Well... here's Chapter 5! I really like how this chapter turned out and it helped me a lot to let go of some anxiety in my mind... I enjoyed writing it ad I really hope you guys enjoy reading it!
Last chapter left us with a cliffhanger... let's see how things turned out for Steve!
Enjoy!
Danny knew he was missing something. He had the feeling like when you're trying to remember something and that something is at the very tip of your tongue but the information just wouldn't come to mind. It was very frustrating.
They had been paying close attention to what was going on outside the weapon's room in the oval one where all the exhibits, the robbers and, most importantly, the hostages were.
He could tell that the masked man named Mickey was the leader of the four men crew. Was it possible that they were actually using their real names? It would be very stupid of them if they were; but again, so was the fact that they had decided to rob a museum without confirming that their primary target was inside. This Mr. Andrews character hadn't come forward yet, and no one had spoken a word as to who or where he was.
They had already contacted Chin and Kono explaining the situation inside the museum and their plan to take these bastards down without getting anyone hurt in the process. Chin had been reluctant at first, not without reason, but together they all came to an agreement that they would play things the robber's way to study them a bit more and determine if it would be safe to storm into the place with the whole weight of HPD behind them, or if that would only endanger the hostages even more.
Right until now, the four masked men had been cool. Well, as cool as one can be when committing a crime. "Until now" being the imperative words here. A few minutes ago, Mickey had begun to loose his cool and had decided to take one of the hostages as a hostage. "Funny" Danny thought at the irony and absurdity of that image. His blood had boiled when the poor fella had been just a little boy no more than Grace's age.
When the event happened: the man named Goofy (what a stupid name) taking the boy from his mother, it had been during Danny's turn to peek through the entrance of the weapon's room and, although it wouldn't have been necessary because the screams were enough for anybody to get and idea of what was going on, he had turned around to explain to Annabeth the leader's sudden change of tactics.
He had received a worried face, followed by a deep-in-thought face and then a determined face as a way of answering. Yep, Annabeth also had faces. In reality, to him, everyone else had distinctive faces; him being so good at reading them had been an incredible asset throughout his career as a police officer and then a detective, but he thought only a few of those faces were worth naming and, after a year and a half working with his partner and a year working with Annabeth, he had categorized their faces as "Names Worthy". It was weird how much the two resembled eachother but instead of giving it much thought, he had just summed up all their simmilarities to habits picked up along the way of living together.
When he brought his mind back to his suroundings, he noticed Annabeth studying one of the tables that showed all the different kinds of knives and daggers. She had her nose almost touching the table and he could swear it looked like she was trying to sniff the things. He came closer to her.
- What the hell are you doing? – he asked, still in the same hushed tone they had both been using to comunicate.
- Searching for an alarm – she answered and continued to inspect every edge of the table and then every item itself. Satisfied she didn't see any sensor or any other type of device that could trigger an alarm, she reached out to take one of the knives.
- Whoa! Wait! – her hand was halted midway by another one – really, what are you doing?
- Grabbing a knife. We need to be ready for anything to happen and that guy is starting to loose control.
- What about the alarms and the security system? – Danny voiced his immediate concern because having an alarm blaring on top of their heads wouldn't bring anything good for them.
- I don't think these exhibits have alarm sensors and, if they do, i think the alarm was turned off.
- How could you possibly know that?
- Remember the crash we heard right before the gunshot? – she asked as a way of explanation and continued when she received an affirmative nod from Danny – it was one of the exhibits. You can see the broken glass near the door of the oval room. That thing fell or was pushed by someone and no alarm went off. I'm thinking maybe it was a test to see if the alarm had been disabled – he thought about it for a moment.
- That would definitely confirm what i was suspecting.
- And what's that? – she questioned.
- This has to be some kind of inside job – she looked at him puzzled and he proceeded to explain his theory – well, they hit the place on the only day it closes earlier than normal and they do it when it's about to close down for the night. That guarantees less people inside to control.
- Yeah, but that doesn't necessarily means it's an inside job. Anyone could search the museum's schedule online – she thought.
- Agreed, but how did they get past the metal detector by the front door? – she tried to argue again that it was actually possible to do it, but he didn't give her the time – and they asked for this Andrews guy by name. They knew he would have the key to the vault. And there's also the thing with the alarm. One would think that an exhibit falling and crashing on the floor would have set them off. It's all just too convenient – they could hear Steve's voice talking calmly in the background asking where the man in question was.
It does make sense – suddenly, a collective gasp and a few shrieks could be heard from the outside.
They made their way to the door and could see the temperature of the room had risen to even more dangerous. The leader of the masked men was pointing his gun directly at the boy on the floor and his whole demeanor read intent all over it. He was ready to shoot the kid.
He was stopped by a woman confessing to know where the famous Mr. Andrews was, and Annabeth knew it was now or never. Things had escalated and they couldn't afford to keep waiting on the sidelines to see the train hit the end of the road. In this case, the end of the road was Mr. Andrews not being inside the museum.
Making up her mind, she went back to the table with the knives and just picked one up, not giving Danny the time to even realize what was happening until it was too late. When he reached her, they both stood holding their breaths and waiting for the blaring sound of an alarm to start making its way into existance, but the place remained utterly quiet. Well, as quiet as it could be with people screaming and demanding information at the top of their lungs on the other side of the room.
They both released the air from their lungs and Annabeth quickly kept picking up knives. She was checking their edges to choose the sharpest and most effective ones, handing a few to Danny. They were both impressed by the well preserved state of the weapons because, if you just pressed with a little bit more force than you normally would, the knives could indeed draw blood and, if necessary, they would sunk into flesh.
Then, a flash of thought crossed Annabeth's mind and she whirled around searching for the first thing she and Grace and noticed upon entering the room: the bow. She walked all the way to it with a distinctive glee in her eyes. One look at them and Danny knew she had gotten a crazy idea.
Since they had already checked for alarms, she was sure she could just open the lid of the cristal box and extract the weapon. If the knives were as preserved as they were, maybe the bow could still work and that would give them an advantage. It wasn't like having a gun, but in terms of long distance weapons, it was a close second considering their circumstances right now.
She inhaled a big breath and opened the box. Nothing changed. Danny had already walked all the way to her by the time she was throughoutly inspecting the bow. She tested the flexibility of the wooden arc, the strenght of the rope and the range of the pull.
Something was off.
It was too good to be true. The wood was polished to perfection, the flexibility was minimal and the rope didn't make much of a sound when pulled all the way back. One would expect a very, very old bow to be in worst conditions no matter how well preserved it was: the wood would have been more flexible due to years and years of exposure, the rope would have creaked more due to lack of use in the recent past and the surface wouldn't be so smooth. She even smelled the thing: paint.
She glanced at the next exhibit and found again the replica of Excalibur and the stone and then it clicked. The bow was a replica too!
The description right underneath the cristal box didn't say anything about the bow being a replica or a modern construction looking like the ones from history; but right now, she couldn't bring herself to care. A replica meant a newer bow and a newer bow meant it had a greater chance of being functional. For a final test, she tensed the bow as far as it went with as much strenght as she new she would need to actually fire an arrow, and the bow held. Perfect.
She reached inside the box again and pulled out the quiver of arrows. They weren't original either. "Oh well!" she thought. There would be plenty of time to be dissapointed at the museum later. Right now, it was time to save it.
Danny had been watching Annabeth's inspection of the bow with wonder. The expression on her face was something between amazement and passion. She was definetly looking at it and handling it with tender care and doing all kinds of tests with expert hands. Something that hadn't gone unnoticed by the detective.
- You actually know how to use this, don't you? – he asked, more like stating a fact. Her face broke out into a grin.
- Oh yeah! – she put the strap of the quiver over her head and hung it into her back. She had a couple of knives between the waistband of her jeans and now she was holding the bow with one hand while with the other one she fished an arrow from her back. The sight was like something out of a fantasy movie and Danny thought it fit well with the theme of the exhibition.
- How do you know the bow will work?
- I just know – was her simple reply while she walked back closer to the door. Danny could also recognize that she had slipped on the smug mask she wore when she was about to engage in something dangerous. It was the same attitude he had hated when they had first met but it was also an attitude he had grown to respect. It was her way of dealing with danger and who has he to judge that? It brought results, good results. And so he followed her to the door to keep observing and be ready if anything were to heppen.
Outside, masked Mickey was still questioning the poor woman who had naively decided to conceal what she knew about the manager's whereabouts. He was getting more and more aggresive as the seconds ticked by and they figured it would be just a matter of time before either them or Steve stepped out and decided to intervene.
Right then, Danny decided to inform their backup on the outside of how the situation was quickly getting worse and that the robbers wouldn't be able to leave the museum with what they wanted. That meant it was time to involve the cops and start the procedure on hostage negociation.
Only, apparently, they wouldn't have much time.
Right after sending the message, they heard Steve speaking up defending the woman on the floor and the rather obvious threat of the masked man.
Danny and Annabeth tensed up in anticipation but her mind switched automatically and she reacted to the events unfolding before her. She rapidly put the arrow she had been holding with her right hand in the middle of the bow and gripped the rope to pull back.
She tensed the weapon and aimed. It was time to find out if she wasn't too out of practice and if the bow would come true.
Noticing her intentions, Danny asked one more time if she was sure of what she was doing and if she actually knew what she was doing. One miscalculated shot and anybody could get hurt, including Steve, whose face was now only inches away from the gun pointed at it.
- Watch and learn – was her final reply as she breathed in, held her breath for only a second and then fired, releasing not only a deep controled breath but a deadly arrow as well.
So? What did you think? Did you like it? I really hope you did! I would really love to see what you guys think so feel free to leave a review!
Tomorrow's a working day so I shouldn't stay up too late writing... but I think i'll keep working on next chapter just a little bit longer!
Thank you all for your patience and support!
Until next chapter!