Wrong Time, Wrong Place

Chapter 5

Street was watching between the robbers and the hostages, trying to figure out if he could do anything. Before he could come up with something, one of the phones rang.

The leader moved over to the phone, looking briefly at the hostages before glaring at Street. "What do you want?" speaking directly into the phone.

There was a moment before the leader spoke again saying "You'll get no names from here." Street could only hear part of the conversation but he could take a pretty good guess at what was being said especially if it was Hondo doing the talking.

"You won't. Don't call back until you're ready to listen and give in to the demands." The leader put the phone down to disconnect the call, to then make his way over to Street.

Once he stood in front of Street, "Well kid, looks like you at least kept quiet this time. But you will have to do so again. I'll leave the 'or else' unsaid as I know you won't choose that option at this point."

The phone started ringing again. "We'll come back to this chat of ours once I deal with the people on the other end of the line" the leader said, standing up and taking a casual walk to get to the phone. Getting there just before the call was cut.

The leader waited before saying "For starters, there needs to be a helicopter on the roof of this building in half an hour. All of the hostages will stay here until the demand is met. If it isn't then people will get hurt."

There was a brief pause before he continued "You have 30 minutes to get it there with a full tank. Don't make contact again until it is there and ready to go." He then put the phone down to disconnect the call again, moving away towards Street.

"Well, they either don't know you're here kid or they are hoping that we haven't realised that you're here" spoke the leader as he stood watching for Street's reaction.

The leader was still watching for Street's reaction, when Street's phone gave a notification to say that he had a message. Grabbing the phone, the leader had a look at the message. "You've got a message from someone called Luca, and he is asking how long you'll be until you're finished in the bank."

Street had been trying to keep his facial expression neutral, but must have reacted ever so slightly when the guy mentioned Luca's name, as the guy seemed to stand up more alert.

"Judging by that slight reaction, I'm going to assume that he might be one of the guys on your team. Which means that this message is coded in some way, kid. So how is it coded? And what are they really after?" the leader questioned Street.

"I don't have a clue as to how that message is coded and Luca is just a friend I was going to meet up with" answered Street, hoping the guy would just leave it be. Street was trying to figure it out while trying to make sure that when he did solve it, it wasn't obvious to the suspects.

"I know that you know what they are asking for," the leader said, moving around behind Street. "It's just a matter of how soon you tell me, before someone gets hurt."

Street didn't want to put anyone in danger of being hurt, but he also didn't know what it meant off the top of his head. He felt the leader place their hands on his shoulder, so he said "Luca is just a friend, he doesn't work for S.W.A.T. and what do you mean by a code? He wouldn't have sent me a coded message." He was hoping that the leader would be satisfied with that answer and leave it be for a while, at least.

The leader didn't seem to be convinced, as he leant down towards Street's ear, "I don't believe you kid. It was obvious that this Luca was part of S.W.A.T. from the way you attempted to cover your reaction." The leader began to apply pressure on Street's shoulders, particularly the one that had been hit before, resulting in Street trying to prevent wincing under the pressure.

The pressure released quickly when the phone once again began to ring. None of the other guys even moved once towards the phone from what Street observed, just the leader.

He picked up the phone, speaking straight away "That must have been quick, but I don't hear any chopper blades. Told you not to contact unless the chopper was here."

Street didn't like the tone that the leader was using and hoped that nobody would be injured because of it.

The leader replied once more "No. They are all staying here until that chopper is on the roof", slamming the phone down.

One of the guys that had gone to the vault came back into the room saying "We've got everything we came for. Anytime you're ready boss."

The other guy came out pushing the bank manager in front of him towards everyone else, securing his wrists together. The two guys went and came back to the room carrying four bags between them.

"Right, let's get ready to go, but we are taking one more thing with us. It'll make a great addition to the collection we've made" the leader said, signalling to three of the guys.

Street couldn't figure out what the signal meant until all three of them came over towards him, realising that what the leader meant by thing he actually meant him. "It's a bad idea taking me with you, you know S.W.A.T. will just find you anyway. Why give them any more encouragement?" Street asked, attempting to dissuade them from taking him with them.

"It doesn't matter, we've planned for nearly anything that could have happened, apart from you being here kid. We could have and maybe would have taken a hostage with us regardless. Now be a good little boy and do as you're told, we've only got twenty minutes before the chopper lands on the roof" the leader said, while he made a clear display of putting Street's phone to the side, writing a note to go with it.

"Tell me this then, if it is twenty minutes before the chopper gets here, why are you getting ready to leave and taking me with you now?" Street questioned, hoping that they might give some information up and that by the off chance someone in the group of civilians was paying attention to everything.

"You don't need to know anything else apart from shutting up or we'll shut you up ourselves" the leader snapped back at Street.

Two of them grabbed hold of Street's arms while the third cut the ties around his wrists. They forcefully pulled Street so he stood up with his legs still tied to the chair. Street refused to make it easy for them, so the two men struggled to push his arms backwards, so that both his wrists were together, before using zip ties tying them together with two of them.

The third then moved to release Street's legs from the chair, moving out the way quickly enough to avoid being kicked at.

One of the men spoke to the crowd "You'll keep your heads down and won't move until people start rushing and breaking down the doors. If you do anything other than staying put, we will find your families," before moving back to join the group heading to the back of the bank past several doors.

They started to drag Street towards the back as well, but past the note that was left next to his phone. Street only got a brief look, not long enough to make out what it said, before being dragged further past the back entrance and down some stairs to what appeared to be an office.

It was at the very corner of the room that he was forced into that had a very well concealed door hidden away. If Street hadn't been watching what they had been doing then he would have never known how they got the door open. Just behind the door was a tunnel that looked to go on a way.

Everyone moved into the tunnel before watching to make sure that the door shut, without leaving a trace to show it had been open. Street knew from that moment that the group had known exactly what they were after and how to get away without being caught. Which meant that if Street was going to get free any time soon, he was going to have to come up with something.