encounter , A New Life , Joe's Tale , A Mother's Diary . This story could also be considered part of the 'Five of Hearts' series as well as part of the 'New Millennium' series.

Warning: - ( This story also contains a some graphic references to the events around the 9/11 terrorist attacks.) -

Chapter 1 : The Attack

Elliot was in a business meeting with potential investors working on his newest project. It was to be an expansion of his rent controlled housing for the retired elderly. The investors were discussing the financial details as he sat and watched them. He knew they would go for it. It was just too good a deal for them to pass up. It had the double bonus of looking good, public relations wise, on their corporate resumes and it was profitable.

As he sat there his mind wandered back nearly thirteen years to the time that his grand schemes kept being torpedoed by his would-be love interest of that period, Catherine Chandler, wealthy beautiful socialite and New York City Assistant District Attorney. A few years after he realized that she would never be his, he had renovated the area under discussion and turned it into his first retirement housing project. Those living there at the time got first pick of the new apartments. With the help of government rent control price supports, smartly elegant building design, corporate sponsorships and sharp financing he had made out pretty good. Even when being altruistic he managed to make a profit. In fact in recent years he found that he really got a kick out of making a profit while being one of the good guys, a by product of Cathy's influence. A year later he had added a nice small shopping center and a small business park in the same area. There was also a Wells-Chandler Foundation neighborhood aid center located in the middle of the development. The year after that he had finally built his Burch Tower. This version was significantly smaller than the original design. He wanted to be sure that the building's foundation didn't affect Vincent's tunnel community. He had even built Catherine's new Wells-Chandler Foundation Corporate Center around the same time. Now he was about to expand the housing into another adjacent block.

As Elliot gazed out through the Burch Tower board room window, he was startled to see an airliner pass overhead flying way too low. Everyone in the room watched in horror as, five seconds later, the large airplane plowed into the World Trade Center North Tower.

Elliot shook off the momentary shock and called his marketing branch offices on the 80th floor of the South Tower. He ordered everyone in the office to evacuate immediately and reassemble in the corporate offices in the Burch Tower as soon as possible. Then he had the board room monitor turned on and set to the satellite news station. By now all thought of business deals was forgotten as they watched the early incoherent and contradictory news reports of the disaster.

About twelve minutes after he had given the order to evacuate, Elliot's cell phone rang. It was the WTC branch office manager. "Everyone's out Mr. Burch. I'm locking up the office now."

"Very good Jerry. Get over here as soon as you can." Elliot hung up. He had no sooner set his phone down on the conference table than a second plane came in from the left and hit the South Tower. 'That was no accident,' he thought. Then he heard one of the others mumbling, "My God, we're under attack." After a couple of seconds Elliot became aware that several of the people in the room could be heard cursing a blue streak. Then he realized that he was one of them as he blinked back his own tears.

~ o ~

Catherine and Joe were up to their armpits in the O'Leary case. What had started out as a simple child abuse case had snowballed into a massive illegal alien smuggling case. As they were discussing the fine points of a particular search warrant's admissibility, Deanna rushed excitedly into the office. "They just bombed the World Trade Center and it's burning." She announced.

"What?" Joe looked up startled. "What are you talking about?"

"It's all over the news." Deanna replied.

Joe reached into his desk, pulled out a portable radio and turned it on. ". . . indicate that, five minutes ago, the World Trade Center was hit by a low flying airplane and the upper third of the North Tower is now on fire. We are still awaiting confirmation on what happened. To repeat, the latest reports . . ." Joe turned the radio off then he and Catherine headed for the conference room where several people were already watching the news coverage on the video monitor. Joe pulled out his cell-phone and called Sammy. "Sammy where are you?" He asked.

"I'm in the lobby heading for the door." She replied glancing around. "I thought I'd head over to your office."

Having heard Joe's question, Catherine spoke up. "Tell Sammy to get out of there, fast, and head for my place. I'll call and tell Naomi to be expecting company."

Joe responded to Sammy. "Cathy says to head for her place. It's central to all our friends and I want you as far from those towers as possible, as soon as possible."

"OK, Joe I'll get there as soon as I can." Sammy walked through the doors and glanced up at the sound of a jet overhead.

"Be careful. I love you." Joe responded.

"Oh my God!" Sammy exclaimed. At the same time several in the conference room emitted similar exclamations as they watched a second airplane smash into the South Tower. A half second later Joe heard Sammy shriek inarticulately then his phone went dead.

"Sammy!" Joe cried out, in extreme anguish, into his dead phone. Everyone in the office turned to look at Joe in horror and sympathy. They all knew that his wife worked in the South Tower.

Catherine wrapped her arms around him in sympathy trying to give some small measure of comfort. "Oh, Joe, I'm so sorry." After a moment she let go, suddenly all urgent business as she spoke in a low voice to him. "Joe I need to get Below and warn them about what's happening. I'll also tell them to put the word out to keep an eye out for Sammy."

"Yea." Joe responded numbly. "You should do that. I, I'll be OK here." Catherine headed for the elevators and Joe faced the rest of the staff, fighting to keep the tears back as he announced. "This office is closed for business as of now. Those that have somewhere they need to go may leave."

Joe plopped down into the nearest chair, like a puppet whose strings had just been cut, and stared numbly at the bleak image on TV as about half of the staff left. Over the next half hour the rest of the staff trickled out. None of them could bear to look at the misery in his face for long.

They had just announced an explosion in the Pentagon when Joe looked up as a hand came to rest on his shoulder. "Is there anything I can do for you Joe?" She was the only other person left in the conference room.

Joe shook his head. "You may as well go home, Deanna."

"No." she disagreed. "I have no family near by and no particular place I need to go." She gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze. "I just called my parents in Idaho to let them know I'm OK. I'll stay here and man the office, just in case." She squeezed his upper arm. "You however do have someplace to go. You should get yourself over to Cathy's place." She gently guided him towards the elevators then returned to the conference room to watch the coverage.

~ o ~

Diana was in the Bronx, looking into a possible gang connection to several recent robberies. Something made her look up and she noticed the great plumes of smoke rising from the south. She radioed dispatch about it and was told the news. Then the second plane hit and the dispatcher was momentarily too shocked to respond.

After a few seconds the dispatcher relayed the news of the new disaster. After a few very colorful expletives, Diana broke contact and called Catherine who was at that moment waiting for the elevator. "I just heard. Is Sammy OK?"

"We don't know." Catherine replied. "Joe lost contact when the second plane hit. We're setting up my brownstone as a central meeting place for any of our friends if they need it or if things get bad. I'm heading Below to warn them and prepare for the emergency." The elevator doors opened. "I have to go." They both hung up as Catherine stepped into the elevator. As soon as Catherine exited on the ground floor, she called home and told Naomi to stay indoors and take care of any friends that might show up. Catherine raced across the street into the building that had tunnel access.

Diana called her husband. "Dennis, I just talked to Cathy and we are all meeting at Vincent and Cathy's place. Tell Jenny and spread the word to anyone else that needs to know. I'll meet you there. I love you." She hung up then headed for her car. Soon she was making her way south through a traffic nightmare towards Central Park.

~ o ~

Vincent was working on a leaking water pipe located north of the park when he sensed his wife's agitation. Something was very wrong. Though she wasn't in pain or feeling threatened, she was definitely very upset about something. He would finish this as quickly as possible and head back to the main tunnels. That's when he felt the stab of extreme shock and horror from Catherine. Dropping his tools he set out at a dead run for her location.

Vincent had passed the home tunnels and was very close to Catherine's location as he continued to sense her fear and anxiety, now under tight control. Then a message passed along the pipes from Catherine. "Emergency! ... Two ... Tower ... Attacked ... Pull everyone out ... if ... South of ... Central Park ... Assemble the council ... Emergency meeting." The message was relayed and repeated on all the major pipes. Vincent changed direction and headed for Father's library chamber. Catherine would be heading there and he would be needed to help Father get the council organized and calm.

~ o ~

Young Jacob was making his way along the southern tunnels. The subway passing overhead made a much deeper rumble than normal, and it was causing a lot of dust to fall. This could be a serious problem. He would have to tell his father about it when he saw him at lunch. Jacob continued on toward his little hideaway; every ten year old had the equivalent of a tree house somewhere. Jacob's version just happened to be located underground in an unused part of the tunnels. It was currently running low on supplies and he was bringing in replacements. The tunnel he was now in had originally been created to aid in the construction of the World Trade Center Tower's foundation and had, in the years since then, been mostly forgotten. His little hideaway was a small dead-end alcove on the west side of the north tower. He had almost reached the walls of the North Tower foundation when he heard a very deep rumbling sound unlike anything he had heard before and it was rapidly getting louder. The floor was shaking and dust was falling from the ceiling.

CAVE-IN !

Without thinking he bolted for the foundation wall directly in front of him. No normal person, with the exception of his father, could have moved that fast. The roar became deafening as the concrete wall suddenly tilted crazily towards him. A flash of pain shot down the back of his shoulder as it was yanked downward with enough force to put him on his knees. Almost immediately after that his head exploded in pain and his consciousness was swallowed by darkness.

~ o ~

In the council meeting, Catherine had just finished reporting on the situation when Vincent felt faint but very distinct vibration through the ground and wondered what could have caused it. No subway was passing at that moment and the feel of it was all wrong. He dragged his attention back to the discussions of how to handle the crisis continued. A few minutes later the pipes announced that one of the towers had collapsed. For a while the members of the council stared at each other in shocked silence.

The council recovered from their shock and was discussing the possibility of more attacks and how they could help as well as getting reports from Above. Suddenly, from his son, Vincent felt a flash of fear - then pain - then nothing. At that moment Vincent felt the same faint tremors in the ground under his feet that he had felt earlier. Fear and a hint of panic rose in him as he tested his link with Jacob, he was alive but unconscious. He was also located south and very slightly west from Vincent's location, somewhere near the two towers. "Jacob!" Vincent barely voiced in his alarm, his chest constricted in fear as he bolted out of the library chamber.

Father gasped. "No! Not Jacob!" At the same time, with a half sobbed, "No!" Catherine seemed to collapse into herself as she fell back into her chair. Two seconds later Jacob's twin sister, Jennifer, ran into the library. "Jake's hurt." She cried out and flung herself into her mother's arms with a sob.

~ o ~

Chris looked around in dismay at all the cars. This was the wrong floor. It had taken a long time to work their way down all those long smoky stairs from the eighty-fifth floor while keeping the small group from his office together and now it seemed that they had gone down too far. It must have been that rumbling they had all heard, distracting them at the wrong moment. He looked at his two children. All the way down the stairs, he kept asking himself why he had chosen today of all days to show them where he worked. He looked at the other people that were with him. They were all tired dirty and scared. Of the fourteen people that had left his office together, only ten, including himself, had managed to stay with his group. He hoped the other four had made it to safety. There were also three people in the group that he didn't recognize. That made a total of fifteen counting his two children.

"Damn, we've got to go back up." He yanked open the stairway door and was hit by a blast of smoky hot air heavy with the smell of burning jet fuel. Through the smoke he could see a thin stream of fire working its way down the stairs. He slammed the door shut. "Blocked!" He announced.

Suddenly feeling trapped, Chris froze for a moment as fear and frustration seemed on the verge of overwhelming him. Chris forced his emotions back then looked around to get his bearings. The car ramp was to the left at the other side of this level. He looked at the others. They were all watching him. For some reason beyond his understanding they all seemed to have started looking to him for leadership. He was just an ordinary investment broker in an office full of investment brokers and was just as out of his depth as they were. "This way!" He called out as he grabbed both his children's hands and started off in the direction of the car ramp.

He felt a growing vibration in the floor and a low rumble that was soon accompanied by the sound of car alarms. "Against the wall, NOW!" He yelled over the fast growing roar and sprinted for the foundation wall dragging his two kids with him. Then the lights went out and the world fell in on them.

Continued in Part 2

'Beauty and the Beast' and its characters are owned by Witt-Thomas Productions and Republic Pictures. No infringement on copyrights is intended. This story is presented merely for the enjoyment of fans. Original concepts and story elements may be used by other authors as long as appropriate credit is given.

V.12.04.15