Ok, so here's the next chapter of Hostage. I don't have much to say here except that I might not update for a few days because my cable is on the fritz thanks to that storm. So yeah.
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Mariah looked out over the room, trying to comprehend the message that Lee had sent Kevin. If you get out of this alive, I'll take you to a Panic at the disco concert. It would have been easier to comprehend if Kevin was awake, but he was unconscious with his face pressed against her shoulder. So, Lee was going to take Kevin somewhere when they got out of here. But that place would obviously be the hospital. Panic at the hospital? No. There was panic now, and the hospital would be their when they got out of here. So, the panic was inferring to now? Or… what was the disco? Kevin's iPod? Lee wasn't that thoughtful, was he? And even if that was it, how did any of it connect?
Mariah sighed and wriggled her shoulder until Kevin woke. He sat up on his own and looked around the room stiffly. Then he reached behind Mariah and she felt the ropes around her hands grow looser.
"Don't, Kevin. She might shoot you again." She tried to sound calm, but Mariah felt more rushed as Kevin untied her wrists completely.
"Kevin I-"
"I don't care, Mariah. What are you going to do, make a break for it?" He grumbled painfully. Mariah fell quiet, and remembered that her ankles were still tied together. She lifted her wrists up to examine them. They were slightly reddened, but that was the least of her worries. The woman came out of the room at that moment, gave them a side glance, and kept talking.
"No, Dickinson. I want the money deposited in the account in ten minutes or this is going to turn very ugly. You're little neko is already bleeding out, don't push his life even further past the line."
Mariah winced at the way the woman through the racist comment around like a cat batting a yarn ball. She was used to people not liking them for having feline blood, but no one ever took it in an extremely negative way.
"Yes. Oh, now would be a wonderful time. Yes, it's loaded. I bet you'd be able to hear the gunshot over the phone, want to try?" Mariah tightened her grip around Kevin's hand. Suddenly, her younger friend seemed to not care anymore. He was shivering slightly from lack of blood, but only barely. He had a rather pessimistic look on his face like he got when he was plotting something. The woman paced back and forth for a while, every now and then glancing over at her two captives with an interested smile. Finally, she closed the phone and sat down on the floor on the other side of the room, facing the two teenagers.
"So, sweetie, you'll be happy to know that if I don't get the money in ten minutes, I'll shoot you and your friend." She cooed, staring at Kevin with a smile.
"And how will you get away once you have the money?" Mariah asked, pulling Kevin closer to her just in case. It was a question that had eaten her since she got to the hallway all those hours ago.
"Oh, I've got a plan. I do hope you don't try to stop me, though. You're smarter then that." The woman said, stroking the barrel of the gun with her pinkie finger. Mariah took the implied threat as a window of opportunity to question the woman further.
"You must be too. You managed to steal Kevin's iPod just to hold him back when the others left, didn't you?" She asked, trying not to sound too cautious. She had to act calm but collected.
"So you figured that out." The lady said with a smile. "Yes, I had given it much thought. He seemed to be the only person who would bring your team crashing down and the other teams along with it."
Mariah flinched. So there was the confession. But at least she had a conversation going, or at the very least the beginnings of one. Mariah tried to gather her thoughts as they raced around her head, screaming to get the attention of her mind's eye. Suddenly, she had no idea what to say. The only thing she could think about was the way the gun flicked up and down as the woman waited for a reply, and how it looked as thought it could fire a bullet into something in the blink of an eye.
"Because I'm that special." Kevin replied for Mariah, who looked over at him with wide eyes. The woman smiled and nodded, tapping her index finger against the tip of her noise gingerly. Mariah looked towards Kevin, then the woman, and then the door. The only way out of here was to be saved, or to wait for a chance to escape themselves, which was both dangerous and stupid. Someone else could die, even if they had nothing to do with this whole situation.
"But I'd suggest you get out of the building the second you can. You never know when things might blow up in your face." She said, before standing and walking into the smaller room. Mariah sat there, with Kevin leaning heavily into her, and felt like she was going to burst into tears. What did that mean? Was there a bomb? Or was she just trying to scare her? Mariah kissed the top of Kevin's head shakily and wrapped her arms around him.
-x-x-x-
"Nothing yet." Lee mumbled, staring down at Kevin's sliver. He had told Kai not to call any other phone, and if the line was busy to not call back for another ten minutes. Still, the phone didn't ring. Lee looked across the hall bitterly, wondering when something was going to happen. Another gunshot, the halls filling with FBI agents, whatever. But something had to happen soon before he went insane from hunger and boredom.
"Rei…" He mumbled, leaning towards his friend. The other looked up to meet his eyes wearily. "Yeah?"
"I've been thinking… So we know who this woman is, or at least we know something about her. That doesn't mean it's going to help us. She still has a gun, Rei. We don't." His teammate looked back down to the floor, deep in thought. "Well," Rei started. "At least we're trying." It wasn't the most helpful this Rei could say, but at least he replied. An eerie silence had filled the hallway, settling down on each body and making everyone shiver. Lee considered this curiously. Why was he so cold? The heating. Had it been shut off? Why would they shut the heating off when the only people who would really be affected by it were the teams in the hallway? Lee sighed and looked towards the door, wishing that his teammates were all safe.
-x-x-x-
"Oh, shit. How are we supposed to contact them when my cell is in my car and yours has just been smashed on the pavement?!" Kai blurted, looking down at the broken phone that lay on the icy sidewalk. Kenny fell to his knee's besides it, scooping it up and cradling it against his chest.
"It's your fault, you dropped it!" He complained, glaring up at Kai.
"It's not my fault. I slipped on the ice, would you rather me be in a neck brace, or would you prefer it if I was standing over a stupid phone?" Kai spat bitterly, returning the glare.
"It's not just a phone if it's the only life line we had connecting us to the others!" He shot back. He had never used that tone before, and both Kai and Hilary backed off. The younger teen scrambled back to his feet and continued to lash out at the Russian.
"I don't care if you didn't know him, but Kevin is bleeding to death and the others are in trouble too! If we don't get help now he could die and so could the rest of them!" He complained, the hands that were holding the broken phone shaking slightly. Finally, he let his face drop and stared at the frozen cement below his feet. Slow danced through the otherwise silent air around them as the younger boy calmed himself, leaving Kai and Hilary exchanging unsure looks.
"Chief… I know we need to help them. I'm just as stressed as you." Kai said, staying calm but concerned. Kenny took a deep breath but said nothing. Hilary gave him a small hug and stepped away, turning to look down the ally as Kai tried to get a reaction out of Kenny.
"Guys!" She proclaimed in a startled voice. Kai whipped around to find much to his dismay that the street gang who had surrounded them earlier was rounding the corner. They all seemed to want revenge on Kai for punching their member, who was the only one Kai could tell apart from the others because of the blood dripping from his nose.
"Well look at this. Two dudes and a chick lost in our crib." The apparent leader said with what must have been a New York accent. "But what's this? Not American? How unfortunate for you." He said as the group advanced with startling speed. Kai was the only one who really stood his ground as the other two backed up behind him.
"You gunna pay fow hittin me, you foweign jewk!" The wounded member of the street gain said, his accent sounding humorous through what must have been a broken nose.
"You should get that looked at." Kai said coolly. This of course only made the group grow faster. "Listen, we don't want any trouble. Our teammates and friends are hostages at BBA headquarters, and we need to help them." Kai stated this rather bluntly, but it slowed the group.
"You mean what 'dat hot news chick has been talkin' 'bout? The Christmas crisis at 'da BBA?" The leader asked, curiosity taking over the anger on his wide face.
"Yes, that one." Kai said blandly, rolling his eyes. The illiteracy of the group was getting to him.
"So whos 'da sap who got shot?" One of the scrawnier boys asked. Kai sighed and looked down at his expensive Nike premium shoes.
"Kevin. Of the White Tigers." He looked up to find that the group had stopped moving completely.
"Da smalla one?" The leader asked, processing the information. Suddenly, recognition dawned on his face. "My sis is one a his biggest fans! I can't let 'em die!" He thrust his fist in the air as did his thuggish friends. Kai wasn't sure whether or not this meant that they would let them through or give them a hand, but he was pretty sure he could talk them into aiding him. Kai could only smile slightly and thank the lord that Kevin was cute.
"So… You'll help?" He asked slowly, still considering what they meant.
"Hells yeah!" He cried, before instructing his gang to do what Kai said. The Russian smiled, and turned towards Kenny, whose spirits had miraculously lightened.
"So what can da lot of us do?" Asked the leader. Kai pondered over this for a moment. If it was just the three of them, then most they could do was dig up information to give to the cops, who probably already figured out who the woman was. With all the extra help, they could easily storm the building themselves. But how would they get it?
"Names first." Kai said, figuring it was the next most important step. As if he had lit a fuse, the street gang erupted in a chorus of name telling.
"Skinhead."
"Mohan."
"Stripback."
"Snakelock."
"Highjack."
"And I'm the ring leada', Ripple. At ya' service." Kai pause again, knowing that the second awkward silence was making everyone uneasy. For a group of New Yorkers, they had rather odd street names.
"I'm Kai. This is Hilary, and Kenny." He mumbled almost embarrassed. Suddenly, he realized how much time they were wasting and snapped his attention away from the sidewalk and towards Kenny. "Can you find a back way into the building?" There was a pause while the chief typed away on his laptop, and a disappointed breeze when Kenny looked up shaking his head. "Nothing that I can find."
"Pfft." From the middle of the group, the boy who Kai had punched was looking at Kenny pitifully. "Have anything to contribute?" Kai asked blandly.
"Ya, I do. Bud iph ya wan do know, you'll hafta pay ub." The comment was returned with a steady whack on the back of the head from Ripple, who glared at him. "You wanna risk my sista's happiness, huh?!" He yelled, and the two were thrown into what must have been the very start of a street fight. Fortunately for the two of them, Kai stepped in.
"It's ok! What do you want?" Kai asked slowly. He was eyeing the boy's closed fists with caution.
"Fiwst off, my name id Stwipback. Secod, I want moneh fow my cowedge tuition!"
Kai faltered. College? He wanted money so he could go to college? The values these people had were constantly shocking Kai.
"Alrighty, college money. Sure. I'll pay you – all of you – once we get my friends out of danger." The group of miscreants nodded and huddled around the chief, who was running over a plan of entry to the building. Stripback shook his head and pointed to a back entrance that wasn't labeled.
The BBA headquarters in American consisted of two buildings. A main building, that was about fifty floors high, and a smaller branch that was in charge of overflow and personal company services. The smaller building was linked to the main by a sky tunnel that was about five stories above the street. As the group of teens planned their entrance, both buildings were being cleared and flanked with police for security issues, which meant that breaking in would be hard, but once inside they would be in the clear.
Kenny managed to find an older flank of the building the housed the engineering equipment, and with a little more digging, figured out how to get it.
"At 2:56 am, the first shipping deport of the day arrives. So for a ten minute space of time, the service door will be unlocked due to an automatic security system. That means… We have to get to the BBA and get in that way." He mused, leaning over the laptop. Kai nodded slightly.
"It's 1:36 am." He mumbled, checking his watch. Had seven hours really passed since the meeting ended? Kai shuddered. Not only had the teams been in the hallway all that time, but Kevin had been bleeding all the while. Kai wondered how deep the wound was, and reflected on his knowledge of how much blood someone could loose before dying. They were running out of time.
"Does anyone actually deliver crap to a place at 2 am?" The thug who addressed himself as Snakelock asked. He had less on a New York accent then the others, but it was still there. Kenny shook his head. "It's easier then doing it during the day when people are working. They can have the items prepared. That, and it depends on when the truck is supposed to arrive."
"And it won't be going into the building with a psychopath of the loose." Kai concluded. "That should give us an opportunity to get it."
There was a pause, before Snakelock spoke again. "Wouldn't dey know ta block dat door?" He asked. Despite his poor pronunciation, he spoke with certainty and proved a point. Kai sighed, and tried to find a loophole.
"We'll need a distraction." He mused, poking the screen of the laptop. For once, Kenny didn't begin lecturing him not to. "That's the most likely path we'll take. The police will be around there anyways, so-"
"I gots some smoke grenades and a nightstick!" Skinhead said eagerly. Kai sighed again and looked towards him with a weak smile. "How about we just use the grenades? Hitting a cop is well... A felony." This didn't seem to make much sense to the thug, but he still complied. "So we use the smoke bomb and make it past the cops. They could still follow us into the building."
"We'd need to time it just right." Mohan said. Kai looked over at him with raised eyebrows. The boy looked like he was fresh out of India, and sounded like it too. He was scrawnier then the others, and had a pair of thin rimmed glassed that were low on his nose. Compared to the others that he hung out with, he sounded like Einstein.
"... Yeah. But something might go wrong. We might not all get it."
Within the next twenty minutes, the strange group devised a plan to break in, making Kai, Kenny, and Hilary the first to enter the building, then Ripple, Snakelock, and Stripback. As it turned out, each of the names held by the ruffians were obtained through skill. Snakelock was a master at picking locks, and since they had no idea what they would run into in the building, he was coming. Ripple never really clarified how he had gotten his name, but he said he was going or no deal. Stripback, after a rather uneasy questioning, said that he was in a fight and his opponent pulled a knife on him. He had received several long cuts down his back, but still won.
So they left it at that. If the others could make it, they would rush in afterwards, starting with Mohan. They youngest of the crew had yet to be in a bind with the cops, and didn't want to make this his first offence. Then, as they neared 2 am, they set off through the back allies.