Chapter Two: Bella?

Edward’s POV

“Hello?” I asked, waiting for a response.

“Hi.” A soft voice said back. On a stray piece of paper I scribbled a note and passed it to Arkin.

Is this call coming from inside the building? He nodded and then grabbed a floor plan, pointing to a shop on the second floor, in direct view of where we were sitting.

“Hi there, my name is Edward and I’m the hostage negotiator handling this situation.”

“I’m Bella, and I guess I’m one of the hostages,”

“You guess?” She let out a shaky laugh.

“Well I am one of the hostages. They just don’t know I’m here.”

“Yeah, let’s talk about that. Can you tell me what’s going on?” I asked, ready to write down all the details she could give me.

“I don’t really know. They started shooting and then rounded everyone up. There’s a lot of them, has to be more than four.”

“Have you seen them? Can you tell me anything about them? Their accent? Just anything?” I stressed, needing something to run with.

“I’ve only seen their boots, the guy that spoke to us sounded American but I think the others were foreign.”

“Foreign?”

“Yeah, European.”

“Any chance you could be more specific than that?” I knew she was trying her best but I needed a little more. The sooner we had this information the sooner we could get started on bringing them down.

“Eh…I don’t really know, it wasn’t Spanish or French. Greek or Italian maybe? I’m sorry I didn’t hear it very well.”

“No, you’re doing great. Did you catch any names?”

“No, none.”

“Alright, thank you Bella. Can you hold on for a minute please?”

“Sure.” I put the phone on hold and turned to the guys.

“Set this line up as another one way. I want her to be able to talk to us if she needs to.”

“You think we can use her?”

“I don’t know. Obviously I‘m not going to ask her to go out and find the guys, but she can tell us if anything is going on from what she can hear. That’s at least a start. Now, have you gotten my other line yet?”

“Any second now.” I nodded and picked up the phone again.

“Bella?”

“Yeah, I’m here.”

“We’re setting up a line so you can stay in contact with me. If you hang up for whatever reason, all you have to do is pick the phone up and my end will ring. You got that?”

“Yeah, and thanks.”

“No, really, thank you. I know this can’t be easy for you. We’re going to try and work out who’s inside the building so any help you could give us would be great. May I ask, what’s your full name?”

“Isabella Marie Swan, look my father’s a cop. He’s a detective in homicide. Can you maybe get a message to him that I’m safe? It’s Charlie Swan.”

“Of course, we can do that.” An officer listening in stood up and got right on that. “Clearly you are aware of the possible danger you are in but I want to assure you that we are doing everything we can. Unfortunately we haven’t made contact with the hostage takers yet so we do not know their demands, but I do intend to rectify that any second now. Therefore, is it alright that I leave you on the line?”

“Absolutely. Do what you need to, I’ll just be sitting here.”

“Alright then, thank you. Speak to you soon.” I got Arkin to put her on hold and we set up for the next call.

To say I was nervous was an understatement. Making contact was crucial and the very first phone call may just define how the night goes. If I said something to offend them or upset them in any way you can be assured they’d up the body count. I needed them to know I was going to ‘help’ them and was trying to see it from their point of view.

However, I doubted my normal routine was going to work on them. They seemed smarter than the kid holding up a store for fifty bucks. If I wanted this to end quickly I’d have to work extra hard for it and do everything in my power to seize opportunities for hostages without enraging them.

“Cullen, let’s get this show on the road,” Commander Maxwell said, nodding at me to pick up the phone. When I picked up it would ring on the other end and that would be it, no going back for a second chance, we’d be in this until the end.

Trying to steady my hand I picked up the phone and put it to my ear, listening to it ring. All eyes were on me and the building across the street for any movement. The phone continued ringing and on the twentieth I figured no one was going to answer.

Thankfully someone did pick up.

“Hello-“ I began, only to be cut off.

“I wondered when you would be calling. To be perfectly honest I thought you wouldn’t have taken so long. What, is this not important enough? Does another person need to die before you take the situation seriously?”

“Absolutely not-“ The man’s laughter on the other end of the phone confused me.

“I’m kidding. I know there’s a problem with the phones. Now, who am I speaking to?” he asked, sounding all too flamboyant for this. I mentally wondered if he was high but this was all too calculated for that.

“Lieutenant Edward Cullen, I’m the hostage negotiator.”

“Oh I know who you are Edward, no need to explain. I bet you want to know who I am, isn’t that right?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“Good, well why delay you anymore, I’m Aro. Am I right in thinking that you’d also like to know my demands for these pitiful hostages?”

“Yes, we’d like to know your demands,” I said, pen at the ready once more.

“Good, you know Edward, you’re awfully good at this. Anyway, where was I? Oh that’s right, my demands. Well, for exchange of these hostages I would like one hundred and seventy four million dollars deposited in an off shore account and eighty tons of cocaine delivered to a certain drop off. Once you have the cocaine assembled I will tell you the location and we will go on from there, same applies with the money.”

“Just to clarify, that was eighty tons of cocaine?” I asked, not believing what I was hearing. That was an obscene amount of cocaine. Hell, the whole of the United States accounted for three hundred tons of cocaine in a full year. How he expected us to get just over a quarter of that was beyond me. It wasn’t like we had a lot of time to get it either.

“Yes that is correct, eighty tons. Eight, zero. Just so you know, every two hours I will add another ten tons onto that. So, if you don’t have my cocaine ready, it will be ninety tons rather than eighty. And again, same applies for the money. Another ten million every two hours.”

“Well, that’s very generous of you, giving us two hours instead of just one” I said, looking round at the rest of the team who all looked as lost as I did.

“Oh and I will also start killing hostages as well,” Aro informed me.

“Right, well we’ll get right on that, what with the deadline and all.”

“Good.” I could hear the son of a bitch smiling on the other end. He knew he had full control and I had to change that.

“Seeing as I’ve listened to everything you’ve had to say, and have taken note of your demands so we can work something out, I was wondering if you would tell me-“

“About the hostages? Oh I’m a step in front of you my boy. There are a total of two hundred and fifty nine hostages. Ninety of them are males, ninety eight are females, thirty six are elderly, twenty eight are children, and seven are babies and toddlers. So, who do you want me to give up first?”

“I’m not going to insult your intelligence. You seem to be very aware of the procedure.”Aro chuckled in agreement.

“So I’ll send out the children and babies, as they don’t need to get involved in this messy situation. Also, I’ll send out anyone with a medical condition so you know I’m not such a heartless bastard who is intent on killing everyone. I can be caring, and I can be kind, as this goodwill gesture shows. They’ll be out in twenty minutes.”

“Thank you.”

“No Edward, thank you.” With that the line went dead, telling me he’d hung up.
I leaned back in my chair and ran my hands through my hair. The other guys in the room had jumped into action and were alerting the team around the mall about what was going to happen should they see any movement.

I couldn’t understand Aro. He must have known that these situations never ended well. So why was he even attempting this? What also didn’t make any sense were his demands. Eighty tons of cocaine was not easy to get a hold of. In fact, it was almost impossible.

“Relax, the night’s still young. This is the easy part,” Roddy said, coming over and sitting on the corner of my desk.

“No, it’s not.” I loosened my tie some more and turned in my chair to Roddy. “Have we got facilities set up for the hostages coming out? I want to be able to question them about what they saw.”

“You personally?”

“No, of course not.” Roddy nodded and surveyed the room.

“I’m sure someone’s already on that. The commander will have done that so no need to worry. Your job is to man that phone. How’s the girl doing?”

“I…I haven’t spoken to her since we called the hostage takers.”

“You’re not just going to leave her?”

“Well no, I wouldn’t do that.”

“She still on the line?”

“Yes.”

“Then talk to her. Come on Edward, you’ve got a hostage on the phone, how often does that happen?”

“Fair point.” Roddy clapped me on the back and headed off. The tech guys gave me the go ahead that Bella was actually still there before I picked up the phone. “Bella?”

“Edward?”

“Yeah it’s me. How are you holding up?”

“Honestly?

“Yes please. Honestly, how are doing?”

“I really need to pee.” I couldn’t help but chuckle, either could the techies monitoring the call.

“Well I’m sorry to hear that. There’s nothing I can do to help with that particular issue.”

“Yeah, I know. So can you tell me what’s going on?”

“We’re getting some hostages.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, we’ll see what-“ The line went dead and I frantically looked up at the techies. They confirmed that Bella was no longer on the line. I swung in the chair and looked out the window at the mall and directly at the shop window where Bella was meant to be.

There was no activity from what I could see and the whole place looked relatively calm. Despite only speaking to her briefly I was worried about her safety, more so than what I usually was to the hostages involved. Everything here seemed more personal.

Setting the phone down I got up and headed over to Roddy who was organising the
officers that were to question and help the newly released hostages once they were out safely. We gave them direct instructions on what to ask and what information had to be relayed back to us immediately.

With them on board, and a check back in with Arkin that Bella still hadn’t called back I went over to Roddy who was reading over eye-witness accounts from when the shopping mall was first taken. He had a frown on his face and knowing him well I knew whatever he was reading wasn’t going to help me at all.

“What is it?” I asked, taking a seat next to him and grabbing one of the files he’d already read.

“They brought things in with them,” he muttered, scanning the page quickly. “Three witnesses so far said they saw up to seven men carrying large black bags, and from the looks of things they were all full. I can’t think what they’d take in with them.”

“Well, resources,” I added, thinking it over.

“Yeah, like what? What do they need that isn’t already in there? The food court has several stores all selling food, there’s even a supermarket. There are bathroom facilities, obviously. The place is packed with clothes so if they wanted to change, if it was going to last that long, they could just take them. As for sleeping, there’s a furniture store on the top floor. What do they need?” he asked, frowning deeply.

“I have no idea.” And I didn’t. It didn’t make sense what they had in the bags seeing as we were going to be acting as fast as possible and hopefully have the entire situation over with by tomorrow. They wouldn’t be staying for the long haul. “What else do these say?”

“Some say they saw a black van park up, drop them all off and then leave. Others say several police vans dropped them off. A few are claiming police officers entered the building, others Arab extremists. The usual with this sort of fiasco.”

“So really, we have nothing concrete to go on apart from the fact they may or may not have bags in there with them, filled with something?”

“Yep, and that they’re European with black combat boots according to our hidden hostage. What do you expect though, you know how inconsistent eye-witnesses can be. Hell, remember that store hold up where the store owner claimed it was a samurai sword he had been stabbed with when it was just a pocket knife?” I nodded, recalling the event. “People get it wrong, they miss see things or they think they saw something when it was all in their minds.”

“You’re giving me great hope that the hostages we should be getting any minute now are going to be helpful.” Roddy chuckled and shook his head.

“Sorry mate but we’re going to get a lot of mixed information here. We’ll try and shift it out and find the consistencies but let’s be reasonable, some of it won’t be helpful at all.”

“Are you two busy?” Commander Maxwell asked, coming over.

“Just reading up, waiting on the hostages. What do you need?” Roddy replied, standing up as I followed example.

“Both of you come with me then.” Roddy looked at me curiously, to see if I knew what was going on, and I shook my head, not having a clue.

We walked back to the closed off office at the back of the floor, Maxwell shutting the door behind us. He closed the blinds on the window and told us to take a seat. To me it seemed like I was about to be told this was too big for me and that I was just to hold down the fort until the other hostage negotiator, Howler, pitched up. I had been expecting it but was saddened now. I didn’t want to leave Bella out there.

“Alright, we have a problem,” Maxwell began. “The name Aro rang a bell so I called up a few guys and found out exactly who we have in there. Aro Volterra is part of an organised crime group known as Volturi. He and his two brothers, Caius and Marcus, are in charge now. Their former boss is going on trial in a week, and the three of them are the leading witnesses. As part of their amnesty deal all crimes will be forgotten when they testify.”

“When they testify?” I asked, hoping I had heard wrong. “Are you telling me that for the next week they can run around and do whatever they want without being punished for their crimes?”

“Well yes.” I groaned and flew out the chair, in a fitful of rage. “Look Edward, I know it’s a shitty situation but we have to deal with it.”

“Deal with it?! Are you kidding me, sir? They have two hundred and sixty hostages in there that they can kill at free will and we can’t do anything to stop them. We can’t kill them, they’re needed for trial, and we can’t charge them as the amnesty kicks in when they do testify.”

“I know,” Maxwell said, looking just as peeved as I was.

“Why weren’t they secured? Shouldn’t they be locked away somewhere so this couldn’t happen?” I asked, one hand on my hip and the other running through my hair.

“They initially were. Three different guys were on each of them. The last they saw of the brothers they were boarding a plane, where our officers were going to pick them up on the other side. We have reports saying that they’re still out of the country.”

“Well the clearly didn’t board a fucking plane as I’ve got them across the street holding folks hostage!”

“I know. the situation is fucked up.”

“Heads better roll for this,” I said, still angry as hell.

“They will, don’t you worry. You just do your job.”

“I’m trying but his demands are rather impossible.”

“Ah, yes about that,” Maxwell began again, letting me know there was much more to this than I would have liked. “When their last boss was arrested his assets were seized along with 80 tons of cocaine and 174 million dollars in cash. They obviously knew it was there and they want it back. We have it secured somewhere.”

“As they know we have it and they want it I’d like to think we’re getting it ready for delivery. After all, I don’t want to be the one to tell someone that their loved one died due to incompetence, and we can’t press charges on those that did it.”

“We can’t touch it, I can’t authorise that,” Maxwell said, sighing. “My hands are tied right now. I’m fighting with a hell of a lot of red tape here. I’ll need time. Unlucky for us it’s twenty to midnight on a Friday night, the men I need to speak to have buggered off.”

“So what do you propose we do in the meantime?” Roddy asked. I had completely forgotten he was still in the room. Unlike me, he listened to all the facts before blowing up.

“Talk to the girl, keep her on the line and find out as much as you can,” he said to me then turned to Roddy, “Look over statements from the hostages that have just been released and report back to me. I don’t intend to go tactically here, but if the option is available we may need to.”

With that we were dismissed. I was reeling in anger. Far too many people were at risk because someone cocked up the amnesty agreement. Roddy could tell I was in a foul mood so he sent me to get a drink of water before trying to get hold of Bella again. He said that I needed to be calm with her so I didn’t tip her off that there was a problem. She needed to hear that everything was running smoothly.

By the time I had calmed down thirty eight hostages had been released. They were escorted across the empty streets over to the building we were congregated in. Everything they needed was set up a few floors below, where they would be seen for medical treatment if they required it, given food, and then questioned when ready.

A fellow officer gave me a note from Roddy telling me that Aro had sent out the seven babies, twenty eight children, one elderly man with a heart condition, and two women with diabetes. While they were getting taken care of I returned to my desk.

“Arkin, is she on the line again?”I asked, pointing down at my phone.

“Yep, she came back about twenty minutes ago when you were in with Maxwell.”

“How’d she sound?”

“Fine, I think she got spooked. You want to talk to her?” I nodded and took a seat, grabbing the phone.

“Bella?”

“Hi Edward,” she said softly, her voice automatically relaxing me.

“How are you? You had me worried.”

“I’m sorry, several of them gathered outside the store front and I didn’t want to take the risk of getting caught.”

“No, you were right to do that. I don’t want you risking your safety anymore than you have. If you need to put the phone down please do so.”

“Thank you,” she replied quietly. I did worry they would be able to hear her voice but she seemed to be doing a good job of escaping their notice. “Did you get in contact with them?” I heard her ask.

“Yes, we did. We’re working on their demands now,” I said, hoping to reassure her that all was well. To be honest, I hadn’t gotten a clue what was going to happen.

“Well good, sounds like progress has been made in getting us out of here.”

“Oh it has, no need to worry. Now, how are you really holding up?”

“Apart from still needing to use the bathroom, I’m okay, a little scared,” Bella admitted, instantly filling me with worry for her.

“How can I take that fear away?”I asked, hoping to do something for her.

“Eh…I don’t know, distract me?” she said, making it sound more like a question.

“Okay, I think I can give that a go. Tell me, what were you doing at the mall tonight anyway?”

“My friends took me out shopping, I’m currently wearing the dress I fully intend to buy, though I might get another one still on the rack as this thing is looking pretty grubby, and I don’t think they’ll let me leave with the security tag still on it,” she said, clearly taking in her appearance as she spoke. I smiled softly to myself, glad to have her talking about something else.

“Do you like to shop?” My sister, Kate, was an avid shopper so I made the assumption that most women did like shopping.

“Not really, no. I don’t like spending money. What about you?”

“Do I like shopping?” I asked for clarification.

“Yeah.”

“Eh, no I don’t think I do like shopping. It’s not my favourite past time.”

“What is?” she asked, genuinely sounding interested.

“Listening to music.”

“Ah, so I take it you have an extensive collection?”

“Indeed. And yourself, favourite past time?”

“Reading,” Bella answered.

“You have an extensive collection of that too?”

“Indeed,” she said, copying my reply. “I don’t know, I just get lost in books.”

“Wouldn’t you rather be out living the adventures you’re reading about?” I asked, recalling wanting to do just that after reading some books.

“I would, but if we all had those experiences it wouldn’t be fiction now would it?” I chuckled and agreed.

“No it wouldn’t, you’ve got a point there. Alright, what sports are you into?”

“Oh no, none. Walking is a hazard to me. I don’t partake in any sports.”

“You’re clumsy?”

“Very. You certainly seem like a man who would be into sports though. What do you play, football, baseball, soccer?”

“I play baseball occasionally but prefer to play Rugby and Cricket, the influences of my British friend.”

“I’ve not played either of them.”

“Yeah I wouldn’t suggest Rugby to you, maybe too rough. From what you’ve said you seem to give yourself enough injuries, I wouldn’t want to send you out to gain more,” I added. From the sounds of it, keeping Bella safe from harm seemed like a fulltime job.

“Well thank you for thinking of my safety. I was wondering, do you mind me asking,
what age you are Edward?”

“Of course not, you can ask me anything. I’m twenty nine years old, and do you mind me asking you?”

“No, I’m twenty four. Em, Edward can you hold on a minute?”

“Of course,” I replied, anxiously waiting. A few minutes later she returned.

“Sorry about that, they do routine checks of the mall and I don’t like to talk when they’re around.”

“Eh, Bella can you tell me more about these routine checks please?”

“Sure, what do you want to know?”

“How often do they do them? Do you know where they check exactly? How many of them check? Details like that would be great.”

“I can’t actually see them but I know two of them check this side of the mall. I can hear their footsteps and voices lowly. They walk up from the left of the store I’m in and go close to the window then along, going towards the elevators. I think they check every ten minutes.”

As she was talking several men in the room were plotting the route on the floor plans, working out breach plans and estimating how long it would take to get our team in unnoticed, provided we take the car park without being discovered.

Although forcing entry was a very unlikely option given the new information we had received on Aro and his brothers it was safer to just be prepared in case. Also, we didn’t know how the evening was going to pan out, breaching may be necessary if they were to shoot more hostages.

“Was any of that helpful?” Bella asked, sounding hopeful.

“Very helpful, thank you very much, we’ll put it to good use.”

“Glad I could be of some assistance.”

“Bella I don’t think you realise how valuable you are right now. Never ever have I heard of a hostage calling the hostage negotiator and feeding him information. It just doesn’t happen.”

“True, but it’s not like I’m in the thick of it, I can’t tell you how many there are in total, or what they’re doing.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I said, shaking my head. “Just having you there, telling us that they’re not going crazy is enough.”

“No problem. Hey Edward is there any chance you could tell me where the closest bathroom is? I take it you have the floor plans there.”

“I do and I can, though I’m a little worried about you going out of hiding.”

“I have to, seriously,” she replied, sounding desperate.

“Alright, fine, but please for the love of God be careful. The closest bathroom is four stores down, to your left. You’ll be in direct view of any men they may have further up the mall when you leave the store. You are aware of that right?”

“Yeah, I am. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”

“I hope so. And please, when you get back, pick up the phone and let someone here know you’re safe.”

“I will, I promise.”

“Good, so I’ll speak to you later then.”

“Yeah, bye Edward.” With that Bella hung up the phone and my stomach sank. I was terrified for her. God only knows what they would do if she was caught.

About a minute later an alarm started sounding from across the street. Everybody’s eyes were on the building in question, wondering what the hell was going on, and then it clicked together.

“Shit!” I cried, flying out of my chair.

“What is it? What’s that noise?” Maxwell asked, worried.

“The security tag on the dress, it’s set the alarms off. They’re going to find her!” I put both of my hands on the back of my head and entwined my fingers, terrified for her safety.

She was in serious trouble now, and there wasn’t anything I could do. Then for the first time in a long time, I prayed, begging God to keep her safe. I don’t know why or how, but there was just something about Bella, and I felt the need to protect her more than I’ve felt the need to protect anyone besides my family ever before.

Chapter One: Hello?

Chapter One: Hello?

Edward’s POV

My neck was killing me. I had been leaning over the desk in my office for three hours straight, cramming in as much paperwork as I possibly could before heading out. With so many cases on the go that needed to be closed I had to get my ass in gear.

Despite my role as the hostage negotiator in the SWAT team unit I didn’t spend all of my time talking folk down. There was more to it than that, mostly paperwork. Although I loved my job I sometimes needed a break. That was what I had planned for the next two weeks.

Tomorrow I was flying out, first to spend four days with my parents and then I was spending the rest of my holiday time up in Alaska. There was a small, secluded cabin that was going to be my saving grace. The city was great, but eventually I had to get away from all the scum I was around daily. Things occasionally got pretty intense and that cabin would pick me up from my darkest times.

So, suffice to say, I was looking forward to getting out of here for a while. All I needed to do was finish a few things and then head home to pack. As far as I was concerned my night ahead was going to be a breeze.

However, as if someone was conspiring against me, my good friend and fellow Lieutenant, Roddy, stuck his head in the door and shattered all plans of going home sometime soon.

“Edward, you’re needed in McGuire’s office right away.” I glanced at the clock quickly before dropping my pen and following him out the door.

“What’s going on?” I asked as we strode through the hallways. I had gathered there was an incident and my presence would be needed but I wanted the details as soon as possible.

“Situation down at city shopping mall. Officers on site are saying the doors have been chained shut on the inside, all exits are also barricaded shut, and they believe they’ve been triggered to blow up upon opening. We’re getting bits and pieces from different guys down there so that could be wrong.” My holiday plans just went up in smoke.

“How many hostages you think are there?”

“Well over one hundred. It’s a busy night, plus you’ve got the sixty two staff that were in, so there’s going to be a lot of people inside,” Roddy said, shrugging. He knew as well as I did we were going to have our work cut out for us.

“And you know why they want me?” I asked.

Lieutenant Howler was the superior hostage negotiator and he was the main man in the department. I was like the backup guy. Granted, I did get my fair share of the workload, but it was evident that they only used me when they had to.

“Howler’s in Maine and you’re the only other hostage negotiator around,” he answered, confirming my suspicions.

“They could call in someone from another precinct,” I suggested.

The department had confidence in me, yes, but they lacked enthusiasm where I was concerned. Howler would get the others to give him as much time as he needed while I’d be constantly pushed to let them go in there guns blazing.

“Don’t kid yourself. They’re not going to do that. What are you worried about anyway?” Roddy asked as we weaved our way around the many officers coming and going from McGuire’s office.

“Come on Roddy, you know my file pretty damn well. You know why I’m worried about this.” Let’s just say I’ve had one major fuck up in my career that gives everyone doubts about my ability.

“That wasn’t your fault Edward.” I shook my head in disagreement. Roddy was biased anyway.
“It doesn’t matter whose fault it was, I was in charge. It shouldn’t have happened.”

“You weren’t in charge, the commander was. Now don’t let that cloud your judgement for tonight.”

“God, and here I thought I could get away early.” Roddy laughed and shook his head.

“Not a chance, and this one will be long. They’ve got resources inside that building. I won’t be surprised if this lasts several days.”

He had a point there; it was a shopping mall after all. From what I knew of going there on personal errands they had access to everything they could need. We couldn’t offer trades for food or anything.

“That’s not what I need.”

“Yeah me neither.” Roddy held the door open and I walked into McGuire’s office, surveying the situation before me.

Captain McGuire was on the phone frantically giving orders to someone while a few guys were looking over floor plans, no doubt eyeing up the vent system and tying to find any possible points of entry.

Seeing as the other hostage negotiator in our team was away it was my turn to step up to the plate. For a serious situation like this I was terrified. I could handle the store robberies gone wrong, or the mentally unstable taking refuge in their neighbour’s house with a shotgun.

However, when it came to the big jobs, multiple hostage-takers and many hostages, I was much more cautious.

I could tell that tonight’s situation was going to require a lot of effort to control and contain the environment, and also require a lot of luck if we were to get everyone out alive. My mission was to get the hostages out and ensure their safety, I’d let the other guys worry about the hostage-takers.

The Captain put the phone down and turned to Roddy and myself. We were awaiting instructions before both of us would go straight to the scene. Roddy was always my right hand man and I needed his calm and collected self around otherwise I was a bit of a mess.

“Right, we have one dead already. Mall security guard was shot several times and was dead on arrival at the hospital. They dumped his body out a second floor window for all to see. These guys are damn serious and we cannot fuck up. Edward, you need to go down there right now. We’ve set up across the street in an office building.”

“They’re prepared for this and I don’t think you’re going to get them walking out with their hands up. If you need to, force entry and take out these bastards. We do not want the body count rising here. The press is all over this so you will be watched constantly. That means there’s no room for error,” Captain McGuire said.

“How long have they been in there?” I asked, glancing up at the clock. There was always a lag time between when hostages were taken and when the SWAT team was assembled. We took awhile always getting together and down at the scene.

“We believe that they took the building twenty five minutes ago. Several officers were sent down to the scene immediately so we’ve got guys onsite. They’ve secured the area for your arrival. So, go and we’ll talk later.”

Nodding, Roddy and I left, heading straight down to the car park. I had left most of my things in my office so Roddy was driving. He could tell I was nervous but was being kind enough not to mention anything, which let me try and collect myself before everything went crazy.

Without a glance back Roddy raced his Bristol Fighter T out of the car park and onto the main road. Like myself, Roddy had a love for British cars. They were one of his weaknesses, along with leggy blondes and gin.

He was born and raised on the other side of the pond as it were but moved here when he was twenty-one. I’m not quite sure what possessed him to move but he’s never looked back yet. Of course, it’s still obvious where he’s from with the accent that is definitely not American. It seems to work in his favour though so I can’t fault him for it.

“Where do you want me tonight, armed to go or working info?” he asked, breaking me from my thoughts.

“Info would be great if that’s alright with you? I’ll probably need your help on a few things.”
“Hey, no problem with me.”

“I know, but you like the action and prefer to be right in there.” Roddy shook his head as he moved his way through the traffic.

“Sometimes I do but tonight I want to get these bastards and it’s going to take more than barging in with a few guns firing to do that. If they’re already killing folk you know we’ve got to work fast. We don’t need another gun inside; we need more guys running intelligence. I’m happy to do that.”

“Thanks.”

We pulled up to the police cordon and were quickly let through when they saw who it was. Roddy parked his baby safely out the way and then we were both ushered over to the office building across the street from the shopping mall.

The floor we decided to use was level with the mall’s roof so we could look down on the situation. There were a load of guys moving furniture, answering phones, setting up equipment and fixing gear for what was bound to be a long night ahead of us.

Commander Maxwell, who was in charge of the whole place, waved me over upon seeing I’d arrived. He would be the one person I would have to answer to. I couldn’t be in charge of the scene entirely as it limited my options when handling the hostage takers.

If they asked for something I knew there was no chance of getting I could simply say I’d have to speak to my superior about that. It would buy me more time and allow myself to try and talk them out. After all, it’s not like I could just flat out say no. That’s how people got killed.

“Good, you guys are here. We haven’t heard anything from inside yet.”

“Have you tried to make contact?”

“No, there’s a problem with the phones. We’re working on it though.” That didn’t fill me with much confidence. “Ben’s going to walk you through some things and once we get the one-way line set up you’ll be on. Until then, get up-to-date.”

“Yes, sir.”

I walked over to a spare desk littered with floor plans. Rifling through them, I could see some things that would work in our favour but many hindrances. Although I didn’t like forcing entry I was well aware that in some cases it was the only option.

“Right, Ben, walk me through the floor plans.” The man in reference came over immediately. He hunted out the plans he wanted and then began.

“Okay, in the garage there are two stairwells, two security desks and the elevators. For obvious reasons we can’t use the elevators but there is a chance that at some point we could take the stairwells. If we can get the SWAT team in there it would be easier to form an attack if the moment comes.”

“Can we get cameras in the car park?”

“I’m pretty certain we can though it will be difficult. My guess is that they’ve got guys down there watching the cameras that are already in the stores. We need to rectify that if we have any hope of taking the place.”

“If that’s the necessary. Who knows, they might walk out willingly. Carry on.”

“We’re trying to get information on how the security system works but so far we believe that the feed runs live out to a security company on the other side of the city. The feed is recorded there and inside the security desks. We’re working on getting access to that feed.”

“Do whatever you need to, I want it.”

“Will do. Now the stairwells give us access to the whole place. We can take them to the roof and then go in through the ventilation system. The guys are looking through it but we’re certain you can fit some men through there and it will be easy access.”

“Why do we need to use the vents once we’re already in the building? What advantage does it have?”

“The vents go over the food court. If that’s where they are grouped we can see and hear them, you obviously know the significance there.” I nodded and let Ben continue. “With the roof, the only way we can get guys up there is by using a helicopter. The building was not designed with fire escapes. Due to its size they were sure you could get out in time.”

“Why can’t we drop them on the roof?”

“Well that’s more your call than mine. We can, but they’ll hear the helicopter, and I don’t know how they’d react to that.” I nodded again, pleased that Ben was covering a lot of options. “We need the stairs, that’s going to be our way in. Granted, we could storm the place but there aren’t
many windows in there so it’s rather limited, doable but limited.”

“Alright, now, from this, where would the ideal place to congregate be? You mentioned the food court.”

“Yeah, the food court, by the fountain, looks to be the best place. It’s a wide open space and there are plenty of things to cover behind. It’s only weakness is the second floor looks over it.” Ben pointed out on the plans what he meant and it was a pretty ideal place for us to take them.

“Now, they will know that’s their weak point too so they might have guys up there, I don’t know, but if we could take the second floor we have a serious chance of ending it quickly.”

“Ending it quickly if we know who’s who. I don’t want guns blazing only to find out we killed more hostages than hostage takers. I need to see in there, can you get me that?” I stressed.

“We’re working on it.” It sounded like they were all working on something but with no results yet.

“Thanks.” With that I turned away and went over to what was deemed as my desk. There was an elaborate set up of phones, recording devices, headphones, and laptops waiting to run and store data.

I looked up at the clock on the wall and saw that they’d been in there for forty minutes. That was far too long without making contact. We needed to speed things up.

“Have you got me my phone line yet?” I called.

“Not yet, we’re getting there. There’s a lot of phones in the place.”

“Well make them all ring, I don’t care just get me a damn line now!”

I took off my jacket, loosened my tie and took a seat. We had no info on the hostage takers and that was pissing me off. I just needed something to run with; somewhere to start and then we’d be on. But, in order to get that, I needed to talk to them.

“Ben, distribute the floor plans to the team that we’ll send in okay?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You look knackered already,” Roddy observed, coming over with a cup of coffee.

“I am,” I admitted. “Plus, I hate not knowing what’s going on in there.”

“We’re close to getting you that line. It’s only taking so long as the phone company has been doing maintenance on several things. We’ll be up and running in no time.”

“I hope you’re right because if they kill another person, this time out of impatience, I’ll lose it.”

“That won’t happen.”

Looking out the office windows across the street the mall was lit up like it normally would be. The only difference was obviously the three block police cordon making it deserted.

“You got any more information on the possibility of explosives?”

“No, none. We’ve got a bomb squad assembled and they’ll go and check it out once we get the order, which we won’t get until contact has been made.” Sighing I rubbed my hands over my face, trying to alert myself.

“They have to know they won’t get out of there alive,” I muttered to Roddy.

“I know but they certainly can stay in there a long time.”

“Don’t remind me.”

“Excuse me, Lieutenant Cullen, I have someone on the phone saying they’re inside the shopping mall,” another officer said, coming over.

“One of the hostage takers?”

“No, a hostage.” Several of the tech guys took over then, getting the call put through to one of the phones at the desk, that way it could be recorded as well.

“Are we ready?” I asked, ready to answer the call. Arkin, the main techie, gave me the green light. The room quieted down and many guys put on headphones to hear the call. Commander Maxwell nodded and I picked up the allocated phone.

“Hello?” I asked, waiting for a response.

“Hi.” A soft voice said back. On a stray piece of paper I scribbled a note and passed it to Arkin.
Are we sure this call is coming from inside the building? He nodded and then grabbed a floor plan, pointing to a shop on the second floor, in direct view of where we were sitting.

“Hi there, my name is Edward and I’m the hostage negotiator handling this situation.”

“I’m Bella, and I guess I’m one of the hostages,” she said quietly, sounding fragile and scared. That needed to change and I’d make sure it did.


Bella’s POV

I was going to kill Alice and Rose for the impromptu shopping trip they had dragged me on. After a long day at work where I had been on my feet for hours I was then taken out by my so called friends and forced to try on many different outfits.

They claimed that I needed to splurge on myself from time to time so figured tonight was the best time to do that. I, of course, thought otherwise but there was just no arguing with them. On the other side of the dressing room door I could hear Alice impatiently tapping her foot on the floor as Rose ranted about her perverted neighbour.

“I mean it’s getting ridiculous. Every time I finish my shower he rings the fucking doorbell. It’s like he waits for me to only be in a towel before meandering over with some lame excuse about borrowing some ingredient for cooking. Not only am I turning the bastard on but I’m also feeding him!” she cried, outraged.

Alice snorted and then flung the curtain open, revealing me half in and out of a dress. I was use to it so didn’t squeal like I did when she first revealed me to the store. Both of their eyes turned to me immediately as I finished dressing.

“No,” Rose said abruptly.

“Why not?” I asked, thinking the dress I was currently wearing was fine.

“It’s not your colour,” Alice added with Rose nodding.

“Alright, fair enough. I take it you have another one for me?”

“Yep.” Alice grinned as she grabbed a navy dress off of the rail next to her. She handed it to me and shut the curtain.

I shimmied out the one they had point blank refused and began getting into the other, listening to Rose and Alice the entire time. Alice was giving Rose tips on how to get the pervy neighbour to piss off. She suggested using her personal trainer, who was a tank of a man, to scare him away. Although Rose liked the idea she wanted to give it some more thought, no doubt thinking she could come up with something better.

Before Alice had the chance to whip back the curtain I stepped out, allowing them a proper look. This one I liked and definitely wanted to get. Thankfully, they seemed to agree.

“I like that one,” Alice said, nodding.

“Me too, much better than the last one you tried on,” Rose agreed.

“What do you think Bella?”

“I’m happy with this one.”

“Well good, that one is it.” Alice smiled happily, shoving the curtain closed for me. After many years of shopping with her I had managed to tame the shopping witch that occasionally came out. She wasn’t as eccentric with her responses and was also more open to what I liked, which helped matters greatly.

I hadn’t even started taking the dress off when shots went off, terrifying me. People began screaming and more shots were fired. Instinctively I dove to the floor, knowing the sound of gunfire immediately. My father, Charlie, had taken me to the shooting range before.

Lifting up the bottom of the curtain I saw that Rose and Alice were cowering down too. They both looked frantic as well, not daring to move an inch. Coming from another part of the mall yells and cries could be heard. Then the distinct sound of something being dragged across the ground alerted us to their presence close by.

The three of us could only see below the clothes racks. We watched as the mall cop, bleeding profusely was dragged past the front of the store, leaving a blood trail smeared across the floor.

The sales assistant whimpered at the sight from behind the desk and in turn caused one of the attackers to stop and stand by the store entrance.

The window closest to the right of the store entrance was opened; the squeak of the latch gave it away. I shut my eyes and braced myself for what I was about to hear. The thud and screams from outside confirmed my thoughts that they threw the body out of the window.

Looking back at my friends I saw that Alice had tears streaming down her face and Rose looked just as terrified. I was holding myself together, barely. The two attackers who were previously by the window and who had dragged the body walked past, saying something to the man remaining. They weren’t talking in English and at most I gathered it was European.

When he cocked his gun, another round of adrenaline shot through my bloodstream as I suddenly had a burst of energy. My thoughts on who these men were vanished and I began focusing on what was about to unfold before me.

“Listen up; I do not intend to shoot you if you follow orders. Everyone, stand up slowly, with your hands on your head,” he called out to all of us. From the sounds of it the same was happening in the surrounding stores.

“Stay hidden,” Rose whispered frantically before getting up. From where I was he couldn’t see me unless he checked, and I was praying he wasn’t going to.

“I don’t have all night, do it now!” The anger and animosity in his voice filled me with dread. I had no idea what the hell he was going to do next.

Alice stood up as well, and so did the three others in the store. He ushered the ones closest to him out and then turned to my two friends.

“You two walk slowly this way,” he called to Rose and Alice. I watched their feet walk across the floor to the pair of men’s black combat boots. With one hundred percent certainty I knew that man would shoot them if he had to. The fear was racing through my veins but I wasn’t going to let it show, despite no one being around to see. “Walk in front of me…go…now!”

With that they went out of sight. My heart was thumping in my chest so loudly I wouldn’t be surprised if they could hear it. I didn’t want to waste a second so as quietly as possible I opened up my handbag and grabbed my phone.

The battery was fucking dead. I felt like crying.

Footsteps rushed past, close by and I thought I had been caught. Thankfully that wasn’t the case. Carefully I peered out from under the curtain, cautious not to move it too much, and checked the area. The store was located in the corner of the building on the second floor. Directly across from the store entrance was the side wall of another store. It was cut off and for that I was glad.

Mustering up all of my courage I crawled out from under the curtain and eyed the pay desk.

There was a phone on top and if I could just get that I could maybe get some help. Being as quiet as possible I moved across the floor, stopping every so often if I thought someone was coming.

The pay desk had two tills on either side. It was square and had one entrance, a counter that lifted up. I just crawled through the gap and then slid in under the desk. It had a small curtain to pull over and hide the contents below so after grabbing the landline phone and placing it on my lap I enclosed myself.

I needed time to calm down. It felt like I was going to be sick, urinate myself or break down in a bawling mess, which would definitely attract attention. All in all it took me half an hour to steady my breathing, feel a little safer knowing they might not find me, and just get my thoughts in order.

I was still absolutely terrified but needed to get help for others inside the building. I mean, my friends were with those bastards, I had to do something. Shakily I picked up the phone and dialled 911. As quietly as possible I spoke to the person on the other end and eventually got over the fact that I was hiding in the mall that was currently a hostage situation.

They wasted no time in putting me on hold so I could be patched through to someone else. I was thinking that I should have called Charlie first; he’d know what to do. Several minutes passed before someone came back on the line.

“Ma’am, are you still there?”

“Yeah, I’m here,” I whispered.

“Right, am I correct in thinking that you’re a hostage inside the shopping mall on-“

“Yes, I am. I’m hiding in one of the stores,” I said, cutting him off and not wanting to waste anymore time.

“Okay, hold on.” I sighed and fought back the tears. I didn’t want to hold, I wanted help. Okay, I could understand that they probably had an immense amount of things going on but how many calls like mine were they going to get?

“Hello?” a male’s voice asked. This man’s voice was much softer than that of the hostage taker from earlier. It almost sounded velvety to be honest, and for some reason that calmed me down even more. He sounded like he might know what he’s doing.

“Hi,” I said back, not sure what to say now.

“Hi there, my name is Edward and I’m the hostage negotiator handling this situation.” Yeah, listening to his voice was helping me a lot. It was like now that I knew someone was directly helping me I felt much better.

“I’m Bella, and I guess I’m one of the hostages,” I responded finally, silently praying that Edward would be able to get me the hell out of here. And from the conviction in his voice I had every faith he could do just that.