Chapter 005
1345 Words
Half an hour later.
“HCPD! Drop your weapon! You’re surrounded!”
Xander Carter’s nerves were stretched tight, the muzzle of his rifle aimed straight at the criminal in front of him.
But the reason he had not fired was simple.
The criminal was holding a female hostage.
“No, no, don’t shoot! Please!”
The blonde woman with wavy hair was clearly terrified out of her mind. She kept begging Xander, her voice trembling uncontrollably.
The pistol pressed against the back of her head was like the scythe of death itself, completely stripping away her reason.
The criminal hiding behind the hostage clearly had experience facing armed officers.
From the beginning until now, he had kept his body hunched and curled behind her. His g*n never left the hostage’s head, and at the same time, he managed to keep his torso from being exposed to Xander’s line of fire.
Not only that, he seemed to have known from the start that snipers were positioned outside, so he had pulled the curtains shut early on.
Without a clear shooting angle, even the best sniper would have no way to act.
“Get me a helicopter and two hundred thousand dollars! Otherwise, you can watch her brains splatter all over the floor!”
“Don’t do anything rash. Whatever demands you have, I’ll report them to my superiors. Put down the weapon and surrender, and maybe you can still keep your life. But if you kill the hostage, I guarantee your ending won’t be any better than hers.”
While using his somewhat clumsy LV1 Scam Script Delivery, Xander narrowed his eyes and scanned the surroundings, searching for any usable opening.
At this moment, he was standing outside a room on the eleventh floor.
D-5 was with him.
As for D-3 and D-6, they were currently heading upstairs. Team B would assist them in clearing a path so they could quietly rappel down from the window directly above this room.
When the time came, as long as Xander and D-5 could create an opportunity, D-3 and D-6 would be able to break through the window and kill the target.
“Don’t think I don’t know what you people are planning! The second I put down this g*n, I die right here!
“You think I don’t know how the CIA works?
“I only want a helicopter and the money. Nothing else. I’m giving you ten minutes. Once time’s up, this woman and I die together!”
The criminal was practically screaming hysterically. His emotions were already on the verge of collapse.
Just as Xander had said, he was surrounded.
If he put down the g*n, death was certain.
Only by holding a hostage did he perhaps have a chance to escape alive.
“Relax. We’re HCPD, not the CIA. We keep our word. Besides, two hundred thousand dollars isn’t a small amount. We don’t carry that much cash on an operation. You need to give us more time to prepare it.”
As Xander spoke, he tentatively tried to take one step forward.
“Stay right there! Take one more step, and I shoot!”
“Okay! Okay! I won’t move. Don’t panic. I just want to say, using an ordinary civilian as leverage for that much money isn’t very realistic. How about this? I put down my weapon, and you take me hostage instead. A SWAT officer carries a lot more weight than an ordinary civilian.”
As he spoke, Xander even loosened his rifle sling to show that he had no hostile intent.
Of course, half of his body remained hidden outside the doorway.
After all, Xander did not really care what this man chose.
He was only stalling for time.
That said, if the criminal was truly stupid enough to let Xander become the hostage, then the problem would become simple.
During the exchange of hostages, there would inevitably be a gap in his cover. Even if he somehow made no mistake, Xander could create one for him.
The rifle in D-5’s hands behind him was not there for decoration.
“I don’t want two hundred thousand anymore. One hundred thousand… No, fifty thousand. Give me fifty thousand and let me leave. I’ll release this woman immediately!”
The criminal’s eyes were bloodshot. He looked exactly like a gambler who had lost everything and was waiting for one final all-in bet to win it all back.
“All right, all right. No problem. Someone will bring the money up soon.”
Xander tried to calm him down.
But at that moment, several gunshots suddenly sounded from the twelfth floor above them.
Although the burst was brief, the sound still made the criminal jolt.
Fear instantly filled his eyes.
He had guessed what Xander and the others were planning.
He immediately grabbed the hostage and tried to retreat toward the bathroom.
But at that exact moment, Xander suddenly pointed at the window inside the room and shouted, “Tom! Do it!”
The criminal panicked.
Instinctively, he tried to speed up his retreat, while his eyes subconsciously turned toward the window, attempting to guard against the burly man who was supposedly about to smash through it.
But in that tiny instant—
Xander shot forward like a released spring.
The distance was only a few meters.
Two long steps were enough.
Less than a second.
He threw himself onto the hostage and dragged her down to the floor.
At the same time, D-5 followed closely behind and entered the room. His rifle fired four controlled shots in rapid succession.
The instant D-5 opened fire, the criminal’s pistol also went off.
Bang!
Only one shot.
After that, he could no longer pull the trigger.
D-5 rushed into the room, fired one finishing shot into the criminal’s head, and kicked the handgun out of his grip.
Xander climbed to his feet and looked at the hostage, who had fainted from fear. A bullet had grazed her arm, but she was still alive.
He let out a breath of relief.
“You good?” D-5 quickly checked the room. After confirming that no one else was hiding inside, he casually used zip ties to bind the hostage’s hands behind her back and said, “That bastard really dared to shoot. If you hadn’t moved fast, this lady wouldn’t be going home today. And I sure as hell don’t believe he would’ve actually released her after getting on a helicopter.”
“I also don’t believe the commanders downstairs would have actually agreed to his demands.”
Xander placed the hostage on the bed. Then, through the radio, he called for other officers to come up and take over. After that, he informed the rest of Team D that the eleventh floor had been cleared.
D-5 did not deny Xander’s words.
“That’s true.”
The higher-ups had already said it clearly.
All criminals were to be silenced.
Not a single one was to be left alive.
Whether the hostage lived or died, that criminal had been doomed from the start.
A helicopter?
Two hundred thousand dollars?
What kind of fantasy was that?
They returned to the stairwell just in time to see another SWAT team coming from the corridor on the other side.
It was Teams A and C.
They had been responsible for clearing the other side of the building.
Now that the two assault groups had linked up, it meant this operation was already nearing its end.
“How’s the situation?” D-1 looked at Xander.
Xander nodded.
“It’s handled. The hostage was injured, but her life isn’t in danger.”
“Nice work.”
After a simple word of praise, D-1 put the matter out of his mind.
In his view, dealing with a criminal holding a hostage was indeed somewhat troublesome, but it was far from difficult.
Resolving it was only natural.
Upstairs, D-3 and D-6, who had been moving with Team B, also returned to the stairwell and rejoined the squad.
More than twenty SWAT officers began advancing upward together.
- Writer
