Caught In The Middle

“Frank!”

The team all watched as a man dragged Frank over to where the other man was still standing. The phone was in reach, and the man grabbed it, and quickly dialed.

Chief Morgan picked up the phone when it rang, and Artie’s voice screamed in his ear.

“Nice camera! You just signed Donovan’s death warrant! Before this ends, I’m gonna kill him right in front of you!”

Morgan’s mouth dropped, but before he could say anything, Artie hung up.

The team watched in stunned silence as Artie yelled into the phone, pointing his gun at Frank’s head. Then he slammed the phone down, pointed the gun—Franks’s gun, they realized—and shot the camera. To their utter shock, it shattered.

“$3,500, down the drain!” Cody wailed. He realized a minute later how that sounded, and he made a face as if to say, ‘oops.’

Alex was speechless, not able to speak for a minute, after what she’d just seen.

Monica swallowed hard. “Guys…I don’t think Frank’s gonna make it out of this one.”

Jake slammed his fist on the computer table. “No! This jerk is NOT gonna get away with this! Cody, send those pictures to the FBI! The minute anything comes back, I wanna know.”

Cody nodded, looking like he agreed with Monica.

                                                                         ********************

The hostages screamed when the gun went off, and Jay jumped a mile, himself.

“What was that for?” Jay asked, not having seen the camera, though it was more obvious then the SWAT team knew; the camera being black, the walls being white.

Artie walked over and grabbed it, bringing it over to Jay. “Now they know who we are.”

Jay paled.

“Throw the people in the vault.”

Jay blinked. “What?”

“I said; put the hostages in the vault! What are you, deaf?”

Knowing better then to argue, Jay went over to the hostages and motioned for them to get up and walk. He forced them into the vault, trying to shut out their cries of fear. Why did I ever get into this, I must’ve been crazy! he thought. Man, I will NEVER commit another crime as long as I live. When he returned, Artie gestured towards Frank with the gun. “Him too.”

Jay almost protested, but luckily caught himself. If I’m not careful, I’ll probably end up in there! Trying to hold in a sigh, he again started to slowly drag Frank, this time in the direction of the vault.

Frank moaned softly once, and if Jay had a weapon, he would’ve taken Artie out then and there.

Who does this guy think he is? he thought. Taking people’s lives into his own hands, like he owns them? Anger started to grow in him. The bank job was supposed to be clean, a simple, ‘this is a holdup, gimme the cash! Thanks, see ya!’ He hadn’t even known Artie had brought the knife! I was in it for the money, not to hurt people. If this guy dies, I will not let Artie get away with it.

He kicked the vault door—which he wasn’t about to lock, sealing the poor hostages in—and dragged Frank inside.

The hostages crawled back as far away from him as they could, clearly afraid.

Jay looked to make sure that Artie couldn’t hear him, and then said, “You people don’t have to be afraid of me, I had no intentions of anything like this! I didn’t want anyone hurt.”

They all just stared, not sure what to think.

Jay sighed. “Look, I’ll prove it.” He pulled Frank closer to them, and then stepped back. “Artie made me bring him in here, maybe that’s a good thing, you people can help him better then I can.”

The three men who’d given their shirts slowly crawled over to Frank, keeping a wary eye on Jay as they got closer.

“I know you don’t trust me, after what has happened I wouldn’t trust me either!” He frowned, thinking that didn’t sound quite right. “Look, I really mean this, if there was a way for me to get you all out of here, I would!”

Suddenly he heard footsteps, and realized that Artie was coming. He quickly left the vault, and closed it as much as he could without it sealing.

“Hey, what's taking you so long?”

“Nothing. Everybody’s inside, figured you wanted me to stay here and keep an eye on 'em.”

“Oh.” Artie turned around, looking nervous.

Jay had to force himself not to sigh. Artie’s sudden unease was making him practically shake with fear. If Artie was now doubting a successful getaway, after getting them this far—after causing it, you mean—then he felt he should kiss his life goodbye while he was still alive to do it.

                                                                           ********************

*ring*

“What do you want now? Where’s my chopper?”

“On its way,” Jake told him. “There’s only one thing, we aren’t giving it to you for free. We want something too.”

“What?” Artie asked, as if it wasn’t obvious.

“Frank and the hostages.”

Jake heard a sigh over the phone. “I already told you you ain’t getting Donovan!”

This time Jake sighed. “Then we want the others. Send a few of them out now.”

“Heh! Fat chance. Maybe I will let some go, but it’ll be in my own sweet time, not by your order.”

Jake ran a hand through his hair. Usually cool, and collected, he wasn’t a real hostage negotiator, and was racking his brains trying to get through to this guy. Figures, he thought, this time, the hostage negotiator is the hostage. Suddenly an idea occurred to him.

“Look, when the chopper gets here and you leave, you aren’t gonna take all the hostages with you. Let them go, there’s no reason to keep them in there anymore.”

“Whether I let them go or not, you can forget about Donovan.”

“I have a better idea,” said Jake. “I’ll exchange myself for him.”

Beside him, Alex gasped.

“What do I want you for?” Artie asked. “You have nothing to do with Donovan putting Tommy away.”

Jake looked at Cody as the rest of the team listened to Artie through the recorder they were using to tape the conversation. When Cody heard the clue, he immediately started typing away.

“How do you know? I’m part of Frank’s team. Whatever he’s working on, I am too.”

Artie was silent for a minute.

Jay watched him, wondering what was going through his mind. Suddenly he saw an expression on Artie’s face that was worthy of Peter Ustinov as Emperor Nero in the movie ‘Quo Vadis’.

“Okay,” Artie said. “I think we can do that.”

Do what? Jay thought with dread, hating hearing only one side of the conversation.

                                                                       ********************

Jake was surprised that Artie agreed. Instead of wondering why, his only concern was to get Frank out of that bank.

“Good,” he said. “When can we do the exchange?”

“Right now. I’ll let the hostages out, and then you, and only you, can come in, get Donovan out and then come back.”

What an idiot! Jake thought. Doesn’t he realize that once I have Frank, I won’t go back in? “Sounds good to me,” he said.

“Okay,” Artie said. “I’m gonna let them out now.”

Let them out? Jay thought, watching Artie hang up the phone.

“Go get the hostages,” Artie told him.

“You’re letting them go?” Jay said, trying to keep the happiness out of his voice.

Artie nodded.

Jay ran towards the vault, smiling. Thank God! Now no one else will get hurt.

                                                                       ********************

In the vault, the hostages were all huddled against the far back wall, while some of them were in the front keeping an eye on the door.

“Do you think any of us are gonna get out?” One of the women asked the three men tending to Frank, her voice shaking.

“I don’t know,” one of them said, holding yet another shirt over Frank’s wound, the bleeding finally having slowed. “I can’t believe this guy is still alive.”

“Barely,” one of the others pointed out. “He won’t be for long if he’s in here much longer.”

Suddenly Frank moved slightly, and made a soft sound.

“He’s waking up!” someone said, shocked.

The three men held him down so he wouldn’t move, while the rest of the hostages moved closer.

Frank opened his eyes slightly, not sure where he was, the unfamiliar voices adding to his confusion. He felt hands on his arms and he automatically resisted them, but didn’t have the strength to get very far.

“Hey take it easy, man, don’t move!”

“Where…who…?”

“You’re still in the bank,” one of the men said.

Bank? Frank thought, disoriented. The robbery! I’m still alive…wonder how long we’ve been in here…

“Don’t try to talk,” said a disembodied voice from Frank’s right.

“Someone’s coming!”

Everyone jumped at those words, and the men watching the door scrambled back to the group. A few of them prayed that it would be Jay, the sane one of the two.

To everyone’s relief, it was.

Jay ran in, taking in the scene. “He’s letting you all go.”

The hostages gasped and squealed.

“Come on, quick! Before he changes his mind!”

The hostages all stood. “What about him?” A woman asked, pointing to Frank.

Jay sighed. “No, not yet. I’ll take care of him, don’t worry.”

A few of the people looked down at Frank, as if not wanting to leave him there alone.

“Come on,” Jay said. “He’ll be all right. Just get out of here!”

The hostages all ran out of the vault, stopping to allow Jay to walk in front of them, still afraid of Artie.

Artie went over to the door, and looked out the glass. He saw all the police cars and officers, and easily identified the Chief; with his different uniform, and Jake; obviously the young man standing next to him. They were all watching the door, waiting for it to open.

“Okay, everyone!” Artie yelled. “You’re free to go!” He ran far away from the door, and stood pointing his gun at it, in case any cops chose that moment to rush the place.

Jay went to open the door, and realized that this was his chance to escape. His heart did a flutter at the thought of being out of the bank at the dangerous time when the cops gained access, as he knew they eventually would. As he opened the door, however, he remembered Frank, dying in the vault. Oh man, he thought. I can’t leave that guy to die.

“Hurry, run fast,” he whispered to them, still unsure of Artie’s intentions.

“I’ll tell the cops about you,” the lady who asked him about Frank whispered back. He assumed she meant she’d tell him that he’d tried to help.

He smiled his thanks at her, and when they were all out of the bank, Artie called out, “Close the door!”

                                                                         ********************

Jake and the rest of the team ran forward with the rest of the cops when the hostages came down the bank’s steps. Grabbing the people’s arms, they hurried them away from the building.

“Anyone hurt?” Alex asked, when they’d assembled behind one of the SWAT team’s vans.

Everyone shook their heads. “No, just the guy still in there, in the vault,” someone said.

Frank’s in the bank’s vault?! “What did the thief do to him?” Jake asked.

“Stabbed him,” someone else said.

“Where?” Jake asked, feeling a chill go down his spine. He watched the people point to the left side of their midsections, not everyone’s hands in the same place.

“Right here,” a man in the front said. “I tried to stop the bleeding.”

Jake marked the place on his own body, trying to figure out what kind of damage could have been done. Apparently the wound was right under the ribcage; right about where the spleen would be. The realization doubled his worry.

“All right, thanks everyone. Before you leave, give your names to the cops, in case they want to speak to you about this.”

“Wait!”

Jake tried to figure out who had spoken, with some annoyance. He wanted to get to Frank now.

A woman stepped closer. “The other man in the bank…”

“Other man? There are two?”

She nodded. “Yes, but he isn’t like Artie.”

Cody’s jaw dropped. “That looney’s name is Artie? Did you get his last name?”

They all shook their heads.

Cody muttered under his breath.

“What about this other guy?” Jake prompted, hoping she’d hurry.

“His name is Jay, and he tried to help us. He didn’t want people hurt, I think he would’ve actually turned on Artie, if he’d had a weapon.”

“Artie has Frank’s gun and a knife, anything else?”

“No.”

Jake nodded. “Okay, thanks.” He ran to the Chief, just as the phone rang.

“Well?” he heard in the receiver. “What’s taking you so long?”

“I had to make sure the hostages were all right. I’m coming in now.”

“Fine,” Artie said, and hung up.

“Jake.”

He turned after hanging up the phone, to see Alex behind him, looking worried.

“Be careful,” she said.

Jake smiled, and nodded reassuringly. He then walked towards the bank, going up the stairs. Artie met him at the door, pointing the gun at him as he opened it, and stepped back.

“Come on in, your friend is right over there.”

Jake stepped into the bank, looking around for Frank and warily watching Artie at the same time.

Artie slammed the door loudly, and started to laugh.

Jake turned around. “What is this?”

“I can’t believe you believed me!” Artie said, still laughing.

Jake glared at him. “You said you would let Frank go, in exchange for me!”

“I lied. Criminals lie!”

Jake took a step towards him, but stopped at the sight of the gun—Frank’s gun—staring him in the face.

“Jay!” Artie yelled. “Get over here!”

                                                                          ********************

Jay was in the vault taking Frank’s pulse, when he heard Artie call him. Oh man, now what? he thought. He went back to the front of the bank, and saw Jake there, Artie holding the gun on him.

“What’s going on, Artie?” he asked, trying to play dumb.

“Show our new guest his accommodations, Jay.”

Jake looked at Jay, and could see that the hostages were right about him. He was afraid of Artie. Jay gave Jake an apologetic look behind Artie’s back, as he motioned for Jake to follow him.

Artie ran over to the window, and looked out it, wanting to see the look on the cop’s faces when they realized that Jake wasn’t coming back out.

                                                                         ********************

As soon as they were out of Artie’s view and earshot, Jake opened his mouth to ask Jay about Frank, but before Jake had the chance, Jay grabbed him by the arm and started running to the vault.

“Your friend is in bad shape, I dunno if he’s gonna make it.”

Jake felt like someone punched him in the stomach when he heard those words. He’d been hoping that Artie had only been trying to scare them when he said that Frank was dying, but apparently, it was true. When he stepped into the vault, he actually stopped dead, at the sight.

Frank was laying completely still, his face more grayish then white, a pile of bloody shirts nearby, and blood all over his clothes. He didn’t even look alive.

Jake ran over and dropped to his knees beside him. “Frank?” he said, hoping he was conscious. He got no reply, as he uncovered the wound, and winced at what he saw. Internal damage for sure! Checking his pulse, he found it to be sluggish and irregular. He took off his coat and covered Frank’s very cold body with it, thankful that he’d worn it.

Jake looked up at Jay, who stood there watching, a sympathetic look on his face. He stood. “We have to get him out of here, you have to help me.”

Jay’s eyebrows went up. “How? I have no weapon, Artie has two.”

Jake sighed. “We gotta get Frank out of here now, or he is gonna die!”

                                                                           ********************

Chief Morgan and the rest of the UC team stood together, watching the door.

“What’s taking so long?” the Chief asked.

Alex sighed, and looked at Monica.

“I don’t think he’s coming out,” Monica said.

The chief sighed. “He’s keeping Frank and Jake!”

Alex shook her head. “I knew it!”

“Jake’ll be able to take Artie down,” Cody said. “This might be a good thing. He can take him out and get Frank out of there.”

“Yeah, at least Frank is being taken care of, now that Jake’s with him,” said Monica.

“If that jerk’s letting him, you mean,” Alex said, angrily.

Suddenly they heard the sound of a helicopter. The looked up to see it flying towards the bank’s roof.

The phone rang a minute later, and Morgan picked it up.

“That my chopper?” he heard.

The chief sighed. “Yes, it will be landing on the roof. You don’t need Frank and Jake anymore, let them go now.”

“Fat chance of that, chief. Donovan isn’t gonna live much longer anyway!”

Chief Morgan felt his blood start to boil. “Look you scum, when we find you, you will be put away for so long you’ll regret having been born! Armed robbery is bad enough, you want to add murder to your prison sentence too?”

In answer, Artie laughed. “You aren’t gonna find me, Chief.”

Morgan opened his mouth to reply, but was met with a dial tone instead. He dialed back, and waited for Artie to answer.

“What?”

“If you don’t let them go, we won’t give you the chopper.”

Alex and Monica stood by nervously, afraid that the Chief’s methods were going to get Frank and Jake killed.

“You told me that if I let the hostages go, you’d give me the chopper!”

“You told us that you would let Jake take Frank out of there!” Morgan yelled back.

Artie started to laugh. He didn’t know what to say to that, however, so he hung up.

Morgan slammed the phone down, in disgust. Before Alex and Monica could say anything, Cody jumped out of the van and ran over.

“I know his name! Artie Capone!”

“Capone?” Monica repeated. “Why am I not surprised?”

“What has he done, what’s his connection to Frank?” Alex asked.

Cody sighed. “I found no connection at all. He’s a bank robber, and car thief, amongst other things. I found no reference to a ‘Tommy’, or anything that Frank could’ve had anything to do with.”

“He said he wanted revenge,” Morgan reminded them.

Cody shook his head, not understanding why there was no information. “I’ll go read the file again.”

                                                                    *******************

“You mean he’s still alive?”

Jake and Jay turned to see Artie standing in the doorway of the vault, a look of annoyance on his face.

“What is it you have against Frank? Who is this Tommy you mentioned?” Jake asked.

“Why don’t you ask him, he’ll tell you,” Artie said, gesturing to Frank. “Oh, I guess he doesn’t feel like talking right now, does he?” He turned and walked away, laughing.

Jake jumped to his feet, but Jay grabbed him by the arm. “You go after him and he’ll shoot you and then neither of you will make it out of here!”

Jake sighed, and knelt next to Frank again, belatedly seeing a bruise on his cheekbone. It made him angry to see that Artie had obviously taken advantage of Frank’s inability to fight back. “There must be some way to get out! I’m not just gonna sit here and let Frank die!”

“Jake…”

Jake jumped at the voice that came out of nowhere, realizing it was his boss. “Frank!”

Not bothering to ask how Jake came to be in the bank, Frank merely said, “Escape…without me. Save yourself…”

Jake shook his head vehemently. “No! I won’t leave you to die!”

Frank shivered, feeling positively freezing. “Too late…” he said, meaning he was close to death already. Closing his eyes, he didn’t see the look of anguish that passed over Jake’s face at his words.

“Frank!” Jake said, shaking him slightly, realizing too late that that wasn’t a very nice thing to do to poor Frank at the moment. Frank winced and opened his eyes slightly; glad he’d done it, in a way. He was afraid that if he lost consciousness again, he’d never wake up.

“Frank, listen to me,” Jake said, urgently. “I am getting out of here, but so are you. I’m not leaving you, even if I have to die with you!”

Frank was too out-of-it to react to that statement, closing his eyes again with a weak gasp as pain laced through him.

“Frank!” Jake checked his pulse when Frank didn’t open his eyes again, and found it still there. He sighed in frustration, not knowing what to do.

Jay stood there the whole time, watching. In his mind, he was sure Frank was going to die, and he felt horrible, blaming himself for the situation. “Jake?” he said.

Jake turned to look at him.

“I’ll help you in whatever way I can, to get you both out of here.”

                                                                       ********************

“The chopper has landed. Are you going to let Frank and Jake go now, or what?” Chief Morgan asked Artie.

“Yeah, I’ll let them go. Meet me on the roof in 5 minutes.” With that, Artie hung up.

Morgan’s eyebrows went up, and he put the phone down. “He said he’ll let them go, on the roof.” He ran off to give his men orders.

Monica frowned, and looked at Alex, who wore a similar expression. “That doesn’t make sense, after all this.”

“A change of heart?” Alex asked. “He thinks he got his money and an escape route, so he might as well give them up, to save his life?”

Monica shook her head. “That doesn’t fit his personality. He’s more likely to do something terrible, like…” she couldn’t even say it.

Alex caught her breath as she realized what Monica meant, remembering Artie’s earlier threat of killing Frank in front of them.

                                                       ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

                                                             Caught In The Middle - continued