Five Minutes to Late Chapter 3

Don shook his head at the masked man who held the hostage.

"Let the hostage go and drop your weapon!" He ordered gruffly.

Inwardly he was sizing the masked man up, trying to decide where he could shoot the man without putting any risk to the hostage.

Of course, in reality any shot towards the perp would put Bo at risk of receiving a bullet.

It was just about to seem that the stalemate wouldn't go anywhere when Don's ear piece crackled as Colby's voice came over the system.

"Don, I have the shot. I can take him." Colby said.

After clearing out the recording studio with David, which had been easy as shooting and arresting two armed men, Colby and David had been about to read them their rights personally when they had heard the gunshots from the adjacent building.

Leaving the two men they had captured, for the police, David and Colby had run to the other building, but instead of entering at the ground floor, the went around to the back and used the fire escape to go up to the second floor and slip through a window.

As they had entered the building, they had kept their eyes and ears open, being ready for anything that might suddenly jump out at them, but for their sakes nothing did.

Creeping steadily closer to their targets, they barely heard the sound of crying and the repeated orders to shut up, coming from somewhere below them.

Looking over at David, Colby saw his friend point down to the floor and mouth the words 'hostages' at him.

Nodding his head, Colby watched as David laid down and put his ear to the floor to try and get more snippets of the conversation.

From where he stood, Colby could already hear one of the perps talking with Don, ordering him to let him and his men go before they could get to the hostages.

'That ain't gonna happen buddy.' Colby thought to himself, split seconds before he heard Don say something close to that.

Glancing back over at David, Colby watched as his friend stood back up and nodded his head. Nodding back, Colby proceeded forward, always on the lookout, until he reached the wooden railing overlooking the first floor.

Getting down on his knees, Colby crawled the last few feet and looked down, quickly taking in the positions of Don, Luke and Megan, and the position of the perp and the hostage.

Seeing that he had a clear shot, Colby silently aimed his weapon directly at the perps head before he keyed in his radio.

"Don, I have the shot. I can take him." Colby said calmly, never once wavering as he looked at the masked perp.

The masked man for his benefit seemed to have a feeling that things were not in his favor. Slowly he glanced around, then up to see the wicked barrel of Colby Granger's gun pointed directly at his face.

Looking from Colby to Don, the man slowly took his finger from the trigger of the gun before he raised his hands.

Bo, no longer in a headlock, dropped to the ground before he immediately crawled away, heading for the FBI unit that had come.

As Don and Luke quickly went over to the man, and got him flat on his stomach before handcuffing him, Megan went over to Bo, who was in a corner, shaking like a leaf. The tears were still running down his face as the realization of what had happened to him came to mind.

"It's going to be ok now. It's over." Megan said soothingly as she put her arms around Bo and tried to comfort the young man.

She knew exactly how he was feeling, having been in that same situation not long ago when she herself had been kidnapped by a crazy woman named Crystal, who seemed to have no problem in killing those who got in her way.

Don had ended up shooting her when she had been racing towards them with a car full of explosives, namely grenades.

Raising his head, Bo looked at Megan before he slowly rose to his feet, with Megan holding on to him, trying to help support him.

Slowly Megan led Bo out of the building and towards the waiting ambulance which was now at the scene.

Meanwhile, Don, Luke, David and Colby were all splitting up, trying to enter the break room where the hostages were.

There were two doors in to the break room. One door on either side, plus there were several ducts which a person could fit through.

Don and David would be entering through the doors, while Colby and Luke would be entering the room from the ducts.

It was going to be a joint operation, no one would move in until the others were ready.

Quietly Luke went down a hall, his pistol at the ready. He was looking for a vent, something that would get him in to the ventilation system.

From his radio ear piece, Luke had heard when Colby had found a vent and was now in the ventilation system.

Coming to a corner, Luke slid up on the wall and slowly peeked around the corner. He saw two more masked men standing there, looking this way and that.

'Great. Perfect.' Luke thought to himself as he tightened his grip on his pistol.

Gathering himself up, Luke was about to charge on out there and put a bullet in to the two masked men when he felt the cold barrel of a gun press up against his head.

"Make one false move and you're dead, copper." An evil sounding voice said.

Slowly Luke raised his hands, flinching slightly as the gun was ripped from them.

Luke's captor called around the corner a few seconds before he shoved Luke forward.

The men in the hallway, having been alerted not to shoot, immediately came over and patted Luke down, making sure he had no other weapons with him.

"Signal to your commander that you're in position." Luke's captor ordered icily as he continued to hold the gun on Luke.

Luke, for his part was shocked at the request, knowing how dangerous it was to lie to his commander, especially in this type of situation, but if he didn't lie, Luke had no doubt that he'd get a bullet in the head.

"Do it now!" came the order before Luke's captor hit him over the head with the end of his gun, dropping Luke to the floor.

Pain exploded in Luke's head as he felt the blood start to flow down the side of his face.

Slowly, Luke keyed his radio as he glanced up at the three armed men. "Commander, I'm in position." He said, hoping that Don would realize there was a problem, just by what Luke had said.

After reporting in, Luke could do nothing as his ear piece was ripped away and dropped on the ground, before being kicked in to a corner, right beside a potted plant.

"Alright now move. We see anyone on our way outside, you're a dead man, understood?" The masked man asked.

Luke nodded his head as he replied, "I understand…perfectly."

With that said, Luke led the three men towards the back end of the building, just as he heard Don, Colby and David open fire in the break room.