There was a pause and some shuffling noises. Athena picked up another man talking in the background, and then a baritone voice with a Mandarin accent said, “I’m alive—bastards have hurt me, though.”
“That’s enough!” shouted Jack. “See, he’s alive, but he’ll be hurtin’ more if you don’t back your people up.”
“OK, Jack,” Gail agreed. “We all want to go home in one piece at the end of the day. As a display of good faith, I’m going to talk to the police and SWAT captains and get these fellows pointing guns at your window to back away. Thenmaybe you and I can talk about what it’ll take to let Mr. Zhang walk out of there.”
“He leaves when we leave,” shouted the second man from a distance.
“Just back them up and then we’ll see,” Jack stated.
We’re outside the door. Eyes and ears coming online.Ice’s voice was a whisper in Athena’s earpiece, and she signaled Paulson.
“Our agents are feeding their camera under the door.”
Paulson switched the building monitor to the spy camera as it snaked along the floor. At first, they only saw shoes and table legs. Then the angle ticked up, and Athena was in the room. A man in a blue button-up shirt and tie, who appeared to be in his mid-thirties, slouched in a chair with his hands zip tied behind his back. His black hair was tousled, and both his face and the floor around his chair were bloodied.
“Are they moving yet?” A fidgety man asked the one holding the phone as he rushed to look out the window.
“Get back, you moron!” scolded Jack’s voice. “You want to get shot?”
Both men wore black coveralls, with gloves and ski masks covering their faces.
“The boss is gonna kill us,” the nervous man whined. His accent sounded more East Texas. “How’d they know? I mean, the other times went off without a hitch.”
Yeah, this crew’s been busy.
“Don’t know,” Jack snapped. He moseyed over to Mr. Zhang, grabbed a fistful of his hair, and yanked his head back, sweat and blood streaking his battered face. “You’ve got about one minute to give up your keys, or we don’t need you anymore. Get it? The fuckin’ feds are breathin’ down our necks, and we’ve gotta get out of here.”
“Yeah, chink,” bellowed the second kidnapper. “Throwin’ you out that window would be a terrific distraction for our escape.”
“How do I know you won’t kill me anyway once I give you what you want?” Fú asked, his eyes flashing with horror.
“We sure as hell will if you don’t,” Jack said evenly.
On the other screen, Gail returned to say, “I just convinced the HPD and SWAT to relocate to the end of the block. If you glance out the window, you’ll see their vehicles and officers moving away.”
On the spy camera feed, Athena and Paulson watched Jack move cautiously toward the window. “Yeah, I see. That’s good.”
“See, Jack? We’re willing to be reasonable. Now, talk to me. What do you need so you can let Mr. Zhang walk out of his office?”
“Tell him if he doesn’t give us his crypto account keys, we’re going to blow his head off,” yelled the nervous criminal. He pulled a gun from his belt and pointed it at Zhang, rocking from foot to foot.
Covering the office phone receiver, Jack reprimanded him. “Shush, idiot!”
“No, really, man. If he ain’t gonna cooperate, we’d best off him and get out o’ here.”
“This is going south fast,” Hernandez whispered into Athena’s earpiece.
A radio on Paulson’s desk crackled. “Agent Bouvier, my guys have a shot. Should they take it?”
“Negative,” Athena commanded. “We need them alive to get to the leader and possibly recover millions of dollars in cryptocurrency. Here’s what I want you to do.”
While she presented her plan to the SWAT commander, Paulson continued to monitor the situation. Jack and Gail went back and forth over bargaining chips, while the other kidnapper paced the floor, pulled off his mask to wipe his face, and wrangled it back on again.
“The key, dammit!” He jabbed a taser into Fú’s neck, sending his body into spasms. “I’m givin’ you one more chance.”
“OK!” cried the hostage. “I don’t want to die!”
“Hear that, Bennie? Let’s get this bitcoin and get the hell out o’ Dodge!”
