“Hey guys, what’re you doing here?” greeted Malek as he finished putting away part of his experiment. Jordan, Callie, and Sean were standing in the door of the lab.
“It’s your birthday!” reminded Callie.
“We wanted to surprise you,” elaborated Jordan.
“Aww, that’s so sweet,” noted Malek. He removed and tossed out his latex gloves then washed his hands before joining the group at the door. “What’re we doing?”
“We’re going to the male strip club!” enthused Callie.
“Wait, what?!” exclaimed Sean. “Then why am I here?!”
“Cause you’re friends with Malek and this is his party,” reminded Callie.
Suddenly the intercom came on. “Floor four; we’re testing your new ventilation system.”
Malek’s eyes widened. “Get in the lab, now.”
“What’s going on Malek?” demanded Jordan as Malek shut and locked the door. He shut the blinds of the window that looked into the hallway and flicked off the light. “Malek?”
“This is the fourth floor. ‘Testing the ventilation’ is the code for an armed intruder on the premise,” explained Malek.
“Isn’t that the same code our high school had?” pondered Sean.
“It’s a common one. Come on, we can wait for the all-clear in the back room.” Malek led his friends to a small computer room at the back of the lab. There were no windows and only one door. Malek sat at one of the computers and turned it on. It didn’t take him long to pull up the security footage of the floor.
“You have access to this?” marvelled Callie.
“Not supposed to, but because of my security clearance the system doesn’t block me out,” admitted Malek. He started flicking through the different cameras, looking for the shooter. He stopped at a camera in one of the research labs. There were still several people inside, all sitting on the ground at the back corner. One man was standing and talking on the phone, waving the gun emphatically at the hostages. “Shit.”
“That doesn’t look good,” noted Jordan.
“That’s Barton’s lab. He’s a pompous researcher who thinks he can do anything and that he’s better than everyone. The authorities won’t get a chance to save the hostages if that man starts talking.” Malek leaned back in his chair exasperated.
“Who would take hostages here?” asked Sean. To everyone’s genuine surprise he was managing to stay pretty calm.
“Some crackpot with P.E.T.A. I would guess. This is a pharmaceutical lab, we get heat for testing on animals all the time. Despite the fact that we only enter animal testing when we’re pretty sure the product is safe.” Malek sighed.
“If this guy is going to make the situation worse, shouldn’t we try to do something?” insisted Callie.
“Cal, he’s got a gun, there’s not much we can do to help.” Malek gestured at the waving gun.
“Come on, Malek!” Callie looked angry. Malek sighed and looked back at the screen then frowned.
“Actually, he’s got the hostages backed against this cabinet. Behind the cabinet is a disused storage room that can be accessed by Doctor Petrov’s lab. If we can create a distraction for the gunman, we might be able to evacuate the hostages.”
“We’ll still have the problem of an angry gunman and possibly a SWAT team by then,” reminded Jordan. “The gunman was just on the phone, which means the authorities have likely called him and are in the process of negotiating.”
“Malek, what’s-his-face is up,” announced Callie pointing at the screen. Barton was standing, his hands up, talking to the masked gunman. The gunman’s body language got increasingly aggressive and he was pointing the gun directly at the man’s face.
“I have a plan.” Malek got up and re-entered the lab followed by the others.
“Wait! Are you guys seriously going to try and interfere?!” Sean was beginning to panic. He had been calm only because the situation hadn’t been happening to him. But now his friends wanted to charge head-first into it.
“Yep.” Malek tossed a few empty glass bottles to Callie. She caught them and smiled.
“Are we throwing a party?” Her smile broadened.
“Third drawer down, you should find what you need. Jordan come here.” Malek pulled out a small briefcase. In it were two syringes and a gun-like injector. “Tranquilizer, one dose should do it, but two won’t kill him if you need to use it.” Malek loaded the syringes with the clear liquid.
“Got it.” Jordan took the case.
“Sean, you’re coming with me, we’ll get to the hostages from the storage room.” Malek pulled out his Bluetooth and so did Callie. He called her so that they could communicate and coordinate.
“Wait! Are you guys serious?!” shouted Sean, sweating profusely.
POW! The sound of the gunshot hung there for a moment. Malek ran back into the computer room. Barton was on the ground, no longer moving. “We’re out of time and the authorities will never reach the lab in time,” said Malek. “We go now. Sean, you can stay here or you can help me, but I’m not waiting around for you to come to terms with what’s going on.”
“Alright let’s go,” said Callie seriously as she grabbed the fire blanket. They left the lab. Sean hesitated but decided to go with them.
“Anyone else have anything they wanna say?!” shouted the gunman, waving his gun at the small group of hostages. There were a few quiet screams of fear.
“We’re in position Cal,” said Malek. Callie and Jordan were on opposite sides of the door to Barton’s lab, crouched low to stay out of sight. Callie lit the Molotov cocktail she had placed near herself. She ran over to join Jordan on the other side.
BOOM! The gunman jumped and looked to the source of the explosion. “Nobody move!” he ordered before going to inspect what had happened.
“Go!” said Callie to Malek. Malek and Sean had been in the storage room waiting. The door opened inwards making it easy for them to then move the cabinet. The hostages stared at them dumbfounded.
“Come on!” ordered Malek. “Sean make sure they stay hidden.”
Malek entered the lab and slid over to Barton. He turned the older man over. He’d been shot in the stomach. “Shit.” He felt for a pulse. He found one but it was weak and erratic. He started trying to apply first aid.
BOOM! Callie threw another Molotov cocktail near the gunman. The gunman leapt back to avoid it but found himself encircled in fire. Jordan wrapped himself in the fire blanket and charged in as the fire alarm started to sound. He got behind the masked gunman and injected him with the tranquilizer before he knew what was happening. The sprinklers came on as Jordan started dragging the unconscious gunman out of the flames, keeping them both somehow wrapped in the fire blanket.
“Get down now!” ordered someone leading a group of heavily armed and armoured men into the hallway. Jordan dropped the unconscious assailant and backed away. Callie put down her last Molotov cocktail and put her hands up.
“I need help in here!” shouted Malek from inside the lab. A few of the men ran in to help him.
“This is the guy,” insisted Callie gesturing at the unconscious masked man.
“Sir, we have a bit of a strange situation here, you should come check it out,” said the SWAT team leader into his walkie-talkie.
“On my way,” replied a harsh female voice. A few moments later a tall blonde woman showed up in the hallway. By that time Sean and Malek had joined Callie and Jordan and the sprinklers had been shut off. “What the Hell is going on here?” demanded the woman.
“We saved the hostages,” stated Jordan plainly.
“You interfered with a federal operation,” spat the woman.
“The gunman had already shot a hostage and there was no clean point of entry for your SWAT team,” explained Malek.
“We weren’t going to do anything, but then we saw Barton get shot on the security cameras,” continued Callie. “We didn’t want to see anyone else get shot.”
“So you made Molotov cocktails as a diversion, risking your lives and those of everyone else on this floor?” the woman’s voice was little more than a vicious growl.
“That’s insulting. I knew what I was doing, these Molotov cocktails are hardly strong enough to start a fire, they couldn’t blow through a straw door, much less these metal ones, or any walls or floors,” retorted Callie.
“So what, you’re doing this for recognition of some sort?” persisted the woman.
“No we did this to help my colleagues out of a tight spot. Forgive us if we don’t want to see people we know die,” protested Malek a little more aggressively than he intended.
“Actually, if it’s at all possible, we’d like to not be mentioned in any kind of press release,” admitted Sean. “This isn’t the kind of thing we want to be recognized for.”
The woman frowned. “Why not?”
“If we get recognized it should be for something in our respective fields, not for helping people who needed it,” elaborated Jordan.
“You’re… weird.” The woman sighed, her disposition relaxing. She looked significantly more kind and normal.
“Can we go? It’s my birthday and my friends are taking me to strip club,” complained Malek.
“I just need to get your contact information in case we have any further questions.”
They gave the woman their information and left to go party at the city’s best male strip club.
