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Chapter 2: Hostage Situation
I walked into the office that morning with no idea about what was about to happen. Our headquarters is a rather large three story building with the name of a doctor's office on the outside as a sort of cover-up. Inside the lobby area, it looks identical to a doctor's waiting room. They even hired a lady to pretend to be a receptionist. When someone walked in, wanting to join the practice, the lady was told to tell them that the doctor was not able to take patients due to his already full schedule.
"Hey, Janet," I said as I passed the 'reception desk' and stepped through a door to the right.
The room on the other side of that door completely filled the rest of the bottom floor of the building. It was literally just one giant room filled with cubicles, massive computer systems, and a couple offices to the side. The second floor was for the actual field agents and the third floor was used for conferences and meetings.
I made a bee-line for the stairs that led up to the second floor where my station was. The second floor was also full of cubicles and smaller, less complicated computers. To the right was a door that led to a training facility and small gym. The rest of the floor was one room and seemed to always buzz with activity.
As I made my way to my cubicle, I nearly ran right into Edgar Hansen.
"Oh, sorry," he mumbled as he hurried past me.
I rolled my eyes irritably. The day before yesterday the new guy, Edgar, had been assigned to be my partner. I was not happy whatsoever about the arrangement. I told Alex from the beginning that I worked alone. I had always worked alone as a bounty hunter. I did not work with a team like most bounty hunters do. My missions were quick, well-planned, get in and get out operations. I liked to do my own work and do it alone.
Keith Colburn gave me a sympathetic look as I sighed and sat down behind my desk. His cubicle was diagonal from mine and we tended to talk a lot to each other and help each other out when necessary.
"So how's the new guy holding up?" he asked with a knowing smile.
"Just dandy," I muttered.
Keith laughed, "You're too independent for your own good, Jack. You gotta learn to trust other people!"
I stiffened at that. I had learned early on not to trust people. I had been tossed from one adoption agency and foster home to another until I turned eighteen and began my career. Never having my roots planted in any single place kept me on my toes. Being shuffled around so much made me want to be distant from others. I was afraid that if I let someone in, that they would leave me and I would be hurt yet again. I had put up a kind of wall or barrier to keep people at arms distance.
"It's not that," I murmured, "I just like working alone."
Keith shook his head and smiled good-naturedly.
"And you're stubborn too!"
Gretchen shot me a look through her ice-blue eyes. Her cubicle was directly beside mine and I felt unnerved every time she looked at me. She had been an actual Company agent for quite awhile. She had done quite a few things to innocent people. I had to be careful judging her though because my boss, Alexander Mahone, had done the same things. Once The Company had a hold on someone, they did not let go until they were done with you. Usually, The Company killed those they were done using, but luckily for Gretchen and Alex, they got away.
"Can you two take this conversation elsewhere?" she snarled, "I got work to do."
"Easy there, Gretchen," said Keith, "Lighten up a bit, would you?"
I gave Keith a look. No one talked to Gretchen like that. Most of us were scared and intimidated by her. She had an air about her that screamed "I am very dangerous." In another life Gretchen would have probably been a model. She had silky dark-black hair, a perfect figure, and those striking blue eyes that seemed to freeze your heart when you looked into them.
Gretchen shot her angry glare to Keith. Keith held up his hands in surrender and turned to go back to his work.
That's when the call came in.
"I need Jack, Gretchen, Keith, and Edgar in the conference room now!" shouted Alex as he ran down the stairs from the third floor.
We all stood up from behind our desks and glanced around anxiously. Alex looked visibly upset and that alarmed us. He had gone through a lot when he worked for The Company and sometimes he had his breakdowns, but this was different.
We all filed into the conference room and waited for him to speak.
"There's been a hostage situation downtown," he began, "It's pretty serious too. A group of unknown people have taken an entire hotel hostage. It's estimated that there are over three hundred people in the building."
You could literally feel the shock and tension ripple through the room at those words. That was a heck of a lot of people who needed our help.
"What are the local authorities doing about it?" I asked.
"Right now, standing outside with megaphones," said Alex, irritably, "So in other words, nothing."
"FBI involved yet?" asked Keith.
"On their way," replied Alex, "But I'm going to need you guys to do this. I don't place a lot of faith in the FBI, considering I once worked for them. They don't know how to handle these things like you do. So I want you to go out as a team and assess the situation. Call me, let me know what's going on, and if necessary I'll send you backup."
We stood collectively and began to head down to the second floor to gear up. The techies were informed and began to print off some fake ID's for us to use. We would be going in as fake FBI special agents this time.
Little did we know what would happen within the next forty-eight hours…
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