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.