Chapter 18:

She had answered to him! Finally – after almost half an hour of trying to get her on the line, to convince her to talk to him – he had achieved his goal. He had reached her, had found a way through her defense line... But the real hard part of it was still to come, the challenge was still there.

Having the girl on the phone didn't really mean anything so far – it was a breakthrough that she was willing to listen to him, but he hadn't convinced her about anything right now, anything of importance...

That was the one goal he was aiming for. He needed her to understand that she was doing the wrong thing, that it wouldn't help her in any way and that she needed to stop. He needed to reason with her, needed to make her see her mistake, needed her to refind her conscience again, which told her that what she was doing right now – was deeply wrong.

But he wasn't even sure he would be able to achieve that. He had no idea what her state of mind was and if she – as the psychologist had informed him – was actually schizophrenic or even psychotic, it would be a very difficult task to made her listen to him after all. But there was a glimpse of hope and that was the fact, that she had picked up the phone...

He needed to be very, very careful right now – he neither was a psychologist nor a negotiator, though he had acted out both parts succesfully for a couple of times. But it was always a struggle. Every last word he said needed to be carefully considered. Any mistake could most likely end up in a catastrophy and would take more and more time to find a solution for the situation. Precious time, which they didn't have...

"Miranda, I want you to stay calm and not panic right now... I told you, you don't need to tell me where you are, because I'm already aware of where you are... I know that you are at your school."

"I had to do it, I'm sorry – it was the only chance."

She probably wasn't even aware of the consequences of him knowing that she was at the school shooting at the students or she had really listened to his suggestion and hadn't panicked. But for the moment and once again taking her mental state into consideration, she most likely just hadn't listened.

"I know Miranda, I know you didn't want to hurt anyone. I know you just wanted to make up for what happened to you..."

"What happened to me...? Nobody knows what happened to me!"

"It's okay, Miranda. Lukas confessed what he did to you, he will be sentenced for his crime, there will be justice for you. There's no more need for you to seek revenge on anybody. It's over now, girl. It's all okay."

"No – you don't understand. It's not, that's not the point. I had to do it, I couldn't stop it. It was the only way to get rid of them. I needed to get rid of them."

Now that one was new for he didn't actually know what she was talking about, what she was going for. Obviously Lukas Wilson hadn't been her only reason for shooting at the other students. There was some other reason, probably some even more deeply psychological reason. He needed to keep her talking about it, telling him what had caused her to do this, maybe it would help him to convince her to make her give up.

"These people you shot at are innocent, Miranda. You have to stop it. Just tell me that you are going to do it and we are getting you out of there unharmed. You don't need to worry, alright? It will be okay."

"You, you don't know what I am talking about, you don't know anything... This isn't about the students. I didn't mean to do anything, but I had to. I had to stand up against them, had to take courage..."

"Stand up against whom, Miranda?"

There was silence for a few moments as it seemed like she had expected him to actually know what she was talking about, what she was trying to make up for. She seemed surprised right then when she answered his question, like he had obviously asked a very stupid question.

"The voices – I wanted to get rid of the voices."

Now he had prove – it was definitely a psychological reason which had caused her reaction. As the school's psycholgist had assumed, Miranda was schizophrenic and hearing voices was definitely a sign for that. Which meant he needed to be even more careful with what he said to her.

She believed that he knew about the voices – she trusted him because of that believe. There was no chance he could ask her any question about it, he would lose her if doing so. And he didn't have much time – he needed to hurry in convincing her. For the sake of the injured students... and his two agents down there in the line of fire.

"Did it work, Miranda? Did you manage to get rid of the voices talking to you?"

Once again there was silence for a few moments. Like Miranda was closely listening to her surrounding for the voices to reappear. Of course he would hear nothing, but he couldn't even guess what Miranda was hearing. He winced when Miranda finally reacted to his question. She was screaming at the top of her lungs, screaming in desperation.

"No, no, no!"

He wouldn't hear anything else from her. The phone call was ended that very moment as Miranda probably threw the cell through half the room, smashing it against one of the walls. She had been angry, very very angry and Jack had no idea what she would do now...