Chapter Ten
4 hours earlier--- 1 a.m.
"We're live at the scene where shots are being fired. One child, who may be a hostage, has just been shot."
"They're shooting at a little girl," Quinn stated the obvious as the family watched the whole thing unravel on screen.
"Why doesn't she get up?" Nate asked, to no one in particular.
"She's dead," Adam whispered. But Maxine, who was sitting next to him, still heard him and hit him a little on the arm.
"Don't say that," she told him. "She's not."
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Suddenly, Tim couldn't watch his granddaughter lie on the ground, helplessly anymore. He broke through the police barricade and ran toward the fallen child, dodging bullets as he went.
"What the hell?!" D.A. Mike exclaimed as he stood behind a police car to get a better look.
"Hold your fire!" Commissioner Ray ordered the team. "Hold your fire!" He motioned to the paramedics, who were standing nearby. "Get that gurney ready!" Then, Ray turned to SWAT team members. "Go!"
The two men, with a shield drawn, hurried over to Tim and Holly. Tim saw them coming and scooped Holly's frail body in his arms. Together, they all made their way slowly toward the awaiting paramedics. Tim placed Holly onto the gurney and the paramedics started looking her over.
"Sweetie, where were you hit?" one of the paramedics asked her. Holly was to terrified to answer, she lay on the gurney staring up at the night sky, her face pale and her breath ragged.
"In the arm," Tim answered for her. "I think it just grazed her."
"You're right," the other paramedic agreed. "I see an entrance and an exit."
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"It appears one civilian somehow broke through police barricade. He ran out and helped the fallen hostage to safety. No word on how badly the hostage was injured. But the shooting has……"
"Hey, don't mute it," Luke told Nate after he had pressed the button on the remote. "I can't tell what's going on."
"Neither could that reporter," Nate said after he had put the remote on the coffee table. "And her inane babble is making me crawl out of my skin." He got up from the couch and walked to the other side of the living room.
"Damn it," Luke suddenly said to the television. "Get the camera away from the looky-loos and put it on the child that was wounded."
"Why would they shoot a little girl?" Quinn asked, disbelievingly.
"How the hell would I know?" Luke answered. "They certainly have plenty of other worthwhile candidates starting with that miserable ringleader."
"And what was that man doing running through police barricade into the middle of a gun battle?" Quinn questioned.
"He was mucking things up, that's what he was doing," Luke answered him.
"From what the reporter says, it looks like he saved the girl's life," Adam corrected him.
"Alright, that's it," Nate said suddenly walking toward the door. "I'm going down there, I'll call you with more information."
"Well, so am I," Quinn replied, getting up and following Nate. "I want in on the action."
"I'm going also," Adam said, standing up. Maxine gave her son a look. "Just to make sure those two don't cause any trouble." With that, he hurried after his brothers.
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"Oh, I'm disappointed," Flick said when Eight came back into the lobby. "Were you trying to miss?" During the whole exchange, Lou was trying to break free of Ty's hold.
"Let go of me!" Lou broke free of his hold and ran toward Flick and Eight. "You shot my daughter!"
"No!" Flick rose his voice. "I don't believe he did."
"Oh, she fell on her own," Eight told her.
"It doesn't appear that the consoling you gave your daughter…."
"Oh, shut up!" Lou cried giving Flick a shove backwards and she started hitting him. "You were trying to kill her. She was three years old and had her whole life ahead of her. And you killed her." At that, Darrell came over to her and was trying to pull her off of Flick.
"I hate you animals!" Lou screamed. "All of you! You're the ones who should die. Not decent people. Do you get the difference, you coward?! Hiding behind your stupid masks." She turned toward Darrell reached for his mask. "You're so tough, why don't you take it off." Darrell blocked her and that's when Sam stood up and walked up to her.
"You've got to calm down," Sam told her, taking Lou's arm. "Calm down." Lou tried to pull away from her, but Sam held onto her. "I understand that you are frustrated about your daughter, but you need to calm down or we are all going to die."
"Well, he's going to kill us anyway," Lou replied. She turned back to Flick. "Right? You don't care about human life. You send a small, helpless child outside and then you shot her."
"That's the purpose of the hostage," Flick informed her. "To die for my cause."
"Oh, yeah," Lou said. "Ok, so what's your purpose? Huh? You can walk out of here with everything in that vault and you'll still be the same piece of worthless trash that you were when it started."
"I second that," Hazel spoke up.
"You people don't seem to be clear about one concept," Flick turned to address the whole lobby, while walking toward the front desk. "You're not in charge here," He reached down and grabbed a bell hop. "I. Am." Flick pulled the man up and slammed him head first into the desk. "Do you understand?" He let the man fall to the floor, in pain.
"But Lou was right about one thing," Flick turned to the rest of the room. "I couldn't care less if you die or if you crawl out of the wreckage of this hotel with a few less body parts. So either you stifle the urges to lash out at me and behave like nice little kiddies or be prepared to pay the price. Now, everybody on the floor and don't make me say it again!"
He walked back over to Lou, "You, I'd like you to curb your hysterics," Lou pushed the gun away with her arm and started to walk away. "If you don't want lover boy here to get his head blown off." He gestured to Ty. He pointed the gun at Ty, then Lou, until they both were seated on the floor. Then, he turned around.
"You, Florence Nightingale," A young girl looked up from where she was attending to the wounded man. "Stop what you're doing." Flick turned to Darrell. "Take her in the back."
"Why?" the girl asked. On his way to the girl, Darrell started to put his hand on Jen's shoulder, but she pushed him away. Darrell didn't take offense to it.
"Because I don't want to hear your voice anymore," Flick answered the girl. "On second thought, on second thought, Six you take her in the back." Darrell sighed inwardly, as he handed the girl to Six, who came forward to collect her.
"That was great what you did for Lou," Jake told Sam, in a whisper. "But don't do it again."
Sam looked over to where Darrell was standing and then back at Jake, "Jake,…"
"Listen to me," Jake interrupted her. "This guy is starting to unravel. He's not playing mind games anymore. He wants to regain control of the situation, if he starts losing it even more, he's going to start killing people."
"He's going to need the hostages alive," Sam protested.
Jake winced at the pain in his shoulder, Sam took over putting pressure on the wound, as he continued, "He doesn't need all of us, as a matter of fact, he only needs half of us. So, you stop acting on impulse and you stay calm and you stay quiet."
Sam looked back over at Darrell, who stood watching her, and spoke to Jake, "There may be another way."
Flick stepped forward from where he was speaking to his group and spoke to the hostages again. "Our second-story man here, tells me there was breach in security. It seems like there was one would-be hero who breached the police barricade to scrape young Holly off the ground." Darrell gulped, hoping his cover won't be blown.
"We'll be checking for more interlopers and pay much more attention to the security system," When he was finished, Flick gestured to Hazel, Jen, and Soraya. "Five, these three are yours." Darrell nodded. "Seven," Flick gestured him someplace else.
"Ok, hostages," Flick called attention. "Just a brief reminder, this lobby is set to explode and you don't know which one of us has the detonator. So be very careful of who you touch and how." Darrell looked down at Jen. "My people, listen up, if someone as so much as breathes loud, kill them. Please."
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Holly's breathing was still labored and her face was still paled. The only thing that seem to have changed was instead of staring straight, her cornflower blue eyes moved wildly around her surroundings.
"Ma…ma…" her tiny voice croaked out. Tim Fleming moved to stand beside the gurney and took his granddaughter's hand.
"It's ok, honey," Tim tried to console her. "Pop pop's here,"
It didn't seem to work because Holly's eyes began to fill with tears as she started to scream for mother. She started to flail around, trying to push everybody away and get off the gurney. But the paramedics were ready and soon after piercing her skin with a needle, the little girl was lying still on the gurney, her eyes half-closed.
"Ok, good," one of the paramedics said. "Let's get her to the hospital." With that, they started to wheel her to the waiting ambulance.
"Hold on, wait," Ray stopped Tim. "We need to question her about what's going on inside."
"My granddaughter is in no shape to answer any questions," Tim simply told him and with that he hurried after the paramedics.
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Kelly sat on the floor of the vault, staring at the floor and bouncing her knee. She looked across from her to her captor. He was asleep. She carefully crawled over to him, being as quiet as she could be. She stopped next to him for a second and then Kelly reached her arm over and in one swift motion pulled the mask from his face.
Instantly, the man was awake and Kelly was on the other side of the vault again. He stood up and pointed his gun at her.
"No, no don't shoot me," Kelly pleaded.
"What the hell did you do that for?" the man wanted to know.
"I thought you might be roasting," Kelly explained herself.
"Give me one good reason not to kill you?" he asked her.
"Because you don't want to," Kelly answered. "Obviously, it was stupid of me to take off you mask, but look at it from my point of view. I've been stuck in here with you for hours, not knowing what you look like and it was driving me crazy."
"If I let you live, you can I.D. me," he said.
"No, I won't," Kelly replied. "I promise."
"And I'm just supposed to trust you on that?" he questioned her.
"Look, you didn't expect any of this, right?" Kelly said. "You took this job, thinking it was going to last five minutes and pay you a million dollars. You didn't think of what you'd have to do for that money. If you kill me, that's murder and that… ruins the rest of your life, you don't want that, right?"
The man sighed and turned back to his side of the vault, "You're right," He sat back down on the floor. "I didn't think this through," He ran a hand through his red hair. "That's the problem with me."
"Yeah, me too," Kelly stated. "Obviously, or I would've have taken your mask off."
"Do you really mean that or are you just playing me?" he asked.
"A little of both," Kelly confessed with a small smile. "I want you to like me, so you don't shoot me."
He returned her smile, "I'm not going to shoot you. I just don't know how either of us is going to get out of here."
Kelly walked over and sat down next to him. "Okay," she started. "Maybe we can figure that out together." With that, she put the mask on his lap.
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Hazel was kneeled down by Soraya's side, stroking her black curly hair. She sensed the gunman, Darrell, shift behind her and she half stared at him. She felt him looking at her and she just wanted to jump up and attack him.
Across the room, Sam was looking at Darrell too. "You know what I wish?" she whispered to Jake. "I wish Darrell were here right now." Sam looked back to Darrell. "Because he would know what to do in a situation like this. He would be calm and he would be watchful." All the while, Jake was looking at her, trying to figure out where she was going with this. "But it's a shame he's doing hard labor right now, isn't it?" she continued.
Jake, at last, looked up to where Darrell was standing. At that moment, Jen let out small squeal of pain from her perch on the armrest. Darrell instantly looked at her. Hazel got up, looking at Darrell first. Darrell looked at her and then stepped back. Hazel took the cue and walked over to Jen.
"Hey,…" Hazel said, not sure exactly what to say. "Hey,…just try to breathe through it, ok? If your cramps are being caused by stress and dehydration, it's probably best to stay calm." Jen groaned a little.
"And if it's premature labor, then being calm can't hurt, right?" Jen replied.
"I-- I guess so," Hazel responded. "But it's wonderful that you're having a baby, right? I bet you can't wait to hold your little boy or girl. This is a miracle, ok."
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"Hey, did you guys find anything out?" Quinn asked his brothers as they met up on the sidewalk across from the hotel.
"I overheard a few officers saying that there was an equinox briefcase locked in the vault," Nate explained. "And that is what these people are after."
"Equinox?" Adam questioned. Nate nodded.
"Do you know something about it?" Quinn asked him.
Adam nodded and looked toward the hotel lobby, "I think so."
"What are you thinking?" Quinn asked again.
"The briefcase comes with a six-digit key," Adam started explaining. "If it's not entered in correctly every twenty-four hours, then it will destroy all the contents inside."
Quinn looked at the hotel, with a worried expression on his face. Then his eyes landed on a megaphone that was sitting on a police car, an idea started forming in his mind. Without another word to his brothers, Quinn walked past the police barricade, grabbing the megaphone on his way.
"What's this…." Mike murmured, then he yelled to group. "Attention! Stop! Somebody shoot him in the leg!" All officers raised their guns.
"Hey, hey, Stand down!" Ray ordered the officers, he then turned to Mike. "What are you doing? You know, you're acting like you have private knowledge about what's going on in there. Are you working some kind of angle?"
"No, of course not," Mike answered.
"Then, Quinn does what he wants," Ray told him.
"Even if it violates every procedure we have in place?" Mike questioned.
"Yeah, even then," Ray responded.
Meanwhile, Quinn had stopped about halfway to the hotel, clutching the megaphone. He stared at the hotel doors, not sure if was doing the right thing or not.
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"Alright," Kelly began, standing up and walking to the other side of the vault. "This is what we're going to do. When we hear this door start to open, you're going to grab your mask and put it back on and grab the briefcase. Stick your gun in my side and I'm going to act all terrified of you." Three looked at her. "Then, uh, once One gets the briefcase, just tell him you're going take me back to the lobby with the rest of the hostages."
"Hopefully, he'll hang out here and make sure whatever he wants is actually in that briefcase," Kelly continued. "Meanwhile, when we get to the office corridor, we're going to go left towards the service entrance, instead going right back to the lobby. And, we'll head out back, where hopefully the cops will be waiting."
"To shoot me," Three added.
"I'm not going to let them shoot you," Kelly insisted.
"You realize your plan can't possibly work," Three informed her.
"Ok, it's a long shot," Kelly said. "But it's better than giving up."
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"What are you talking about?" Jake asked Sam, glancing from Darrell to Sam.
"I want you to know that I don't regret one moment I've spent here with you," Sam said. "And I don't regret anything that I have said."
"Nothing's going to happen," Jake assured her.
"If we make it out of here, I'm not sure I ever want to operate again," Amy admitted to Ty.
"We will make it out of here," Ty told her. "And you will operate again, okay?" He looked down at her. "And when we do get out of here, we're going to get married and have a happy life together. Just the two of us and our future children."
"Ty,"
"C'mon, c'mon, think about it," Ty continued. "Imagine, a little girl with long brown hair cantering down the trails, laughing in shrill joy. The happiest child alive and she'll be all ours."
Amy looked up at him smiled.
Suddenly, someone came on a loudspeaker outside. "Hey, Mr. One!"
Flick, along with everybody else in the room turned towards the doors as the sound of the loudspeaker. Flick walked forward a few steps and then stopped.
"This is Quinn Ely!" he continued. "This private party of yours is turning out to be a big waste of time." Flick narrowed his eyes, curiously. "The briefcase that you are so patiently waiting to take out of the vault, it's equipped to self-destruct."
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"Alright, so," Kelly was saying as she sat down on the floor. "I'm not exactly what you would call a realist."
"What do you mean?" Three asked her.
"Well, when I want something, I usually just go get it," Kelly explained. "I don't stop and ask myself the important questions like, 'Is this really good for me?' or 'Do I have the right to want this?' I just make it happen for myself."
"So, far I'm not hearing a problem," Three commented.
"Then, I haven't made myself clear," Kelly replied. "Ok, the things, or people, I want, are usually not mine to take. No matter what it costs, who gets hurts, I just do it."
Three scooted toward her a little bit. "What happened exactly?"
Kelly shook her head, "Let's just say that a lot of people got hurt, but….I think I hurt myself the most in the process."
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"I know what you want," Quinn spoke again. Flick continued to listen, in silence, no one knew what he was thinking. "I also know you're not going to get it without help. When the briefcase was stashed in the vault, there was a little extra protection added." Everybody in the room, was looking back and forth from the doors to Flick. "The briefcase is an equinox, that's right, an equinox. A state of the art little number with a built-in self-destruct mechanism. That means, holding up in there, waiting for the vault to open is not enough," Flick looked around the room, unfazed, and then back at the doors.
"You need the code," Quinn kept going. "I have it. I'm willing to trade, me and the code for the release of the hostages." Flick took a few more steps forward, towards the door, still not saying anything. Everybody waited tensely for what was to come next.
"I knew this had nothing to do with a robbery," Mike commented from outside.
"I heard the guy outside," Two said as she came back into the room with the female hostage that was taken out earlier. "Why is he being such a hero?"
With arms crossed, Flick answered, "Obviously, he has someone in here at risk," He looked at Jake. "He said his name was Ely." Flick pretended to ponder over it. "Ely. Ely. Ely. Isn't that your name?"
Jake didn't say anything.
"Hey, I'm talking to you," Flick said. "Who's that guy outside to you? Speak up, or mother and baby go bye-bye." With that, all guns trained on Jen.
"He's my brother," Jake stated. Jen breathed a sigh of relief. Flick walked over to Jake and Sam.
"Good boy, you've been such great help," Flick replied reached down and grabbed Sam by back of her neck, pulling her up. "This is only getting started, come on." Jake tried to grab Sam when they walked by, but he was too late.
"We can all get what we want here," Quinn was saying. Suddenly, the hotel doors started to open. The D.A. ordered the team to hold off shooting, when they all poised their guns. The next thing they saw was Sam being dragged out by the ringleader.
Quinn sucked in a breath, "Flick," he mumbled. When the two stopped in the doorway, Flick wrapped an arm around Sam's neck and pressed his gun to her head.
"This is going to be a very simple choice for you, Quinn Ely," Flick said menacingly. Quinn lowered the megaphone. "Give me the code or Sam dies. Simple."
"Do you have a distance mic?" Ray asked the captain of the SWAT team, without moving from position.
"Yes sir,"
"Use it," Ray ordered. "We need to here what's going on in there."
"It's okay, Sam," Quinn soothed, when he saw the scared look on Sam's face, while also trying to keep himself calm. "It's ok. Flick is too smart to shoot you, because killing you will guarantee you'll never get that code. Let her go. Let the other hostages free and I'll come in and I'll give you the code and when that vault opens, you punch it in, you take what you're here for, and get your people out. Everybody's happy."
"I have to question your timing," Flick responded. "Nobody made any attempt to give me the information before, so why are you here now?"
"Well, you see," Quinn started. "Linc is a little tied up right now, you know as well as I do, he's not the best rider here in Darton, and he got stranded out in the desert."
"You're bluffing," Flick called him out on it. "I think that if I want to wait for the vault to open, I'll get what I want and then use the hostages as leverage for my escape, THAT'S what I think."
"You really willing to take that chance?" Quinn questioned him.
"I also think that there's someone inside that means a lot to you," Flick said. "The pregnant young girl, for example. Give me the code or watch Sweet Sam die." He pressed the gun harder into Sam's neck, who trying to keep calm, but was on the verge of losing it. "And then, I'll bring Jennifer out and then you can watch her and the brat that she's gestating die too!"
"It's not working," Griffin said, still aimed to shoot. "He's going to have to give him the code."
At that time, Adam walked up to them and said, "Quinn doesn't know the code."
It was silent.
Jake looked across to where Darrell was standing. He may not get a clean shot, Jake reasoned himself. He could even shoot Sam. Jake rubbed the back of his neck, worried about what was going to happen. He looked back to Darrell, who was inconspicuously taking aim on Flick with his gun. Hazel sensed his movement and eyed him curiously.
"Oh, come on Flick," Quinn was saying from outside. "You don't want to do this. You're too smart for this."
"What do you think you're doing?" Two questioned Darrell when she walked up to him. Darrell looked away.
"Give him the code, Quinn!" Ty yelled outside as he stood up slowly. "He's already shot two people, he'll kill Sam unless you give him want he wants."
"Finally, the hothead, I believe his name is Ty," Flick replied. "Makes himself useful. He's telling the truth, I will kill her. So, what's it going to be, Mr. Ely."
"The code or Sam's life?"
A/N: I am really sorry I keep making you guys wait so long. I really don't mean and I'm going to try and get better at updating. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. One more thing, whoever can guess the guy in the vault, gets a cookie! (Heartland fans should really know)
Review.
