Mission Five: Chapter 23 - “Hiding’s not my style...”

Within five minutes Face had pushed all of the boxes away from the door once more and made his way back in to the front of the bar. Cobb looked up at him as he wandered in as casually as he could, dressed in the gunman’s jumper and balaclava. “That door sorted?” Cobb barked and Face nodded, feigning interest in checking the hostages to cover not answering out loud.

 

Fortunately, Cobb was so highly strung by the whole evening that he didn’t give Face more than a passing glance, instead returning to watching outside through the blinds, still using Piper as his human shield. “What the fuck are they doing out there?” he whispered, and Face leant nonchalantly against the bar, noticing the tremor in the gunman’s hand and wincing.

 

Suddenly the phone on the bar rang and everyone jumped out of their skins, Cobb spinning around, his gun digging right into Piper’s neck. Face was nearest to the phone and all eyes fell on him to answer it. Slowly, and with just the right amount of trepidation, he reached out, lifting it from its cradle. “Yes?” he kept his voice low, not wanting to give the other gunmen chance to hear that he wasn’t their accomplice. He smiled behind his mask at Marc Schmidt’s even tones before tossing the phone over to Cobb. “Wants you,” he growled and started to breathe a little easier when Cobb moved the gun off Piper in order to talk.

 

His sense of ease didn't last too long however; within minutes Cobb started getting frustrated. Face watched in concern as he threw his hands up in the air as he listened, the fingers on the gun white with tension. “No!” he eventually spat. “You listen to me cop! I know what you are doing here, I know the way these things work, how you are supposed to make me think you are my friend, how you give me something to gain my trust and then you start suckering me, playing me for the fool and as soon as I take my eye off the ball you have a marksman out there shoot me through the head, right?” Face stood up straighter, frowning under his mask and surreptitiously weighed the unfamiliar Glock in his hand, wondering how well it fired.

 

“Well, fuck the lot of you!” Cobb snarled down the phone, “You have ten minutes to bring a car around here for us to leave in, or this guy gets a bullet in the skull, right? Now, negotiate on that, you fucker!” and he threw the phone across the room where it smashed into tiny pieces against the wall. Face watched in grim dread as Cobb told Piper to put his hands up on his head and open his mouth, then he put the barrel of the gun in through his lips and looked at the clock on the wall. “Six hundred seconds, mister,” he told Piper coldly, “that’s all you got left, so you better enjoy them!”

 

Bennett stood at the far wall, nervously passing the gun from one hand to the other and Face made a snap decision. With a quick movement, he back heeled a stray spoon down the corridor so that it hit the store room door with a crash. He glanced around as if startled and Cobb looked over at him, not moving the gun from Piper’s mouth, “What the fuck was that, Pasco?” he hissed. Face just shrugged. “Go and see!” Face turned and disappeared.

 

The second he got back into the storeroom, Face called the police again. “This is Lt. Peck again,” he hissed into the phone, “put me on to Capt. Schmidt immediately.”

 

This time he was put straight through, “What is it Peck? I’m busy negotiating with Cobb right now.”

 

“You are not just negotiating with anyone!” Face retorted. “Not only has he hung up on you, but he’s also smashed the phone, so you won’t be calling back!”

 

There was a pause, “And how do you know that?” Schmidt’s voice had a bite to it, “you are supposed to be hiding in a cupboard somewhere!”

 

“Hiding’s not my style,” Face murmured into the mouth piece, “I am on the inside I am telling you that unless you get a car around here in,” he glanced at his watch, “seven minutes, then another hostage dies.”

 

“He won't do it.” Schmidt answered quickly.

 

“He will,” Face countered, “they have escaped from prison, killed at least five times already, two of those kills being cops, and I guarantee they have no issues about doing it again.”

 

“Fortunately for you though Lt., you don't have to make that call. Now get back to your cupboard and let the experts deal with this.”

 

“Experts?” Face spat, “How many of these do you do a year then, Schmidt?” The silence was telling. “Or is this your first one ever?” Still Schmidt didn’t answer. “I spend my life training for situations like this, living situations like this, and I’ll tell you something, I’m fucking good at them, so why don’t you just do yourself and all these innocent hostages a favour and let me handle this?!”

 

“Lt. Peck!” Face could hear the anger in Schmidt’s voice, “Do not engage the hostiles! Do you hear me? You do not have the authorisation, do not-” but Face just switched his phone off. He took a deep breath, willing himself to concentrate and think his way out of this mess that Piper was in. He looked at his watch, five minutes. Fucking hell... He closed his eyes but all he could see were those happy family snap shots spread out over the table on his deck; the two beautiful little girls, one with eyes like mommy, one with eyes like daddy; the three coloured lumps with bobble hats in their pushchair; the smiley babies on the rug, a husband and wife looking at each other with love in their eyes...

 

His eyes snapped open again and he checked the clip on his Glock. These were not going to be Piper’s last five minutes on this earth; Face was not going to let those kids grow up without a dad, Ellie have to go on without a husband, not a chance in hell. 

 

_________________________

 

 

Four minutes later Cobb was sweating profusely, shouting for Pasco and shaking badly, while Bennett paced up and down at the side wall muttering frantically under his breath the whole time. The footsteps running unsteadily along the corridor towards them made them both startle, Cobb yanking Piper to his feet in front of him while Bennett just turned his gun on the corridor, his hands visibly shaking.

 

It all exploded in the blink of an eye. Suddenly a man appeared from the corridor, bare-chested, a flour sack tied over his head, his hands tied behind his back, running at an unsteady jog. Bennett, nerves stretched to breaking point didn’t think, and three shots hit the guy’s bare chest in rapid succession, flinging him against the wall just as Face rounded the corner behind him, balaclava gone as he skidded across the floor on his legs, the Glock speaking once and Bennett going down with a hole in his chest.

 

Cobb’s shots hit the tiled floor just as Face skidded across it, and he was safely behind the cover of the counter before the lone gunman had chance to get a good bead on him. Outside, Face could hear the police moving closer in, Schmidt’s voice over the loud hailer trying to make contact with Cobb, but Cobb was too aware of the trouble he was suddenly in. Keeping his gun on Piper, the gunman dragged his hostage down the corridor and into the store room at the end obviously making for the rear exit.

 

Fortunately for him, Face had cleared the boxes away from the door, hoping that the SWAT team would arrive and make an assault from the rear, so within a minute he had it open and was stepping out into the night, gun still pressed against Piper’s head.

 

Face hadn’t really anticipated it going like this. He could hear the police storming the front of the bar and the renewed screams of the terrified hostages and stalked Cobb, determined not to let him get away with his friend.

 

“Freeze,” he barked as soon as Cobb was in his sights, “let him go and I won’t shoot.”

 

“You think I am bothered?” Cobb yelled back, his voice on the edge of hysteria, “I’d die rather than get caught!” All the time he was backing out, dragging Piper with him, a delivery van on the far side of the yard getting closer and closer. “But I don't intend dying either!” he snarled. “So you’d better back the fuck off or this hostage gets it!”

 

Face paused. He knew that if he didn't stop, Cobb would shoot, but if he did stop, Piper would end up driving that van and would be found in the morning on the side of the highway somewhere, bullet through his head, and he wasn’t prepared to let either of those things happen.

 

“You better make your mind up!” Cobb yelled. “Cause if those cops turn up and I’m still here, this guy gets it, okay?!”

 

Face knew he had seconds to make a decision and he squinted through his sights at the target. Cobb wasn’t stupid, he was right behind Piper, not enough of him showing anywhere to give something reasonable for Face to shoot at, there was only one option left open to him...

 

He steadied his hand and squeezed the trigger, hearing the shot and seeing Piper collapse to the ground in a shower of red at the same time as he heard his friend scream out in agony. Cobb had no choice but to stare in horror as Piper fell at his feet only milliseconds before the Glock barked twice more and his own chest exploded in blood right in his face.

 

At almost the same second the shout of “Police! Drop your weapon!” Had Face instantly dropping his pistol and lifting his hands up over his head, but not before he felt searing fire scorch through his arm, an almighty thud in his back and he hit the ground hard, losing consciousness instantly.

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