Back Against the Wall

It was 07:26 pm. Austin was not expecting a company as he sat in the shallow end of the swimming pool at Tropicana Hotel and Resorts where he spent most evenings after working out at the hotel gym. As he sat there, he thought about the job he had done for the past twenty-five years. He had risen through the ranks to the level of principal manager at the age of forty. He considered himself very luck mainly because of his family. He married late spite of how he had planned it, but he was glad he waited to marry Mary, the love of his life. Mary and his two little girls: Maki and Nelo were the light of his life.

As he was caught up in the daydream about his family when he heard a shuffle of feet near him and looked up. A man walking with a limp had just past very close to him and suddenly, there was an unmarked white envelope lying close to his head. Austin picked it up and opened it. He read and grimaced as he jumped out of the water, picked up his towel and headed to the direction that the limping man had gone. He soon appeared in the hotel reception. A couple was talking to the receptionist neither of whom took notice of him. He quickly returned to the swimming pool and picked up the rest of his belongings and walked to his car; then he dialled a number. A moment later, a voice came in from the other end.

"Hello, Grace. Where are you, right now?" Austin asked.

"I am at home with the girls," Grace said.

"Both of them? Hold on to them. I'm on my way," Austin said as he drove away.

Austin and his family lived in Isabella Hills, the better part of the town. He drove his car through the busy evening traffic which became less as he approached the diversion to his home. The note he had found at the hotel worried him. He drove into his home and ran up the stairs. There he found Grace and his two daughters working on their homework. They were safe, he thought. The note must have been a cruel joke by some ill-disposed person. He was not a stranger to threats; he considered them an occupational hazard. ___ Austin worked long hours, and as a result, he made it a point to spend as much time as he could with his girls and that is why he always drove them to school by himself. As a result of this, they were never late to school because he would usually drop them off before 7:00 am whereas others arrived by 7:30 am or shortly before 8:00 am. As usual, he drove slowly that morning, enjoying the cold morning breeze and the almost empty streets. He arrived at St. Theresa's Primary and Secondary School, and as usual, the place was deserted except for a school bus and one teacher he could see across the fence inside the school premises. He parked in front of the gate and reached out to kiss the two girls, then they left the car and walked towards the school gate. That was when the door of the school bus flew open, and a masked man grabbed the two children and threw them on the bus. Austin froze. The whole action took the time it required Austin to open his car door and step down from it. Before he could run around to the other side of the car, the bus shot off in the direction Austin had come. He was transfixed at the spot; then he remembered the note he received the night before. He reached into his breast pocket and brought out the paper:

"GATHER EVERYONE IN THE BANKING HALL TOMORROW MORNING AT 07:30 AM
AND CALL THIS NUMBER 8712571285.
KEEP YOUR FAMILY SAFE.
NO POLICE."

He did not consider any other alternatives as he jumped into his car and drove to the regional office of Barco Bank where he was the regional manager. His office shared the office building with a branch of the bank, and both offices held general meetings every weekday at 07:30 am. He was the first to arrive at the banking hall of the branch space where the meeting was to hold. He had never done anything remotely like what he was about to do. He considered every member of staff in the building as his responsibility, and he wondered what would become of them if he made the call he had been instructed to make. He had to call his wife. He did not want to involve her. Her plate was full as it was since she was almost due to have a baby in another country alone, but he had to let her know what had happened to their girls and maybe, gain some clarity.

"Honey, how are you and the baby?" he asked, trying to sound casual.

"The doctors say that we are alright. Good morning, honey. You sound a bit off. Is everything okay?"

He looked around the hall to see if there was someone within earshot of his conversation. There were three cleaners but no one else. He walked into the toilet to the right of the hall.

"Someone took our little girls," he said, and immediately he felt tears blur his vision.

"What do you mean by that? Who? What do they want?"

"I don't know. They want me to call some number when all the staff are in the banking hall but...,"

"I don't care what you have to do. Please bring our girls back, Austin," she said.

He always hated it whenever she did that. But she always called him by his first name whenever she is unhappy. He felt a lump in his throat, but he was determined to do everything in his power to bring the girls home. He needed to think so he went to his office and paced. Who could be doing this to him and what do they want? Nothing seemed to make sense. He looked at the clock on his office wall and realised it was already 07:30 am. He walked into the banking hall, and there he found about fourteen people and two more walking in from the back door. His mind was still trying to figure out who could be responsible for the kidnap.

"Please settle down! We are late," he said and went to the register. Nineteen out of the twenty-one staff members had arrived. He compared the list to the previous record and discovered the missing people. One of them was his driver, Paul and the other was Mirabel, the cash officer. He beckoned to the business manager.

"Where is Mirabel? Did she call in sick?" he asked.

"No. I have no idea. I will call her and find out why she is not here," she replied and reached for her phone. While she made the call, he called Paul. Neither of them answered.

"Welcome, " Austin said. "I would like the business manager to coordinate this meeting while I take care of an urgent issue."

He went to his office and called the number that was provided in the note that was left for him the night before. It rang once, and someone answered. With a deep, hoarse voice the voice said, "Come to the back gate and open it at once!" The line went dead. Austin went to the front gate to confirm that the police posted to work security in the bank was there. He was not, and neither was there any police at the back entrance. Something had gone very wrong, and he was unable to place his finger on it. He opened the back gate, and four hooded men, all dressed in black walked in and pushed Austin forward. The one who seemed like the leader pointed the nozzle of his rifle at the small of Austin's back and asked him to move.

"I have done everything you asked. Please, where are my... "

"Move!" the man interrupted him viciously.

In the banking hall, the meeting continued until two of the hooded men walked in. The other two marched Austin to the bank vault and asked him to open it. An attempt to deny that he was not a custodian of the vault keys earned him the butt of the gun to the head. He reeled but regained his balance. He heard footsteps from behind. He turned and saw one of the men leading the business manager to the vault. He knew that the men were well informed. He entered his combination and stepped aside for her to enter hers since the lock required dual control. How could they have known that he had the key to the vault? It had only been a couple of weeks since he was given the key as a backup custodian. Before then, only the cash officer and business manager had custody of the vault. He thought about his children and what kind of terror they would be suffering.

"Move," the gang leader ordered them both. The thought terrified Austin that the criminals might still kill his little girls after they had gotten what they came for. He was frustrated because of how fear had rendered him unable to think. He knew he had to do something. What would he tell his wife? He strolled into the bank vault like an animal led to slaughter. Inside the were eight lockers and one safe.

"Where are the large denominations? And open the safe before I knock your skulls in," the leader barked. The business manager pointed at the lockers that contained large bills and shakily punched in her combination key. Austin did the same. While the robbers packed the cash, Austin did the only thing his mind could fathom. He took four slow steps backwards and pushed the Chubb safe door shut, and before the men could realise it, they were locked in the reinforced vault with the business manager. As soon as he did that, he realised the enormity of what he had done. What if they kill her? The business manager, Nancy was his personal friend and her children played with his. But now there was no turning back. They could not come out of the vault unless she could somehow communicate the key to someone outside the vault to punch in the keys and even then, Austin would have to be available to key in his unless Mirabel came to work after all. Mirabel! Where is she? She must be their inside man, he thought. He decided that he must find her. She would have information about where the girls are, he thought.

He could not still believe that Mirabel would get mixed up in something so ugly. He had personally recruited her from a bank he worked before. As he walked away from the vault, he heard orders from the banking hall and only then did he remember that the fourth robber was in the banking hall. Only a partially frosted glass demarcated the emergency corridor and passage from the banking hall and any person passing behind the glass would be visible to someone standing in the banking hall. Slowly he laid himself down on the floor and crawled to the emergency exit. He feared that the metallic door would make a loud noise if he pushed it open. Meanwhile, he could hear the faint sound of the people he locked inside the vault, but it was barely audible. He slowly opened the door and crawled out. The door slowly shut by itself. He straightened up and ran to where he had parked his car. The bank security was there this time, and he opened the gate for Austin to drive out. He was halfway through the gate when he realised that he did not know where she lived. She asked the security man, and as it turned out, he knew Mirabel's house.

"Hop in. We are going there!" he said. The boy was surprised, but he closed the gate and lowered himself onto the passenger seat, leaving his colleague at the gate. Austin was relieved to find Mirabel at home, apparently in good health. He was furious. As soon as he saw her, he pounced on her. "Where are my girls?" he said, grabbing her by the collars of her shirt and shaking her. She was terrified, and her blank stare showed she had no idea what he was saying. Austin was confused. He had built all his hope around Mirabel's involvement.

"Why aren't you at work?" he asked since he noticed that she had dressed for work.

"I'm not feeling well," she lied, then she saw the look in his eyes and realised that this was not an official question.

"I'm waiting for my boyfriend. He is taking me somewhere for a health check. I have called Nancy to inform her that I would be late but she did not pick up," she said.

Further questioning revealed that Paul, Austin's driver, was Mirabel's boyfriend.

"Call him now," Austin ordered then, realising he was scaring her, he added, "Try to relax and sound casual."

"Hello, baby. Where are you?"

"I'm on my way, baby. See you in five," he said and hung up.

Austin remembered that he had parked out front and left the security in the car. He went out and moved the vehicle to a space behind the house such that it was not visible from the road. He was still there when Paul parked and was about to get down from the vehicle when Austin went at him with a massive club he had found. He continued hitting Paul, repeated the question, "Where are my girls?"

Paul tried to feign confusion but the blows he was getting from the wood softened him up. "Wait. Wait. Wait!" he kept shouting, as he tried to block other parts of his body with his hands. The space in the car hindered him from moving away because Austin did not give him enough space to stand from the seat.

"Where are they?" Austin asked, and he did so, the wood connected with Paul's head and he let out a painful cry.

"I don't know where they are but my cousin might," Paul said, holding his bleeding and swelling head.

Austin and Paul drove in Austin's car after the security man had helped Austin to tie Paul's hands and legs. Paul directed as Austin drove. They soon arrived at one old bungalow. Paul suggested that they may need to circle out back because his cousin could be armed. Austin and Paul went through the back while Chris, the security threw stones on the roof of the building trying to draw attention to the front of the house. Suddenly muffled sounds came out of the window closest to Austin and he stiffened. Maki and Nelo were there.

"Quiet! Quiet. I am going to get you home."

He dialed a number on his cell and someone answered. "Commissioner. Please, you can send your boys to the address I texted you earlier. I owe you one."

He hung up and waited two long minutes for the police to get there. The police station was about five minutes walk from where he was so he expected them to arrive soon. They did. As soon as he heard the boots on the ground, he relaxed a little. He heard four gunshots in quick succession. He waited but there was nothing else. He walked out of the back of the building to find Maki and Nelo waiting for him. He wept.