The Ordinary Hostage

Part Two: "Dont You Speak Russian?!"

I hear the loud gunshots ring out. I expect them to stop but they keep coming. I turn back and see around eight men with heavy machine guns entering the room, with bright flashes coming out of the barrel.

I quickly look around and see an illuminating green exit sign.

Without thinking, I darted towards the door, running as fast as my feet could carry me.

Right before I reach the hallway leading to the door, I feel a man only use one arm to grab me by my waist. "Not so fast." He says as he violently throws me back into the crowd of people. I heard him mutter something under his breath but I couldn't catch what he said between the sound of screams and gunshots.

The men were going into offices and clearing people out and into the 30th-floor waterfall room.

They wouldn't stop shooting either. They weren't shooting anybody, but they were shooting just to cause pandemonium.

"Stay calm everything's gonna be fine. Everythings gonna be fine." Ellis says and I almost laugh at his cocaine trip. I was freaking out as well but I couldn't imagine his mind during all of this, stuck in a cocaine-induced haze.

"Ladies and gentlemen." The man that threw me into the crowd says.

I assume he was their leader, due to his lack of a firearm and his collectiveness.

"Ladies and gentleman." He says again but nobody listened as they screamed. "Everybody shut the fuck up!" I hear another man yell at the crowd. Their leader fixes his fancy suit and clears his throat. We all shut up out of fear and cling to each other.

I looked over to find that to my left, Mr. Takagi was sitting next to me and Holly was on the other side of him, with a hint of fear in her blue eyes. Ellis finally took a seat next to me as he tried to control his breathing.

The dark-haired leader pulled out a small notebook and began to read out of it. "Now then." He says as he relaxes his shoulders. "Due to the  corporation's legacy of greed around the globe, they're about to be taught a lesson in the real use of power... you will be witnesses." The dark-haired leader says as he takes a dramatic pause. "Now, where is Mr. Takagi?" He asks coolly.

"Joseph Yoshinoble Takagi." He says. Holly puts her hand around his left arm and I put mine around his right. "Don't." Holly and I whisper to him in unison.

"Born in 1937. Family immigrated to San Pedro California, 1939." He says as he slowly walks through the crowd of hostages. "Interned Manzana 1942 to 43." He says as he walks by me and I get shivers due to his presence.

"Scholarship student. University Of California, 1955." He says as he looks at the other Japanese men in the room, searching for Takagi. "Law degree. Stanford 1962." He says, still listing off facts about our boss. "NBA Harvard 1970." He states as he gets closer to us and I swallow hard.

"President Nakatomi Trading, Vice-chairman Nakatomi Investment Group." He says as he scans another Japanese man's face.

"Enough," Takagi says as he stands up, despite Holly and I trying to hold him down. "And a father of 5." The man says as he meets eyes with Mr. Takagi. "how do you do?" The leader asks with a devilish smirk.

A blonde man quickly escorts Takagi out of the room as we all plead for them not to hurt him. However, I kept quiet. There was no use in pleading with them because they obviously had this whole thing planned out to a T.

We all wait as we talk about what we think is happening. I kept my thoughts to myself, too scared to open my mouth. Then, I suddenly see Ellis crawling towards us.

"Scarlett, Scarlett." He says, obviously still high. "What?" I whisper, annoyed. "They keep talking weird. I think it's of European descent. Don't you speak Russian?!" He says, talking louder than I would like.

I see some of the gunmen look at us, now alerted. I point to Ellis and run my finger across my nose to alert them that he was high. They nod and lean back up against the wall and go back to talking. I let out a small sigh of relief as I looked at the trembling man before me.

"No, you twit. I speak German. Now go away before you get me killed." I say as I try to keep myself calm once again.

If there was any place that I thought I'd be on Christmas Eve, It surely wasn't sitting in Nakatomi Plaza being held hostage.

I sit and let my mind slowly drive me mad as Takagi remains gone. I then think about what Ellis was saying. I was sure it was just his cocaine high talking but I still attempted to listen to the gunmen.

I was out of earshot from them but I noticed their suits. I squint to look at the clothing labels and see.....

German labels.