Masked (10 page)

“Shh, shh baby. Shh,” she continued
as she tried to calm him down.

“You know our cash is picked up
every day,” said Jack to the gunmen with confidence.

“Don’t lie to me boy,” said the
bearded man as he turned the gun to Jack’s forehead. “You don’t think we did
our homework? This place is in the middle of nowhere. Your cash is picked up
once a week, every Tuesday between 5:30 and 6:00 a.m.”

“Okay, sorry, you’re right. They’ll
be here this morning for a pick up. They’ll be here soon,” said Jack in a
scared apologetic voice, not the confidence he had just spoken in. “They’ll be
armed,” he warned.

“
You think?
” the bearded
man snorted. “Bobby, Billy, get them over there,” he shouted pointing to the
corner near the restrooms.

The two men began to herd us over
towards that area.

“If you all cooperate no one will
get hurt,” Billy said as we walked.

From the moment the gun was put
to my head, I’d tried to remain silent and unimposing in order to take in the
entire situation.  I only had the chance to look into the bearded man’s mind. Though
it was just a brief look, I didn’t like at all what I saw. He was a man who didn’t
have any problem killing every one of us if he thought he needed to. I had the
feeling he might just do it anyways, even if it wasn’t necessary. His mind was a
murky compassionless place, full of hate and greed.

Taking the route of caution was the
right call and I had to continue to be careful. I couldn’t risk doing anything
too reckless. The cost of recklessness could be the blood of my fellow captives.
I didn’t want more blood on my hands, there was already too much.

What I found in my brief look
into the bearded guys twisted mind, was they were indeed there for the armored
car and had three more men on the outside to take out the guards when they arrived.
One of the men actually worked at the armored car company and had the key to
access the back of the truck. That was the extent of useful information I could
gleam though.

The ability I had to, for lack of
a better term, read minds was somewhat limited. Not only did I have to be
mentally focused on the subject, but I could only hear what they were currently
thinking. With that, I couldn’t even get Mr. Bearded man’s name, because he
wasn’t thinking it at the time.

Outside of his mind, however, I was
able to observe other things the good old fashioned way. What seemed evident was
Mr. Beard was in charge and his brother Billy who seemed uncomfortable at the robbery
and hostage taking business. Also, Billy had shown some concern for us as he
walked us to the back of the store. I took note of that as a weak point to
possibly exploit. I hoped I’d have the chance to check out his mind as well
before I had to act.

As far as Bobby went, I hadn’t
quite figured out how he fit in with the brothers, but that he just seemed to
be no more than hired help for Mr. Beardy McBeard.

When I was stressed or in a bad
situation, I tried to entertain myself. Not entirely appropriate, I know, but a
little humor kept my mind clear. I couldn’t let myself get distracted by fear
and worry.

I couldn’t guess what was in the
truck to be worth possibly killing a store full of people. His thoughts told me
the cash payoff was to be significant though. He’d pulled together a large
operation and I couldn’t imagine there was that much cash in a truck out in the
middle of nowhere. The motive didn’t really add up.

At the back of the store, Bobby
and Billy performed a quick search of us. They took cell phones from everyone,
a pocket knife from the overweight guy, who by the way looked like he was about
to go into cardiac arrest. His face was bright red with sweat pouring from it. It
seemed the stress was a little much for his probably already strained heart.

From me they got a little bit
more. Of course I still had the 9mm holstered under my jacket and a knife
strapped to my right ankle. I hesitantly let them take both of these as well as
my cell phone. Since, at a casual glance, the PTD looked like a watch, they didn’t
touch it.

“Hank, look at this,” Billy shouted
to Mr. Beardy holding up the confiscated weapons.

So his name was Hank.

Hank walked back to where we were.
He first looked at the weapons and then back up at me.

“Why did you have those?” he asked
pointing his gun at my head.

“I’m in a gang yo!”

At that Hank swiped the butt of
the gun across my nose. There was a crack followed by a sharp, blinding hot
pain and I felt blood start to flow. Ouch.

It was only with practiced
restraint that I didn’t take his gun and beat the hick fool senseless.

“You’re as much in a gang as I am
the Governor. Now let me rephrase the question boy. Why did you have those with
you and who the hell are you?”

The pain in my nose was already
fading and the blood flow stopped.

“My name is Jonas, and I am
carrying the wheel,” I said calmly.

Hank looked confused. “What did
he say?” Hank asked looking at Bobby and Billy. They both just shrugged.

I guess they hadn’t caught the
Weezer reference, but like I said, even when in peril, I try to keep it light
and I just couldn’t help being a smartass.

“You smug son of a bitch,” he shouted
as he whacked me again across the nose.

The pain came back as well as the
blood, but that wasn’t the worst of it. When he shouted, he sprayed me with his
nasty tobacco chewing spittle. Gross.

Hank walked over to a shelf and grabbed
a roll of duct tape.

He shouted “Bobby,” and once he had
his attention, threw him the tape. “Bind his arms. I don’t trust him.”

I let Bobby bind me with the duct
tape. When the time came, breaking free from it wouldn’t be hard. For now I was
just going to let them get comfortable with the fact I was out of the way.

All of the other hostages were sitting
on the floor, grouped together in the back of the store. I was also on the
floor but ten feet away from the rest of them. Hank and Billy were back at the
front of the store, looking out the glass doors. With the lights out, I could barely
make out their figures next to the glass.

Bobby stayed at the rear of the
store to play watch dog over us. I focused my thoughts on him and tried to
break into his mind, but was met with nothing. That had never happened before.
There had never been anyone I couldn’t read.

The little boy began crying again
and his mother tried her best to calm him.

“You better shut that thing up
woman,” Bobby snarled at the mother.

The mother cried, holding her scared
child closer. The father stared at Bobby as he held his daughter; cold hate is in
his eyes.

“Don’t get any ideas boy,” Bobby told
the father with a challenging look and a smile.

“Leave them alone you jerk,” said
the girl in the Boise sweatshirt.

Bobby directed his attention to
her. “Oh, feisty, I like that. Stand up,” he ordered the girl pointing the gun
at her.

“Leave her alone,” I said. I
didn’t know how much more I could sit and watch. Hitting me was one thing. I
was durable. The way he was using fear to toy with the others though was
pissing me off.

He ignored me.

The girl shook her head. She started
to tremble and tears began to pour from her eyes. “No,” she said weakly.

“I said stand up. If you don’t, I’ll
put a bullet in that screaming brat and his mother and then you’ll still stand
up after that. Now stand up and come the hell over here.”

Bobby moved the gun, pointing it
at the mother and son. The girl was still trembling and now crying.

I needed to be careful. I could easily
take out Bobby if needed, but I wasn’t sure if I could get to the other two
before someone else got shot. They were at the front of the store, but
commotion would surely draw bullets in our direction. I couldn’t know for sure,
well at least I couldn’t concentrate long enough to find out, but I didn’t think
Bobby would actually shoot the mother and son. It seemed he was just toying
with them. I needed to be ready to move if necessary, though. I softly worked
to loosen the tape to the point where it would only take one quick tug to
break.

“Well, what will it be?” he asked
her.

“What the hell’s going on back
there?” shouted Hank from the front of the store.

“I have everything under
control,” answered Bobby.

He turned back to the girl and exaggerated
the movement of his eye brows up and down. “You know, I don’t have any problem
with wasting them right now. At least that would shut the kid up,” he said.

“Ok,” said the girl in her shaky
voice as she rose from the ground. Once on her feet she hesitated for a few
seconds and then slowly walked to Bobby. He moved the gun to her as she approached.
She stopped right in front of him. She was silent, but the tears still flowed
from her eyes.

With the gun still pointed he circled
her, looking her up and down. “Mmm, nice,” he moaned as he circled. “Too bad
you have that big sweatshirt on.”

Once facing her again, he rested the
gun against her temple and moved his face to her hair. He took an exaggerated
breath and moaned again. He moved his face back and stroked the side of her face,
cupping her chin at the end of the stroke.

“I may have to keep you for a while,”
he said, still cupping her chin. “Now go sit back down,” he added, pushing her back
towards the rest of the hostages.

The girl went to sit back down.
Once on the ground she covered her eyes and sobbed quietly to herself. Bobby then
resumed his position watching us.

I looked forward to wiping that
stupid smile off that cocky little prick’s face and it took all I had in me to
keep myself from doing it right then.  

A few minutes passed and then there
was the single ring of a phone. It came from the front of the store. I saw Hank
already had the phone in his hand and he answered it before the second ring. Apparently,
Hank was expecting the call.

“Ok, good. Get into position,” I heard
him say into the phone.

He took the phone from his ear,
hit a couple of buttons and then placed it back. After a couple of seconds, he said
“you ready?” there was a pause and then “ok then, do it.” He put the phone back
in his pocket.

“They’ll be here any second,” shouted
Hank so Bobby could hear. “Stick with the plan.”

Hank walked over to where the light
switches were and turned back on the lights to the station.

I assumed he was referring to the
armored car. Crap, I had to do something, it couldn’t wait.

 Part of Hank’s plan included killing
the guards on the truck. I was able to get that much from him. I couldn’t let
them do that. I needed to take control of the situation and fast, but in a way I
didn’t get anyone else killed. I could take Bobby easily, but I still couldn’t get
to Hank and Billy before they started throwing bullets in our direction.

I thought if I could only get
another one of them to the back of the store, then I would feel more confident
in the result.

As in response to my thoughts
Hank said “Billy go watch over the hostages with Bobby. If any of them so much
as twitch, shoot them.”

“Ok. Sure Hank,” he said and then
started on his way to the back of the store.

Perfect.

It took Billy a few seconds to
make it to the back of the store. As he walked right in front of me, I moved in
one fluid motion sweeping his legs, freeing my bound hands from the remaining
tape, and going for his gun as he fell to the ground. I got my hands on the weapon
and started to rise when I heard three small explosions nearby.

The newly acquired weapon fell from
my hand and I started to fall back to the ground wondering what had just
happened. As I was falling, I felt three distinct sharp pains materialize with
ferocity as I realized Bobby had put bullets in my right hand, left shoulder,
and right thigh. I hit the ground.

Bobby stood above me in a firing
stance with the muzzle of his gun, still smoking, pointed at me. He was smiling.
A nasty crooked brown toothed smile.

“Billy, you can get your gun back
now,” he said to the confused looking Billy now sitting on the ground next to me.

Blinding pain flooded through my
body, spreading like long tentacles from the wounds. I’d been shot before, but
it was just once and that previous experience didn’t lessen the pain the second
time around, especially when in triplicate. Before, the shot had gone all the
way through my shoulder and hadn’t taken long to heal. Now I was pretty sure I
had two of the three bullets still in me and the one in my leg was going to
prevent me from moving anytime soon.

“What the hell is going on back
there?” shouted Hank from the front of the store.

“It’s under control. Our Boy
Scout slash gangbanger decided to be stupid. He’s not going anywhere now,” answered
Bobby.

The bullet that hit my hand and
sent my gun flying went clean through. Although very painful, I knew it would heal
soon. The bullets still in my thigh and shoulder were another matter.