Love Began with the First Meeting
Chapter 770 Danger (Part Three)

Molly silently gritted her teeth and pulled Mark into a tight embrace as she was ushered to one corner.

Another one of the masked and armed men locked and loaded a bullet into his gun, intending to shoot Molly. However, he was prevented by the one pointing a gun at Molly's temple. Then, he gestured to one of the other kidnappers that kept watch over the children to put Molly and Mark together with them.

The room of the art class had quite a large lighting surface area, so there was little space left at the corner where the children were. Mark squatted against the wall and next to him was Molly. Half of her body could be seen from the window.

The kidnappers were looking for advantageous locations to guard the place. The teacher glanced at the children and Molly who all huddled in the corner with a tear-stricken face. She sobbed and said, "I'm your target. Release all the children. I'm enough to be your hostage."

"Shut up!" a booming voice bellowed throughout the room and the teacher was slapped again. The sight of the assault made the children cry and scream. One of the kids was kicked in the shin by a kidnapper standing guard beside him. "Don't use violence against kids..."

the teacher didn't get to finish her words when Molly moved towards the child who got kicked and held him in her arms. She looked fiercely at the kidnappers and clenched her teeth. She bravely said, "You have your aim. One more child you hold in your hands, one more chip you have for bargaining. Aren't you afraid that you might lose a chip by using such heavy methods?"

The children continued to sob. They wanted to cry out loud out of extreme fear but they dared not to. Since they had known Mark already from last morning, they huddled close to one another by instinct.

When they heard what Molly just said, the kidnappers looked at one another in consideration. Then, the kidnapper standing by the window who kept watch on the outside said, "Don't create any new problem. Whether we can rescue our boss or not will depend on this one action."

Upon his order, all the other kidnappers followed suit and toned down their cruel treatment of the children. Molly then immediately checked up on the child who had been kicked. She felt slightly relieved when she found that there was only a bluish discoloration on his leg. She held the child in her arms and told the rest of the children in a low voice, "Don't be afraid. Everyone of you will be all right with your teacher and I together with you here."

Her words seemed to have a calming effect as the children gradually stopped crying. They only looked at the kidnappers in fear through tear-filled eyes.

Mark pursed his lips tightly into a thin line. Even though he appeared to be more cool and collected than the other children, he couldn't fully hide the fear in his eyes.

As Molly tried to pacify the sobbing children, she discreetly eyed each of the kidnappers up and down. It wasn't until then that she discovered that a bomb was bound to the back of the teacher.

The sound of the police car sirens got louder. It meant that the police would arrive soon. Molly slightly turned her head to peek out the window and sure enough, about a dozen police cars had stopped within the vicinity. After a few moments, everyone in the room heard a voice that seemed to come from a loudspeaker.

It was not until now that Molly realized that the teacher with an outstanding disposition, who now had a bomb behind her was the daughter of A City's current mayor. He had been transferred here two years ago.

"I only speak to somebody who is able to make decisions," the kidnapper who had a gun pointed at Molly spoke up. It seemed that he was the leader since he had been the one giving orders. He added, "I have eighteen hostages in our hands. I will wait for half an hour. If your decision maker fails to arrive here in that time frame, I will kill one of them!"

The policemen outside the building were confused upon hearing the leading kidnapper's loud, booming voice. The director of the criminal police unit was puzzled at this and asked one colleague beside him, "Aren't there sixteen people including the teacher? Why did he say eighteen people?"

"According to relevant data gathered, there are sixteen people, including the students and the teacher," his colleague answered.

The director slightly frowned at this, but he wasn't in the mood to care about the number of people held hostage. He took the megaphone from a policeman beside him and shouted back, "I am the director of the criminal police team. You may make a demand if you have any, but don't hurt any of the hostages."

"You are not qualified enough to satisfy my demand!"

the leading kidnapper bellowed back in response from inside the art class room. Suddenly, a loud "bang" rang throughout the area and the children began screaming.

"Director, what should we do?"

one of the unit members asked with a frown. He added, "Since they have occupied this place without follow-up action, they are obviously determined to exchange the hostage for Culpeo..."

"Don't talk rubbish. Of course I know that!" the team director snapped, an annoyed but serious look on his face as he tried to think of the next course of action. "We can neither let any of the hostages be hurt nor release Culpeo. We all know this quite well," he continued. "Then what should we do now?

Will they really kill a hostage every half an hour

in such a stalemate?" the team member asked.

At this point, the team director was positively pissed. "Call the police headquarters," he spat out in anger.

His subordinate nodded in response and hastily made a call to the police headquarters.

In the central control room in the department of emergency cases of the police headquarters, a crowd of people including the mayor and the chief of police of A City gathered around the central monitors. The chief of police had previously reported the hostage situation to the mayor, and was now looking at the storm troop that was about to send Culpeo away with an escort. His gaze then fell on the major general, who sat on a chair as he watched the images of the scene on the screen which were transmitted by a satellite.

The major general, Edgar, pushed his glasses further up his nose bridge with a finger. Behind the lenses were his eyes that looked as deep as the sea. He hadn't expected to be assigned to an operation to capture Culpeo, a big time drug trafficker, when he returned to A City for the first time after being gone for two years. He hadn't even had the time to recall his past life in A City, and now he was shoved with something unexpected before he could even catch his breath and take a break.

The chief of police cleared his throat. "Major General, what do you think..."

he asked tentatively, as he was still quite afraid of the former mayor.

However, Edgar suddenly cut him off. "The hostages' lives are the most important!"

the major general said firmly as he stood up. He looked commanding in his general's uniform as opposed to the cruel and sinister look he had during his time as a mayor. He looked at the assembled storm troop and ordered in a clear voice, "Assault and rescue!" "Yes, sir!" the troop answered back just as clearly, then followed their commanding officer out of the central command room. The loud clunking of their combat boots echoed down the hall.

Edgar then turned to the chief of police and gave him instructions, "Take Culpeo there. Give him an injection of anesthetic..." He would not release Culpeo, but he had to rescue the hostages.

The chief nodded in affirmation, then passed the order to his subordinate in a hurry. The current mayor of A City was silent throughout the whole ordeal. He hadn't spoken a word to Edgar yet. He knew that it was part of his duty to put the safety of the hostages first before his daughter, no matter how unfortunate it was for him. He didn't want to affect Edgar's decisions because of his own worries.

*

The atmosphere outside the art class building was tense and heavy. The traffic enforcers had set up a roadblock two miles from the hostage site to warn incoming travelers. Meanwhile, some of the policemen on the site began to evacuate the remaining civilians nearby in consideration of the capacity of the kidnappers' firepower. Fortunately, the building of the art class had been built by the government for the community as a public space and thus, everybody except for those held in hostage had left the building.

The director of the criminal police unit was still trying to deal with the kidnappers. However, twenty minutes had passed and they had only ten minutes left until the kidnappers would shoot a hostage, or not. His face looked more distressed than ever. Inside the art class room, the teacher strained in her seat with gritted teeth. Never in her life had she experienced such a traumatizing thing. She not only worried for the children in her class, but she felt guilty towards Mark and Molly as well.

Meanwhile, Molly pretended to be scared as she assessed the situation in the room. In order for her to get back to Brian's side, she had undergone the most rigorous and brutal training from the five Golden Flowers. As a result, it had made her quite familiar with the weapons held by the kidnappers. The police outside hadn't taken any action yet. It seemed that everybody in the room, including her, was not likely to survive this incident.

Her lips curled downward into a scowl. She was angry at herself. She thought about Black Wolf's behavior awhile ago. Perhaps the reason why the enormous dog had adamantly refused to let go of her trouser leg just awhile ago was because it had sensed the danger. While she pondered over Black Wolf's previous actions, the said dog who was inside the Benz parked by the sidewalk kept jumping up and down wildly in the backseat.

Its large eyes looked at the flashing lights of the police cars around him, then only groaned and jumped more. It then moved back slightly to the opposite side of the backseat and as if preparing to sprint, it suddenly hauled itself against the car window.