The Preying Doctor by Nadia Siddiqui (most recommended books .TXT) 📗

“How many hostages are in there, and where are they?” Logan finishes. All three minds working toward the same goal, really it would be nearly as satisfying just to sit here and watch them all work.

“No clue,” the police chief starts. “One of the clerks managed to trigger the silent alarm on the inside of the building when this all started happening and then it seems to have escalated very quickly. The best that we can tell, all of the hostages have been moved behind the teller desks in the back there.” The police chief points one uniformed arm in past the glass windows indicating a small row of desks that are separated from the rest of the lobby by Plexiglas and small name placards. It seems like beyond that is a small hallway, presumably one end for the offices of loan officers and then the other direction would be to the vault or safe, whichever they have, and Nathan is willing to bet that it’s a safe given how small the building is.

“Are there security cameras? Any feeds that we can tap into to see just how many people are inside? How much money is here at any given time?” This isn’t a large town, just big enough that there could be a handful of people in the bank at this lunch hour but not small enough that Nathan can ask the officer who the likely suspects would be. Too many people to keep track of.

“Hard to tell, I’ve got men attempting to figure out if there is any way to get eyes inside the building right now. We don’t have any reason to believe that they got into the safe because it’s registered as having a separate alarm from their security system. Sadly we don’t have much more information than that. This branch only opened a few months ago since they wanted to have this new location in town. The main branch is a way down the highway so this made a lot more sense for people who wanted to do shopping, higher foot traffic, all of that good stuff. Guess that means it’s better for business. Like any bank, it will get robbed at one point or another; this is the first attempt, popping its robbery cherry if you will.” The police chief laughs as do a few of his officers. None of the Smiths do. Nathan wonders what they think of the police. Do they even take them seriously? It’s hard to picture.

“How long until we get word on the security cameras?” William redirects the conversation to the situation at hand. “Have you called swat in from the city? Hostage negotiations?”

The police chief pulls himself back together and nods. “Yeah but they can’t get anybody out here for another couple hours so we’re on our own till then; that’s why I thought it might be best to go ahead and call you lot out here. Wasn’t expecting a fourth though, where did he come from?”

“Locke here? He’s always been here. What do you mean you weren’t expecting a fourth?”

For a long moment, the chief is bamboozled, attempting to recall in his own mind if somehow he has forgotten a fourth, smaller member of the Smiths before realizing that they are pulling his leg and laughing.

It’s obvious to see that not a single member of the Smiths takes this police chief anywhere near seriously. It only takes the three men about five minutes to totally take control of the entire situation. William squares his shoulders and starts giving orders, fixing the positions that they are currently in, while Logan is taking over the computer side of things and attempting to get better access to remotely take over the security systems inside of the building if there are any while Denzel starts to look over the blueprints of the building and determine the best entry point that won’t have them busting through the glass.

The building was never meant to be a bank; that much is obvious. There’s an employee entrance in the back that has been blocked off and then the glass entrance in the front. One way in, and only the one way out. This isn’t Nathan’s area of expertise. This isn’t his strong suit and a part of him knows that he should have left this to them to sort out. He has other, more pressing matters to be attending to. It will be more difficult of course, now that these three men are occupied and not able to help him, but it could also be a blessing in disguise. It could very well be exactly the excuse that he needs, the cover and distraction to simply abduct Doctor Cox from either of the hospitals that he is working in and get the job finished. It will be simple enough, Nathan just needs to find a way to excuse himself.

About that time, the laptop that Denzel has been typing away on flickers and then switches over to a live stream of the happenings on the inside of the bank. There appears to be a handful of civilians sitting with their hands behind their heads in a line behind the teller desks, just as they had assumed they would be. It’s hard to make out from the grainy, low-res footage being streamed, but they appear to have tape over their mouths, which, in turn leads Nathan to think that probably their hands are at the least zip tied behind their heads. The man with the mass-produced ski mask on his face was stupid to think that he was going to pull this off all on his own. Nathan says nothing at all as Denzel bounces back and forth through the five different angles that are shown on this security monitor. One with the hostages and the alleged robber, one of the lobby facing the glass window where the flashing lights of the