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Just a Rookie
by F.A. Behrend

The characters of Frank Donovan, Jake Shaw, Alex Cross, Monica Davis, Cody and Paul Bloom were created by and are owned by Shane Salenrno and Don Wilson.  No infringements intended.  All other characters are owned by the author.

Rating: PG-13

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            He glanced at his watch, 12:15.  Good, he thought, it’s Friday and nobody has gotten killed yet.  Then that pessimistic little voice in the back of his head reminded him, week’s not over yet, Frank.  He pushed the papers around on his desk and began to think about lunch.  One folder caught his eye and he picked it up.  The “Application for Reassignment” form was right on top, along with the red “rejected” stamp.  A post-it note was attached to the form.  It said, “Sorry Frank, you’re going to have to live with her for a while.  I don’t have anyone else to send to you.  Give the kid a break, she’s just a rookie - Alan.”  He closed the folder and threw it on the stack of paperwork to file. 

            Agent Caroline Montogmery was fresh out of the FBI Academy and she was an accident waiting to happen.  Her classroom work had been excellent, her training had gone well, but as a field agent she was a disaster.  She had been with his unit for just a bare six weeks and had already blown two stakeouts and had gotten an informant shot.  He was trying to get her transferred somewhere else, anywhere else, but it was a no go.  They were shorthanded all over and he would just have to deal with it.  With luck, nobody would get killed before he could arrange to move her out.

            He stood up and looked out of his glass-enclosed office at the squad room.  Toby and Alex were eating at their desks, twinkies for Toby and yogurt and an apple for Alex.  It looked like Jake was just getting up to go out.  Maybe he could catch him and they could grab some lunch together.  Maybe Jake would have some ideas about Caroline, for he had run out completely.

            He found his jacket and was making for the door when his cell phone rang.  He flipped it open, “Donovan.”

            “Frank?”  The voice was a harsh whisper.

            “Hello?  Cary?  Is that you?”

            “Yes,” came the whispered reply, “I’m at the bank.”

            “What’s wrong?  Why are you whispering?  I can barely hear you.”

            “Somebody’s robbing the bank!  What do I do?”

            “Sit tight!  And don’t move!”  He rushed into the squad room, holding his hand over the phone.  “Heads up everybody!  We’ve got a bank robbery in progress!”  Every agent in the room froze.  Frank went back to the phone, “Cary, tell me where you are.”

             “I told you, I’m at the bank!  There’s guys out there and they’re robbing it!”

            Patience, he told himself, she’s just a rookie.  “I know that’s what you said.  I need to know which bank.”

            “Commercial Federal at 5th and Main.  I came over at lunch to pay some bills.  I was in the ladies room and when I came out there were guys in the lobby with guns.  I ducked back in the ladies.  What do I do?!”

            “Just stay put.  We’re on the way.  Don’t do anything.  Put your phone on vibrate and I’ll call you back when we’re in place.  Just stay out of sight.”  He put the phone down and addressed the waiting agents.  “OK people, here’s the situation.  Agent Montgomery is at the bank at 5th and Main.  She says there are people in the bank with guns...”

            Alex rolled her eyes, “probably the guards.” Jake just shook his head.

            Toby spoke up, “I’m not hearing anything on the police scanners, so if this is real then nobody inside has tripped an alarm yet.”

            “Patience, people,”  Frank continued, an instruction to himself as well as the others.  “We’ll have to treat this as genuine, get the equipment van and let’s roll.”

            They were just pulling quietly into a parking space across the street from the bank when Frank’s phone rang again.  “Yes,” he said.

            “Frank, I’m in some kind of video room.  I think it’s where they keep the security camera stuff.”  She was still whispering.

            “You were supposed to stay put.  We’re right outside...”

            “I can tell you more about what’s going on,” she interrupted. 

            He looked at the phone.  This rookie’s going to get herself killed, he thought, then he said, “all right.”

            “I’m looking at the security monitors.”  Her voice seemed calmer now, she was speaking quietly, not whispering, and the high pitched strain of panic was gone.  “There are four perps.  They’ve closed all the window blinds so no one can see inside.  There’s one stationed just inside the door,  two more in the vault.  The ones in the vault seem to be going through the safety deposit boxes, they’ve got keys.  They may be looking for something specific.  There’s one more guarding hostages in the lobby...”

            “How many hostages?”

            “It looks like...eight, maybe ten civilians, plus four bank employees.  The camera angle isn’t good, I can’t count them all.  The hostages are all on the floor on the...east side of the lobby, away from the windows.”

            “What kind of armament?”  This was good, no, excellent, information, and Frank was slightly amazed that she was able to give it to him.

            “They’re all wearing body armor and ski masks.  Looks like they’ve got Mac 10’s.”  She paused for a moment,  “I’m going to try to see if I can pan the cameras, get a better view...”

            “Wait,”  he said, “don’t do anything that will alert them to your position...”

            She broke in, “OK, I can see the hostages better now...there are ten of them, all lying on the floor...”

            “Cary,” he said, with as much patience as he could muster, “stay quiet and stay where you are.  We’re going to send Jake in.  He’ll be wearing a wire so we can get some audio...”

            “Frank, can Toby pick up the signal from these cameras somehow?”

            He shook his head, she wasn’t listening, “Cary, I want you to stop interrupting me...”

            “No really.  If Toby can pick up the transmission from the cameras, you can get the video direct, then I won’t have to sit here and talk you through it.  Can you put him on?”

            Frank handed the phone to Toby.  They spoke briefly for a few minutes and Toby worked with the video equipment in the van.  Frank was speechless, what on earth was she doing, he wondered.  Shortly, a fuzzy picture emerged on Toby’s monitor.  He switched some dials and another picture came up and then another and another.  They had the video feed from the security cameras.  Toby turned around and beamed at him.  “She found the camera frequencies,” he said, “I can piggyback the signal.  Now we’ve got a window inside.” 

            He gave the phone back to Frank.  “Good work,” he told her, “now, listen to me.  I’m ordering you to stay put and keep quiet.  Do you understand?”

            “Yes, sir,” she said.

            By now Jake was ready to go.  They put a wireless mike on him inside his jacket and he was fastening a gun under his pant leg.  He stepped out of the van and walked quietly across the street to the bank door.  He jerked on it.  It was locked.  He jerked on it again and began to bang on the window.  “Hey, open up,” he called out, “what’s the big idea, you guys can’t close up on a Friday!  I’ve got a check to cash!”  He kept pounding on the door.  They would have to open it or risk detection.  At last the door was opened and Jake was admitted.

            “Hey,” he said when he was inside, “what’s going on?!” 

            The man guarding the door shoved him roughly over to the other hostages and pushed him down.  “Your bad luck,” he said.

            “Keep him quiet!” one of the others called out. 

            Toby nodded to Frank and threw a switch.  Sounds from inside the bank filled the van.

            “Oh shit,” said Toby, “this could be trouble.” 

            Cary spoke in Frank’s ear at the same time, “Frank, one of the hostages is moving.”

            With the robbers distracted by Jake’s entrance, one of the female employees had crawled over to a desk.  They couldn’t see what she was doing, but almost immediately Toby’s police scanner lit up like a Christmas tree.  “Damn!” said Frank, “she must have tripped an alarm!  We’re going to have a full blown hostage crisis on our hands any minute!”  He had hoped that they would be able to apprehend the thieves as they left the building, with Jake and Cary guarding the hostages inside and the FBI waiting for them outside.  If it had gone according to plan, they would have had the thieves in custody without anyone getting hurt, but now the possibility of that outcome was rapidly disappearing. 

            The distant sound of sirens had filtered into the van and they were getting louder and closer.  Frank stepped out into the street just as the first of the black and whites pulled up in front of the bank.  He took out his badge and held it up, motioning the police cars to back up and establish a perimeter.  A large man in plain clothes came over to him.  His name was Lieutenant Stankovich.   “Just how did the Feds get here so quick?” he asked.

            Frank ignored the question, “I’ve got two agents inside.”  Well, maybe one and a half, he thought.  “I’ve got video surveillance and one of the agents is wearing a wire, so we’ve got both eyes and ears.  We’ll get a phone number and make contact.  We should be able to end this pretty fast.”  He crossed his fingers and began to pray.

            Inside the bank the robbers had also heard the sirens.  All of their cool detachment and precise movements of a few moments ago vanished and they began to panic.  The man guarding the hostages noticed the woman who had moved and now descended on her, intent on doing some damage.  Cary watched on the security monitors and picked up her phone.  “Frank!  They’re going after one of the hostages!  I’ve got to do something!”

            “Stay put!  We’re in place out here!  We’ll be able to make contact with them any minute!  Hold your position!”  There was no reply.  She had disconnected.

            He watched the monitors anxiously.  There she was, coming around the corner into the lobby, as though she had just come from the restroom.  She let out a little scream, “oh, my God!”  It was enough to stop the thief as he stood over the helpless teller, about to pistol whip her.

            One of them shouted, “I thought you checked the back!”

            “I did!  There was no one there!”

            “Well I guess you were wrong!”

            Cary moved slowly over to the cowering teller and sat down beside her, wrapping her arms around the trembling woman.

            Stankovich looked over Frank’s shoulder at the picture on the monitor.  “Don’t tell me she’s one of yours.”

            Frank nodded, a feeling of helplessness creeping over him, she just burned half his options.  Toby broke in, “she had to do it, boss, she had to step in.  That guy would have cracked that lady’s head open if he had hit her.”

            “You’re probably right,”  he said, running his hands through his hair.

            “I’ve got a land line open in to the bank,” Toby told him, handing him a phone

            Frank took the instrument, “time to open negotiations.”

            When the phone rang inside the bank, the two men in the vault were emerging, dragging a heavy duffel bag between them.  Everyone stopped and stared at the ringing instrument that sat on the receptionist’s desk.    A bullhorn out in the street boomed out, “You!  Inside the bank!  This is the FBI!  Pick up the phone!”

            One of the men from the vault stepped over and picked it up.  “You want what?”  he said, “go screw yourself!” and he slammed it down and yanked out the cord.

            The second man from the vault sounded nearly hysterical, “you said this would go smooth!  You said we’d be in and out before they knew what hit’em!  Now look at the mess we’re in!  There’s no way out!”

            The one who had been guarding the hostages eyed the teller, still shaking in Cary’s arms, “and it’s all her fault!” 

            He lunged at her but Cary lept up in front of him.  “Pick on somebody your own size you big stupid ape!”  she yelled.  Their conversation was coming through Jake’s wire loud and clear.  The man stopped and raised the butt of his gun to strike her.  Frank watched on the monitor as she stood her ground.

            The thief who was standing near the door came over, “stop it.”  Everyone froze.  Clearly he was in command.  “We need everyone in here alive.  The first thing they’ll try to do it get us to give them some of the hostages.  They’ll want the women and the old ones first...”

            “We’re not given’em anything, not till they get us a ride out of here!”  This came from the second man from the vault.  Cary labeled them in her mind.  She called them, Door, Vault One, Vault Two and Guard.

            “They won’t do that,” she said quietly.  “They’ll stall as long as they can.  Your best bet is to give up.  Nobody’s been hurt yet.  You can still walk away from this in one piece.”

            Frank listened from the van, amazed that she sounded so calm. This was the “agent” who jumped at the sound of a car backfiring or a gun shot.  The news helicopters had begun to circle overhead.  Police had roped off nearly an entire city block and crowds were beginning to gather just beyond the barricades.  It was turning into a three ring circus and the little voice in Frank’s head just kept repeating, day ain’t over yet, Frank, day ain’t over.

            The situation inside the bank was deteriorating rapidly.  The two men that Cary had called Vault One and Vault Two were close to panic.  If a resolution did not happen within the next few minutes, lives would be lost.  Frank sat in the van with Toby, frantically trying to find a second phone line to reestablish communications. 

            Suddenly Cary’s voice came through over Jake’s wire.  “Wait a minute, you guys, you’re not thinking clearly.”  Frank and Toby stared at the monitor.  Cary had taken off her jacket and put it around the shoulders of the terrified teller.  She now stood in front of one of the robbers. 

            “Sit down, lady!” one of them shouted at her.

            “Just think a minute,” she said calmly, “I think I know a way out of this.”

            Frank and Toby froze in the van, what was she doing?  They listened carefully.  She was speaking loudly, she wanted them to hear her.

            The leader of the group spoke up, “you do?”  He sounded skeptical.   “How?”

            Cary took a deep breath.  Here it comes, thought Frank.  She said, “You hear those helicopters overhead?”

            “Yes.  How can that help us?”

            “That’s your ride out of here.”

            Frank and Toby looked at each other, what in hell was she proposing?

            “Really?” said the leader of the group, “and just how do you propose we get one of those to take us out of here?”

            “Like this,”  she said, “You get on the phone and call those cops out there.  You tell them they have three minutes, no more, to get a chopper to land on the roof of this building.  Then you go up and fly out of here.”

            Frank shook his head as he listened, she must have missed the class at the academy on hostage negotiations.

            “Ha!”  said the leader of the group, “no way the cops are going to fly us out of here.  You’re crazy.”  On the monitor they watched as he turned away from her.

            “Of course you’re right.  No way the cops will fly you out of here.  But I will.”

            Frank and Toby stared at the monitor and then at each other.  Then Frank flew into action.  He sprinted from the van to Lieutenant Stankovich’s command post.  “I want sharp shooters on the roof of each of these surrounding buildings!  I want that police chopper on the ground at that intersection,” he pointed down the street, “and I want it right now!”  Stankovich’s men ran to take up their positions.

            “You will?” said the man in the mask.  “You?”

            She nodded.  “You know the guy who does the traffic reports every morning on the radio?”

            “Chopper Dave?”

            “Right.  He’s my brother.  We’ve both been flying since we were teenagers.”

            “Really?”

            “Yes, really.”  She sighed heavily, “look, all I want to do is get back to what I was doing before you jokers decided to wreck my day.  The cops will think I’m a hostage, so they won’t shoot.  You can let all these other people go.”

            Vault One and Vault Two interrupted, “we got to go for it, this could be our only chance!”

            She held up her hand, “there’s a problem.”

            “Just one?” said the leader.

            “That police chopper won’t hold all of you...”

            “No way!” Vault One shouted, “it’s a trick!  I knew it!  It’s got to be all of us or nothing.”

            “Just hear me out,” she was explaining, “I’ll go up to the roof with you,” she pointed to the leader, “you take your bundle of loot there and we get on the chopper.  The rest of you, take off your gear, leave your weapons and grab some clothes from some of these folks here.  We’ll tell the cops that we’re sending out some hostages, and you guys go running out of the building along with everyone else.  If you go out the back you’ll get lost in the crowd.  In the confusion you can just melt away and meet up later.”

            Oh my god, thought Frank, sitting in the van, if they buy it, it just might work.  She was getting them disarmed and away from the hostages.  But she was putting herself directly in the line of fire.

            The four robbers stood looking at her for a long minute.  “OK,” said the leader, “we’ll do it.  It’s better than sitting here for God knows how long.”

            Cary began to direct them.  “You,” she said, pulling a disbelieving Jake to his feet.  “Take off your jacket and give it to one of these guys.  And you,” pointing to an old man, “give the other one your raincoat.” 

            When they were ready, the leader went to the phone and plugged it back in.  He took Jake by the arm and pushed him to the door, “tell them to call,” he ordered.  Jake shouted instructions to the waiting police behind the barricades.  In a few seconds the phone rang and the leader picked it up, “here’s what I want,” he said.

            It all happened very quickly.  The hostages came flooding out of the building into the waiting arms of the police.  Jake doubled back and followed Cary and the leader quietly up the stairs to the roof.  The chopper had landed and the pilot had been instructed to lay face down on the roof.  Frank had been a passenger in that chopper and now stood hidden behind an air conditioning unit on the roof. 

            When they emerged from the stairwell the leader pushed Cary in the direction of the chopper.  She walked around to the pilot’s side of the plane, putting the plane between herself and the robber.  God, she thought, I hope Frank got the message.  “Let’s go, fly girl!”

            “Are you nuts!” she called out, “I can’t fly that thing!”  She made a dive for the fire escape ladder attached to the side of the building, and bullets began flying over her head. 

            Jake burst through the stairwell door and both he and Frank began firing.  The robber never had a chance.  He was down after the first volley of gunfire, severely wounded and cursing up a storm.  Frank rushed to the side of the building and looked over the edge.  Cary hung there, clinging to the ladder with her eyes squeezed shut. 

            She looked up to see him grinning down at her and extending a hand.  “Oh God!”  she said.  “I’m in terrible trouble aren’t I?  Maybe I should just let go?”

            “Don’t you dare,” said Frank, “then I’d have to shoot you before you hit the ground.”

            They were back on the roof.  The chopper and its pilot had taken off and Jake was checking on their prisoner.  EMT’s had been called and were attending to the wounded robber.  Frank listened carefully to the voices in his earpiece and looked up and smiled.  “They got the other three,” he said, “tracked them through the wire in Jake’s jacket.  They were trying to boost a car about a block away.”

            “Thank God,” said Cary.

            They took the robber away on a stretcher and Jake came over to the edge of the roof where Cary was standing with Frank.  He shook his head in amazement.  “That was the best line I ever heard,” he said, “how did you come up with that?  ‘I’ll fly you out.’  That was really something!”

            Cary looked at him and said quietly, “and who says I can’t fly?”

            Frank and Jake just stared at her, mouths open as she walked away.  She turned and looked back at both of them.  “Gotcha!” she said.

            Frank laughed out loud.  Just a rookie, he thought, just a rookie indeed!