“Come on. We’re gonna to use you for bargaining power. Nobody wants to see a sweet looking blonde like you get hurt. You’re our ticket to freedom”
Frankie walked Paula over to the ramp leading up and yelled up out of the hole.
“Hey you up there. I have the desk clerk as a hostage. If you want to see her alive again you better do as I say. I heard a helicopter fly over. I want a helicopter to fly us out of here so arrange for one pronto.
“Frankie backed out of the opening and motioned for Carrie to come over to where he was standing.
“Listen. Go see if you can find Stretch. I haven’t seen him since the roof caved in. I just want to know if he is dead or alive. It might make a difference on our split of the take. The last time I saw him he had a gun in Dilford Bailey’s back, right when we were robbing the front desk. They were standing over by the center of the building and Bailey looked really shook up.” Carrie Petringelo lit his butane lighter and tried to see in the direction of the center of the building.
“Hey Frankie. It’s dark over that way. I can’t see a thing and besides who cares about Stretch. Let’s just get out of here.”
“Do as you’re told. You’re whimpering as bad as one of these bitches around here. Just go see if you can find him.”
Carrie started slowly walking toward the center of the building flicking his lighter every few seconds. Frankie watched Carrie walk away and then turned his attention back toward the blonde, Paula Howard.
“Well, Miss Desk Clerk, we should be out of here in a few minutes. After the helicopter drops us off at a very secluded spot I think you and I are going to party. Wouldn’t that be fun?”
Paula cringed backwards from his words and started praying softly to herself. Frankie looked at his cheap watch in the light shining from the crack in the roof and yelled up at the sheriff who was still tending to the fallen deputy.
“Come on sheriff. Get the lead out. I want to hear the sound of the helicopter landing out front.”
“Listen.” The sheriff replied in a very shaky voice. “The helicopter can’t come any closer than the main road. When it flew over before, it started more caving in of this sinkhole. It is way too dangerous to try that again. The whole place might sink into the ground. You are going to have to climb out of that hole and walk over to where it’s parked if you want to fly out of here. We can’t even get a vehicle over near this opening because the road is caved in. Please be patient and we might can work out some kind of deal for you.”
“Deal, smeal. I want to hear that helicopter landing over here. I don’t care if the whole place sinks out of sight. I am going to be long gone before that happens so just get moving, you hear me?” Steve Sidel whispered to Tyrone Washington is a barely audible tone.
“Man we have to do something. That guy is totally nuts. If they bring that helicopter over here, everybody down here is going to die. I need to go over and see if I can reason with him.”
“Don’t take that chance. He is just stupid enough to shoot you if you try to talk to him. We have to figure some other way to stop him.”
“I have an idea.” Kathy Santos enthusiastically replied after following their conversation. “He won’t suspect I know what is going on if I just stumbled over toward him and pretend I am trying to find my way out. You could let me have your gun and when he is not suspecting it, I could get the drop on him.”
“Look Kathy.” Steve Sidel replied in a very somber tone. “I just found you in my life. I am sure the hell not going to take a chance in ever losing you again. We’ll have to find a different way.”
“But Steve, it might catch him off guard and we could get that gun away from him.”
“Absolutely not. You are way too valuable to me now.” He reached over and planted his lips softly on hers. “You are now in my protective custody.”
“He’s right Kathy.” Tyrone added. “We can’t take a chance with him. He sounds like he is absolutely insane.”
“Well I do have another idea.” Steve suggested. “That Stretch he mentioned must be my outlaw brother. He visited me about a month ago and when he left I noticed a set of plans for the security system and a floor plan was missing from my office. I didn’t think he would have been stupid enough to try to rob a place like this but I had heard him mention a cell mate of his named Frankie. The coincidence is too strong. My plan just might work. Let me explain a few ideas I have. My brother and I have always sounded very much alike and when we were younger, people would always mix the two of us up on the phone. If I can pretend to be my brother I might be able to distract him enough so Tyrone could come up behind him and get the gun.
Anything at this point would be worth it.”
“You know Steve. That just might work.” Tyrone added. “If he’s convinced you’re your brother, his guard would be down. What are you going to say to get his attention?”
“Okay listen. I think this will really work.” Steve Sidel began explaining to Kathy and Tyrone what he thought would fool Mr. Frankie Medford.
“Look in those drawers Bill. We need some sort of tool like a screwdriver.” Kevin Backlin was eyeing the interior door that led to the computer room. “I need something to pry up on these door hinge pins.”
Bill Forham got lucky on the second drawer he opened and produced a letter opener. “Will this work?” He shined the flashlight at the dull metal knife he was holding in his hand.
“That’s perfect.” Kevin took the opener out of Bill’s extended hand and started prying up on the pins that held the door in place. “There, that’s the last one. Give me a hand with this door will you.”
The two men carried the door over to the large hole in the hallway and placed it solidly over the opening. Kevin tested his weight on the wooden door and decided it would hold them if they crossed one at a time.
“Come on Bill. Let’s see if we can find our way out of here.”
The two friends quickly crossed the makeshift bridge and started down the long cavern passageway. They saw several tunnels leading off to the right and left but continued straight ahead toward the light source. It got brighter as they progressed until Bill could turn the flashlight off. They started squinting in the bright light that filled the cave and looked up when they got to a large circular room. The blue sky above their heads brought a smile to both of the men’s faces and they started looking around the floor of the room. The floor of the room was actually a tile roof and they both recognized it as the roof of the corporate headquarters. It was the only building in the complex with a brown tile roof. All the rest were bright white.
“Now that we are down here. How are we going to get to the surface?” Bill questioned his friend. “It’s a long way up to the surface.”
“Hey!”
Both men looked up and could see a grinning fireman looking over the rim of the hole at them.
“I thought I heard voices coming out of the ground.” The fireman shouted down. “Your voices sounded like a megaphone up here. We were going to give up on this hole because we saw no sign of life. Where did you guys come from?”
“We walked down a tunnel from the main lobby.” Bill yelled up. “There are a lot of people trapped in there and a couple of crazy gunmen won’t let them out so we decided to find another way out of there.”
“Okay you guys. Hang tight and we’ll lower a ladder down. Then we’ll see how many people we can sneak out the back way.”
“Thanks. I guess I will donate to the firefighter’s fund next time they come collecting.”