Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Zack, Logan, etc.), and everything else that has to do with the show belong to their respective owners, not to me. No money is being made off of this fic. I only own the original characters (Becky/X6-405, etc.).
"This is just great," Becky muttered under her breath, just loud enough for Jeff and Zack to hear. "We just had to get stuck in this mess. Is it too much to ask to have a normal day at work, no pun intended?" She shivered and edged closer to Zack, pretending to be scared.
"I know," Jeff said. He put his hand on Becky's shoulder.
"Everybody is going to stay here nice and quiet until we speak to somebody, is that clear?" the guy who'd barged into the store first said.
"What is it that you want?" the assistant manager asked. "Do you want money? I'll go empty the cash register and the safe in the back for you if that's all that you want. Just please leave me and my employees and my customers alone. We didn't do anything."
"We want to make a statement," the leader said. "We want to be taken seriously. Nobody took us seriously when we blew that bank last month. They didn't even blame us at all. They thought that it was some group of foreign terrorists. Those bastards get the credit for everything. Not this time. Everybody's going to know that me and my men are not to be dealt with lightly."
Zack stood up and walked towards the man. "This isn't the way to prove yourself to everybody. Taking innocent people hostages isn't the answer."
The leader just aimed his automatic rifle right at Zack's chest. "Listen, James Dean, why don't you go back to the jock and the cheerleader princess over there and sit down and shut your mouth like a good little boy. I'm not in the mood to kill people…yet."
Zack stared him down before discreetly looking around the room and weighing his options. I can easily disarm him and take him down at this range and it wouldn't be a problem for Becky and Jeff and then me to disarm and disable the other five men. His eyes drifted over to the other hostages and he frowned. They wouldn't know what to do and it's too cramped in here to be able to safely take these guys out without risking civilian casualties. In the time that it'll take Becky and Jeff and I to take out one man each, as short as that time may be, it'll still be enough for at least one of the remaining three men to get a shot off at one of the other hostages. Damn. He slowly backed away from the leader of the group and sat back down next to Becky. "It's not going to work. There's too big of a risk to the other hostages."
"I know," Becky said. "We're going to have to play their game for at least a little while longer."
"Let's find out what the rules are," Jeff murmured. He stood up, apparently nervous. "Um…excuse me? Can I please use the bathroom?"
"Where's the bathroom?" the leader asked.
"Through that door over there, then down the hall, it's the door at the end of the hall," the assistant manager said.
The leader nodded. "Grant, Davis, Martel, escort the hostage to the bathroom." He gestured to the three most heavily armed men and they moved to surround Jeff.
Jeff blinked and sat back down. "On second thought, I don't have to go that badly."
"Good little boy," the leader said. "Try not to piss in your pants, okay?"
"Yeah, I'll do my best," Jeff said. He sat back down and turned to Zack and Becky, his expression serious. "Why the hell would they have three men escorting me to the bathroom, much less three men armed with automatic rifles, pistols, and at least one semi? They wouldn't."
"Maybe it's just a scare tactic to get you to stay where you are," Becky offered. "Maybe the guy isn't stupid and he's anticipating at least one of the hostages to try to make a run for it and get the hell out of here. If they've got at least half of a brain, that possibility would have crossed their minds and they would have planned ahead."
"It better not be because of Option B," Zack said grimly. "You guys do have your barcodes lasered off, right? Mine was taken care of last week before I left Seattle."
"I'm fine," Jeff said. "Becky?"
"I should be fine," Becky said. "It should be returning any day now. I checked this morning before I went to work and it still wasn't there. I'm wearing the turtleneck just in case, though." She paused as she tried to listen to what was going on outside. "More police cars have shown up…I hear a few more still on their way…someone's getting out…oh good, they actually sent a hostage negotiator within an hour of this bullshit going down."
"Your tax dollars at work," Jeff mumbled sarcastically. "I hear about one military humvee outside, but Seattle's still under martial law so that's not surprising. They're making no move to intervene. They're probably just here for crowd control."
"There's a big crowd forming," Zack agreed. "I'm counting about fifty or so people gathered on this side of the street and across the street. The police must have blocked off the street to civilian vehicular traffic but that hasn't stopped pedestrians at all." He sighed. "I don't hear Max or any body in the crowd yet."
"They'll be coming for us," Becky said. "That's a given. The only question is when."
"True," Zack said. "This is a tricky game to play. They all know that."
"And you can't even take a bathroom break," Jeff quipped. Becky snickered a little and even Zack barely smiled. They settled down and watched and waited.
TBC