Chapter 45

I frowned and turned back to my team. One of them signalled that the targets were all down, so I walked over to the hostages to check for injuries. As I approached the group, I did a quick headcount. There were seventeen in total. I stopped. Hadn’t the reports said that there were initially seventeen hostages, but one was shot? I could see a dead body off to the side, a woman in a bank uniform. So shouldn’t there just be sixteen hostages sitting here?

I counted them again. I had definitely counted right. I turned to the side and pressed my walkie, calling through to Captain Richardson outside.

“How many hostages are there in total?” I asked, eyeing the group again.

“Reports are of seventeen, minus one,” he answered.

I quickly raised my gun, scanning the crowd for anyone that didn’t look as if they belonged. My eyes skimmed the group and came to rest on a guy who was shifting nervously and looking away from me. He definitely looked uncomfortable. He looked like he