Part 3 of 4 of my awesomely bad hostage drama written while in college!
6.
When Samuel
Brass came round he was back in his apartment.
His attacker had tied him to a chair and put a large piece of duct tape
over his mouth. Samuel's head was
throbbing and his eyes were fuzzy.
“Welcome back to the world of the living” a voice from behind him said. Samuel Brass was the principal director for
the Unibond Film Company based in Los Angeles.
He had been responsible for recent Hollywood blockbusters. Brass had moved the 200 miles to San
Francisco to escape some of the lights of LA.
He did a lot of his work out of his penthouse suite but still had to
return to Southern California’s movie land numerous times a month.
The chair Samuel was tied was sharply
turned to face his foe, slumped on the sofa were two people dressed in black
outfits. The closest man in black waved
his gun in Samuel’s direction. “You will
be our guest for a while. We are going
to notify your employers at Unibond of your predicament. They will pay or you will die. I am sure they will be willing to part with
some cash to save their most prominent director.” Samuel's heart sank, his movie The Ransom Note
had just broken the one hundred million dollar sales barrier and now here he
was, a hostage in his own home. It felt
like a scene from his movie. “Just sit
back and relax and let us take care of everything.” the second assailant in
black remarked. The two men in black
walked out of the living room and towards his study. They spoke in hushed voices as they left.
7.
The tower
looked quiet and unassuming as the SFPD pulled into the parking lot. The uniform officers soon had a fifty-foot
perimeter around the front entrance.
Detective Jarvis received a call on his cell phone that further added to
his misery. Josh Fulwell owner of the
Unibond Film Company had received a phone call from kidnappers claiming they
had Hollywood hotshot Sam Brass held hostage in his San Francisco
penthouse. They had demanded a ten
million-dollar ransom. Jarvis turned to
Dave “This is the real deal. A movie company just got a ransom demand from
someone in this building.”
“Jesus Christ” Dave let out in
frustration “Where are the FBI?”
As if magically called by Dave three
dark saloons pulled into the complex.
The flashing dashboard lights looked like something from 1980’s
Miami. Two suited agents approached
Detective Jarvis. “Looks like you have
done a good job so far, we will take over the lead now.” the smaller of the two
men proclaimed. Jarvis was not a man
with a huge ego and graciously stood aside.
“Just remember my men are good and if we can assist you we will.” Jarvis responded.
“Will do.” the FBI agent replied.
The two agents spoke for a short while
and then returned to Jarvis. “Okay
here’s the plan. Use the uniforms to
keep the crowd and media back. We know
the principal hostage is on the top floor and I imagine the rest of the
residents are someway controlled. The
middle floors are office space and should be unoccupied. I suggest we try and infiltrate those office
floors with a small tactical unit. A
full assault would be too risky; they could start shooting hostages before we
got anywhere near them.”
The tactical unit would arrive in
twenty minutes so all Jarvis and his FBI comrades could do was wait.
The two
intruders had been busy since the law enforcement agencies had arrived. They had seen them pull up from Samuel Brass’
front window. They had foreseen this
scenario and were expecting the Feds to try to enter the building. That was going to prove tough for them
however. The front doors to the tower
and the lobby were laden with trip wires and other home protection devices
aimed to keep undesirables out.
8.
The OuterQuaker tower complex was a
bottleneck complex, which had only one entrance. Three sides of the building were surrounded
by water. This would make it difficult
for the authorities to rescue the hostages but it would also be difficult for
the criminals to escape. The larger of
the men in black grabbed Sam Brass and dragged him into the bedroom. After throwing him on the bed he slammed the
door behind him. Sam heard voices form
he main room but could not understand them.
After a few minutes he heard the front door slam. The two masked men split up and headed in
different directions. One headed to the
stairs the other unlocked the elevator and proceeded to the ground floor. The FBI tactical team had arrived and after
being briefed was about to approach the tower.
The team consisted of five men decked out in urban combat outfits
holding automatic weapons. They shuffled
forward and soon reached the sliding doors that separated the OuterQuaker tower
from the outside world. What happened next
was swift, ruthless and brutal.
9
Special
agent Reyes was the first to try the door.
Using a knife he pried the door open enough to clear the locking
mechanism. The five men cautiously and
in tactical formation entered the lobby.
No sooner had they done so the sliding doors closed behind them,
detonating a tear gas grenade behind them.
The men were forced to move further into the lobby as they did so Reyes
tripped on a wire and set off another teargas blast to their right. Unwittingly as they slowly moved away from
the gas they moved straight into a crossfire trap. The two men in black had witnessed the
arrival of the FBI agents from the stairway door and the elevator. The elevator door opened an inch further and
a Luger assault rifle was pushed through the gap. The moment the agents entered the trap
gunfire erupted from two locations and cut the FBI men to pieces.
Jarvis was
dismayed as he saw the event unwrap through the glass windows. Smoke had filled the lobby and then he had
seen the agents fall.
“What in god’s name just happened to you team?” Jarvis asked
a nearby FBI agent. In a dismayed voice
the agent replied
“Looks like we are going to have to go
back to the drawing board. They seem to
be one step ahead of us.”
The building no longer looked quiet or
unassuming as the smell of death took over the area.
10.
From the penthouse suite a phone call
was made to the Unibond Film Company.
“Is the money ready?”
“Not exactly, we can’t liquidate that
sort of money this quickly.” Josh
Fulwell claimed.
“Don’t give me those police stalling
lines. I want five million dollars
transferred to the following Swiss bank account within ten minutes or I start
throwing people from the roof. Your film
boy will be first to see if he can fly.” The killer wrapped up the conversation
by giving the account number then hung-up.
He then headed to meet his partner in the basement.
Josh
Fulwell looked at his options and against the advice of the police he called
his bank and authorized a cash transfer to a Zurich bank account. The other five million would be transferred
to a different account on the release of Sam Brass and the OuterQuaker
hostages. Fulwell slammed the phone down
in frustration.
The cops
and the bureau were at a standstill outside the tower. They still feared the outcome of a full siege
and with no way to contact the hostage takers a negotiator was useless. Wally Jarvis spoke first.
“Is there anyway we could lure them to
the front of the building and take them out with sharp shooters?”
“I don’t think they’d fall for that.”
Dave reasoned.
“They saw the tactical team coming and
took them down in a matter of seconds.”
The FBI had just been informed that
half the ransom had been paid.
“We have to wait and see what their
next move is.” the agent suggested.
In the
basement of the tower the first intruder was rigging explosives to the outer
walls. Jackson the second intruder
approached with good news.
“Ben, Half the money has been
transferred to our account. All we have
to do is follow up with the end of the plan and we will walk out of here
millionaires.”
“The devices are all set.” Ben pointed
to the detonator. “Press the red button and
water will flood the whole building.”
“Good.
The time is very close. What‘s that loose wire hanging down from the
wall” Jackson enquired.
Ben turned to look and responded “I don’t see
anything.” When he turned Jackson had
pulled a gun and was aiming it directly at him.
“Ben, you remember when I said we could live happily off of five
million dollars? I lied!” With that he
fired one shot hitting his partner square in the forehead.
“The time is very close” he repeated
and grabbed he detonator.
The conclusion of this story will be posted next week ...
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