Draft Saturday: Everything You Could Pt. 2

The long-awaited part two of Not-A-Spy-Writes story has finally been published for the public to view. Enjoy this amazing chapter as part of our Draft Saturday.

The team is preparing for negotiations and Chalice is in way over his head.

And what does the Secret Service have to do with any of this?

Warnings: Hostage situation, discussions of terrorism, strong language, descriptions of injuries and guns

Word count for part two: 4,077 words

Author’s note: And we’re back! This is why I don’t make promises. I definitely could have had this up sooner but the last 100 words or so evaded me for several weeks. Hopefully I can get more up soon but, no promises. Let me know if you want to see stuff other than Team Black up here, though! I write a lot, but not always what I’m supposed to. I can always throw that on here to tide you over until the next update. As always, I hope you enjoy and thank you for reading - not-a-spy

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“Any developments?” Chalice asked, walking into the tent behind Nils.

“Depends what you mean by developments.” Nils said, his eyes still fixed on his screens. “I’ve run all the other names of the guests, and the staff, and so far I’ve come up with nothing. Either our hostage taker has an alias I haven’t heard of or they aren’t a guest.”

Chalice frowned. “Right.”

Nils glanced back at him. “What’s up?”

“I’m in charge of hostage negotiations.” Chalice said. “Karolli’s bringing over a phone line to get me set up.”

Nils pushed his headset off, spinning around to face Chalice fully. “You’re good to go ahead with this?”

“It’s not like I have a choice.”

Nils tilted his head sympathetically. “If you really feel like you aren’t up for it, I’m more than happy to take over.”

Chalice shook his head. “No, its fine. I appreciate the offer though.”

Nils opened his mouth to speak again but was cut off when Karolli stepped into the tent, followed immediately by Vicky.

“Do we have anything else to work with, Nils?” Vicky asked as Karolli got to work setting up the phone next to Nils’ computers.

Nils shook his head. “No. I have a final hostage count though. If all the staff are here today, then there’s a total of 31 people in that hotel. Probably not including hostage takers.”

“Right.” Vicky sighed. “Okay, Chalice, I want you to call and reach out. Don’t start any negotiations just yet, just ask if anyone is injured and if there’s anything they need. We can send an agent in if they need medical attention or anything else.”

Chalice nodded.

“Is that a good idea, ma’am?” Nils asked.

“I’d rather have a trained agent in there than anyone else.” Vicky said. “But let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“The phone’s all set up.” Karolli interjected quietly. “Let me know if you need anything else.”

“Thank you.” Vicky said. “We’re good for the moment but we’ll let you know.”

Karolli nodded and quickly slipped out of the tent.

“Are you good to go?” Vicky turned to Chalice. “I know I’m throwing you in at the deep end here, but I trust you on this. And Nils will be right here if you need any help.”

“I’m perfectly happy to step in if you need it.” Nils said.

“Thanks. I’m good to go, ma’am.” His tone wasn’t at all convincing but Vicky nodded anyway.

“Okay, good. I’ll let you guys get on with it then. Call me if you need anything.” With that, she stepped out of the tent, leaving Nils and Chalice alone.

Chalice took a deep breath, his eyes fixed unseeingly on the phone. After a few moments, Nils glanced back at him.

“Are you sure you’re okay with this?”

“I’m sure.” Chalice’s voice was a flat monotone. He stepped forward and picked up the phone, dialling the number for the hotel’s front desk. Nils pulled on his headset.

It rang for what felt like forever. They both held their breath.

“Hello?” The voice on the other end was calm but audibly confused. There was the faint noise of voices in the background.

“Hi there!” Chalice said, immediately switching to his normal, upbeat tone. “My name is Henry Chalice, I’m a hostage negotiator. Who am I speaking to?”

There was another long pause.

“A hostage negotiator?”

“That’s right.” Chalice turned and perched himself carefully on the edge of the table.

“Nobody here called the police.”

“We were called in by a passerby who heard gunshots.” Chalice said.

“Oh. Well, uh, we don’t need any hostage negotiator.”

Nils scribbled something on a sticky note and pushed it quickly towards Chalice. It read: you’re talking to Simon Lundy.

“I’m sure you know that’s not exactly how this works, Simon.” Chalice said cheerfully. “Is anyone inside hurt? Like I said, we’ve had reports of multiple shots fired.”

There was another long pause. It dragged on for so long that Chalice glanced back at the phone, checking to see if they were still connected.

“There’s three injured.” Simon said quietly. “How do you know who I am?”

“We have the guest list.” Chalice said. “How seriously injured? We can send in a med team if you need.”

“Look, Henry, can I call you back?” Simon asked abruptly. The noise in the background had gotten significantly louder and Chalice and Nils shared a glance.

“Go ahead.” Chalice said.

The line went dead.

Chalice breathed out. “How’d I do?”

“Fine.” Nils grinned. “That’s definitely Simon Lundy, and there’s definitely something going on in there. I recorded the conversation and I’m going to run it, see if I can isolate the background noise and find out exactly what’s going on.”

“So now we wait.” Chalice sighed.

“Uh huh.” Nils had turned back to his screens, and was messing around with an audio file. “That’s all you can do.”

“I fucking hate waiting.”

“I never would have guessed.” He grinned over his shoulder at Chalice.

“How are you boys doing?” Cipriana walked into the tent with two coffees in her hands.

“We’ve made contact.” Chalice took one of the coffees from her gratefully. “Now we’re waiting for a call back.”

Cipriana put a massive iced coffee on the desk next to Nils. “Good work!”

Nils glanced away from his screens. “Thanks! I’m working on clearing up the background noise from that call to see if we can figure out what’s going on in there. Lundy sounded… skittish, wouldn’t you say?”

Chalice nodded. “Yeah. Something was definitely off there.”

“You think Lundy is the hostage taker?” Cipriana asked incredulously.

Chalice shrugged. “No idea.”

Nils shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. Lundy sounded like he had a gun to his head, he was definitely being used as a pawn.”

“Literally?” Chalice asked.

Nils laughed. “Maybe. I don’t know, I was using it as a figure of speech, but it is entirely possible. What I meant was ‘Lundy isn’t doing this of his own accord.’”

Chalice hummed. “Maybe.”

“You aren’t convinced?” Cipriana asked.

“No.” Chalice said. “I see the point, obviously, but to me it sounded like Lundy was surprised, like he didn’t want us involved. He could have been in charge.”

“Agree to disagree.” Nils said cheerfully.

“You’ve met Lundy before?”

Nils shook his head. “Not personally. I’ve run surveillance on him before and I recognized the voice. It’s pretty distinctive, the accent and the lisp. Besides, we did know he was there.”

“Wait, surveillance?” Cipriana interjected. “We’ve never done surveillance on McKinley or Lundy.”

“I didn’t say ‘we’ I said ‘I.’” Nils laughed. “I do work outside of this team, you know.”

Cipriana raised her eyebrows but didn’t press the matter. She was about to speak when the phone rang. Chalice moved over to the phones but waited two rings before picking up.

“Henry Chalice, hostage negotiator.” He said.

Next to him, Nils started recording again. Cipriana leant over the back of his chair, watching the wave forms on the screen. There was more noise in the background, something that sounded like a voice giving instructions. Nils frowned.

“It’s Simon Lundy. We need a med team.”

“Alright.” Chalice said, scribbling a note on a piece of paper and handing it to Cipriana. “You said three injured? How badly?”

Cipriana looked at the note and left the tent almost at a run.

“Just one badly injured. She’s been shot in the shoulder and it looks pretty bad.” Simon answered. “The others are mostly alright, just grazed.”

“Okay.” Chalice said. “We’re going to send in a med team to help you, just give us a moment, alright? I’ll call you back when they’re on their way.”

“Okay.” Simon said, and hung up immediately.

Chalice set the phone down just as Cipriana walked back into the tent, followed by Vicky.

“I hear they need a med team.” Vicky said. “I don’t want to send a medic in if I can help it, like I said earlier.”

“They have three injured but only one badly.” Chalice said. “A bullet wound, in the shoulder. One of us with first aid training should be able to keep it stable until we can get them out.”

“Right.” Vicky said. She paused for a moment. “I’d like to send two agents in, one to administer first aid and the other to keep an eye on things, just in case everything goes South. We still don’t know what we’re dealing with.”

“Ma’am I don’t think this is a good idea.” Nils pushed his headset off and spun to face her. “I don’t know what’s going on in there yet and I’d like to at least wait until I can clear up this audio. This could be a trap.”

Vicky sighed. “Yes, I know, but if someone is seriously injured we can’t wait. This is why I’m sending in two agents.”

“What if no one is injured?” Nils asked.

“We can’t risk lives on a ‘what if.’ What if someone is seriously injured and we hold off and they die? It’s not worth it.”

Nils frowned, chewing on his bottom lip. “I get that but I’m against sending agents in without an idea of what’s happening.”

“We don’t really have a choice.” Vicky said quietly.

“Give me two minutes!” Nils almost pleaded. “Two minutes to clean up the audio and make sure this isn’t a trap.”

“Two minutes.”

Nils turned back to his screens, practically throwing his headset back on. As he did so, Maurice and Jay walked back into the tent. Maurice had a first aid kit in one hand and Jay was cradling a stack of files.

“Ah, good timing.” Vicky said. “Nils is trying to clean up the background to make sure we aren’t sending agents into a trap. In the meantime, I want to decide who we’re sending in. Maurice, you’re obviously first choice because you’re our best medic.”

“Thank you ma’am.” Maurice said.

“I’m sending someone else in with you for backup.” Vicky said. “Just in case.”

“Let me go in, ma’am.” Jay said. “If anything happens, I can handle it.”

Vicky smiled but shook her head. “No. You’re an excellent agent, Jay, and I know you could handle it but I want to avoid an all out gunfight if possible.”

Jay laughed. “I see my reputation precedes me. I understand, ma’am.”

“No, Cipriana, I want you in there.”

“Okay!” Cipriana said. “To diffuse things, I’m guessing?”

“Exactly. These guys are going to see Maurice as a challenger, but they won’t see you as a threat. Use that to your advantage.”

Cipriana grinned. “Absolutely. Am I going to be armed?”

Vicky nodded. “Yes. You both are, but not visibly. Obviously hand over your weapons if asked but otherwise keep them hidden. Just in case. And you’ll both have mics on you, so we’ll be able to hear everything going on.”

Cipriana nodded. ‘Right.”

“Nils?” Vicky glanced over her shoulder at him.

He swallowed hard. “Well, I cleaned it up. There’s nothing concrete that would tell us its a trap, in either recording but I still don’t like this, ma’am.”

“Nothing concrete?” Chalice prompted.

“Someone in the background said ‘get their guns when they come in’ but that’s standard for hostage situations.” Nils said slowly. “I don’t like this.”

Chalice frowned, his fingers doing the dance they always did when he needed a cigarette. “It’s weird but, but I don’t think it’s grounds to not go in.”

“I agree with Chalice.” Vicky said. “We send them in, but carefully. Be on your guards.”

Cipriana and Maurice both nodded.

“Good. Chalice, let Simon know they’re coming down.”

Chalice picked up the phone and dialled, keeping his eyes on Nils. Nils was looking for the mics in a briefcase, his free hand drumming an anxious rhythm on the table.

“Henry?”

“Hi there.” Chalice made an effort to sound cheerful. “We’re sending a med team down to you, they’re leaving in a second.”

“Okay, good.” Simon said. “Thank you, Henry.”

“You’re welcome.” Chalice set the phone down and turned back to the rest of the team. “Alright. You’re up.”

“You said a med team.” Maurice said. “Are we supposed to lie?”

Chalice shook his head. “Nope. But if they don’t ask, don’t tell.”

Maurice nodded. “Understood. Okay, I have the first aid kit, is there anything else we need.”

“Here.” Nils stood, tucking the small microphone into Maurice’s scarf. “Don’t let them take it off you.”

Maurice raised an eyebrow. “I won’t. Look, Nils, it’ll be fine, okay? Don’t worry so much.”

Nils frowned. “I don’t like this.”

“You’ve said that.”

“Yeah and no one seems to be paying attention.” Nils said. “Seriously, something is up here and its not good. I think its a trap.”

“Which is why we’re being careful.” Maurice said. “We have no proof it’s a trap, okay? Our duty is to the hostages in there and if we don’t act when we think someone is injured, then we’re responsible if they die.”

“And if you die?” Nils’ voice was unusually serious. “Then what? Then who’s responsible?”

“It won’t come to that.”

“You don’t know that.” Nils said. “We have no idea what we’re sending you into and we don’t know if you’ll come out and no one is listening to me!”

“Nils.” Maurice spoke gently. “We’ve been through worse. And we’ve made it out of worse. I promise you, we’ll make it out of this one too.”

“He’s right.” Cipriana smiled, taking the mic from Nils and tucking it under her lapel before pulling her long brown hair over her shoulder, effectively concealing it. “Are we ready?”

“Ready.” Maurice said.

“Be safe.” Nils said quietly.

“I second that.” Chalice said. “Be careful and stay in touch, yeah? We’ll be listening.”

Maurice nodded. “We will.”

*****

“Okay, play it cool.” The man in the mask hissed at Simon, pushing him forcefully towards the front door of the hotel. There was no sign of the med team yet, but they would certainly be there soon. “Let them assume you’re in charge.”

Simon nodded, slowly. The gun was pressing uncomfortably into his back and he shifted nervously.

“If you lay a fucking hand on him I will rip them off of you.” Harlon snarled.

“Oh, calm down Harlon.” A woman with long black hair, holding a gun in one hand, turned to face him, waving the gun casually. “You have no power here.”

“I’m fucking warning you.” Harlon spat.

“We won’t hurt him unless you make us.” The man smirked. “If you cooperate, then he’ll be fine.”

Simon flinched as there was a knock on the front door. His first instinct was to step back, but the gun was firmly lodged into his back and stopped him from moving.

“Okay.” The masked man said quietly. “I’m going to step back and let you answer the door. Don’t try anything. And Harlon? If you make any kind of noise at all I will blow his head off with no hesitation.”

Simon gave a terrified nod, so small it was barely noticeable.

“Got it.” Harlon grunted.

“Good. Open the door.”

*****

Maurice had just raised his hand to knock again when the door opened, slowly. A young man with short cropped curly black hair stepped aside, gesturing for them to walk past him into the lobby. Maurice and Cipriana shared a glance.

“Hi.” Maurice said calmly. “Are you Simon Lundy?”

The man nodded but didn’t speak.

“It’s nice to meet you, Simon.” Maurice said slowly. “I’m Maurice Pierre and this is Cipriana Dukas. We’re here to help.”

“Hi!” Cipriana waved.

Simon gestured for them to come in again, still not speaking.

“That’s bad.” Chalice’s voice sounded in Maurice’s ear. “He’s definitely not in charge here.”

Maurice didn’t need anyone voicing his thoughts, so he ignored Chalice and stepped inside. As soon as Cipriana was inside as well, the door slammed shut. A man wearing a mask was standing off to one side, a gun levelled at Simon’s head. Ahead of them, off to one side, a man he recognized as Harlon McKinley was sitting on the main staircase, a woman with long black hair standing just behind him.

Chalice had been right. This was bad.

“Put your bags down and set any weapons you have down on the floor in front of you.” The masked man said.

Maurice and Cipriana complied, setting the bags down then slowly laying their weapons down as well.

“Is there anyone injured?” Maurice asked.

“Yes.” The masked man said. “They’re in the dining room. He’s stable but losing a lot of blood. You can tend to him once I’ve checked your bags.”

“Right.” Maurice took a step back, letting the man dump the contents of the two bags onto the ground. “Is anyone else hurt?”

“Harlon here got grazed but he’s fine and so did one of the hotel employees. If you could check her over too, that would be good.” The masked man said, pushing the contents around with his foot. “Okay, you’re clear.”

Maurice bent down, quickly shoving the items back into the bags. The fact that their weapons had been taken concerned him, admittedly, but he convinced himself that this was just a standard hostage situation.

“I’ll take you in to see them.” The man said as Maurice straightened up.

“Thank you.” Maurice said, shooting another quick glance at Cipriana who raised her eyebrows but didn’t speak.

They followed him out of the lobby into the dining room of the hotel. The rest of the hostages were all grouped up in there, with one man lying on a table in the middle of the room. He was obviously in bad shape.

“Are you two the med team?” A woman who had been sitting next to the table stood up suddenly, taking a cautious step towards them.

Maurice nodded. “Yes. I hear you have two injured.”

“One of the waitresses has a graze on her arm but he’s much worse.” The woman said, gesturing at the man on the table. “Can you help?”

Maurice approached the table cautiously, gripping the med bag so tightly his knuckles turned white. He was experienced in first aid but he wasn’t used to using his training under these kinds of circumstances. He pushed down the doubt and tried to sound more confident than he felt. “I’ll do my best ma’am.”

“Can I help?” Cipriana asked quietly, stepping up beside him.

The bullet had entered just a little right of his shoulder, leaving a neat hole under the collarbone. It didn’t look too bad to his untrained eye, but it was bleeding profusely.

“Hi.” Maurice forced a reassuring smile. “My name is Maurice Pierre, I’m a medic. What’s your name?”

“Hey there!” The man gave a feeble grin, raising his head slightly to look up at Maurice. “I’m Beckett Saunders, I’m an actor. And, uh, I could be better, y’know, but it sure could be worse. How’s it looking?”

“Not too bad in the grand scheme of things.” Maurice said. “I’ll stop the bleeding, but there isn’t too much else I can do until we can get you out and to a hospital.”

“Well that doesn’t sound too bad at all.” Beckett grinned. “Unless you’re lying to make me feel better.”

“I’m not.” Maurice smiled.

Beckett tilted his head to look at Cipriana. “Is he lying?”

Cipriana gave a nervous giggle. “Well, I’m not as experienced in first aid as he is but Maurice doesn’t lie, so I’d say no.”

“Good to know.” He winked at her. “And what’s your name?”

Cipriana almost blushed. “I’m Cipriana Dukas.”

Maurice flicked his eyes back and forth between the pair of them for a moment before frowning at Cipriana. “I could use a hand with this.”

“Of course.”

*****

“What’s going on?” Vicky stepped back into the tent. Chalice and Nils were both staring blankly at a computer screen but they glanced up as she approached.

“They’re in.” Chalice said. “But something is definitely up.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Lundy and Harlon aren’t in charge, that much is clear.” Nils said. “And Maurice and Cipriana are now in there, unarmed, caught right between two potentially dangerous groups of criminals.”

“Well, all we can do for the moment is wait.” Vicky said firmly. “We don’t want to aggravate them by calling right now.”

Chalice frowned but didn’t say anything.

“Are we sure that’s a good idea?” Nils pressed. “These are our friends we’re talking about here and this is almost certainly dangerous.”

“Nils.” Vicky took a deep breath. “I know how you feel about this but they are both trained agents and they know what they’re doing. You have to trust them to do their jobs, alright? Try and keep calm and stay on the line. Chalice, have you heard anything interesting on the mics?”

Chalice shook his head, slowly. “Not really. Nothing more than Nils said. The hostage takers are definitely focused on Harlon though, they seem to be using Lundy to manipulate him somehow.”

“Now that is interesting.I’ll see what more I can find on those two. Nils, I know you’re fairly familiar with these two, any ideas?”

Nils frowned. “I don’t actually. They keep a very low profile, as is fairly standard in their line of work but I can do some digging. There was an undercover op in their circles a while ago, I can reach out and see if they found anything that could help.”

“Yeah, excellent.” Vicky said, before pausing for a moment. “Wait, wasn’t that a secret service op? How do you know about that?”

“Uh, better you don’t ask, ma’am.” Nils laughed.

“Understood.” Vicky made her way out of the tent, pausing just in the entrance. “Let me know if you find anything. Or if anything happens.”

“Will do.” Chalice nodded.

“I say we give them twenty minutes and if we haven’t heard anything then we call Maurice or Cipriana to check in.” Nils said, not taking his eyes off of his screens.

“Nils, did you say you’ve had experience with McKinley and Lundy before?” Jay asked, making both of them jump.

Nils gave a startled laugh. “Jesus, I’d forgotten you were here. Yeah, I have, but not enough to know all their previous compatriots by name, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

Jay grinned. “No, its not, actually. I was wondering if there’s any reason they would be using Lundy as leverage against McKinley. McKinley is ruthless, he’s left a trail of old accomplices who he’s abandoned. Why is Lundy any different?”

Chalice frowned. “That’s a good question, actually. What do we know about Lundy?”

“Absolutely fucking nothing.” Jay sighed. “His name is Simon Lundy and he works with Harlon McKinley. Beyond that? Not much.”

“That’s not entirely accurate.” Nils said. “He’s a criminal in his own right, actually, and a pretty good one, considering no one has heard of him. He’s not a jewel thief though, which is why the McKinley team up was surprising.”

“What’s he steal then?”

Nils laughed. “You won’t believe this. Bike parts. Then he builds the bikes up and sells them on. It’s damn near the perfect crime.”

“Then how did he end up with McKinley?” Chalice asked. He was rubbing his thumb anxiously along the tips of his fingers, one of the usual signs he needed a cigarette.

“That’s what we don’t know.” Nils said. “Well, what I don’t know. I’m gonna call one of my secret service buddies, see what he can tell me. Give me a moment.”

Jay nodded, turning back to his files.

Nils dialled the number and waited. He wasn’t entirely sure anyone would pick up, they jumped around so often they were hard to pin down.

“Heyo, Lyre here.” A bright voice on the other end spoke.

“Hey Lyre! Karlessen.” Nils said. “I’m looking for some information on Harlon McKinley and Simon Lundy.”

There was a long pause. “What…what kind of information?”

“Anything you can give me that might help.” Nils said. “We’ve got a hostage situation down here involving those two and I’m scrambling for anything that could be of use.”

“You think they’re the hostages or the hostage takers?”

“Hostages. And we think they’re using Lundy as leverage against McKinley.”

“Oh.” Lyre paused for another long moment. “Christ, Karlessen, this shit is level 7 clearance.”

“Which I have and which I know you have.” Nils leant back in his chair.

Lyre sighed. “Okay. Buckle up.”