Disclaimer- Same as previous.


A/n- Thanks to, AquaInferno, nelle-fang ,MathematicSunset, Alexandra-Casey-Olivia, RavennaNightwind and lillynilly for reviewing, there's a few name references to characters from the books, just in case anyone was wondering. :) As always flames and reviews welcome.


Chapter 7


The elevator didn't go down that far (even if there was power to run it), that's why Cindy was trekking downwards once more, her and Tye Silvani, a 'feature article' guy, he wasn't a news breaker, he wrote human interest stories and the like, and he was good at it too, however terrible his grammar was, he had won several awards, and he was also a bit of coward.

He was walking next to her, stumbling more like, down the stairs, his lips quivering, tears running down his cheeks, his hands were shaking bad, the small silver bombs or 'pinches' as Cindy thought they were called were moving more erratically then she would have liked, she held her hands out silently to him and after looking at her through watery eyes he dumped one into her palm, she smiled at him and nodded her head at the far window as the reached the abandoned basement floor, it was dusty and badly lit with only two windows, on either side, equal level with the pavement so if it was any other day you'd be able to see the heels of people bustling about through San Francisco.

Tye moved to the window on the left, leaving Cindy the right, she moved to hers faster then he did, giving her time to peer out the grimy window, she made a clear smudge in the dust so she could see better and spied several police cars closest to the building, with the crowd behind them, generator lights illuminating the scene, Cindy also saw several news trucks parked on the sidewalk. She snorted. 'Ironic'

She looked at the small bomb in the palm of her hand, it glinted eerily, they had been instructed to put them at every entrance or exit, they were proximity mines, he would follow every pair of reporters he had sent off to check that they had set the bombs, Cindy waggled her fingers, staring down at the small device in her hand, Tye was waiting for her, sniffing at the base of the stairs. It was small, so small, small enough to fit in between her fingers without being seen, her pulse raced as her equally fast moving mind weighed up the potential consequence of what she was about to do.

The creaking of the top stairs announced another presence and Cindy's time was up. She decided in a flash, her hand snaking out to leave a backwards message in the dust that caked the window pane. The other hostages were behind their attacker when he appeared in the basement, gun in hand, Tye stood hastily aside and the killer glared at Cindy, she placed the pinch on the small dusty window sill, flicking her finger out once, just in front of the pinch, the killer swung on Tye, who dashed over to his sill and clicked his pinch once, hastily stepping away and back over to the group.

Cindy flicked her hand deftly, her heart pounding in her chest; it felt like it was pressing against her rib cage, if she was caught, she was dead. Simple as that. But the gunman didn't look back her way, he merely swung his gun in a gesture for everyone to move back up stairs, Cindy gulped as she moved to pass him, she had seen that gun so much in the last few hours she knew he had four shots left to kill her, four bullets left to kill her in one second, keeping her eyes deliberately down she felt him staring at her and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, she thought for sure he was going to bust her, if he turned around, checked again, Cindy held her breath and then…click, the door to the basement closed and their group moved on, Cindy waited until she was at the back of the group to slip the small unarmed explosive device into her pocket.

She had always loved magic as a kid, just another thing her dad had taught her. That and football. She could pull off the perfect illusion.


"Coffee?"

Lindsey deftly took the Styrofoam cup that Jill held out to her, the rising steam from the cup mingling with that of her breath, it was freezing and Lindsey didn't have a jacket, she shivered as she pushed the cup to her lips, "Triple caramel, don't tell Claire." She said softly.

Jill smiled, "Yeah well, I think chocolate death is something we could all do with right now." She joked.

Lindsey groaned, "Please don't use the word death."

Jill gave her a rye smile, sipping her own pure black coffee, "Sorry,"

"What's this I hear about death?" came Claire's dark voice, Jill grinned and Lindsey groaned again, the former turning around and offering a third cup she had snatched from Starbucks to the chief medical examiner, "Record time Claire," Jill smiled.

Claire took the cup with a shake of her head, "No disrespect to the families, but COD was pretty obvious, I think Bunny can handle it." She said.

Lindsey rolled her eyes, not looking at her two friends, "You let that girl near a knife?" she asked sarcastically.

Claire glared without replying, Jill shook her head, blonde hair getting kicked up in the frosty wind, Lindsey shivered again. Claire was just about to suggest she run to her car to retrieve another jacket when one slid over the lieutenants' shoulders, the girls looked up, Tom smiled at Lindsey softly, "You looked cold," he whispered.

"Well I can't feel my fingers anymore, but thanks, better late then never." Tom grinned with a shake of his head, as did Claire and Jill.

"Hour fourteen and we're still no where," Tom huffed, putting his hands on his hips and looking up at the Register building.

"We're at a stalemate until he tells us what he wants." Lindsey said softly, pulling Tom's jacket closer about her and sipping her coffee.

Jill was the first to say, "What if he doesn't want anything? He just wants to kill."

Lindsey shook her head, but Tom answered before her, "He wants something, if he didn't, then they'd be dead already and there'd be no need for the hostage situation, he would have just gone in there, all guns blazing, killing everyone in sight."

Claire interceded, "Okay then, how do we work out what to give him if he won't tell us."

Lindsey was quickest this time, "He's playing the waiting game, he's doing it on purpose, so the cops get ancy and the politicians start leaning on us to get the situation resolved, hopefully making us more likely to comply."

"And will it?" Jill asked.

"Will it what?"

"Make you more likely to comply," Jill repeated.

Lindsey shook her head, looking away from her friends, "We don't negotiate with terrorists. And as far as orders go, that what their calling this guy."

"So that's it, we do nothing. What if he just starts shooting until he gets what he wants?"

Knowing Lindsey would be unable to answer truthfully, Tom did, "We don't negotiate. That's the rules."

Silence settled over the small group


It was freezing inside the newsroom, standard procedure in hostage situations was to cut the power to the building and that had been done, leaving the room frosty without the heating ducts.

Taylah was shaking in Samuels lap, her head resting on his chest, the bleeding had been blocked and the only thing he could do now was keep her as still as possible, upright, she was struggling to keep her eyes open and Samuel was just about to start talking to her in hope of keeping her alert when the door opened again, the hostages and the still unnamed man entered, he had disarmed the bomb and they were free to move.

The reporters that had been left sat up a little straighter as their friends returned, slowly moving to the window, their attacker nodded, placing his weapon back in the waistband of his pants and taking a seat at the desk with all his junk on it, Samuel had given it a once over when the room had been semi-cleared, there were no weapons, at least ones he knew how to use, only a lot of high-tech gear and electrical junk. The man fiddled with the chunky radio looking thing had had taken with him and placed it back on the desk. Samuel heard crackling and the sound of voices; with a twist of a dial the voices became clear. They were cops and their every radio transmission was playing out into the room.


Cindy tensed as she heard the voices playing over the radio, she recognized some, Chief Tracchio, Richard Conklin and Chris Raleigh to name a few. If only they knew they were being overheard.

That wasn't a police scanner he was using, she should know, but it worked well and could pick up frequencies that seemed to belong to groups outside the SanFran police department, she had heard S.W.A.T terms a number of times

"Hey?"

Cindy looked up; that was the hostage taker speaking and he was looking right at her, Cindy's blood froze.

He sneered at her, pointing the gun at her like he was gesturing with a harmless stick or something, "I know you." He said.

Cindy didn't reply even when he stood up from his chair, walking over to her and peering down at her with a tilt of his head, "You do?" she said softly.

He snickered, "Yeah, your Cindy Thomas, that crime bitch." He grinned, "I think you can help me out."

Next second he raised his gun, his face not even flinching as he did.

BANG!


End chapter.


A/n- This should be the last update for a month or so, apologies for that. Busy time of year :) but this story will be finished.