Hostage

The picture changed to an aerial view of the house they were in. Dennis saw police cars parked in the street and two cops hunkered behind the wheels. A hot newschick was saying how Dennis had recently been released from the Ant Farm. Dennis found himself grinning again. Something smoky rushed through Dennis's veins just as it did when he got away with stealing a car: Part anger and rage, part rush, part a groovy feeling like the whole fucking world was giving him high fives. Here he was with a million bucks for the taking, here he was on television. It was the big FUCK YOU to his parents, to his teachers, to the cops, to all the shitbirds who had kept him down. FUCK! YOU! He had arrived. He felt real. It was better than sex.

'Yeah! Fuckin' YEAH!'

He went to the door.

'Kevin! Come see this!'

The phone rang, spoiling the magic of the television. That would be Talley. Dennis ignored it, and returned to the television. The helicopters, the cops, the reporters – everyone was here because of him. It was The Dennis Rooney Show, and he had just figured out the ending: They would use the kids as hostages and boogie to the border in that big flashy Jaguar with the helicopters broadcasting every moment of the trip on live TV.

Dennis slapped Mars on the arm.

'I got it, dude. We'll use the Jaguar. We'll take the cash and the two kids, and leave their father here. The cops won't mess with us if we have those kids. We can boogie straight down to TJ.'

Mars shrugged blandly, his voice as quiet as a whisper.

'That won't work, Dennis.'

Dennis grew irritated again.

'Why not?'

'They'll shoot out the tires, and then a police sniper will put a bullet in your head from a hundred yards away.'

'Bullshit, Mars. O. J. Simpson drove around for hours.'

'O. J. Simpson didn't have hostages. They won't let us leave with these children. They'll kill us, and we won't even see it coming.'

The picture shifted again to an aerial view of the minimart surrounded by Highway Patrol cars. The view slowly orbited the cars. The movement made Dennis feel sick, like riding in the backseat of a car. He watched the cops crouched behind their cars, and worried that Mars was right about the snipers. That was just the kind of chickenshit double cross the cops would pull.

Dennis was still thinking about it when Kevin screamed from his position by the French doors.

'Dennis! There's cops all over the place out here! They're coming!'

Dennis forgot the snipers and ran to his brother.

TALLEY

Talley was in the cul-de-sac, waiting behind his car, when Dennis began shouting from the house. Talley let him rant, then opened his phone and called.

Dennis answered on the first ring.

'You fuck! You tell those fuckin' cops to move back! I don't like'm this close!'

'Take it easy, Dennis. Are you saying that you don't like seeing the officers on the perimeter?'

'Stop saying whatever I say back to me! You know what I mean!'

'I do that to make sure I understand you. We can't afford to misunderstand each other.'

'If these bastards try to come in here, people are gonna' die! Everybody's gonna die!'

'No one is going to hurt you, Dennis. I told you that before. Now give me a minute to see what's going on out here, okay?'

Talley hit the mute button on his phone.

'Jorgy, are you on with the perimeter?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Are they on the walls where we placed them?'

'Yes, sir. We've got two north on Flanders, and two more in each of the rear yards on either side. They're on the wall.'

Talley turned off the mute.

'Dennis, I'm checking into it, okay? Tell me what you see.'

'I see fuckin' cops! I'm looking right at'm. They're too close!'

'I can't see them from out here behind my car. Help me, okay? Where are they?'

Talley heard muffling sounds, as if Rooney was moving with the phone. Talley wondered if it was a cordless. Like all hostage negotiators, he hated cordless and cell phones because they didn't anchor the subject. You could fix a hardwired phone's location. Then you knew the subject's location whenever you had him on the line. If you launched a tactical breach, knowing the subject's location could save lives.

Rooney said, 'All the way around, goddamnit! These bastards over here at this white house. They're right on the goddamn wall! You make them get back!'

Talley hit the mute button again. The white house was a sprawling contemporary to Talley's left. A brushed-steel gate crossed the front drive. The house on the east side to Talley's right was dark gray. Talley counted to fifty, then opened the cell line again.

'Dennis, we got a little problem here.'

'Fucking right we got a problem. Make'm get back!'

'Those officers are Highway Patrolmen, Dennis. I'm with the Bristo Camino Police Department. They don't work for me.'

'Bullshit!'

'I can tell you what they're going to say.'

'Fuck what they say! If they come over that wall, people are going to die! I've got hostages in here!'