Chapter 44

As I suspected, my workmates found my newly acquired body art extremely hilarious. Even now, four days on, they were still ribbing me about it.

On Thursday we were called out for a job. We were briefed on the way there. Eight men had gone into a bank intending to rob it, but the robbery had gone wrong when one of the clerks managed to press the silent alarm. Now, seventeen hostages were inside, and they were currently in negotiations to get them out of there. The on-site Captain had called for backup and I had a gut feeling that things weren’t going to go our way with this one.

I sat on the edge of the van, across the street from the bank, listening to the officers all talking about how best to approach the situation and get the hostages out unharmed. A couple of things that the lead perpetrator had said, led them to believe that they had no intention of letting all the hostages live. They had already shot one hostage to prove they were serious, and were threatening to kil