Healing the Past

Bomb in a Bank

Chapter 11

“Team One, hot call.” The call came as Jules and I were leaving the locker room.

“Who the heck needs SRU this early in the morning?” I asked.

“Don’t know but lets it turns out to be nothing.” Jules replied.

“False alarms, my favorite alarms.” Greg said coming up behind us.

“Where we headed?” I asked.

“Appears someone wanted to make a large unauthorized withdrawal at a bank.”

“And now we have hostages.” I guessed. He nodded. “Lovely.” I said.

As we flew through the streets Greg gave out orders. “According to the guy who called this in we have a team of a male and a female. Both are armed and one of them is carrying a backpack. Spike when we get there hack the cameras I want eyes.”

“Got it Boss.”

“Thunder when Spike gets us our eyes I want you to watch them like a hawk. You’re the best profiler and I want the first impression to be as close to the real thing as possible.”

“I won’t miss a thing Boss.”

We pulled up and Spike and I headed for the truck. He had eyes in about 45 seconds. My first impression when I saw them was they were either stupid, desperate, or up to something. Not only did not cover their faces, but they also looked directly into the cameras constantly. And they were calm, very calm. Instead of pacing around they sat in some of the front chairs. The backpack mentioned was on the floor at their feet.

“Boss, I don’t know if talking will get them out, but I’m pretty sure they will answer the phone.”

“Can you explain that statement to me?”

“They are way to calm for a pair of robbers trapped in a bank. They keep glancing at the cameras like they’re waiting for something.”

“Alright, then let’s see what they want. Spike run their faces, see if they pop up.”

“On it Boss.” He said, fingers already flying across the keyboard. In a matter of minutes he had them.

“No way.” I said when I read the names.

“Who are they?” Ed asked.

“James and Crystal Brian. A husband and wife team that’s been robbing banks for six months. They alternated between Canada and the US every two weeks.”

“So why get caught now?” Sam cut in.

“I don’t know. It’s not like them. The only reason we know who they are and what they look like is because they let us see them. Normally they can get in and out fast. Their fastest time is 12 minutes.”

“I think they’re giving up.” Greg said.

That threw me. They didn’t strike me as the type that would give up. “Come again?”

“When I talked to James they said that they were tired, they wanted to be remembered forever.”

I was about to say more when I noticed movement on the screen. “Boss they’re letting the hostages out.”

“What?”

“Look.”

The doors opened and all the hostages streamed out. Once everyone was clear Ed, Sam, Jules, and Wordy moved in.

They seemed completely calm and cooperative. Then Crystal whispered something to Ed.

“Spike get your gear and get down here. There’s a bomb in the backpack, and it’s going off in four minutes.”

Spike was out of there. When he got to the bomb he had everyone leave, and then he did his thing muttering about basic setup and fuses. Then he stopped.

“What’s going on Spike?” Greg.

“I’m down to the last cut, but there are three wires and I can’t tell which one is the one I want and which ones are dummy wires. Ed see if you can get the answer from them. Their choices are red, white, or blue.”

Ed asked, but they just looked at him. I started running ideas through my head. Then I remembered something. “Spike how sophisticated is this thing?”

“Not very, why?”

“If they’re not big on bombs they would use some way to remember how to disarm it if they change their minds. It’s the blue one.”

“Can I hear some more logic before I make the cut? You have a minute and a half.”

“Crystal is American, James is Canadian. They robbed banks in Canada and the US. The only color difference between the American and Canadian flags is blue.”

“Makes sense.” And he cut the wire.