Bank Robbery

The 'sweet and mellow' Captain was on the verge of exploding his rage during these days all due to a certain person.

'William Parker, how shall I deal with you?'

Ryan asked the question for the 100th time. Having a narcotics detective tailing behind you while you were trying to go undercover in a drug cartel's territory was not a good idea at all. Their progress had been halved because Lieutenant Parker would always be following one of them around and that one could not do his job anymore.

Knock, knock

"Come in"

"Cap, this is the report for the case we were working on." Shelly handed the file to her captain.

"You wrote the report?" Ryan asked incredulously. In the six months Shelly had been paired up with the rookie, he had never seen her wrote a report or turn in one.

"Yes, cap. The kid's sick and it's kinda because of me," Shelly answered nonchalantly.

Ryan knew that Julian took a sick-leave but he did not know how it was related to Shelly.

"I have been making soy milk by myself at home and I told the kid to have a taste but that kid would always refuse. So, I changed his coffee with my soy milk. Who knew his body would be so weak? He had food poisoning after drinking that," Shelly confessed even before Ryan could ask.

"So, you decided that you would write the report yourself without waiting for him to return?"

What did you have to put into that soy milk of yours to make a person have food poisoning? Ryan felt sorry for the poor kid.

"Yes, cap"

"Okay," Ryan nodded.

"Wait," Ryan called out to Shelly before she could reach the door.

"You and Lieutenant Parker graduated from the same police academy, right?"

"Right. That weird old man was in his final year while I was still a freshman," Shelly answered.

'Weird? You are the pot and you are calling the kettle black?' Ryan thought.

"Has he always been like this?"

"No. He used to be a sunshine boy… just like you, cap"

Okay. May be he should be tougher and more domineering. He did not want to be called 'cotton candy' or 'sunshine boy' ever again.

"Do you know what made him change?"

"Umm… It was kind of a private matter but maybe you should know considering the fact that you're his superior and all"

Shelly locked Ryan's office door and sat down.

"He had a girlfriend back then, a childhood sweetheart at that. He was going to propose to her on the day he graduated from the police academy. But his girlfriend was murdered that day. Raped, brutally abused and killed. I don't know if you noticed but her case was on the front page of every newspaper at that time. But the saddest thing was that the suspects walked out free because there was not enough evidence."

Ryan was shocked by the Lieutenant Parker's past.

"I guess something inside him broke because of that case," Shelly added.

Ryan now understood why Lieutenant Parker had always been hell-bent on catching criminals and getting their confessions although it could not justify everything he had done towards the suspects.

"I see. You can leave now, Shelly"

Ryan decided to talk with Lieutenant Parker properly.

Just before the working hours were over. A report came in.

"There's a robbery in the Eurasia Association Bank," Shelly came in without even knocking the door.

Ryan immediately walked out of his room and asked the officer who took the phone call.

"Report"

"The one who made the report was a passerby so he does not know the exact situation inside. But he could hear gunshots. There are two vans stopped outside the bank which seemed to belong to the robbers."

"Everyone, move out. Make sure that your guns are fully loaded. The robbers are armed. Wear your bulletproof-vests"

Ryan also checked his own gun for ammo once he finished giving orders.

They arrived at the bank within 5 minutes and Ryan started giving out a new set of orders again.

"Lieutenant Jones will lead a team to the back door"

Jones was the family name of Shelly.

"Lieutenant Rogers is going to sneak in through the fire escape and see the situation inside. Don't make any reckless move until you've ensured the safety of the civilians"

Ryan said as he looked at the blue print of the bank. The fire escape was in an indistinct position and it was rarely used. So, Ryan was hoping that the robbers would not be too careful and heavily guard it. Even so, he could only entrust this risky task to the cautious Allen and the team made up of his best officers.

"I'll lead another team to guard at the front door and secure the perimeter"

As a captain, he should be in a position where he could manage the overall situation and if any hostage situation occurred, he would be the one making decisions.

"Anything you are not clear?"

Ryan's ever-smiling face was now replaced with a solemn one.

"No, captain" The officers answered in unison.

"Then, move out"

"Yes, captain"

After answering to Ryan, all the officers made a move under their respective leaders.

"Captain, I've got visuals of the inside. There are three robbers with fire-arms. The rest of them must have gone to the vault. I see no causality within the hostages."

As Ryan expected, the robbers had overlooked the fire escape. The bank was a two-storeyed building and the vault was on the second floor.

"Can you see the whole situation from your view? Can you move without alerting the three on your floor?"

"Yes, Captain"

After hearing Allen's report, Ryan decided to take another risk. He was sure that Allen would not say 'yes' to anything even if he had a silver of doubt.

"Sneak up on them and save the hostages. Don't alert the ones in the vault. There could also be other hostages on the second floor."

"Yes, Captain"

After a few seconds, Allen's voice came in again.

"I've already detained the three men and I'm letting out the hostages through the fire-escape"

Ryan felt lucky that he had someone like Allen both as his subordinate and his friend. He rarely failed him at all.

"You heard Lieutenant Rogers. Go secure the civilians."

Ryan ordered his own team. Then, he also walked towards the escaped hostages.

"How many robbers?" Ryan asked the first hostage he saw.

"10," the hostage answered. He was wearing the uniform for a bank teller.

'So, there's still seven left on the second floor'

"All of them have guns?"

"Yes"

"Any hostage on the second floor?"

"Only the bank manager, they placed all the rest of us on the first floor"

Ryan relayed all the information to Allen.

Meanwhile, in the bank…

One of the robbers watching the situation outside the window came running into the vault.

"Boss, the hostages are escaping"

"What! How did they escape?"

The leader of the robbers panicked. Although his subordinates had reported to him that the police have surrounded them, he was not too worried as he still had those hostages.

"They escaped through a side door. It seemed like a fire escape"

"There's a fire escape?" Fuming with rage, the leader asked the shaking bank manager.

The manager silently nodded.

"F*ck! Why didn't you tell us? Huh?" The leader kicked the manager.

"I… I also forgot..." The manager stuttered.

Just as the leader was going to kick the manager again he heard the voice from the megaphone.

"This is the police. We have you surrounded. Drop your weapons and come out with your hands above your head."