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“Angie. Please, where are you going?!” Nick repeated, catching some of her fear after he’d seen the horror on her face after she’d mentioned AJ’s and Howie’s appearances. As soon as Brian had seen that look, he’d rushed over to Kevin’s room to retrieve his cousin. Something was amiss, and when that happened, Kevin was always needed. Nick didn’t know why, but from what he had heard from Angie, he was afraid that Kevin might not be there. It didn’t make any sense, but what if Kevin wasn’t there? What would they do then? And where would Kevin be?
“I’m going to find a way to get you, Brian, and Kevin out of this building,” was Angie’s slow response. Nick took this entirely the wrong way.
“What?! Into a mob of fans? I don’t think so!” he protested, grabbing her arm to swing her around to face him. “Listen, I dunno if ya made a deal with some fans out front or somethin’, but you aren’t dragging us out there. You realize we could get you fired for that!” Angie gave Nick a blank stare for a moment, not sure of what he was talking about. He sounded insane to her. Realization came, and with it came renewed irritation.
“Of course I’m not doing this just to drag you out front for some of your stupid fans! I’m trying to get you out before the terrorists realize you are here, you dumbass! Or would you prefer to die like…” Angie trailed off, not remembering that she didn’t want him to know what was going on until the visions from the politician’s room streamed back into her mind. Squeezing her eyes shut while rubbing her face, she took a deep breath and risked a glance up at Nick’s face.
Shocked. He was utterly shocked, to put it mildly, that is. Never in his life did Nick think he’d be in any kind of situation like this, but here he was. “Who are they? What do they want from us?”
“Nothing, as long as they don’t find out you’re here.” Brian and Kevin emerged from Kevin’s room just then. At the sight of Kevin and Angie’s reply, relief was evident on Nick’s face. Kevin made a quick no-nonsense but ever-polite introduction to Angie, and she returned it.
“So what is this about somebody not finding us?” Kevin inquired, already taking charge.
“There are terrorists in the building. They came here to kill a man that was staying on the fifth floor. Someone important, whoever he was. They have some hostages from that floor now, though, and the police are out front. You three never took the calls to your rooms, but everybody else in the hotel has been evacuated,” Angie explained, praying that none of them would question where AJ or Howie was. She didn’t think she could lie, but she knew that telling the truth to them would only stop their cooperation.
“So AJ and Howie already left the building?” Nick wondered. Angie sighed inwardly.
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Brian interjected before Angie could say anything. “If they had been called and didn’t see us, they would have come to get the rest of us.”
“But they did leave, maybe they were never even in the hotel when this happened,” Kevin suggested. As if he wanted confirmation, his face turned to Angie. “Well?” Angie swallowed, hoping she could make this believable.
“Uh, if I saw them, I didn’t recognize them. I didn’t pass anyone one my way up here. I did take a peak through a slit window in the staircase door, though, and I saw the hostages with the terrorists,” Angie answered, excusing her lies with more silent ones to herself. None of what she’d said was actually untrue: she hadn’t recognized AJ or Howie when she’d seen them, she hadn’t passed anybody, and she had looked through the door to the fifth floor. She still felt terrible. These men obviously wanted to make sure that their friends were safe, and she was lying to them.
Fortunately for her, all three men were quick to believe her, probably wanting to hold onto the relief they felt rather than to think anything else. Picking up on the same thoughts that Angie had had earlier, Kevin asked her a new question. “So what did you have in mind? Elevators would be too dangerous. The only option is the stairwell.”
Brian nodded slowly as Nick rapidly nodded his agreement. “You’ve seen the gunmen and the hostages. Which stairs do you think would be safer?” Brian asked, also seeing what Kevin had been thinking.
“The stairs at the north end of the building were the ones I took up here, and they’re the ones farther away from the group on the fifth floor. If we take those, and are very quiet, we should make it to the main lobby. From there we can get outside,” Angie finished, feeling even more sure that she was going to get these men out of the hotel unharmed. She felt a little pride at that thought. Maybe she can’t save all those hostages, including the two other members of the Backstreet Boys, but she could save these three. Without another word, the four headed toward the door that Angie had come from only minutes ago.
****************************
“Jericker. Belville. Come here,” AJ heard the commander snap to two of his men. He knew that if he was caught listening in on their conversations, they might kill him. Better to take that chance so that he might be able to use it to escape, than to do nothing and know he was going to die anyway. He and Howie had been sitting there for about ten minutes now, he wagered, though it might have been much shorter than that. Time goes slow in Hell. AJ managed a glance over at Howie, who was trying to curl up and appear sleeping. Ever since Howie had helped him to reach the other hostages, not a single spark of emotion had shown in his friend’s eyes. AJ was worried for him, but getting out of here was the more immediate problem.
“All right. As much as I’d like to believe we don’t have to worry about the police force trying to come up here for fear of some people’s deaths, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to be sure. One of you is going to the north stairs, the other the south stairs. Each of you go to the bottom of the stairwells, but do not go out into the lobby, got me? They’d probably shoot you if they could see you,” the commander explained, using these two younger men’s fear to make them listen to him. If they thought they might be shot, they wouldn’t venture into the lobby for any curious reasons. He could be sure of that. Their quick, enthusiastic nods assured him of his thoughts, and he waved them off.
AJ soaked in this new information. Even if the extra guards downstairs weren’t meant for him and Howie, they certainly did make things harder for them. But then, there was a spark of hope. None of these gunmen were allowed into the lobby because they could get killed, which meant that he had to find a way to get into the lobby without using the stairs. AJ’s eyes fell on the elevator farther down the hall. How the hell was he supposed to reach that without getting killed himself? And he wouldn’t risk Howie to it, either. Damn, damn, damn! He carefully watched each of the men leave in their different directions for the stairs. As his eyes followed one of them, they met the eyes of a little girl.
She looked to be about ten or eleven. A mop of short blonde hair covered her head, and with that timid little smile she gave AJ, she looked like a little sprite to him. He suppressed a small chuckle, and grinned back at the cute little thing. He couldn’t tell if she knew him though, which made him uneasy. She could be smiling because she was just friendly, or maybe she recognized him and Howie. Well, maybe it didn’t matter, he decided. If she did know them, she was smart enough not to shout it out and give it away. At this knew thought, AJ’s grin grew, and he mouthed a “hello” at her. Her response was a hesitant wave of her hand. After their exchange, she turned shy again and turned away.
Something was weighing heavy on AJ’s heart. What was it? A moment ago, he had felt fine, well not fine, given their predicament, but all right. Now he was feeling guilty. It wasn’t until he saw the same girl whispering to her two sisters that sinking realization came to him. He didn’t know what they were saying, and it wasn’t the threat of what they could be saying that hit him. It was their family, their innocence, their lives. How could he possibly escape this and leave all these other people behind? If he did, would he ever be able to live with himself? Now unsure of everything, AJ leaned over by where Howie was and prepared to curl up next to him. Maybe he could dream up a solution. He just prayed to God that Brian, Kevin, and Nick were safe. He wasn’t sure of what was going on in the rest of the hotel, but as long as his friends were safe, he could rest.
Unlikely Allies