Badges

the kingdom of Mickey Mouse and Goofy! I see.” When Kentwell stopped laughing, he continued. “Look, these guys are serious badasses. What didn’t make the news yet is that we had a kidnapping of a bank president. The victim was forced to open the bank two hours early, and the robbers cleaned out the money that was locked in a separate safe outside the main vault— money that’s used to set up the cashiers’ drawers in the morning. When the scumbags got the money, they pistol-whipped the poor president and left him bleeding on the floor.”

    “Wonderful. Is he going to live?”

    “Yeah, he’s in fair condition as of an hour ago. But all the banks are on edge, and we have at least a half dozen under surveillance this morning. We’re hoping that if they hit again, they’ll hit one of those we’re set up on.”

    “Okay, do me a favor and keep me in the loop, and if you need anything from our office, just let me know.”

    “Okay, John, you got it. Listen, I’ll fax you the prelim reports of the robberies. Hell, maybe you’ll spot something all of us missed!”

    The phone went dead, and John said a quick prayer for the bank president injured in the latest robbery. John relied on a personal kind of faith that no one else even knew he possessed, but John believed in private prayer.

    As he was pouring his first cup of office coffee, Ruth came busting into the room in a panic.

    “Whoa, what the hell is wrong?” John asked. “You look like you just got goosed by a ghost!”

    “I’m sorry, boss, but we’ve got trouble. There’s a bank robbery in progress on Orange Blossom Trail, and one of our agents is caught inside. He was making a deposit when the robbery commenced.”

    John set his coffee down and asked, “Who’s the agent?”

    “I’m afraid it’s Bob Capparell. He’s alone; no other agent is with him.”

    “Has FBI SWAT been notified? Do we have our people responding?”

    “Yes, sir, all in motion.”

    John grabbed his jacket and headed out the door towards the garage at a run. He grabbed a piece of paper with the address of the bank on the way out. It was one of the many SunTrust branches that dotted Central Florida.

    As he put the bubble on the roof and left the federal building with lights and sirens, he picked up the radio mic and contacted units on the scene.

    “Do they know they’ve got one of our agents in there?”

    “No, sir, not that we can tell.”

    “All right, I should be there in about three minutes.”

    Images of Capparell flew through John’s mind, highlighting the fact that the handsome agent was so young and so new. Would he panic? Would the robbers figure out that he was FBI? The Orlando field office had never lost an agent, and John was determined that one not be lost on his watch. He cut the siren when he was within a block and pulled in behind an Orlando Police command truck and got out of his car, looking for one of his agents.

    His eyes landed on Capparell’s partner, and he headed in that direction. “Bring me up to speed. Do we have eyes on the bad guys?” John asked.

    “Yes, sir. We’ve got SWAT snipers up on the rooftops. There are some areas that are out of view, but they’re able to see most of what’s going on inside the bank.”

    “Have they spotted our man?”

    “Yes, sir, he’s lying on the floor amongst the other customers that were in there when the robbery went down.”

    “What the hell went wrong that we have a bank full of hostages?”

    “They tripped an alarm and an OPD patrol happened to be about two blocks away at the time. They responded and called for backup, which got there double-quick. When the robbers saw the police units, they went into hostage mode immediately.”

    “Just fucking great! This kid’s been on the job two days, and he’s a hostage already. Does it look like he’s keeping his cool?” John asked hopefully.

    “As far as we can tell. He’s doing the same thing as everyone else that’s on the floor. I’m sure he’s running everything, including his training, through his mind trying to decide if he should do something.”

    “He’d better not. Do we have a confirmed number of hostage-takers?”

    “As far as we can tell, there are three. Two of them are watching the hostages, and one seems to be staying back in the manager’s area. Hostage negotiation is due to arrive at any moment, and then the scene becomes theirs.”

    “Have the crooks made any attempt to make demands or