Part 9 – First Job – Part 2
As Mr. White was finishing packing up the money, they heard the commotion outside, and Mr. Red ran over to the window to see Mr. Green holding his Glock against the cop's neck, and holding the other one against his chest with a handful of his jacket as well.
"Shit," Mr. Red said, "We've got a problem."
"Let's go," Mr. White said as he drew his pistol, and ushered everyone back downstairs as Mr. Yellow threw the door open, and ushered Mr. Green inside.
"Take it easy, ok," the cop said, "Listen, I can help you."
"Hey," Mr. White exclaimed as he came jogging down the stairs, "Either shut him up or shoot him!"
Mr. Green shoved the cop toward Mr. Yellow who shoved him into the group, "Hey, hey, you don't have to…" the teller said before Mr. Yellow fired his Glock into the ceiling.
"SHUT UP," he yelled.
Mr. White looked out the blinds, and saw the police were already pulling up, he turned toward Mr. Green and what came out of his mouth was, "You fucking idiot!"
Present…
As the Grizzly pulled up just down the street from the bank, Naofumi and Raphtalia climbed out of the driver and passenger seat as Fohl, Sadeena, and Atla climbed out the back.
As they entered the command center which was down the street from the bank, on the other side of a metal gate ten feet high covered in white plastic wrapping which allowed the police to control who entered and left the area in front of the bank.
"Captain Iwatani," Chief Erhard said as he saw him enter.
"Chief," Naofumi said as he saluted the chief, "What've we got?"
"If you're looking for an easy situation to test your new team, this is not it," Chief Erhard said, "We've been set up here for about half an hour, and we are just now getting information."
"Who called it in," Naofumi asked.
"Lady lives across the street," Erhard said, "Says she saw one of my boys being dragged into the bank by a single hostile."
"So we have an unknown number of hostage-takers," Naofumi said, "Do we know how many were working in the bank at the time?"
"Nine," Chief Erhard said, "We're working on getting the number of hostages and hostiles."
"We have plans for this place," Naofumi asked.
"Called down to the office when we arrived," Erhard said, "Shouldn't be too much longer."
"We have cameras on the adjacent buildings," Naofumi asked.
"I have my officers working on that now," Erhard said, "But we're going to need time before we can get footage of before the robbery."
"Seems like you have all your bases covered," Naofumi said.
"You know it," Erhard said before turning his attention to a uniformed officer with raven black hair and wearing rimless spectacles on the bridge of his nose, "This is Van Reichnott, my chief negotiator."
"Captain," Reichnott said as he shook Naofumi's hand, "Pleasure to meet you."
"Likewise," Naofumi said, "Any luck?"
"Not really," Reichnott said, "All we've got is a name, Mr. White."
"Any demands," Naofumi asked.
"A helicopter to take them to the airport where they'll have a charter plane booked to take them anywhere in the world," Reichnott said, "He said he'd call again in an hour."
"How long ago was that," Naofumi asked.
Reichnott checked his watch, "About one hour ago," he said right before the phone started ringing.
"Speak of the devil," Naofumi said.
"Put it on speaker," Reichnott said as he reached down to the phone, and picked it up, "Hello, Mr. White, it's Reichnott again."
"Hello Reichnott," Mr. White said, "Have you passed on my demands?"
"Yes," Reichnott said, "But I need to discuss details with you. One of the things we need to discuss is getting you and your people pillows, food…"
Before he could continue Mr. White shouted, "DON'T PLAY GAMES WITH ME YOU PRICK! I don't need pillows! We are not going to stay here long enough to need pillows! I want information on that helicopter the second I call back. I get that, you get information!"
"Then Mr. White, we need," was all Reichnott could say before the sound of the phone slamming, and the dial-tone sounding filled the room.
"Friendly fellow, isn't he," Erhard asked.
"We have a place we can work in private," Naofumi asked.
"Upstairs, door on the right," Erhard said, "As soon as we get any information, we'll send it up."
"Thank you, sir," Naofumi said before looking at Atla, "Atla, stay here, see if you can help negotiations in any way. Be sure to feed us information as it comes in."
"Yes, sir," Atla said as she pointed to the seat next to Reichnott, "May I?"
"Be my guest," Reichnott said.
"We're gonna get set up," Naofumi said as he turned, and led the team out of the room, "Raphtalia, you're gonna help me with the planning," he turned toward Fohl and Sadeena, "Fohl, Sadeena, get back to Grizzly and get our weapons."
"Yes, sir," Fohl said as he and Sadeena walked out of the building as Naofumi and Raphtalia walked up the stairs.
"What are you thinking in terms of assaulting the place," Raphtalia asked.
"Right now, nothing," Naofumi said, "You work with what you know in the brigade. Right now, we know nothing."
"So what do we do then," Raphtalia asked.
"Work with what we have," Naofumi said, "We have at least 10 hostages, one of them a cop, and a bank, what should that mean?"
"It means close quarters, not a lot of space, and security in mind," Raphtalia said.
"And that should mean," Naofumi asked.
"I.D. your targets before you shoot," Raphtalia said.
"Exactly," Naofumi said, "Time in the Military and the Police seems to have done you well."
"Indeed," Raphtalia said as Naofumi opened the door for her, "Thank you."
"What age did you join up," Naofumi asked.
"Second I turned 17," Raphtalia said.
"How many did you serve," Naofumi asked.
"Three," Raphtalia said, "When Sadeena was kicked out, I resigned."
"Where'd you serve," Naofumi asked.
"I put in a tour overseas," Raphtalia said, "Most of the time I spent was in a base outside of Melromarc. Mostly working security for the gates, and busting kids who had just enlisted for smuggling in drugs or liquor."
"The usual shit," Naofumi said as he sat down.
"Yes," Raphtalia said, "What about you?"
"Stationed everywhere," Naofumi said, "Middle East, Philippines, and a small stint in England."
"England," Raphtalia said, "What were you doing there?"
"Training," Naofumi said, "Attached to a unit doing joint-training with a small group of British soldiers."
"What group," Raphtalia asked.
"Don't remember," Naofumi said, "Was a while ago before I signed up for this."
"Any habits picked up overseas," Raphtalia asked.
"One," Naofumi said as he pulled out a small cigarette lighter, "I quit last year."
"Cigarettes," Raphtalia asked.
"Nope," Naofumi said, "Cigars were a luxury on base, and smoking was an easy way to take off the edge."
"Beyond," Fohl said as he and Sadeena walked in with their gear.
"Fast aren't you," Naofumi asked.
"You called me Tiger for a reason," Fohl said as he put their weapon cases down, "I have to go back for Atla's."
"While you're at it," Naofumi said, "See if you can find a good look-out post. Maybe we can find some solid intelligence if we get a good view."
"Yes, sir," Fohl said.
"What about me," Sadeena asked.
"Right now, we're going to need your help in coming up with a strategy," Naofumi said, "We're flying blind until we get some actual intel, and until then we can't afford to sit on our asses. You two lived here, you ever patrolled this area?"
"Unfortunately not," Raphtalia said.
"But we do know a lot of the buildings in the area are built the same way," Sadeena said, "Standard townhouse layout, three floors, minimum, a separate entrance in the back for employee parking, and windows that open onto the street."
"So they don't have a view of the rear approach," Naofumi asked.
"Possibly not," Fohl said, "They could have installed a few."
"Do you know," Naofumi asked.
"Not at the moment," Fohl said.
"Then we need to find out," Naofumi said.
"We need an excuse to go around the back of the building," Raphtalia said.
Bank…
Mr. White had Mr. Yellow guarding the people inside the bank while he, Mr. Blue, and Mr. Red discussed the situation, all of them having removed their masks, having seen no reason to keep up with appearances.
The teller that Mr. White talked to when he entered the bank had just finished tending to the cop headwound and looked over at the Glock in Mr. Yellow's hand, "Horrible things," she said.
"They get the job done," Mr. Yellow said.
"That's one way of looking at it," she said, "Any chance of a cup of coffee?"
"Probably not," Mr. Yellow said.
"Ask your boss," she said, "It's no trouble."
Mr. Yellow leaned slightly against the door before stating, "Hen's offered to make us coffee."
"Cream, no sugar," Mr. White said.
"Black, two sugars," Mr. Blue said.
"Cream, two sugars," Mr. Red said.
The teller stood up, walked over to the coffee machine, and began brewing before turning back to Mr. Yellow, "And you, dear," she asked.
"Please," Mr. Yellow said, "Cream, one sugar."
As she turned back toward the coffee maker, everyone standing by with police had gathered in the negotiating room.
"Go ahead," Erhard said as he signaled Naofumi to stand next to him.
Reichnott nodded before picking up the phone and dialing the number for the bank.
Mr. White walked over to the phone, and answered, "Hello."
"Hello Mr. White," Reichnott said, "Thanks for your patience. Unfortunately, we can't get a helicopter right now, authorization has to come through several loops to get here. We need to speak to the FAA, the Mayor's office, and the head of the airport. They should meet very soon, and we've recommended you've been given what you've asked for, so I'll have the chief rubber-stamp it. But even if all that were to happen, the weather's predicting unfavorable conditions for a helicopter. We've made arrangements to get all of you out there at eight o'clock tomorrow morning…" there was a slight pause, "Mr. White?"
There was an audible exhale over the phone, "Ok," he said, "But I better see that helicopter at eight, or I'll start shooting."
"Ok," Reichnott said, "In the meantime, we can get you some food, perhaps a few blankets?"
"No armed officers," Mr. White said.
Naofumi slapped the chief on the shoulder and signaled toward Fohl. The chief nodded, and mouthed, 'not a cop' toward Reichnott.
"We have the perfect man for the job," Reichnott said, "We'll send him around to the back."
"He better not be armed," Mr. White said.
"I'll do you one better," Reichnott said, "We'll send for some takeout, and have the delivery guy bring it all."
"Go ahead," Mr. White said as he hung up.
"Delivery guy," Fohl asked.
"It'll give us a chance to get an eye on the back," Naofumi said.
"I'll go around back, and try to stay out of sight," Sadeena said.
"Make sure they don't see you," Naofumi said, "He's going to be alone out there."
"I'll keep him covered," Sadeena said as she pulled out her phone, "And I'll order in, how's Rico's?"
"Pizza's always a winner," Raphtalia said.
"Twelve, eight cheese, four pepperoni," Naofumi said, "The Brigade will pick up the tab."
"Yes, sir," Sadeena said.
"I'll have my officers intercept the delivery boy," Erhard said.
"Good," Naofumi said, "In the meantime, we need a place we can set up after we get a view of the backside of this building."
"The shop across the street has a nice view," Fohl said as he looked out the window, "Observation post there could be an asset."
"Then you're on it the second you get back from your delivery job," Naofumi said.
"Yes, sir," Fohl said.
To be continued…