6 Hours is the sixteenth episode of season 9 of Walker, Texas Ranger. It premiered on Saturday, April 14, 2001 on CBS.
Plot
Alex is being honored for her work with the Hope Center by the Dallas Business Association. The man who is presenting her the award is Tim Preston, the richest man in all of Texas. Also at this function is his daughter, Heather Preston. When Tim presents Alex the award, 6 waiters pull out some guns and start shooting up the place. Walker, Trivette, Gage and Sydney subdue 4 of the gunmen (Walker and Sydney shot 2 of them, while Trivette and Gage fight & catch the other 2). Tim instructs one of his bodyguards, Theodore McNeely to get Heather out of the crossfire which he does.
He brings her out to the limo (whom McNeely called the limo driver about the situation offscreen), but then he betrays & shoots the limo driver (who was armed with a gun and was trying to help out) and he also betrays Heather when two of the gunmen (who managed to retreat after one of them almost got shot by Walker) come out and help McNeely put Heather in a van, one of them sedates her, while the other one drives the van as McNeely and his 2 accomplices speed away from the parking garage. When order is restored Tim is looking for Heather and has his other bodyguard to try & call McNeely but he doesn't answer. Walker is trying to find out what happened to the strange cause of why the 6 gunmen aimed so high as if they were not trying to hit anyone. When Walker hears about what happened to Heather, He, Trivette, Tim and his bodyguard go to the parking garage where they discover the limo driver dead. Walker concludes that the entire shooting was a distraction so they could abduct Heather and then he also concludes that McNeely is the ringleader of the kidnapping plot (which is true, because we later learn that Heather recently got accepted into Cornell University up in New York State and right after McNeely discovers that Tim is planning to dismiss him after Heather leaves for Cornell University in the fall, he felt betrayed like he was being tossed out like trash and as a result, McNeely went rogue and secretly plotted his retribution against him, so he eventually carried out his plot by hiring 6 gunmen to help him out during the banquet by orchestrating the shooting knowing fully well that Tim would give Heather to him and ignoring the fact that the innocent banquet attendees would inevitably get hurt in the process).
Walker tells Tim to go home and wait for McNeely to call, Trivette agrees to pull up everything they’ve got on McNeely and Walker tells Gage and Sydney to bring the gunmen they caught back to HQ so they can question them. Meanwhile McNeely and his 2 accomplices arrive at their hideout with the unconscious Heather and McNeely has them restrain her to a chair with a shotgun attached to some kind of device right in front of her. One of the gunmen insists that McNeely should pay him, but instead he pulls out his gun and shoots him (so he wouldn’t get caught by the Texas Rangers). He then instructs the other gunman to get rid of the dead gunman and to take care the other 2 gunmen who were caught to avoid being discovered and to eliminate any witnesses. The 2 gunmen are in a cruiser while Gage and Sydney follow behind the cruiser. On their way back to HQ, the same van blocks them and the gunman whom McNeely sent comes out with a rocket launcher and blows up the cruiser (with the arresting officers and the 2 remaining gunmen in it) and Gage and Sydney get out of the way as the gunman speeds off. Later at Tim’s estate, he, Alex and Walker are waiting for McNeely to call and Tim who fought with Heather before heading to the awards doesn't want that to be his last image of her. He brings in Seth, the best communications expert in his company to help them track down McNeely when he calls. Which he does (although Walker is pretty sure that McNeely has already planned everything out very carefully by bouncing his cellphone signal all over the cell grid so that the Texas Rangers can't trace the location of his hideout) and demands that Tim wire 100 million dollars in 6 hours to the account he emailed to him. Tim wants to talk to Heather but McNeely tells him to go the website HEATHERCAM2001. When they go to it they see that Heather (who had just regain consciousness) is restrained to a chair, in the back is a timer, and they also see the shotgun device which McNeely says it will go off when the timer runs out. Tim makes arrangements to transfer the ransom but Walker warns him that McNeely might execute Heather even if he gets the ransom. Walker then goes back to HQ to see if he can find Heather before the deadline. Gage & Sydney tell him that the banquet gunmen have RAP sheets a mile long & that McNeely made sure neither of them would cooperate, Trivette also tells him, Gage and Sydney that he managed to pull up McNeely's file and has found no criminal record. He was a Gulf War veteran who served as a navigator on a bomber. He then scans through the files of other Gulf War veterans he served with and Gage and Sydney recognize the same gunman who blew up the police cruiser with the arresting officers and the other 2 gunmen they caught. His name is William Borla, a pilot whom McNeely served with during the Gulf War and was dishonorably discharged from the service. They also see that he has a cousin named Tony who owns a bar and spent 4 years in Huntsville for robbery; Walker tells Gage and Sydney to go and question him to see if he knows anything on Borla's whereabouts. Tim in the meantime can only watch as Heather prays. Gage and Sydney arrive at the bar and Borla's cousin doesn't want to cooperate and some of his goons at the bar attack them; they take care of them. They talk to Tony again who reluctantly tells them that his cousin came by the bar a few days ago, he says that it was the first time they had seen each other in years, they also had a couple of drinks while he was sprouting that he was about to come into some money, get to fly again and leave the country. When they tell Walker about what Tony told them, he deduces that McNeely could be planning to escape the country which is exactly why he needs Borla and then they deduce that to fly that far they need a jet. Knowing fully well that McNeely and Borla can't get one through conventionally; Walker thinks he knows where they will get it. Borla then goes to where Tim keeps his private jet and goes up to the pilot, murders him and then he steals the jet (but not without letting McNeely know that the escape plan is proceeding as planned). Walker and Trivette wish that McNeely would call again so they can trace the location of his hideout. Walker has an idea on how they can do that. He calls Alex whom he tells to instruct Seth to cut the feed, hoping that McNeely will call. Seth gets on it. Gage and Sydney arrive at the hanger and find the jet missing and the pilot dead. They then call Walker and tell him about the situation. He then has Trivette find out which airfields in town can accomodate a jet like Tim’s (including one without an air tower so that no one can detect McNeely and Borla's location). He finds three possibilities (Colby, Sage and Tucker) and Walker has him, Gage and Sydney to go and check them out. Seth cuts the feed and McNeely calls and Tim tries to keep him on long enough for the call to be traced but when Preston threatens to withhold the remaining 10 million, McNeely says that he'll just have to be satisfied with 90, but he decides to execute Heather anyway and hangs up. Seth says that he got an approximate location only. There are only 30 minutes left. Trivette and Sydney strike out at the Colby and Sage airfields they go to but no luck. Gage in the meantime manages to track down Borla at the Tucker airfield who is loading some items onto the stolen jet, he then calls Walker to tell him that he had managed to track down Borla and the stolen jet, Walker also tells him that because there is no time for backup he has to take care of Borla on his own. Which he does but not after going at it with Borla and Borla refuses to cooperate right before Gage knocks him out. Gage then calls Walker to let him know that he took care of Borla but he refused to cooperate and Walker tells Gage to look for Borla's cellphone and to find McNeely's cell number. He finds one cell number and gives it to Walker who then gives it to Alex and then she gives it to Seth who discovers that McNeely is hiding out in a Dallas Storage Warehouse after he was able to isolate the cell grid. Walker then goes there in a chopper. Meanwhile at the hideout, Heather attempts to reason with McNeely by calling him by his nickname "McShadow" (which she had been calling him that for a long time when he use to protect her ever since she was born), but he annoyingly reveals that he hates that nickname & that she means nothing to him and continues with his plot, after Heather annoys McNeely due to the noise shes making, he threatens to hurt her himself unless she calms down. With only minutes left Tim instructs Seth to reactivate the site so that he could see Heather. Heather in the meantime decides to accept her fate, though she attempts to reason with McNeely again after he prepares to leave and he still goes through with his plot by cruelly apologizing to her by claiming that he’s already running late and then he sarcastically tells her to say goodbye to Tim for him once the timer runs out. Walker arrives and McNeely (not knowing that Borla had been caught & arrested by Gage and Seth had successfully traced his cell number) is just about to leave, when Walker comes in and they go at it. Walker tries to release Heather but McNeely interrupts him as he is still determined to carry this out. With only seconds left the device starts to go off and Walker intercepts McNeely by throwing him in front of the blast of his own shotgun device and Heather is saved (much to the relief of Alex, Tim Preston, Seth, Trivette, Sydney, the HQ staff, the news correspondent and the viewers who had been watching the broadcast). He finally releases her and then he takes her home to her father.
Quotes
- Walker: I can't figure this out, Alex.
- Alex: What happened here?
- Walker: It has all the looks of an attempted kidnapping.
- Alex: Yes, but the obvious choice is Mr. Preston.
- Walker: Yeah, but they didn't try to hit us. They shot above us and then retreated. Why didn't they try to take him...? Where's Heather? Mr. Preston, where's Heather?
- Tim: McNeely has her. He got her out.
- Walker: Can you call him?
- Thompson: McNeely, McNeely...? Dean. They're not answering. (Beat)
- Walker: Trivette! (both Rangers, Tim, and Thompson head for the garage to see what's going on)
- Sydney: (holding a shooter at gunpoint) Get down! (Walker, Trivette, Tim, and Thompson go into the garage. They find Dean, the limo driver, dead) Tim: Oh, my God! What happened!? Where's Heather!?
- Trivette: Where's McNeely?
- Thompson: (still on the phone) McNeely, McNeely, McNeely...! (no response)
- Trivette: Why isn't he answering?
- Walker: It was a diversion, Trivette.
- Tim: Diversion for what?
- Walker: To get Heather out of there.
- Tim: But McNeely's got her.
- Walker: I know.
- Trivette: You think he kidnapped her?
- Walker: Yeah, I do.
- Kelly Santos: This morning, Heather Preston was kidnapped. Two hours and 20 minutes ago, the ransom call came in. As you can see, people keep arriving here to show their support. On our screen, we're carrying the live Web feed of Heather's ordeal in what may be the first kidnapping broadcast live over the Internet. We pray when Heather prays. We cry when she cries. Heather may not hear us, but we are with her. Kelly Santos, reporting.
- Gage: [after cuffing Borla to a chair, they watch the horrifying action moments before the shotgun goes off] If that girl dies, you're gonna have a long ride back to Ranger Headquarters.
Cast
- Chuck Norris as Cordell Walker
- Clarence Gilyard as James Trivette
- Sheree J. Wilson as Alex Cahill
- Judson Mills as Francis Gage
- Nia Peeples as Sydney Cooke
- Nick Chinlund as Theodore McNeely
- Mercedes McNab as Heather Preston
- Daniel Hugh Kelly as Tim Preston
- Damon Carney as Thompson
- Alyce Caron as Kelly Santos
- John Casino as Edmund
- Bill Hickl as Pilot
- Chris Langan as Seth
- Gary Ragland as Tony Borla
- Alex Saxon as Jessica
- Jenny Saxon as Mother
- Jan Michael Schultz as Low Life Buddy
- Mark Stefanich as William Borla
- Jack Martin as Banquet Gunman
- Ken Greaves as Banquet Gunman
- Robert Claycombe as Dean