by Ian Williams
The line went quiet for a second or two. Then the man spoke. “I agree, go ahead.”
“Excellent.” Anthony turned to face the red laser grid that separated the two men like rope in a boxing ring. Even though he could not possibly see the man he was speaking with out there, he spoke as if he were talking directly at him. “First, no-one enters the building. If I see anyone trying to get in, I’ll shoot a hostage. Secondly, if you cut the power, I’ll shoot a hostage every minute until it’s turned back on. And lastly, I want transportation from here to a location of my choosing. Nothing with a tracking device either. Understand?”
After an even longer pause than before – and a few muffled exchanges between the people there – the man spoke. “No,” was his reply.
“I’m sorry, but that’s the wrong answer. For that I’ll kill someone,” Anthony said. He walked toward the group of hostages, temporarily switched the video feed back on, and then held the device out to show the man the huddled mass of people on the floor. “Who dies? Take your pick, arsehole!”
The front row of hostages reacted instantly. Some slid back into those behind, while others cowered in place and covered their eyes from view. Understandably, none of them wanted to be chosen for execution.
“Listen, listen, wait,” Kristof interrupted. “I’ll need something in the way of a guarantee, or a gesture of goodwill. Give me some of the hostages, maybe ten of them. Do that and I’ll see to making sure you get what you want.”
After turning the device back around to face himself – with the video feed off again – Anthony smiled and looked out to the world. He had won a small victory over this Kristof. Phoenix knew he would revel in that for hours to come. “Allow me ten minutes, then I’ll send you five hostages. I warn you Mr. Rajco, if you try to fuck with me then you’ll lose a lot of people here today. I have around thirty hostages with my finger as the only thing between them and a bullet each. Got it?” He cut Kristof off before he could speak again.
As soon as the call had ended and Anthony had strolled casually over to the hostages – inevitably playing God and choosing who to save with a wave of his gun – Phoenix had seen her way out. It was now hers to take and nothing would stop her, not even Anthony.
Once the five lucky people had been picked, they were pulled up and dragged to the front. Each was given a check over by the nearest guard who nodded his approval. From what she could tell they deliberately selected healthy and athletic types. It was not so much as the survival of the fittest as weeding out those who could fight. The hostages would be allowed no such hope under Anthony’s watch.
“Phoenix,” Anthony said, to her surprise. “You’re sending them out. Grab a weapon, take two men with you.” He stopped suddenly, then said with a smirk. “Perhaps you should take Pete with you.”
She knew straight away what he was up to. He tested her again. One she would be unable to pass without showing her true colours too. Had he realised the opportunity for her to escape had come about? Regardless of the fact he had not actually said it, she heard him again accuse her of lying.
When she inevitably snuck out it would finally be revealed once and for all. Except now she had an obstacle in her way: Pete. If she left, she would be putting him in danger too. The idiot had not heeded her warning at all about not getting involved.
“Sure,” she said, returning a smile that almost imploded seconds later. Her heart had shattered the instant Pete had been mentioned. I have enough shit to worry about without this too, she thought.
They both knew the other’s mind well enough to play such games right underneath the other’s noses. She was sure he was baiting her, pushing her into a corner. The bastard was much smarter than she wanted to admit. She could not believe she ever considered it possible to outsmart such a monster? Had he known all along? She knew it would explain why Pete was really there. Anthony could not threaten to hurt her brothers after all; they were locked up somewhere else. Pete was a weakness.
“Marvellous,” Anthony said before turning his attention to his wrist screen. “Craig, anything yet?”
“Yes, sir.” Craig sounded out of breath as he spoke, his excitement was forceful. “We’re seeing signs of at least a hundred MARCs heading right for us. Should only be a few minutes until we start catching some.”
“That is the best news I’ve heard all day. Good work.” He lowered his screen and then addressed the rest of his men. Phoenix was stuck watching for the time being, despite her desire to leave suddenly becoming stronger than ever. “Listen up people,” he called across the floor. Everyone stopped and faced their leader. Even the hostages became quiet and watched as he spoke. “The MARCs are inbound. You all know what to do. I want an even spread of people, upstairs and down. Get out your Taser-sticks and shock any that become trapped in here. Don’t be afraid to do so a couple of times. We cannot leave a single one behind, understood? Now, go.”
Phoenix approached the table where Anthony stood and took a spare weapon. She turned to him without knowing what to say, then slid the gun into the pocket of her black boiler suit. There was nothing in particular she wanted to say. She was just not happy with how quickly things had changed.
But rather than continue in silence, Anthony spoke instead. “You should go. I wouldn’t want to hold you up. When the hostages are gone come back here.”
“Fine,” she replied dismissively.
The five hostages were now waiting with a guard not more than a metre away. He waved his gun in the direction of the large fountain, ushering them to move without saying a word. Each obliged and nervously began walking away from the rest of their group. An occasional look back gave away their lacking confidence.
Now came the difficult part for Phoenix. “Pete, where are you? Get your ass out here,” she said.
A balaclava wearing man stepped out from behind a row of three guards, all fiddling with their Taser-sticks in anticipation of the coming task. He joined the hostages and waited. It was clear he knew he had done something bad and was hanging his head accordingly. Not once did he look Phoenix in the eye, the shame was so strongly felt.
“Let’s go,” she said, waving them all ahead of her. When Pete shuffled past she grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back. “You’ve got a lot of explaining to do, Pete.”
“Look, I’m sorry, Phoenix. I know I should have told you, but–”
“Not here. Let’s get some distance between us and Anthony first.”
With the lone guard ahead of them taking the lead, they began on their journey toward the rear entrance of the building. In the background, Phoenix could hear the increasing excitement at the arrival of the MARCs. A few cheered and sang their praise of their leader too. The plan was coming together nicely by the sounds of things.
“I should be helping with that, not babysitting you wankers!” The guard ahead of them said to the group of hostages. When one made the wrong choice, to look at him, he swung his fist into the guy’s stomach. “What you staring at?” he said after already having brought his victim to his knees.
“Leave him alone,” Phoenix said in defence of the unfortunate target. “You’ll get your chance to help soon.” Once they were off again, she turned to Pete and quietly spoke. “Why didn’t you listen to me? I warned you not to join them.”
Pete slid up his balaclava. His face was covered in days old stubble that suggested he had seen neither a mirror nor a bowl of water in at least a day. That was not particularly surprising to Phoenix, who knew him to be less than hygienic at times. “I’m sorry. I kinda like what I’ve heard about this Isaac fella. He sounds awesome.”
“For fuck’s sake, Pete. This is all just one of Anthony’s fantasies. You really believe this Isaac is real?”
He hesitated before answering. A quick glance to the guard ahead made it clear he did not really know what to think anymore. Anthony had completely scrambled his mind. No doubt through the use of altered D-Stim hits. “This is all a bit much to go through for nothing, don’t you think? B
esides, if I don’t stick with this, then where else can I go? This is our life, Phoenix. It’s what it’s always been.”
“No, this is different. It’s much worse this time.”
“Are you two gonna hang back all fucking day, or are you gonna help me with these?” the guard ahead said.
She had not even noticed the guard was facing them. The hostages were not stopping. He had just chosen to spin around and walk backward. Had he been spying on them? It was far too dangerous to allow him to hear their exchange. So to make light of her and Pete’s intimate chat she punched her friend on the shoulder and skipped ahead. The guard laughed, then spun back around to the front.
There was little she could say to Pete while they had company. She decided she would try again once the hostages were heading out. That way the other guard would be too distracted to notice. Of course she still had a tiny problem to address before she could slip away among the hostages. She was dressed like every other terrorist in the building. At some point she would have to ditch the boiler suit and adorn ordinary people’s clothing.
“Hey?” she called to the guard leading the group.
“What?” he replied.
“Can you and Pete go ahead without me for a sec? I want to grab some free stuff before we’re done here today. I don’t get this kind of chance to steal new stuff every day.”
The guard laughed. “I hear that. Fine, but you owe me. Oh, if you see any jewellery just lying around anywhere, perhaps you could get me a handful? My girl has expensive tastes.”
She returned a forced smile and a slight flick of her head back to imitate a laugh of sorts. Whatever it took to get some breathing space. Then she peeled away from the group and made a straight line right to the nearest clothes shop. There was no point in being picky this time, she would only need something to make her fit in with the hostages. To do that only required a quick grab of whatever she could find. Not even sizes mattered to her. If it went on then it would work.
Upon entering the clothing store she immediately headed for the women’s section and began her choice of a new outfit. Not wasting any time at all she went for the closest pair of slim jeans and a pink t-shirt, which would be tight but would fit nonetheless. She stripped down, removed her gun from the boiler suit and then threw the ruffled outfit to the side. It still had some of the dead man’s dried blood on it, so she was glad to be rid of it. After that she slipped the jeans and t-shirt on and yanked any labelling off – they were her clothes now, despite what the law said.
Her eagerness to re-join Pete and the hostages was put on hold as she went to leave the shop. The task had been completed, she had a new look that would see her out of the building. Except an odd little shape quivering in the corner of the shop’s front window display had shown up suddenly out of nowhere. She knew well enough what a MARC looked like, except this one was strangely different, even understandable. The thing was in fear. She felt certain of it.
“Hey there,” she said, kneeling down to be at the same height as the glowing shape. An urge to extend her hand and try to greet it formally took over. For a reason she could not entirely grasp, she wanted to interact with it. She felt almost protective of the scared object hiding in the electronic window display.
With only an inch between her hand and the shape she quickly heard footsteps from behind. “Out the way. This one’s mine,” someone said behind her.
She twisted around and saw a female, wearing a balaclava, storming toward her from a few metres away. The woman held a black stick in her hand that spat tiny sparks of electricity. “Sorry, be my guest.”
The woman stopped, scanned Phoenix up and down a few times and then said, “Why are you dressed like that, Phoenix?”
It was a shock at first, but then she realised it was not the first time she had forgotten a face she brought in to Anthony’s clan. The woman knew her, yet she had no clue at all who she was. The balaclava did not help one bit either.
“I wasn’t comfortable in the boiler suit. This is easier to work in,” she said, thinking on the spot.
“Oh, right. Yeah, that’s a good idea. I might do that too. Excuse me a sec.” The woman broke away and turned her attention to the MARC still cowering in the corner behind them. Then without any reaction at all on her face, she sent a shock of electricity running through the window. It cracked in a few places, but was not too badly damaged. The MARC, however, flashed and fuzzed for all its worth. Eventually it was forced out and into the open, where it quickly sped off across the other displays and toward the front of the building. One more had just been collected. “Sweet! Did you see that?”
“Sure, nice job,” Phoenix replied, feeling slightly repulsed by the woman’s casual nature. The enormity of Anthony’s plan either had not really hit her yet, or she was disturbingly OK with it all. Either way, Phoenix wanted nothing more to do with her. “You better get back,” she said.
“Yep!” With an enviable ignorance, the woman left with almost a skip to her step.
There was too much risk in waiting around much longer. Phoenix knew she would only have one chance to make her escape. She could not afford another of Anthony’s people appearing out of thin air again. With that in mind she left the clothes shop and jogged away.
After passing empty rows of shops she quickly found the group waiting ahead. They had stopped for something. When she arrived she soon saw the reason. One of the hostages had urgently needed a piss and he was making use of another shop’s entrance.
“Are you kidding me?” she said, surprising Pete and the other guard. “He couldn’t wait five minutes until he was out?”
“Hey,” the guard said. “Nice gear. Anything for me?”
She had forgotten to even check. “I looked, but the jewellery is in locked cabinets. Didn’t want to set off the alarms and disturb Anthony.”
“Oh, yeah, good point.” The guard prodded the weeing man in the back. “Time to go small-bladder.”
Once again the group were slowly making their way to the back entrance of the building. After another dozen or so shops, all that remained was a single security door – apart from large shutters that had been dropped to block the other glass door entrances of the building. They barged their departing guests through the door and then on to the corridors beyond. Past this they came to a dark room with the last door between them and the outside world. This was now the only thing in the way of Phoenix’s escape.
“OK, everyone wait here quietly,” Phoenix said. She approached the door and peered through the frosted glass. Without being able to make out any detail, she could still see the obvious presence of the police beyond. Their lights flooded the ground and every now and then the room, which caused her to inadvertently step back into one of the hostages. “You,” she said to the other guard. “You get them ready to run out there. Single file, OK. Once you’re ready send them out.”
“Sure, but what are you two gonna do?” he replied.
“Nothing. I just need a minute to talk to Pete.”
The guard agreed with a deliberating nod. He then began to shove the soon-to-be-free about, rounding them up into position and readying them to be forced out one by one.
Phoenix pulled Pete to the back of the room and held his gaze for a second or two before speaking. “I’m leaving with them,” she said.
The shock became written all across her friend’s face. His eyes opened wider than usual and his mouth trembled. “You can’t. What if Anthony finds out?”
“I don’t care anymore, Pete. I have to find my brothers. Look, we don’t have much time. I’m going, what about you?”
Without any warning at all the guard opened the door and shoved the first hostage through the door. It was quickly shut again the moment the police had reacted by raising their torches and shouting all at the same time.
Watching the same procedure play out a second time, Phoenix waited for an answer from Pete. He was not one for thinking too long. Even with such a difficult decision in front of him he did not
deliberate much.
“I can’t,” he said with apologetic eyes. “I’m no good out there anyway. At least in here I’m doing something. I’m part of something.”
She stared into his eyes and tried desperately to see any cracks in his demeanour. There were none. He really believed he was on the correct team. Anthony had done an impeccable job at corrupting the innocent soul held within such a fragile shell. They remained silent. There was no need for more words.
“You are part of something world changing,” someone said from the darkness of the corridor.
The interruption sent Phoenix’s mind into a frenzied panic. No-one was supposed to be there with them. Certainly nobody was intended to hear her highly incriminating conversation with Pete.
“I must say, I’m not at all surprised by this, Phoenix.”
Anthony’s voice was unmistakable at the best of times. It was no different in complete darkness, as he so often chose to present himself. Except this time he used the anonymity of shadows to conceal himself from her. Tactics she remembered well were being used to break her rather than a stranger.
“What are you doing here, Anthony?” she asked, her eyes locked onto his. Even in the darkness she knew where they were, like twin points of light in the night sky that guided her straight into the heart of evil.
He stepped into the light of the room and shot a look to the guard, telling him to continue and to ignore the unexpected arrival. “I told you not long ago that you would be forced to choose a side sooner or later. And I see from your change of clothing that you’ve already done so. Leaving are we?”
“It’s not what you think. I’m only going to find my brothers. After that I’ll come back here, I promise.”
“Bullshit!” Anthony shouted. His outburst instantly brought the guards procedure of releasing the hostages to an abrupt stop. “Don’t stop. Get them all out quickly.”
“Yes, sir. Sorry, sir,” the guard replied.