THE TRUTH COMES OUT

"We interrupt this program for a special news bulletin. This is Richard Thornburg, live at Century City. Tonight, Los Angeles has joined the sad worldwide fraternity of cities whose only membership requirement is to suffer the anguish of international terrorism. Approximately two hours ago, an unidentified group of men seized control of the Nakatomi building, sealing off all entrances and exits. All telephone lines have been cut, and the only communication now possible, has been through the use of CB communicators, which the group apparently brought with them.

"What the hell?" Monica wondered out loud, as she stared at the TV. What would a group of terrorists want with the Nakatomi Plaza?

She was so relieved Hans wasn't one of those awful people anymore. However, she did worry about the effects of seeing people, with the possibility of some of them being his former friends, doing things like that. While she believed him when he said he would change - which he did just for her - she wondered what he was thinking as he saw this. Would he be ashamed, and wish he had never chosen that life? Or would he want to join them?

Too bad he was away on a business trip. She missed him like crazy, even if it hadn't been that long since he left. Fortunately, her newborn son Friedrich gave her plenty of distraction, as he was a voracious feeder… and a very loud cryer. Now however, he was fast asleep in his crib, looking just like a little angel. Already Monica could see he'd inherited Hans' hair colour, but his eyes were blue like her own. He had a button nose like his mother, rather than Hans' aquiline nose, but his lips were thin like his father's. He had to be the most beautiful baby boy in the entire world. When Monica was busy looking after him, she was able to forget the pain of having her husband away on that stupid business trip. Or most of the pain, anyway.

Meanwhile, back at Nakatomi Plaza…

"They'll be coming," Hans told his henchmen as he looked out of the window at the sea of blue and red lights. It didn't take a genius to figure out that they were planning to swarm the building. "Everyone get ready. Theo? You are the eyes now."

A few minutes later, Theo's voice could be heard on the radio. "Alright, listen up guys. 'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except… four assholes coming in the rear in standard two-by-two cover formation."

That was all the warning they needed. Instantly, everyone bolted towards the rear, weapons at the ready. They all fired, shooting at the lights the police had put up. Hans smirked - they really were like sitting ducks.

"Don't be impatient," he said. "Just wound them."

Now that the lights illuminated the figures that were trying to sneak into the building, Uli was able to aim and fire at them. Screaming could be heard as glass rained down on them.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute, what have we here, gentlemen?" Theo announced. "The police have themselves an RV. Southeast corner."

Ha. They really are stupider than they look.

James arrived, wheeling their rocket launcher in the direction of the southeast corner. Alexander joined him, screaming at him to hurry up. They quickly assembled the loader, and began to load the missiles. "I see him!" Alexander yelled.

As soon as the car pulled up towards the building, the two fired the launcher. The entire vehicle disappeared in a huge ball of flame, along with the people inside.

"Oh my god, the quarterback is toast!" Theo shouted victoriously.

"Hit it again," Hans commanded.

Unsurprisingly, the cowboy felt it prudent to make his own point known.

"Hans, you motherfucker, you made your point! Let them pull back!"

"Thank you, Mr Cowboy, I'll take that under advisement. Hit it again."

Several moments later, Hans made the order to fire. Alexander obeyed, destroying any potential chance that the police had of surviving the blast. Hans looked on coldly.

However, soon Hans heard another explosion… inside the building. What was more, it sounded like it came from where Alexander and James had been..

"They're using artillery on us!" Fritz yelled, running into the room. He sounded almost breathless.

"You idiot," Hans seethed. "It's not the police. It's him." That shit has killed even more of my men!

Meanwhile, back at Monica and Hans' place…

"We've had enough data on the terrorist takeover of the Nakatomi building. Sources say the terrorist leader may be this man, Hans Gruber."

Monica gasped. "No! He can't be!"

"Gruber is a former member of the radical West German movement, Volksfrei movement. The current Volksfrei leadership issued a communique an hour ago denying any and all responsibility for this action that has been taken. Gruber had been expelled from the organisation several years ago -"

"Shit," Monica breathed. "Holy shit."

She clutched her hands together to stop them shaking. "You stupid, naive, foolish girl," she growled at herself. "How could you let yourself trust him?"

Once the shock had finally worn off, she forced herself to think. "I must get out of here!" she said out loud. However, she couldn't just leave the country - she had a newborn baby with her.

Quite a while later, all her bare essentials were tossed into bags strewn around the floor - she could go and buy more shit later. Without pausing to make sure she hadn't left anything behind, she frantically phoned her aunt, and begged her for a place she could stay - just for a few days until she could find a rental property she could stay on. Her aunt, who lived a few miles north from where Monica was now, was all too willing to accept - especially as she herself was disgusted with the behaviour of Hans, and Monica knew she would have to be ready for a 'what the hell were you thinking' talk. However, at the moment she was just relieved to be able to get the hell out of there.

"Come on, sweetheart," she said, "Let's go see Great-Aunt Jasmine."