Surrender is the most critical stage of a barricade.
More lives are lost in surrenders than during any other phase of hostage situations except assaults. And this one would be particularly tricky, Potter knew, because the essence of surrender was Handy's nemesis – giving up control.
Again his natural impatience prodded him to get things over with, to get Handy into custody. But he had to fight this urge. He was running the surrender by the book and had assembled the threat management team before him in the van.
The first thing he did was shake Dean Stillwell's hand. "Dean, I'm putting Frank and the Bureau's HRT in charge of containment and tactical matters now. You've done a fine job. It's just that Frank and I've done this in the past a number of times."
"No problem at all, Arthur. I'm honored you let me help." To Potter's embarrassment Stillwell snapped a salute, which the agent reluctantly returned.
Budd, LeBow, Tobe, and D'Angelo all hunched over the terrain maps and diagram of the slaughterhouse as Potter went through the procedure. Angie, who had no tactical experience and could offer little assistance to D'Angelo and the HRT, was escorting Emily and Beverly to the Days Inn. Intense, young Detective Sharon Foster was outside smoking – very real Camels. Frances was in the van, waiting patiently.
"Everybody's going to be wired up and half-nuts," Potter said. "Our people
and
the takers. We're all tired and there's going to be a lot of carelessness. So we have to choreograph every step." He fell silent and was looking out the window at the square yellow eyes of the building.
"Arthur?" LeBow said.
He meant, Time's awasting.
"Yes, sure."
They bent over the map and he began to give commands. It seemed to him that he'd lost his voice completely and he was surprised to find that the men who stood before him nodded gravely as if listening to words that he himself hardly heard at all.
Twenty minutes later, as Potter lay in a stand of fragrant grass and hit the speed-dial button, it occurred to him that something was very wrong. That Handy was laying a trap.
He thought of Budd's words earlier in the day, about Handy's planning something clever and flamboyant – a breakout maybe, a run for it.
A gut feel. Listen to it. He's usually right.
And now the feeling was undeniable.
The click of an answered phone.
"Lou." Potter began what was probably their last conversation via throw phone.
"Whatsa game plan, Art?"
"Just want to go over a few ground rules." Potter was fifty yards from the slaughterhouse entrance. Frank D'Angelo and Charlie Budd were beside him. LeBow and Tobe remained in the command van. "Is the older woman conscious? The teacher?"
"Zonked out. Told you, Art. She had a bad night. Bonner's – well,
was
a big fella. I'm talking in all ways."
Potter found his voice quavering as he asked, "And the other teacher?"
"The blond one? The little mouse?" There was a pause and Handy offered his famous chuckle. "Why you so interested in her, Art? Seem to recall you asked about her a couple times."
"I want to know how our last hostages are."
"Sure you do." Handy laughed again. "Well, she's probably had better nights herself."
"How do you mean, Lou?" he asked casually. What terrible retribution had he exacted?
"She's too young for an old fart like you, Art." Damn it, Potter thought, furious. Handy was reading him too clearly. The agent forced himself to put her out of his mind and returned mentally to Chapter 9 of his handbook, entitled "The Surrender Phase." Potter and D'Angelo had decided to send in the tunnel rats – point men – under the loading-dock door to secure the interior and guard the hostages then have the takers come out through the front.
"All right, Lou," Potter continued. "When I tell you to I'd like you to put your weapons down and just step outside, with your arms out to your side. Not on your head."
"Like Christ on the cross."
The wind had grown much worse, bending saplings and stands of sedge and bluestem, Queen Anne's lace, sending up clouds of dust. It would play hell with the snipers' shooting.
"Tell me the truth. Is Bonner dead or wounded?" Potter had visited Beverly, the poor asthmatic, in one of the hospital tents and learned that the big man indeed had been shot. But the girl explained that she'd done her best to avoid looking at him. She couldn't say for certain if he was still alive.
"Tired of talking, Art. Me and Shep're gonna chat for a few minutes then we'll give it up. Hey, Art?"
"Yes, Lou?"
"I want you out front. Right where I can see you. It's the only way I'm coming out."
I'll do it, Potter thought instinctively. Anything you want. "I'll be there, Lou."
"Right out front."
"You've got it." A pause. "Now, Lou, I want to tell you exactly -"
"Goodbye, Art. It's been fun."
Click.
Potter found himself gripping the phone long after Handy's voice was replaced by the rush of static. From nowhere the thought formed: The man's bent on suicide. The hopelessness of the situation: the impossibility of escaping, the relentless pursuit, an unbearable prison term awaiting him. He's going out in a flash.
Ostrella, my beloved…
It would be the ultimate control.
D'Angelo broke into the reverie, saying, "We'll assume Bonner's alive and armed until we get a confirmation."
Potter nodded, pressed disconnect, put the phone in his pocket. "Choreograph it carefully, Frank. I think he may go down shooting."
"You think?" Budd whispered, as if Handy had a Big Ear on them.
"A hunch is all. But plan accordingly."
D'Angelo nodded. He got on the horn and doubled the number of snipers in the trees, moved up some explosives experts to the initial takedown team. When they were in place he asked, "Should we move in, Arthur?"
Potter nodded to him. D'Angelo spoke into his microphone and four HRT troopers slipped along the front of the slaughterhouse. Two paused at open windows and the others disappeared into the shadows on either side of the door. The ones by the window had mesh bomb blankets over their shoulders.
Then the HRT commander called the two point men inside the building. He listened for a moment then repeated the report to Potter: "Two hostages, apparently alive, lying on the ground in the room you indicated. Injured but extent unknown. Bonner appears to be dead." The unemotional voice grew troubled. "Man, there's blood everywhere."
Whose? Potter wondered.
"Are Handy and Wilcox armed?"
"No weapons in their hands but they're wearing bulky shirts. Could be hidden."
Injured but extent unknown.
Potter said to D'Angelo, "They had tools. Might've brought tape with them too and taped weapons under their shirts."
The HRT commander nodded.
Blood everywhere…
Sharon Foster joined the men on the hillock. She'd put on bulky body armor.
How was this going to end? Potter wondered. He listened to the mournful sound of the wind. He felt a desperate urge to talk to Handy once more. Pressed the speed-dial button on the phone he carried.
A dozen rings, two dozen. No answer.
D'Angelo and LeBow were looking at him. He hung up.
Inside the slaughterhouse, the lights went out. Budd stiffened; Potter motioned him to relax. HTs often doused lights upon leaving, afraid to present a silhouette target even though they were giving up.
The crescent moon had moved fifty degrees through the windy sky. Often there's a sense of familiarity, even a perverse comfort, that a negotiator finds in the setting in which he's spent hours or days. Tonight, though, as he gazed at the black and red brick, all Potter could think of was Handy's phrase "Cold death."
The door opened slowly, stuck halfway, then opened further.
No movement.
What will it be? he wondered. Good or bad? Peaceful or violent?
Ah, my beautiful Ostrella.
During surrenders, he'd seen it all: Terrorists falling to the ground, crying like babies. Unarmed criminals streaking for freedom. Hidden guns. The young Syrian woman who walked slowly from an Israeli consulate, arms properly outstretched, and smiled sweetly at him just before the grenades in her bra blew herself and three HRT agents to pieces.
Be forewarned.
For only the third or fourth time in his career Arthur Potter lifted his weapon from his belt holster, high on his padded hip, and awkwardly pulled the automatic's slide, chambering a round. He replaced the gun, not clicking on the safety.
"Why isn't anything happening?" Budd whispered in irritation.
Potter stifled a sudden, inexplicable urge to laugh hysterically.
"Art?" Handy's voice floated from inside the slaughterhouse, a soft, ragged sound on the wind.
"Yes?" Potter called through the megaphone.
"Where the fuck are you? I don't see you."
Potter looked at Budd. "Here's where I earn my paycheck." He rose unsteadily, polished his glasses on the lapel of his sports coat. Sharon Foster asked if he was sure he wanted to do this. He glanced at her then walked awkwardly down the hill and stepped over an ancient split-rail fence. He paused about thirty yards from the front of the slaughterhouse.
"Here I am, Lou. Come on out."
And there they were.
Handy first. Then Wilcox.
The first thing he noticed was that their arms were at the backs of their heads.
It's all right, Ostrella. Come out however you want. Come home. You'll be okay.
"Lou, stretch your arms out!"
"Hey, take it easy, Art," Handy called. "Don't give yourself a fucking heart attack." Blinking against the powerful glare of the blinding lights. Amused, looking around.
"Lou, you've got a dozen snipers aiming at you -"
"Just a dozen? Shit! Thought I was worth more than that."
"Put your arms out or they'll shoot."
Handy stopped walking. Looked over at Wilcox. They broke into smiles.
Potter's hand went to the butt of his pistol.
Slowly the prisoners' arms extended.
"I look like a fucking ballerina, Art."
"You're doing fine, Lou."
"Easy for you to say."
Potter called, "Move in separate directions about ten feet, then lie facedown on the ground."
They walked away from the slaughterhouse, farther than ordered but then dropped to their knees and went prone. The two HRT agents by the door kept their H amp;Ks trained on the fugitives' backs and stayed clear of the doorway just in case Bonner wasn't in fact dead or there'd been other takers inside that even the hostages hadn't known about.
The two agents hovering by the windows climbed inside, followed by two more, who ran from the shadows and sped through the door. The beams of the powerful flashlights attached to their guns whipped throughout the slaughterhouse.
They'd been briefed about the incendiary device Handy'd rigged and they'd be moving very slowly, looking for tripwires. Potter believed he'd never been so anxious in his life. He expected the interior of the slaughterhouse to blossom into orange flame at any instant.
Outside, two more HRT agents had moved up, covering the two beside the door, who now advanced on Handy and Wilcox.
Did the men have armed grenades on them?
Hidden knives?
It wasn't until they'd been cuffed and patted down that Arthur Potter realized the barricade was over. He'd escaped, alive and unhurt.
And had once again read Handy wrong.
Potter returned to Budd, D'Angelo, and Foster. Told the HRT commander to radio the agents taking the two convicts into custody with orders on how to handle them. Potter remembered that Wilcox was the cowboy in the group, more impulsive than the others. He'd ordered him shackled around the waist as well as cuffed but told them not to do so with Handy. Potter knew Lou would be more willing to cooperate if he retained at least a little control.
Other agents appeared silently and covered the two men. They pulled them to their feet and frisked them again, more carefully, then quickly led them into a gully and hurried them away from the slaughterhouse.
Then the lights went on inside.
A long, long moment of silence, though it was probably just seconds.
Where
is
she?
"Go ahead," D'Angelo said into his mike. He listened for a minute then said to Potter, "It's secure. No other takers. No traps. There was something rigged in the room but it's been dismantled."
The others rose to their feet too and watched Handy's progress as he approached up the gully.
"And the hostages?" Potter asked urgently.
D'Angelo listened. He said aloud, "Bonner's dead."
Yes, yes,
yes
?
"And they found two female hostages. One, white, late thirties. Conscious but incoherent."
For chrissake, what about -
"Second one, white, age mid-twenties. Also conscious." D'Angelo winced. "Seriously hurt, he says."
No. Oh, my God.
"What?" Potter cried. "What happened to her?" The negotiator lifted his own radio and cut into the channel. "How is she? The younger woman?"
The HRT agent inside said, "Handy must've really done a number on her, sir."
"How
bad
?" Potter said furiously. Budd and D'Angelo stared at him. Handy was approaching, two agents on either side. Potter found he couldn't look at him.
The agent inside said into the radio, "Well, sir, she doesn't look that badly hurt but the thing is he must've beat the hell out of her. She can't hear a word we're saying."
The surrender had happened so fast he'd forgotten to tell the tactical agents Melanie was deaf.
D'Angelo said something to him and so did Charlie Budd but Potter didn't hear, so loud was his manic, hysterical laughter. Sharon Foster and nearby troopers looked at him uneasily. Potter supposed, without caring, that he sounded like the crazy old man that he was.
"Lou."
"Art, you don't look nothing like what I thought. You
do
have to lose a few pounds."