CHAPTER FIVE

12:05 P.M.

“Hello.”

His voice was cold, emotionless. He’d deliberately taken a longer time to answer the phone, wanting to see if the policewoman would give up. Apparently, she was the persistent sort, so in the end he’d had no choice but to pick up the phone before the ringing irritated him further.

He could feel the sweat on his forehead, gathering at his brows. He wiped it with the hand holding the gun, revelling in the fearful expressions that appeared on his hostages’ faces the moment the gun moved.

He tried it again, just for fun. He loved to see those scared looks on their pretty boy faces.  Such wimps, he thought.

After the previous phone call, he’d looked at his captives again, and realized that he enjoyed toying with them. Making them suffer hadn’t been part of the original plan, but their terrified looks gave him confidence and he decided to make them suffer. They were going to die; that was one part of the plan that he would never deviate from, but what was a little harm in torturing them a little before their eventual demise? He wanted to see who would be the first to pee in his pants.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he’d forgotten the policewoman was on the phone, until he became vaguely aware of her repeated “Hellos” when he didn’t answer.

“What?” he barked, then immediately felt a little guilty. She was annoying, but she had a nice voice. It was lilting, with a singsong quality. She sounded gentle and kind. He felt like she understood him. Didn’t she say he was powerful?

She apologized when he shouted at her, and he remembered her name. Kaelyn, she said. What a lovely name.

“You have a nice voice,” he said, startling himself and his caller.

“Erm, thank you,” she replied, sounding a little hesistant. He liked that. She wasn’t arrogant, and her hesitation made her seem so innocent.

“What do you want?”

“I wanted to talk to you,” Kaelyn began. She still sounded hesitant, and he was happy.

He decided to continue being brash to her. You couldn’t be too nice to women or they’d climb all over your head. He needed to establish dominance over her, and by her tone, it sounded like he was on the right track.

“What about?”

“I was thinking about our conversation earlier, and I realized I never actually got your name,” she said.

He was elated. She was interested in him! He tried to control his joy, but couldn’t keep the smile off his face. “Why do you want to know my name?”

“Well,” she began, tentatively. “It seems unfair to be having a conversation with someone who knows my name when I don’t know his.”

He nearly laughed at this. She was falling into his trap! She obviously wasn’t a very effective cop if he could ride roughshod all over her.

“You don’t need to know my name,” he replied brusquely, still keeping his aloof demeanour.

She fell for it, hook, line and sinker. “That’s not fair!”

“Don’t whine!” he barked, and she immediately fell silent.

“I do need to know your name,” she said after a moment’s pause. “It’s important that I do.”

“Why?”

“Because, I feel like I know you. Yet, you’re keeping the most important part of yourself away from me. Who you are. Why?”

He couldn’t stand the eagerness in her tone, or her innocent confusion. The guilt ate at him for being so nasty to her when all she had been was sweet to him.

He capitulated. “Fine, I’ll tell you.”  

She said nothing as he paused for dramatic effect.

“My name is Keegan Anderson.”

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

12:58 P.M.

Phil watched as Kaelyn hung up the phone, having been cut off after their gunman – now identified as Keegan Anderson – revealed his name. He heard the flurry of keystrokes behind him; no doubt that was Lance accessing all the databases he could to find out more on their perp.

Once again, the doctor blew him away. She’d predicted that their perp would be on a power trip, so she had deliberately softened her voice and made herself sound more vulnerable while talking to him.

It had worked, and he had been just as taken aback as her when Anderson commented on her “nice voice”.

He had his doubts on whether Anderson would answer her second call, especially after he had hung up so abruptly on the first. He had taken a very long time to pick up, and they could see him observing the ringing device, undoubtedly calculated to make them impatient. Yet when Kaelyn finally spoke to him, she acted as if waiting for him to pick up the call was something she did every day.

Phil listened as Kaelyn baited Anderson, using a combination of feminine wiles, her training and sheer experience. Her quick apology when he yelled at her had stood her in good stead; apparently this perp was just as easily susceptible to feminine remorse as all the others they had come across.

He remembered when Kaelyn first joined their team. She had been transferred from another division – he couldn’t recall which one, not that it mattered now – and his superior had insisted that she was suitably qualified and prepared for the rigors of the role, despite his many objections.

It had taken him and the rest of the team a while to assimilate with a woman as a part of them; the SRT had been exclusively male until Kaelyn’s arrival. They’d begrudgingly accepted her as a good shot when she saved Mack’s life during a routine negotiation gone wrong, but it wasn’t until much later that they finally saw her as one of the them.

She proved her mettle by being just as good in combat as them, and an even better shot than their resident marksman, Ed. But her gift, the main reason why she had been transferred, was her gift of the gap in a negotiation. She was hardnosed when the situation called for it, but she was also amenable, as in the current situation.

But she was also human.

He had noticed her surprise when they found out who the hostages were. Kaelyn was half-Korean, and he knew she spent some growing up years in Seoul, so it wasn’t unexpected that she had heard of a band the rest of them had no idea even existed.

More importantly, Phil had glimpsed the quick flash of recognition that covered her face when she heard the news. It was gone in an instant, and a lesser trained man would have missed it, but he was adept at reading facial expressions.

There was also the tell-tale fact that she had recognized the team manager’s name. Maumood, the head of hotel security, had only mentioned that the room was registered to Shin Jiwoo, yet Kaelyn had reacted.

Then, there was the question of her presence at the hotel. It was her day off, so she couldn’t have known that the team had been called to the hotel. This could only mean that she had gone to the hotel for another reason, and now Phil wondered if it had anything to do with their ten hostages.

The one thing that Phil knew beyond a doubt was that her knowledge of the band went past “fan” level. It was possible that she was more intimately linked to the band than she was sharing, and Phil resolved to find out more. He respected her right to privacy, but not when it might threaten the safety of their operation.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

1:34 P.M.

Kaelyn fought the urge to massage her temples.

Contrary to what others often thought, negotiations were not a walk in the park. It took intense concentration to pay attention to what the perp was saying and to read between the lines. She was trained to listen to the nuances in a person’s voice, to gauge his temper, personality and behaviour, and it wasn’t easy doing all that while trying to pick her words carefully.

She felt a small victory at obtaining his name. Keegan Anderson. It would go far in helping them understand his motives, and she hoped that the information they got would be sufficient for her to talk him down. She never liked using violence to take down a perp, because there was always a chance that a hostage could be injured in the process.

She thought back on the conversation she just had with Anderson. Something was not right, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

She had seen him smile while talking to her, and she wondered at its significance. Was he the psycho he purported to be, or was he just a man with a deep emotional wound?

He had been aloof, and then had contradicted himself almost immediately by softening his voice and paying her a compliment. It was out of character, and Kaelyn felt like he had been acting instead of being his true self. It was almost as if he wanted her to believe that he was cruel and harsh.

The difference in his tone as he complimented her was so stark that she felt like for a moment, that she was talking to someone else. It had thrown her for a loop, and she had been hesitant in replying. Had she reminded him of someone?

It struck her then. That was it.

“There’s a woman involved in this,” Kaelyn spoke up, getting excited.

“What?” Lance and Sam turned to her.

“There’s a woman in this equation, somehow,” Kaelyn repeated. “A girlfriend, a wife, or someone Anderson just had a crush on.”

“And she probably dumped him for one of them?” Phil saw her line of reasoning, but was sceptical.

“Maybe. Or maybe she constantly compared them to him, and that was what made him feel inferior,” Kaelyn replied.

The men nodded. “Remember that I told you he was on a power trip? He was made to feel inadequate by this woman, made to feel like he was less than perfect,” she said.

Phil nodded, understanding dawning on him. “Anderson said he wanted them dead because they were ‘too perfect for the rest of us’.”

Kaelyn nodded. “This is all over the news by now. He probably wants her to see him in control of the situation, more powerful than the celebrities she admires. That’s what he’s feeding on, and that’s what he really wants.”

“So, if we can find out who the woman is, we can potentially avert a bloodbath,” Sam concluded.

“There’s just one problem,” Penny interrupted, her voice echoing over the speakers in the control room.

“What’s it, Pen?” Phil asked.

“Keegan Anderson is not his real name.”

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

CHAPTER FIVE

12:05 P.M.

“Hello.”

His voice was cold, emotionless. He’d deliberately taken a longer time to answer the phone, wanting to see if the policewoman would give up. Apparently, she was the persistent sort, so in the end he’d had no choice but to pick up the phone before the ringing irritated him further.

He could feel the sweat on his forehead, gathering at his brows. He wiped it with the hand holding the gun, revelling in the fearful expressions that appeared on his hostages’ faces the moment the gun moved.

He tried it again, just for fun. He loved to see those scared looks on their pretty boy faces.  Such wimps, he thought.

After the previous phone call, he’d looked at his captives again, and realized that he enjoyed toying with them. Making them suffer hadn’t been part of the original plan, but their terrified looks gave him confidence and he decided to make them suffer. They were going to die; that was one part of the plan that he would never deviate from, but what was a little harm in torturing them a little before their eventual demise? He wanted to see who would be the first to pee in his pants.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he’d forgotten the policewoman was on the phone, until he became vaguely aware of her repeated “Hellos” when he didn’t answer.

“What?” he barked, then immediately felt a little guilty. She was annoying, but she had a nice voice. It was lilting, with a singsong quality. She sounded gentle and kind. He felt like she understood him. Didn’t she say he was powerful?

She apologized when he shouted at her, and he remembered her name. Kaelyn, she said. What a lovely name.

“You have a nice voice,” he said, startling himself and his caller.

“Erm, thank you,” she replied, sounding a little hesistant. He liked that. She wasn’t arrogant, and her hesitation made her seem so innocent.

“What do you want?”

“I wanted to talk to you,” Kaelyn began. She still sounded hesitant, and he was happy.

He decided to continue being brash to her. You couldn’t be too nice to women or they’d climb all over your head. He needed to establish dominance over her, and by her tone, it sounded like he was on the right track.

“What about?”

“I was thinking about our conversation earlier, and I realized I never actually got your name,” she said.

He was elated. She was interested in him! He tried to control his joy, but couldn’t keep the smile off his face. “Why do you want to know my name?”

“Well,” she began, tentatively. “It seems unfair to be having a conversation with someone who knows my name when I don’t know his.”

He nearly laughed at this. She was falling into his trap! She obviously wasn’t a very effective cop if he could ride roughshod all over her.

“You don’t need to know my name,” he replied brusquely, still keeping his aloof demeanour.

She fell for it, hook, line and sinker. “That’s not fair!”

“Don’t whine!” he barked, and she immediately fell silent.

“I do need to know your name,” she said after a moment’s pause. “It’s important that I do.”

“Why?”

“Because, I feel like I know you. Yet, you’re keeping the most important part of yourself away from me. Who you are. Why?”

He couldn’t stand the eagerness in her tone, or her innocent confusion. The guilt ate at him for being so nasty to her when all she had been was sweet to him.

He capitulated. “Fine, I’ll tell you.”  

She said nothing as he paused for dramatic effect.

“My name is Keegan Anderson.”

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

12:58 P.M.

Phil watched as Kaelyn hung up the phone, having been cut off after their gunman – now identified as Keegan Anderson – revealed his name. He heard the flurry of keystrokes behind him; no doubt that was Lance accessing all the databases he could to find out more on their perp.

Once again, the doctor blew him away. She’d predicted that their perp would be on a power trip, so she had deliberately softened her voice and made herself sound more vulnerable while talking to him.

It had worked, and he had been just as taken aback as her when Anderson commented on her “nice voice”.

He had his doubts on whether Anderson would answer her second call, especially after he had hung up so abruptly on the first. He had taken a very long time to pick up, and they could see him observing the ringing device, undoubtedly calculated to make them impatient. Yet when Kaelyn finally spoke to him, she acted as if waiting for him to pick up the call was something she did every day.

Phil listened as Kaelyn baited Anderson, using a combination of feminine wiles, her training and sheer experience. Her quick apology when he yelled at her had stood her in good stead; apparently this perp was just as easily susceptible to feminine remorse as all the others they had come across.

He remembered when Kaelyn first joined their team. She had been transferred from another division – he couldn’t recall which one, not that it mattered now – and his superior had insisted that she was suitably qualified and prepared for the rigors of the role, despite his many objections.

It had taken him and the rest of the team a while to assimilate with a woman as a part of them; the SRT had been exclusively male until Kaelyn’s arrival. They’d begrudgingly accepted her as a good shot when she saved Mack’s life during a routine negotiation gone wrong, but it wasn’t until much later that they finally saw her as one of the them.

She proved her mettle by being just as good in combat as them, and an even better shot than their resident marksman, Ed. But her gift, the main reason why she had been transferred, was her gift of the gap in a negotiation. She was hardnosed when the situation called for it, but she was also amenable, as in the current situation.

But she was also human.

He had noticed her surprise when they found out who the hostages were. Kaelyn was half-Korean, and he knew she spent some growing up years in Seoul, so it wasn’t unexpected that she had heard of a band the rest of them had no idea even existed.

More importantly, Phil had glimpsed the quick flash of recognition that covered her face when she heard the news. It was gone in an instant, and a lesser trained man would have missed it, but he was adept at reading facial expressions.

There was also the tell-tale fact that she had recognized the team manager’s name. Maumood, the head of hotel security, had only mentioned that the room was registered to Shin Jiwoo, yet Kaelyn had reacted.

Then, there was the question of her presence at the hotel. It was her day off, so she couldn’t have known that the team had been called to the hotel. This could only mean that she had gone to the hotel for another reason, and now Phil wondered if it had anything to do with their ten hostages.

The one thing that Phil knew beyond a doubt was that her knowledge of the band went past “fan” level. It was possible that she was more intimately linked to the band than she was sharing, and Phil resolved to find out more. He respected her right to privacy, but not when it might threaten the safety of their operation.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

1:34 P.M.

Kaelyn fought the urge to massage her temples.

Contrary to what others often thought, negotiations were not a walk in the park. It took intense concentration to pay attention to what the perp was saying and to read between the lines. She was trained to listen to the nuances in a person’s voice, to gauge his temper, personality and behaviour, and it wasn’t easy doing all that while trying to pick her words carefully.

She felt a small victory at obtaining his name. Keegan Anderson. It would go far in helping them understand his motives, and she hoped that the information they got would be sufficient for her to talk him down. She never liked using violence to take down a perp, because there was always a chance that a hostage could be injured in the process.

She thought back on the conversation she just had with Anderson. Something was not right, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

She had seen him smile while talking to her, and she wondered at its significance. Was he the psycho he purported to be, or was he just a man with a deep emotional wound?

He had been aloof, and then had contradicted himself almost immediately by softening his voice and paying her a compliment. It was out of character, and Kaelyn felt like he had been acting instead of being his true self. It was almost as if he wanted her to believe that he was cruel and harsh.

The difference in his tone as he complimented her was so stark that she felt like for a moment, that she was talking to someone else. It had thrown her for a loop, and she had been hesitant in replying. Had she reminded him of someone?

It struck her then. That was it.

“There’s a woman involved in this,” Kaelyn spoke up, getting excited.

“What?” Lance and Sam turned to her.

“There’s a woman in this equation, somehow,” Kaelyn repeated. “A girlfriend, a wife, or someone Anderson just had a crush on.”

“And she probably dumped him for one of them?” Phil saw her line of reasoning, but was sceptical.

“Maybe. Or maybe she constantly compared them to him, and that was what made him feel inferior,” Kaelyn replied.

The men nodded. “Remember that I told you he was on a power trip? He was made to feel inadequate by this woman, made to feel like he was less than perfect,” she said.

Phil nodded, understanding dawning on him. “Anderson said he wanted them dead because they were ‘too perfect for the rest of us’.”

Kaelyn nodded. “This is all over the news by now. He probably wants her to see him in control of the situation, more powerful than the celebrities she admires. That’s what he’s feeding on, and that’s what he really wants.”

“So, if we can find out who the woman is, we can potentially avert a bloodbath,” Sam concluded.

“There’s just one problem,” Penny interrupted, her voice echoing over the speakers in the control room.

“What’s it, Pen?” Phil asked.

“Keegan Anderson is not his real name.”

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *