Chapter 2: Held Hostage
The police had been quick to position men outside the station building at both entrances but they couldn't do anything much without endangering the hostages. There were at least fifteen people inside the building beside the kidnappers. Next to himself, Jack, Philip, Dinah and Lucy-Ann Bill counted an elderly couple, a family with two very young children, who were crying by now, two young men looking only slightly older than Jack and Philip, and finally two middle-aged chaps in business suits.
The air inside the building was awfully hot and drops of perspiration kept running into Bill's eyes, making them burn. He couldn't wipe them away, though, for every time he moved just the slightest bit, one of the men turned on him, gun in hand. Whatever was he to do? He wasn't armed himself, and even if so, he couldn't have interfered with the situation. Too many lives were at stake.
He suspected that their kidnappers were actually robbers. The building next to the station was a bank. Maybe the men had been on a raid, but their original flight plans had failed. Now, they would only get away if they took one or more of their hostages with them. And they would need to negotiate with the police to get some sort of transportation.
Thinking it through Bill quickly came to the conclusion that it would be best if he could convince them to take him along. Even if he had only little experience with hostage situations he was best equipped to handle it – and he certainly didn't want the girls in danger – or the boys, for that matter. Or anyone else among the frightened hostages.
He called out to the fellow standing closest to him. 'You there!'
'What?' growled the man and came closer. He was careful to stay out of Bill's reach, though.
'You don't need us all,' said Bill. 'Let everyone else go and keep me with you.'
'Bill!' exclaimed Lucy-Ann, who couldn't believe her ears. 'Bill, why would you say such a thing?'
'Yes, Bill,' said the kidnapper mockingly. He was a big, hulking chap, and Bill had noticed that he spoke with a foreign accent. What was it? German, maybe? He couldn't tell for sure. 'Why would you say zat?' the fellow scoffed at Bill in his strange accent. 'Especially when we have got a perfectly fine hostage here!' He came close to Lucy-Ann, and ran a hand over her cheek.
'Don't you dare touch her,' said Philip hotly. He had felt his temper rise ever since the men taken them hostage and over the past minutes he had had a hard time holding his tongue and keeping himself from saying or doing something foolhardy. But as that awful man dared to touch Lucy-Ann he couldn't help it – the words just tumbled out of him. They only served to earn him a hearty kick in the middle, though, and he couldn't stop a low hiss that came out at feeling the pain of it. Watching the scene, Lucy-Ann began to sob softly.
Kiki had retreated to a windowsill high up above their heads, where she sat and kept being very quiet. Not a peep had come from her since the arrival of the men. Jack felt glad that they didn't seem to see her as any kind of threat. They more or less ignored her.
Bill tried once more to influence the kidnappers. 'I tell you, get the police to fetch you a car and off you go. Take me along and you'll be quite safe.'
The man who had kicked Philip, turned his attention back to Bill and sneered, 'shut up already, you!'
Another fellow came and added, 'we shall ask for some transportation. And we shall be going off – but for my part I'd much rather have a different hostage with me. Someone younger than you. Maybe her,' he pointed at Lucy-Ann, 'or her,' now at Dinah, 'or one of them,' his finger stretched out towards the boys.
Bill gave it up for now. He knew he still had some time. It would be a while until the police got to arrange anything.
And indeed; an hour passed without anything happening. And then another one. The hostages sat on the stony ground of the building which was comfortably cool, while the air seemed to be boiling. Dinah found that she had trouble breathing in the heat. She wiped her sweaty forehead with her upper arm, making sure that her movement was too subtle for the kidnappers to react on it, and glanced around.
Lucy-Ann sat very near Bill. She had drawn her knees up and rested her chin on top of them. Her hands were clenched tightly together, turning her knuckles white and holding her legs close to her body. Bill and the boys were sitting cross-legged with their hands in their laps. On Jack's left shoulder perched Kiki, who had given up her superior position by the window. She still didn't give so much as a squawk, though. Next to Jack Bill kept mopping his head with a crumpled handkerchief; it was still glistening with perspiration, and he had large wet stains under his armpits as well, thanks to the nearly unbearable heat. To his right Philip was sitting with his back against the wall, his eyes half closed. He looked calm, almost sleepy like this, but Dinah knew well that he was just as tense as she.
They couldn't see or hear what was going on between the kidnappers and the police, but they must be in touch. Three of the men stood by the door now, discussing with someone outside in low, hushed voices. Suddenly the fellow with the foreign accent turned and came quickly to the hostages. He grabbed Dinah roughly by the arm and pulled her up and along with him. His gun was directed at her head, and Dinah felt very scared. She had to walk to the door with the man and show herself to the policemen outside.
'See?' shouted the kidnapper. 'I'm going to pull ze trigger if you don't hurry up and get us what we want!'
Looking at the scene outside Dinah wondered a little at the number of policemen present. Their town actually had only a small station. The officers must have called for help in the next bigger city.
After having been noticed by the police she hoped that the kidnapper would let her go back to the others, but the men kept her standing close. The others were beginning to feel more and more anxious as well. At seeing his sister with a gun held against her head, Philip had had to bite his tongue once more. He would have liked to throw himself at the man, but he knew he couldn't. It would have endangered them both. So instead he had had to watch quietly as Dinah was led away.
'The weapon is on safety,' Bill had whispered to calm him a little, hoping himself that it meant that the fellow didn't really want to shoot. But why did they keep Dinah standing with them for so long? Why wouldn't he just let her get back to the rest of them?
They weren't to know. Poor Dinah had to stand by the door with the men for another hour, before – finally – things started to happen.
It started with a noise, getting louder and louder. Dinah locked up in astonishment. A helicopter was landing on the street just in front of the station!
'It's here!' shouted one of the men. 'Come on! Get going! Get going!'
Before Bill had a chance to understand what was happening he was taken by one arm and hauled to his feet. So were Philip, Lucy-Ann and Jack! With a screech Kiki fluttered off Jack's shoulder and disappeared somewhere behind him. He couldn't turn his head to see where she had gone to; as soon as he tried the fellow behind him pressed his gun even more deeply into Jack's back. He could feel the steely coolness between his shoulder blades through the thin fabric of his shirt and he hoped that the weapon was on safety as well. If not, he knew that it would be over for him if the man holding him got nervous and pulled the trigger.
The were ushered towards the door and out into the blinding sunlight. Jack was amazed at seeing that there was a helicopter outside, waiting to be boarded. Police men stood around it, keeping away curious watchers. Taking in the scene Jack became a little slower but a rough shove from the fellow behind him made him stumble and he hurried to keep up with the others. Bill was pushed forward equally roughly just behind Jack, guarded by the biggest and strongest of the man.
'Look,' said Lucy-Ann suddenly, her voice quivering. 'Look! Dinah's inside the helicopter!'
'You'll all be in a minute,' hissed the man behind her.
Secretly, Jack wondered why they had chosen to take Bill as well as the rest of them. Even if they couldn't know of course that Bill was a member of the police force himself, he was still the biggest and burliest of all hostages. Jack had no doubt that he might even have been able to overwhelm the man guarding him, if it hadn't been for the gun. Meanwhile Jack had to admit to himself that if it came down to it, probably neither he nor Philip were a match for their kidnappers. The fellows were big and heavyset, only one of them looked small enough to be tackled. With Bill, however, they might stand a chance after all!
But then, just before Bill could climb into the helicopter, the man who had held him suddenly gave him an unexpectedly hard shove. Hard enough to make him reel backwards and stumble. He fell, but was back on his feet in a blink of an eye. The nasty sound of a gun being fired ripped through the silence of before and Bill fell down once more, bleeding profusely from his right shoulder. The policemen were eager to shoot as well but they couldn't – not without risking the lives of the four hostages who were now inside the helicopter.
The last of the kidnappers climbed on board, and then the helicopter came to life. It took off, rising higher and higher. Lucy-Ann felt hot tears burn in her eyes, blurring her vision and finally wetting her cheeks while she kept looking down on Bill, who was lying far below and getting smaller and smaller. Thank goodness he was receiving medical attention already!
Soon the station and Bill and everything else was out of sight. Philip could tell by the position of the sun that they were headed north.
It was a big helicopter but Philip suspected that they were still more people inside it than it was made for. It was a tight fit and the air was hot and stuffy. Lucy-Ann was pressed against the window on one side, Jack on the other. Philip himself was squashed up between his friend and his own sister, who had put an arm around Lucy-Ann to comfort her.
They flew for a few hours heading north all the time and Philip began to wonder if not the would run out of gas very soon. Carefully, he craned his neck to have a look at the controls in the front but he couldn't make out which was the display showing the status of their gas supply.
The men didn't talk much. Three of them seemed to be asleep. The small one was flying the helicopter and the fellow with the foreign accent seemed to be helping with directions.
'Over zere,' he said suddenly. 'We can land zere by ze lake and let zem out.'
The helicopter flew lower and lower and finally it landed on a clearing in the middle of a thick forest. All of the men were awake by now and the one who had shot at Bill opened the door to the helicopter and roared at the hostages, 'out you get. We don't need you anymore.'
Shaking like a leaf Lucy-Ann was the first to climb out, followed by Philip. When Dinah made to get out the man gripped her shoulder and said, 'no, not you. You will stay with us.'
'You let her go!' said Philip, his temper flaring up once more. But Jack grabbed him firmly by his arm and held on tightly, pulling him away from the helicopter.
'Are you quite mad?' he shouted. It wasn't before they had removed themselves a few yards from the helicopter that Jack finally let go of Philip's arm. 'They are armed – you can't help Dinah if you're shot!' He shook his head. 'I'm sure they won't hurt her and they will soon let her go – once they've reached their final destination.'
'Oh, I do hope they won't hurt her,' sobbed Lucy-Ann.
'Trust me – they won't,' said Jack. He urged the other two a little further away from the helicopter, whose doors had been closed again. A moment later it was powered up again and rose into the air with Dinah still held hostage inside. Jack, Philip and Lucy-Ann had to duck down low against the wind it produced as it flew off.
When the helicopter was out of sight Jack rose up to gather a survey of their surroundings. But he didn't get to see very much before a sudden unexpected force knocked him off his feet. Lucy-Ann made a short noise in shock when she saw Philip tackle Jack and throw him to the ground. Gracious! She couldn't ever remember seeing their friend so angry – and most certainly never at Jack!
They rolled over a couple of times, flinging fists at each other, but then Jack managed to get the upper hand; he caught hold of his friends' arms and with all his strength he pushed them down until he could capture them underneath his knees – efficiently preventing Philip from lashing out at him again.
'Stoppit!' Jack growled in such an angry, deep voice that it made Lucy-Ann wince. 'Are you out of your mind, Tufty?'
Ashamed of himself, Philip finally stopped struggling. His anger had faded somewhat by now and he was well and truly stuck underneath Jack, sitting astride on his middle, anyway. Realising that the struggle was over Jack got to his feet and looked down on Philip, who sat up on the mossy ground. He was a mess; hair sticking up wildly, a small cut on his lip. His formerly white shirt was now dirty and had brown and greenish stains.
'You look like one of the school bullies after a fight in the woods behind the football field,' said Jack with a forgiving grin and held out a hand to Philip – and just as he took it, a voice made them all freeze and listen.
'Naughty boy, naughty boy! Pheee! Call the police! What a pity, what a pity!'
