oOo
She didn't say a word as they rode the elevator back down to the party. Didn't say a word as he grabbed her arm and led her out, past the group of hostages who were watching in confusion, and into an office. She barely registered that it was Holly's office as they walked through the door, and he pushed her into one of the chairs before taking the one behind the desk. He glanced at her once, as if to make sure she wasn't going to move, and then spent the next few moments scratching something on his notepad. Tony, and another man, stood guard in the doorway behind her. She did her very best not to move or make a sound.
"We've got a fire alarm!" Came a voice over the walky-talky, startling her with the sudden noise.
"Call 9-1-1 and give them the guard's name, the building code number and cancel the alarm. Then disable the system." Hans responded into the device, as if this was all part of his plan. Considering his response to the problem, she realized that this was his plan though, and it was probably very well thought through.
"Eddie, on what floor did the alarm go off?" He asked after a second.
"Thirty-second." Replied the voice on the other end.
Hans looked up to Tony and nodded. "Go." He said, and the man took off. After a few more minutes, Hans finally stood, told her to "Stay." and left the room to address the crowd. She was left on her own- though she knew not to risk an escape attempt- and took the moment to access her surroundings.
There were thugs posted in strategic positions around the main room to watch the hostages, but only Hans seemed to be paying attention to her. Maybe they assumed he could handle her. She smirked at the thought. I don't know how… but I'm going to make them regret underestimating me. She thought, trying to shake some fear out of herself.
What she knew was keeping her separated from the rest of the hostages. But what did she know? She replayed the events of the last half hour in her head. They'd killed at least two people that she knew of, including the security guard downstairs. They'd hijacked the building in a terrorist attack…
"Who said we were terrorists?" Hans had asked. The memory flashing across her mind.
They were pretending to be terrorists. And she knew that they were only after money. 640 million dollars to be exact. That's what he didn't want her telling the other hostages. But who cares? And why even keep her alive if she was that much of a threat? She would have asked him that, if she wasn't worried that she'd only give him a terrible idea.
"I wanted this to be professional." Hans' voice carried over the atrium and into the small office. She looked over her shoulder and out the door to see a man only a few feet away from her, holding his machine gun, though he wasn't looking at her. "Efficient, adult, cooperative… not a lot to ask." Hans continued. "Alas, your Mr. Takagi didn't see it that way so he won't be joining us for the rest of his life."
She could practically feel the tension from the crowd as they received this news.
"You can go anyway you want. You can walk out or be carried out. But have no illusions, we are in charge. So decide now, all of you… But please remember, we have left nothing to chance."
She heard the familiar faint ding of the elevator doors opening, followed shortly by a loud scream, and she couldn't help herself. She leapt to her feet and was out the door before she remembered that she'd been told to stay. But it was too late, everyone was crowding around the elevator to look in, and she could see what had caused the commotion. It was Tony, who she'd seen only a few minutes ago, now dead with his head turned to the side and his neck bent at an odd angle. Someone had placed a Santa hat on him, like a sick festive joke.
"Now I have a machine gun…" Hans was reading the message on Tony's shirt. "Ho, ho, ho."
They spoke softly for a moment and she barely caught a few words, but then his voice began to rise, and became angry as he shouted quickly in German.
"We have to tell Karl his brother is dead." She heard Hans say, and looked up to watch him converse with his lackey. "Tell him to come down." When he looked up and saw her, staring at Tony's body, his already angry face darkened even more and he stalked swiftly out of the elevator, grabbed her arm again without breaking his stride, and yanked her back into Ms. Gennaro's office.
"I could have sworn I told you to stay." He hissed, pushing her back into the chair again.
"I'm sorry, I-I just… I…" She shook her head, not bothering to finish her excuse. Guessing that he probably didn't care to hear it anyway. When she braved a glance back up at him, she found him staring again. He was doing a lot of that lately. She had to admit, when he wasn't snarling at her or giving out domineering looks, he was rather handsome. Before she could stop herself she chuckled slightly. Hans' stare took on a confused look and she explained ruefully with a slight shrug "Sorry, I was just thinking… this isn't even my worst Christmas."
After a moment Hans slowly smirked back at her and replied "The night is still young."
As if to punctuate this, Karl showed up behind her. "Was?"
"Karl," Hans started with a sigh, and stood up to address the other man. "Jemand ermordet dein Bruder."
Karl went very still for a while, as if waiting to hear more. The change was instantaneous. One second he was standing still as a statue, listening quietly. The next, he'd flown into a rage, tearing apart anything he could. Whatever wasn't bolted to the floor was thrown. He even flipped one of the desks, which scared Charlotte enough to jump up and back away. This proved to be a bad idea because as soon as she moved, his attention was drawn to her. He stormed over to her and in an impressive show of strength, grabbed both of her arms, picked her straight up and shoved her roughly against the wall. Outside in the atrium several people screamed when they saw this through the blinds on the windows.
"Who was it?!" He shouted in her face.
"I don't know!" She answered quickly, trying to squirm out of his grasp.
"You know!" He snarled. "WAS IT YOU?" He pulled her away only to smash her against the wall again. "TELL ME!"
"Karl, setzte ihr unten." Hans drawled calmly. Karl tossed her aside easily and she rolled hard to the floor, colliding with a chair. Once the floor was under her again she scrambled away, backing up to the couch in the corner. Hans grabbed Karl roughly by the shoulders before he could do anymore damage and then shoved him up against a wall.
"I want blood!" Karl shouted.
"And you will have it." Hans assured him. "But first let Heinrich plant the detonators, and Theo prepare the vault. After we call the police, they'll spend hours trying to negotiate, and then you can tear the building apart looking for him! But until then, we do not alter the plan!"
A plan that she was becoming more and more involved with whether or not she wanted. They just kept talking and talking, and right in front of her! Without meaning to, she was learning more about it, and this scared her. She was a liability to them, and if they didn't already realize this, it wouldn't be long before they did. She needed to find a reason for them to keep her alive.
"And if he alters it?" Karl asked. Hans considered this for a moment, and then they began speaking quietly to each other in German.
His radio crackled to life again, only this time it was a voice she didn't recognize. "Mayday! Mayday! Anyone copying channel nine?" The voice called frantically. Karl gave Hans a pointed look. Hans picked up the radio as if he could hear it better, but she could see the tension in his posture. "Terrorists have seized the Nakatomi Building and are holding at least thirty people hostage. Unknown amount of terrorists- six or more armed with automatic weapons at Nakatomi Plaza…" When a few seconds of silence followed the transmission, he continued "Somebody answer me, goddamn it!"
Another new voice answered. "Attention, whoever you are. This channel is reserved for emergency calls only."
Charlie couldn't help but snort at the irony.
"No fucking shit lady!" The first guy retorted. "Does it sound like I'm ordering a pizza? They've already killed one hostage, and they're fortifying their positions while you're jerking me on the radio!"
There was a commotion in the atrium as a few more people came running up to the office.
"Where is the best place to transmit?" Hans asked quickly, but then answered his own question after a moment of thought. "The roof! Go!" They left just as quickly as they arrived, Karl went with them, eager for 'blood'.
"Fine!" The man on the radio continued his argument with the operator. "Come the fuck down and arrest me. Just send the police now!"
For the first time since her face was smashed into the wall earlier (which still really hurt, by the way) a glimmer of hope appeared. With any luck the police would send a scout to check out the claim, and hopefully they could all make it out of this. But then she remembered what he'd said a moment ago: …After we call the police, they'll spend hours trying to negotiate…
This was still part of his plan. She drew her knees up to her chest, sitting on the floor in a ball. Her hope didn't completely diminish though. Things could still go either way. This new person on the radio wasn't part of the plan.
She couldn't help but jump again when she heard a faint 'POP' 'POP' 'POP', from far above them- the roof- that she recognized as gunshots. They were followed by the unmistakable sound of a machine gun as whoever was up there exchanged bullets. Not being a very religious person didn't stop her from sending out a silent prayer for whomever the man on the radio was. He seemed to be their only hope at this point.
"Franco, Karl, did you catch him?" Hans said suddenly, drawing her from her thoughts.
"No, but he's in the elevator shaft." Came someone's garbled reply.
"Perfect! The elevators are shut off, he can't escape. Just shut him in and come back down." Hans ordered.
"Karl," Hans said carefully. When no reply came he pressed on. "The police are probably on their way. We may be able to convince them that it was a mistake. I can probably stall them, but not if they hear gunshots. If you lock him in, he'll be neutralized, now do it!"
No reply.
"Karl? Karl!"
Only silence, then a click. The radio was turned off.
"Verdammt!" He growled, slamming the radio against the table. He stood, running his fingers through his scalp, and walked over to the window. "Eddie." He said more calmly into the radio.
"I had a feeling you'd be calling." Came the reply with an American accent.
"Let him in." Hans said.
There was a long silence on the radio. There was no commotion to be heard throughout the building. She watched Hans as he watched through the window. A smile played on his face- the cop was returning to his car- when suddenly something large flew past the window and crashed onto the cruiser. It was a body.
Immediately shots were fired from the building at the cop, who started peeling through the parking lot at full speed in reverse. She couldn't help herself. As soon as the shooting started, she was up and over to the window, watching through the blinds intently as the officer tried to retreat. He wove through the lot trying to make himself a harder target to hit before he drove right over a ledge. His car stopped moving, and she was sure he was dead. As soon as she had moved from the floor Hans had been watching her, expecting her to try to escape or attack him but instead she came to stand just a few feet away from him to watch the commotion. He took the opportunity to get a good look at her now that she wasn't cowering in fear or being dragged around. A slight but lean and athletic frame draped in a dark red dress, for the Christmas party he assumed. Underneath the blossoming bruises along her cheek he found her to actually be quite beautiful. He wasn't even watching the cop anymore. The fabric of the dress looked thin but soft and he resisted the urge to reach out and touch it. For now.
Ach… du lieber Gott! He thought to himself in astonishment when he realized that she wasn't wearing a bra. For a fleeting moment he wondered if she was even wearing panties and his eyes glanced over the curve of her hips and the swell of her butt looking for pantylines but he couldn't see any indication.
"Exciting isn't it?" Hans' voice came from right over her shoulder, and she flinched away. She'd completely forgotten about him somehow in all the commotion and he had snuck up behind her. When she didn't respond he asked, "You don't talk much, do you?"
"I think you talk more than enough for the both of us." She shot back before she could stop herself. A moment of tense silence passed between them where she glanced at the gun he'd left on the table and swallowed nervously. He smirked at her.
"You want to shoot me?" He asked with a laugh.
"No." She lied.
His smirk spread to his hawk-like eyes. "I don't believe you."
"I just don't want you to shoot me." Especially just because she said something. She got the feeling that a guy like this would shoot someone for looking at him wrong.
His smirk turned into a full grin. "Now that I do believe." He gently grabbed her by the arm- an act she was growing accustomed to tonight, though usually in a rougher fashion- and ushered her back over to the couch. Even though he wasn't being rough, it still hurt. She was already bruising from everything else, and was sure her face probably had some to show as well. Curiously she licked her lip. It had stopped bleeding a while ago, but she could still taste it, and it was slightly swollen.
Looking through the glass doors she could see into the atrium. A few people were watching her. Probably wondering why she was in there with him. Probably wondering if I'm in on it somehow. She thought bitterly.
"Sit." He ordered. "I believe we're going to have company soon."
oOo
Thank you to Ladyxx for the review! Much appreciated and I'm pleased you like it!