For show, Ben ejected the clip from his pistol, examined its full load then slapped it back into place. “Trust me, dude. If there’s anybody back there, they’re gonna regret that they got up this morning.”

  Chapter 12 - 10:29 a.m.

  Although Chris was armed with two fully loaded handguns, they weren’t his first choice of weapon in the current situation. Given the loudness of the gun shots he had heard coming from the front of the bank a minute earlier, he didn’t want to give away his existence or position by using the firearms unless he had no choice. He needed something more silent and, after scanning the room he was in, he had found a very viable possibility. On a table in one corner was a paper cutter with a two foot blade. Once removed from its flat gridded base, the blade became a rather decent machete, very sharp, complete with a firm-grip handle.

  As he hefted his impromptu sword to get a feel of its weight, he heard a door open then close at the far end of the hallway leading from the customer service area. Stepping out of sight behind the open door, he peered through the slight space between the door and jamb, listening to the sounds of one door then the next being opened and closed as someone pursued their search, most likely for him. He glimpsed a shadow approaching in the hallway outside the mailroom, raised the blade in readiness and waited.

  * * * *

  The cell phone in his hand rang, startling an increasingly rattled Bull. The THC had yet to lessen the edge and might have, in fact, increased it.

  “It’s about fucking time,” he answered. “Yeah, I’m in charge, who are you?… Yeah, Captain Leblanc, you heard shots but nobody was hurt. We were just shooting out those annoying security cameras cuz you guys seem to know a hell of a lot more about what’s going on in here than you should… Don’t interrupt me, just listen. We’re gonna have to work out some deal though, if you don’t want any of these people in here to end up getting hurt… I don’t know exactly what kind of deal yet but the end result will be getting us out of here and away… Damned straight, I’m in a position to negotiate. We’ve got a bunch of hostages and, as you seem to be aware, we also have a bomb. Let’s get the ball rolling with my first demand… No, you listen. If you have somebody hiding in here and feeding you information, you better get him or her the fuck out of here real quick because otherwise, that’ll be your first body. We’ll talk more later, Captain, once I’ve decided what we plan to do. I’ll call you back when I’m ready.”

  With that, he ended the communication and turned off the phone as he muttered to himself, “Find the son of a bitch, Ben.”

  * * * *

  Ben reached the doorway to the mailroom, feeling mellow and confident as the joint took effect, and peered inside. As he scanned the room, he noticed the open vent in the ceiling and smiled as he stepped in closer.

  “Did I find your hiding place, motherfucker?” he murmured as he raised his gun towards the opening, He never heard the large blade whipping towards the back of his neck.

  * * * *

  “Sorry, buddy,” said Chris to the body lying at his feet in a growing pool of blood. “It was you or me and I preferred the first option.”

  He picked up the man’s gun, another Beretta PX Storm Compact, identical to the one he had obtained from the first robber who was now locked in the cabinet upstairs. Lighter, smaller and loaded with a fifteen round clip each, the two guns were the logical choices for him to carry versus the Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum he’d obtained from the dead guy upstairs, which was simply too heavy and bulky. Slipping the second Beretta into a side jacket pocket after confirming its clip was full, he then pulled the large revolver from where it was wedged in his belt, broke open the cylinder and emptied out the bullets. These he dumped in a pants pocket while the gun went into the paper tray of the photocopy machine.

  With his makeshift machete, he sliced off a piece of cardboard from the top of a case of photocopy paper which he folded up and taped to make a sheath of sorts for the blade. After taping the sheath to his thigh, he climbed back on top of the filing cabinets and pulled himself up into the duct system, replacing the grill before going off to call Jonathan Addley and figuring out what to do next.

  Chapter 13 - 10:35 a.m.

  “Addley,” Jonathan answered as he sped along Autoroute 15 into Laval.

  “How’s your day going so far?” Chris whispered from within the ventilation duct.

  “Better than yours, I’m sure,” Jon replied with a chuckle. “I’ll be there in a couple of minutes. What’s your status?”

  “Somebody is going to owe me for a huge dry-cleaning bill,” Chris replied. “And I’m doing a great job at cleaning out the ventilation ducts.”

  “I’ll buy you a new suit,” Jonathan laughed. “Any more news?”

  “I took out another one,” said Chris. “I’m not certain how many are left but it’s at least three because this guy wasn’t one of the three I’ve seen so far. They’re going to know for sure that someone’s in here once they find this one because the guy obviously didn’t die of a heart attack. Also, I heard some shots fired five to ten minutes ago but I don’t know what that was about. I’m on my way up front to have another look.”

  “Alright, Chris, just stay out of sight,” Jonathan sighed as he roared westbound on Carrefour Boulevard towards the roadblock located south of the bank on Daniel Johnson Boulevard. “And watch yourself. I’ll be with Captain Leblanc in a minute or two. Stay alive and I’ll bring you up to speed as soon as possible.”

  * * * *

  “Krystalle,” Bull waved Christine over. “Ben’s been gone for nearly ten minutes. You want to go check and see what’s going on?”

  “I don’t know, Bull,” she whispered, her tone more than a little shaky. “This whole thing’s just royally screwed up and I have a bad feeling that someone nasty is in here somewhere, just waiting to take us out one by one. Wheels disappeared, Goose is dead and now you’re worried about Ben. Why don’t you go?”

  “Because I’m running this fucking show,” Bull hissed through clenched teeth. “That’s why. Things are fucked up enough as it is and we don’t need these people seeing us arguing and getting ideas that we’re falling apart. Now, go.”

  “I’m scared, Bull. Don’t you get that?” Krystalle argued. “Or you just don’t give a shit.”

  “With the cash you’re gonna make on this job, baby, you gotta do your share, whether you’re scared of not,” Bull retorted. “That’s what I give a shit about. Get going.”

  “Nothing better happen to me,” she spat back as she turned towards the open gate in the customer service counter.

  “If you see anyone back there,” Bull added, “Don’t ask questions. Just shoot them.”

  Chapter 14 - 10:38 a.m.

  On his way once again through the duct leading to the customer service area, Chris stopped suddenly as he heard a door opening somewhere in the hallway below him, his face lined up directly with one of the ventilation grills. He held his breath as muted steps approached on the carpeted floor, hoping that whoever it was did not look upwards.

  She didn’t. Chris watched as the young, shapely woman passed slowly beneath him, holding her pistol, seemingly another Beretta like the two he had acquired, with both hands in front of her. She continued out of sight and Chris heard her opening then closing the door of a nearby office. A moment later, he heard her gasp then retch and knew that she had found her dead accomplice in the mailroom.

  He waited for a moment to see if the woman would immediately go back the way she had come to report what she had found but the hallway below him remained deserted. As quickly and quietly as he could, he crawled backwards until he reached the juncture where a perpendicular duct led to the office the woman had checked a minute earlier. Thankful that he had heard her re-close the door, he hastened his way towards the office’s ventilation grill.

  * * * *

  François Duguay of the Q.P.P. had briefed Captain Leblanc as to Jonathan’s identity, describing him as a high level official of the Ministry of Defence who was not a stranger to violent offenders and with vast experience in delicate police operations. Leblanc had also been informed of Jonathan’s impending arrival and the latter was quickly allowed past the road block and directed to the mobile command post where Leblanc filled him in on the latest details.

  “I spoke to the perp in charge just under ten minutes ago. It was our first direct communication which he originally initiated by calling 911 on what appears to be a bank employee’s cell phone. The number was referred to me and I made the call. My impression is that he’s already in a near state of panic because of the way things have turned out and that scares me. Shots were fired earlier, apparently to shoot out the security cameras which weren’t even transmitting since they seem to have cut the communication cables. From what he told me, none of the hostages have been hurt to date but he clearly stated that this could change if things don’t go to his liking.”

  “Did anything he said lead you to believe they suspect my associate is inside?” Addley enquired.

  “He was definitely suspicious and alluded to someone being inside and feeding us information,” Leblanc replied. “But he wasn’t sure. However, his first and only demand so far has been that we get whoever might be in there out, or else.”

  “What’s your current plan of action?” asked Jonathan.

  “I’m concerned about the hostages, especially since, as per your colleague’s information, they have a bomb in there,” the captain explained. “We have enough manpower to storm the place and easily outnumber them. However, that means putting a lot of lives at risk, even more so if explosives actually are involved. I’ve contacted the bank’s security director and he’ll be heading over with blueprints and specs to see if we can get in some way quietly and take these people by surprise. In the meantime, it’s simply intimidation by numbers while we wait.”

  * * * *

  “I might as well finish what I came back here for,” Krystalle muttered to herself as she took one last look at Ben before leaving the mailroom.

  As she moved along the hallway, which veered ninety degrees at the mailroom, she was surprised to realize how unshaken she felt following the grisly scene she had just witnessed. She would have thought that seeing a dead body, half decapitated and laying in a pool of blood, would turn her stomach and, knowing that somebody somewhere might do the same to her, would put the fear of God into her. Rather, she felt grounded and determined to find and deal with the person responsible for Ben’s death. Bull was right. They had put too much into this and the stakes were too high to let anyone even try to stop them.

  With her newfound confidence firmly in place, she reached the next door, turned the knob and pushed hard, causing the door to swing almost a full one hundred eighty degrees before banging against the wall. She swept the office with her eyes and confirmed that it was empty. The following door was open and led to the computer room which was also vacant. A large conference room across the hallway proved to be deserted as well as were the final two rooms, a kitchenette and an archives storage area.

  Puzzled and a bit disappointed, she retraced her steps, pausing briefly to glance at Ben one last time before turning the corner and heading back towards the customer service area. As she passed the second office she had looked into, she suddenly stopped and listened. Had she heard something, a slight metallic clang, or was it her imagination?

  ‘Better safe than sorry,’ she thought as she reached for the door knob with one hand, her pistol at the ready in the other.

  * * * *

  Chris crouched on a steel support beam above the doorframe, peering down through the two by four foot opening he had created by sliding the ceiling tile out of position. He heard the door knob squeak a little then saw the door slamming into the wall as it was pushed forcibly open. Within a few seconds, her gun appeared in his field of vision then her hand and forearm and finally, she stood directly below him.

  Grasping a warren truss which ran a couple of feet before him, Chris pulled himself upwards as he brought his knees to his chest then let himself drop, cannonball style, crashing onto the woman’s head, shoulders and upper back. As she crumpled to the floor with a grunt of pain, he brought a fist down hard on the wrist of her gun hand and sent the pistol skidding across the carpet, out of reach, before delivering a solid blow to the side of her head.

  The woman went limp and he closed and locked the door. After recouping her gun, he hastened to bind her arms behind her back, using a roll of packing tape he had found in the mailroom. After doing likewise with her ankles and applying a strip of tape across her mouth, he dragged her off into one corner then hurriedly emptied a two door, upright, metal cabinet of its contents before laying it flat on the floor against the door. Opening both of the cabinet’s doors, he returned to the now stirring woman, picked her up and placed her flat on her back, none to gently, into the cabinet.

  “Wake up,” Chris whispered gruffly as he slapped the woman’s cheek a few times to revive her.

  Her eyes blinked several times before staying open, gazing at Chris with a dull expression for a moment as she tried to make sense of what was going on. Realization set in and her eyes widened in fear as she watched the man standing over her, well dressed in an albeit very dusty suit, pull out a long steel blade from a cardboard sheath taped to his pants leg.

  “I have some questions to ask you,” Chris told her. “Do you understand?”

  “The woman nodded, the movement almost imperceptive, as she continued to stare at the curved steel.

  “I’ll remove the tape from your mouth so that you can answer,” Chris continued, “But if you try to scream, you won’t get far and it will be the last thing you ever do. Do you understand that?”

  The woman nodded once again and Chris crouched back down, laying the cold blade flat across the woman’s throat before roughly peeling off the tape from her mouth.

  “You’re a dead man,” she hissed in anger. “You have no way of getting out of here and the others will find you.”

  Chris smiled at her for a moment then glanced at his watch before replying. “By my count, you’re the fourth one I take down in about forty minutes and, as you know, at least two of them are dead. Now, why would you think I’d be impressed by your threats?”

  “Who are you?” the woman asked, fear creeping into her voice as she realized how unfazed this man seemed to be by the murders he had just admitted committing.

  “I’m a guy who just happened to be at the right place at the right time,” Chris replied as his eyes grew colder. “But, enough about me. Let’s talk about you and your friends. How many of you were in on this job?”

  He stared into her eyes without blinking as she processed the question and deliberated her answer.

  “Six,” she replied after several seconds, staring back at him in defiance.

  “Six,” Chris repeated thoughtfully before delivering a rapid elbow jab to her solar plexus, knocking the breath out of her. “Wrong answer, lady, and I don’t have time to screw around. In case you misunderstood, I’ll ask again. How many, in all, were in on this job?”

  “Eight,” the woman gasped as she tried to regain her breath.

  “Male, female?” Chris demanded.

  “All male,” she croaked, “Except for me.”

  “Now we’re getting somewhere. It’s so much easier when everyone cooperates.” Chris continued. “Where are the other four now?”

  “I don’t know,” the woman rasped then winced as Chris scowled and raised his fist. “Wait. Don’t hit me. There are two with the hostages in front and two at the vault with the managers.”

  “What about the bomb?” asked Chris. “What’s the plan?”

  “All I know is that if everyone behaves, the bomb won’t go off,” she answered.

  “Tell me more. Is there a timer?” Chris insisted. “How would it be detonated?”

  “Uh, one of the guys has a remote,” she replied with uncertainty. “Bull, I think, or Sparks. I’m not sure.”

  “The way things are turning out,” Chris mused, “Are you all willing to get blown up?”

  “Uh, that’s not what, uh, we had in mind,” the woman stammered. “I don’t think that will happen.”

  “Let’s hope it doesn’t,” said Chris. “Because I can guarantee that you guys aren’t leaving this bank with the money. It’s hopeless. The place is surrounded so, either you’re going to die or you’re going to jail but you’re not going free.”

  He gazed at her, less harshly now, as he watched the look of defeat wash over her face. “If you guys can’t get away with the money, are you planning to detonate the bomb?”

  “The bomb’s a dud,” she whispered as her eyes watered.

  “You’re sure?” asked Chris. “You’re not just bullshitting me?”

  “I didn’t build the damned thing but, yeah, I’m sure,” the woman replied. “This is the first time anyone of us does something like this and none of us want to die.”

  “Unfortunately, some already have,” said Chris. “What about your getaway plan?”

  “We have cars,” she answered vaguely, torn between her loyalty to the others and her desire to get out of this alive.

  “Look, we’ve been getting along nicely, right?” Chris growled. “The more information you can give me so that we get this all done without anyone else getting hurt, the better chance you have for some leniency once you get out of here. I’ll make sure that the police and the court know how helpful you were.”

  The woman stared at him in silence as she considered his words.

  “There’s also the fact that if you don’t answer my questions,” Chris added after a moment, “I’ll start seriously hurting you until you do.”

 

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