Ezra couldn't help it, his frustration at the situation was sending his stress levels through the roof and it bubbled over in the form of lashing out at the officers in the room. Stalking back and forth repeatedly he spat pure venom through gritted teeth.
"Where is my goddamned negotiation team?" he said making Martin flinch slightly.
"ETA is five minutes," he replied without looking up at the Chief. He'd worked with the man before, although never under such circumstance, and he knew Ezra was just blowing off some steam. Nothing personal.
"Right, I need you guys to trace Joe Hardy's cell number. Anyway you can, legal or not. We need access to that phone."
The two tech officers looked at each other out of the corner of their eyes. Tracing a phone number was probably one of the easiest hacks that could have been asked of them, people were far too trusting about bandying their personal information around the internet and phone numbers were no exception. Martin resisted the urge to crack his fingers before applying them to his keyboard and had just settled his hands when movement from his monitor caught his eye.
The somewhat unsteady form of Joe Hardy was being brought back into the room. He watched for a moment, his eyed glued to the screen in horror as Joe was beaten to the ground. Words passed back and forth between him and the leader before he was set upon. Martin leapt as the Chief's hand fell onto his shoulder, both men's eyes fixed upon Joe's writing body.
"Find me that number."
Shaking his head slightly, Martin fixed his eyes upon his computer quickly rattling through Joe Hardy's online paper trail to recover the digits, his heart beating in time to his moving fingers as they flew across the keyboard.
"Got it!" he said with elation, typing the numbers into one of the command centre's on board phones before handing it to a snatching Chief.
Ezra's heart was in his mouth as he raised the receiver to his ear, the dull sound of ringing like music to him now. Acid bile coated the back of his throat as he watched in revulsion as Joe was tackled to the ground, twisting his body in obvious agony before bonelessly sinking to the floor.
Martin gazed up at his boss as the Chief's mouth set into a grim line. He wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of the look he was giving the Marchetti leader.
"Joe can't come to the phone right now, would you like to leave a message?"
"You sick fuck," the Chief bit out in spite of himself. Not strictly following the script in the handbook.
"Well hello to you too," returned a velvety smooth voice "and who is it I have the pleasure of talking to?"
"This is Ezra Collig, chief of Bayport police. Now tell me which Marchetti scumbag am I talking to?"
"Now Chief, I don't think I like your tone very much," the voice bit back, a slight edge to his demeanour. "I have a room full of people here who won't like me when I'm angry."
The Chief closed his eyes for a moment, swallowing his anger, the threat received loud and clear. "We know you have hostages," he said to the monitor in front of him.
"I take it you have eyes in the room then Chief," the man said. The figure on the screen looked up and scanned the ceiling before finally catching sight of the security camera he was obviously looking for, bringing a hand up in a slow and mocking wave. "Did Hardy set that up for you as well?"
He looked down for a moment at the unconscious youth before him, lifting his foot and pushing Joe's head to the side where it lolled.
"He's not working with us," the Chief said. Desperate to take some of the heat from Joe. "He's just an innocent bystander."
"Innocent?" the voice said back with a hitch of anger "Carlos is dead because of this 'innocent' kid and I intend to make him pay. I intend to make you all pay."
"Look, who am I talking to?" the Chief asked trying to keep the worry out of his tone.
After a moment of breathy silence the voice finally replied. "Lance."
Lance Marchetti, he'd figured as much. Dante's second oldest son. His eldest had been killed in some past gang fight or other leaving the slightly unbalanced Lance as second head of the family.
"OK, Lance. I'm sorry about Carlos but Joe had nothing to do with it. Those men were sent in on my word."
"Then I'm going to have to come for you too Chief, as soon as I've dealt with this joker," Lance replied clearly not believing a word the Chief said.
"Let's make a trade? My life for theirs," Ezra said. Ignoring the whispered "Chief!" from Martin.
"Let's not be hasty Chief. Their lives are worth much more to me than just your own. Especially when I have now made it my mission to make sure you feel the same pain as my family has had to suffer. Let's sweeten the pot shall we?"
"What exactly do you want?"
"I want my family to walk out of here. My whole family, including my father. He doesn't move so well at the moment, operation you see, so we're going to need access to a vehicle which is big enough to transport all of us off into the sunset."
"You know I can't allow you to walk out of that building scott free after all the lives you've wasted today," replied the Chief. Knowing it would anger the man on the other end of the phone.
"Those men died because of you and Mr Hardy here. We didn't start this war."
"Oh yeah, what about the guys guarding your dear old dad's room hmm? Tell me that Lance," the Chief replied, his blood boiling once again.
"They were...informed of how they'd need to behave if they wanted to leave with their lives. Their blood is on their own hands."
"OK Lance, say we are here considering your demands. How about you release some of the hostages as a gesture of goodwill. The women perhaps? Or the doctor with the puncture. Trust me when I say you don't need any more blood, on your hands or any where else," the Chief said working to keep his tone even.
"What's in it for me exactly?" asked Lance.
"It'll count in your favour when your ass ends up in court," the Chief said, losing his cool for a moment.
"No can do Chief. How about you send up a care package first, my team is getting mighty thirsty in here. Then maybe we can talk. Have one of your men, unarmed of course, bring me a crate of water and some food, your choice my dear, and then maybe we can talk moving cattle. Oh and Chief? No funny business or I'll be forced to cull the herd."
With that, the line went dead, a few seconds later Lance turned to the camera and saluted. Ezra, still holding the phone, covered his face with his hand a moment before looking back to Martin, realisation flashing in his eyes.
"Where's that other Hardy kid?"
Another short one I'm afraid but it made sense to cut it off here.
Thanks so much for all the words of encouragement so far. They make my day that much brighter.
As always, all comments and critiques are welcomed.