The Devil's Crown

XLIII The Man With A Gun.

“West are you sure of this?” Scarlet said under her breath hoping that the in-ear caught that.

Her eyes were fixed on the Nobles who were trembling in their seats after the little show of dominance the West played. The doors were closed and each one had one of the Rebels to guard it. The Nobles might be stubborn but they aren’t stupid, they know that they shouldn’t mess with a man with a gun….and apparently, they all had.

No reply came through the in-ear. She sighed. “We can withdraw slowly while the guards are down and no one will know anything,” she added.

“You can’t have doubts now, Scarlet,” West finally spoke. He was now standing in the middle of the hall with his rifle hanging from the strap over his shoulder. He was looking for something but couldn’t find it.

Once he gave up hope of finding what he sought, he raised his head up while holding his hands to grab the attention of the Noblemen around him – even though there was no need for that. No one dared to take their eyes off of him.

Scarlet couldn’t blame them. How could she take her eyes off the man with the gun as he roamed as he pleased around her?

“So now” West finally spoke. “As I assume that you all have realized the gravity of the situation here, I would like to ask one of you to tell the authorities. Of course, we will be the ones to tell you exactly what to do.”

“Why the hell don’t you do it on your own?” said a Noblemen that was sitting just in front of West. “I believe a man of your expertise knows the hotline for the White Cross.”

West needed a lot more than that to lose his temper. Instead, he laughed it off.

“I’m taken aback by your sense of humor, My Lord…” West eyed the man gesturing for him to spill his name out.

“Marquis Micheal,” the man stated proudly.

“Lord Micheal,” West quoted. “I assume that you must know friends from high places that would speed up the exposure of this event don’t you? You can’t possibly believe that a man like me out of the slums would be able to get the attention of the authorities? It wouldn’t be too good for you if I were to be ignored. Don’t you think so?”

The man tsked as he turned his head away.

Scarlet could bet that he was smirking under that mask. She watched from afar as he got closer to the Marquis placing a hand over the back of the chair, leaning onto the Marquis who was avoiding his gaze.

“Do you understand my words, Marquis?” West breathed out into the older man’s ears.

Scarlet didn’t hear what West was telling the man as he got so close to him but whatever it was – it worked.

The Marquis took the phone that West handed over since he knew that phones weren’t working.

And now, the second phase of the heist was done: Domination.

~~~~

“Woah,” Elfric exclaimed. “Look at all those guards down there.”

He squatted down to sit on the edge of the roof of a building that was within the perimeter of the Casablanca Hotel. It has already been hours since the thing was all over the news, and the Rebels are still to make their demands.

‘Do they actually believe that they are going to get away with this?’ Orathan asked. He was a demon but he wasn’t stupid, he knew an impossible task when he sees one. And the one before him seemed beyond human capabilities.

“The fact that they have even made it this far is accountable for,” Elfric admitted with a smirk.

‘Are you planning to stay here for the rest of the day?’

“I like to watch things for myself,” Elfric elaborated. “I’m still to decide on when to make an appearance but I figure that it would be during their time of dire need…which is clearly not now.”

He has got to say that he is curious about how they managed to get inside the hotel when it’s filled with Nobles and guards on every corner. Unless they had an inside man. The thought was crazy but it was the only possible way for them to get so flawlessly inside without being noticed.

Though he has got to say that he was lucky to have such time to think over what he was going to do when it was indeed time to make a dramatic entrance. He has got a rough plan on what he was going to say and how he was going to get the Rebels to go along with him.

‘Look at that,’ Orathan caught his attention.

Elfric would rather not think about how Orathan saw that when he wasn’t even looking in that direction. Orathan’s existence inside him…he still didn’t fully understand it. He shrugged the thought off as he looked again at the hotel that stood tall in the middle of Lauxdale.

Elfric saw a movement happen on one of the floors. Two figures walked forth, obviously, the man in the front was the hostage. The sound of the commotion happening below as well as clear to Elfric’s ears.

Guards in both black and white held up their guns. Was that a tank that Elfric saw?! They are considering blowing up the building with over a dozen Noblemen inside? No, no way. They are trying to scare them, Rick figured.

The thought was funny. “They think that they are dealing with idiots,” Rick mumbled under his breath as he snapped back to look at the bigger picture.

“HOLD YOUR FIRE!”

“HOLD YOUR FIRE!”

The commands came from below to cease the fire. There was no way they would fire when there was a noble hostage up there. Whoever was standing behind him understood that. The hostage was held firmly by another man…woman, Elfric couldn’t tell from this distance.

“I believe there is no need for us to introduce ourselves,” one of them said. His voice was enhanced loudly by a microphone that was most probably hidden under his mask.

“Either way, we are the Rebels. We aren’t here to harm anyone but please…” he paused.

“By no means are we going to hesitate to use violence if we sense any kind of unwanted acts,” the man added.

You would think that it’s ridiculous to trust a word of a man with a gun but ironically Elfric did since he figured that that man had no interest in harming anyone for no reason. Just like he has already said.

“We are here to bargain,” the man continued. “Give us our comrades in prison and you can have this tower along with its Nobles. Of course, after we leave the perimeter safely.”