The guard that’s escorting Nathan wasn’t the talkative type; Nathan guessed that right from the offset. It was a good job that the walk wasn’t far, because Nathan did not like uncomfortable silences.

‘Okay we are here; I’m going in first, make sure everything is ready.’ The guard said disappearing behind a metal bolt locked door. The glimpse he had of the room when the guard walked in wasn’t clear, but he did know it was dark. After a minute or two the guard walks back out and signals Nathan to go in.

He cautiously obliges and follows the heavy man in. The sight he is met with is one of squalor and pain as the room is dark but littered with clutter and rubbish. There is a man lying on a metal table, his hands cuffed to the table leg, leaving his arms in an unnatural position. The guard walks over to the man on the table and pulls something out of his jacket pocket. He snaps it and waves it underneath the man’s nose. The man on the table quickly comes too and starts panicking.

‘No no no no no no, please don’t kill me.’ The man says, now panicking even more as he squirms on the rickety metal table. The guard laughs and backhands the man. Blood spatters out of the man’s nose and lands on the table. The guard wipes his knuckles off on a paper towel, once white but now bloody because of the powerful strike of the back hand.  He turns to Nathan with a twisted smile on his face, a murderous rage in his eye.

‘Make this bastard talk, make it fast’ the guard says.

Twenty Four

Crystal had just woken up after dosing off while reading her book. The lights in the train affecting her vision giving a blurred outline of the cabin, she breaths in trying to compose herself while stretching out her arms, attempting to find relief in her movement and snap her out of drowsiness. When she finally comes too she realises her friend Jenifer that was beside her before she fell asleep was no longer there, neither was Jason. She starts to panic for the safety of her friend and gets up from her seat.

She walks down the train’s aisle while the train’s cabin shakes violently as it glides down the track at high speeds.  She reaches the toilet cubicles at the end of the cabin.

‘Jenifer, are you there?’ She whispers while tapping on the first cubicle door.

‘There’s no Jenifer here lady’ a man’s voice says from inside the toilet.

She shakes her head in embarrassment and instead of saying anything she moves onto the next cubicle. Before knocking she realises that the sign on the door says vacant, so she moves onto the third one. As she approaches the cubicle she can hear the faint sounds of a women breathing heavily. Accompanying that sound with the cubicle door shaking as if it was engulfed in a minor earthquake. The shaking seems to be getting stronger until she hears the lady inside climax in pleasure.

Crystal is at a panic at the sound of the toilet door opening and Jason stepping out, looking pleased at himself. He turns and sees Crystal leaning against the second cubicle door. She has a look of terror and embarrassment in her eyes, awkwardly fused into one intense and unpleasant feeling. On the other hand Jason is the complete opposite with a look of hunger and fortitude in his eyes. He shuts the toilet door behind him and moves closer to Crystal, touching her hand as he stares deeply into her flustering eyes. She immediately pulls her hand away at the feeling of his cold harsh touch.

‘You liked what you were hearing or do you just enjoy spying on me?’ says Jason in a calm and seductive voice.

Crystal’s expression openly squirms at the sound of his question.

‘I was just going to the toilet, you caught me as I was about to go in’

Jason laughs

‘Sure. Next time maybe you won’t have to be a spectator, maybe just maybe you and me can have some fun.’ Jason says while looking at crystal’s curly brown hair that curved and waved until it bounced off her shoulders. Her tight white blouse that teased her cleavage was growing ever more attractive in his mind. Her hazel brown eyes filled with sparkle and life as she looked at him in shock of what he had just said.

‘I’m not interested Jayson. Not one bit.’ She says forcibly.

Moving closer to her he leans in ready to whisper something into her ear. The smell of perfume on her neck was enticing yet another erection which was visible to crystal who did not dare look him in the eyes. He laughs and walks off leaving crystal standing by herself, tightening her fists.

Twenty Five

The pills that Frank would usually take were strewn all over the bathroom floor. He had just come to after blacking out. His eye sight wasn’t at its best, as the bathroom was looking dimly lit, but he knew that his vision would kick in again and sure enough it did after he sat up and gasped for air.

‘I got to get a handle on this’ he says to himself, still sitting down on the bathroom floor like a lost soul seeking answers in the most unlikely places. Frank gets up and straightens himself up, patting down his clothes to get the invisible feel of helplessness off him. He picks up the empty pill container off the floor and looks at it, a static gaze forms in his eyes, one filled with pain and retribution, a heed for vengeance that he feels he must take on himself, but one he knows that is caused by his Veratril dependency. He stands there for a long while and finally comes to a decision, one that he had entertained since the moment he woke up that day.

He picks up the pills from the floor and puts them back in to the container; with one last look he throws the pill container in the waste paper basket while holding a smile on his face. Frank walks over to the broken mirror and catches a glimpse of himself on a shard of glass that remains embedded into the fragile frame. He walks out of the bathroom, back into the incident room’s long corridor leading to the control center. As he strides down the corridor he notices the blank expressions on the agents walking in the opposite direction to him. Their faces were expressionless holding nothing but a futile spark in their eyes, as they make their way to wherever they are heading. Not one of them makes eye contact with him, but every one of them acknowledges him with a candid “Sir” as he walks by. Frank does nothing but nod, preventing himself from engaging in conversation in his fragile state.

He finally reaches the control room where he is met by Chief Shaw, as he walks over to greet Frank with a stern look on his face.

‘We just got word that Chase will be going live in a few minutes.’ Says Shaw

Frank’s expression grows wary but he keeps a brave face on.

‘Okay. What have we got on Connor that we can use to our advantage?’ Frank asks

‘I’m afraid we haven’t got anything new on the guy. Every one that knows him is either dead or being held hostage. It sort of makes our job a lot harder.’

Frank shakes his head in disappointment.

‘Are you saying that a man that blew up the downtown police precinct and is holding his former co-workers at ransom is harder to nail than a guy done for speeding down the five seven interstate?’

‘It’s not that simple Frank. Speeding tickets and infraction felonies are not dangerous cases. Sure we could go in all guns blazing and lose more hostages then we save. But the bottom line is this, we need to plan our entrance into the building so we can neutralise the threat as quickly as possible. We can’t lose any of the hostages or even Connor or any of his men. They are more valuable to us alive then dead or we would have nuked the place 5 hours ago.’

‘This is bullshit chief! I’m tired of sitting here waiting for that piece of shit to dictate his terms. Why the fuck are we endearing this guy? Are we that weak that we can’t show some pressure on him? Is that what this is, some pin the tail on the donkey game? This is not a game and I am tired of people around here forgetting where they put their nuts!’ Frank says loud enough to draw the attention of the surrounding officers gawping at the TV set waiting for Connors stream to start.