Wizard Born

Chapter 27 - Rescue

"She is not Scarlet."

The boss seemed to realize Scarlet's Dad was not bluffing, he turned Roxanne, "who the bloody hell are you?" When she didn't answer he shook her making her head snap back and forth on her neck. "Answer me."

"Stop it," Mandy screamed, "you're supposed to be the good guys."

"Shut up," the boss yelled, he pushed Roxanne down with enough force that she slide a few feet towards the wall. "I'll shoot them all." He spun the cart around so the laptop showed all the students, who drew into a tighter group. Leaving Mandy exposed in a no mans land between the terrorists and the students. "What's half your wealth in exchange for all their lives? And who knows we may find your preciouses daughter."

"Please, I told you it will take time to liquidate my assets but you'll get your money."

The boss laughed, "time, you don't have time, transfer one billion pounds or I will shoot them." The boss laughed again, "you think I'm playing." As if to prove his seriousness he raised the gun and fired it into the ceiling.

Several students screamed and one of the men in a black mask tackled the boss, wrestling the gun out of his hand. Several of the men seemed to be fighting each other and shouting. "Police, put your weapons down." The fighting did not last long.

Even before it was over Mandy was at Roxanne's side. "Roxanne are you okay?" Roxanne started to nod, but a man in black appeared next to Mandy and reach towards her. Roxanne tried to scramble away while dragging Mandy with her, but ran into the wall. "It's okay, I'm police, you're safe," he said pulling his hand back. Roxanne tried to calm down, he had no mask, but besides that he was dressed all in black.

Mandy seemed to notice this too, "where's your badge?"

He smiled at Mandy and slowly reached into a chest pocket. He pulled out what look like a large black leather wallet. He opened it to display a gold shield that said police across the front and a card with his name and picture. He handed it to Mandy, who looked at it in awe and then handed it to Roxanne. Roxanne took it but she couldn't look at it properly as her eyes had filled with tears. She couldn't understand why she was crying now. Through the entire terrifying night she hadn't cried. But now everyone was safe she couldn't seem to stop. She looked over at Mandy wanting to explain that she didn't know why she was crying and saw Mandy was crying too. The policeman didn't look surprised. "Do you think you can come with me to the main office, a medic team is there I want them to check both of you for injuries. Then someone will need to get your statements." Roxanne nodded and slowly climbed to her feet, Mandy helped her. The policeman offered to carry her but Roxanne wanted to stay in control of her movements. As they left the gym Roxanne saw another policeman carrying Scarlet out.

Outside it was a mess of flashing red and blue lights and people hurrying back and forth. The policeman led her and Mandy straight through towards the main office. This is where the ambulances had set up to tend to minor injuries. Scarlet was being packed into an ambulance, maybe she had broken her foot.

A nurse came over, took one look at Roxanne and said "sit down, let's get you patched up." Roxanne sat on one of the cots, to tired to do anything besides obey. The nurse was all business as she cleaned the many cuts and scraps Roxanne couldn't remember getting. "You don't need stitches, but you're going to have couple bruises I'm afraid."

Roxanne nodded.

"You sit quietly and I'll be back to check on you," she said to Roxanne. Then to the policeman, "no questions, until I'm sure she's not in shock."

"Roxanne, I'm so sorry. I never meant it to go as far as it did. The gunshots scared me. I thought they were going to shoot Scarlet, and she was on your bed crying, so I called her Roxanne. I never thought the terrorists would think you were Scarlet, why didn't they believe you? I mean besides the hair you don't really look much alike." Mandy whispered so the adults around them wouldn't hear.