I had arrived
a bit earlier than usual. The time was about a
quarter to nine; my secretary poured a cup of
coffee and brought in all the mail and faxes for
me to see and the appointments, which I had for
the day. Since we were nearing the end of the
week and the year-closing was getting nearer,
the auditors would be breathing down our necks
very soon. I had a very busy work schedule in
front of me. I had a meeting in another fifteen
minutes with some client who was one of the biggest
and was facing some problems that needed to be
sorted out. My wife called up to remind me that
we had been invited by friends who had come from
Australia. After that the secretary told me that
the client had arrived for the meeting.
I joined the meeting shortly, and after the client left I had to meet the finance manager whose office was located on the 9 th Floor. I looked around the main banking hall to see if everything was functioning properly, and then took the elevator to the 9 th Floor. As soon as I had stepped out of the elevator, I heard what sounded like gunshots from an automatic rifle; these were followed with orders for everyone to remain quite and lie down on the floor.
The infrastructure of the bank building is such that the banking hall where daily business is done is separated from the other parts of the building. This means that for me to go to the 9 th Floor I had to go around the reception and take the elevator. From where I was standing I could hear the men shouting orders and people running about and screaming. From what I could tell, there were three men and all had automatic weapons. I came to know all this with experience since I had spent been a negotiator with the police department.
Sensing that any act of heroism of the employees would result in anger and frustration on behalf of the kidnappers, one is compelled to assume that this would end up with them killing all of them for those unnecessary actions. The top floors were all evacuated leaving the building empty except for the hostages that remained in the bank’s main hall. A phone line was demanded by one of them and the officer in charge barked for someone to give a mobile phone to them.
After the mobile phone was given, the officer
in charge called me and told me of the situation
that there were three men in there with automatic
rifles (my assumptions turned out to be correct)
and that they had explosives too! He told me that
they wanted to speak to no one but me.
My cell number was given across and after a brief while one of them called me up. He asked first of all that he wanted to talk to no one but me. From the voice I had deciphered that he was not an American national but was from a Middle Eastern country. He had a slight Arabic accent to his voice; his voice was gruff and heavy and meant every word. He told me that they wanted the money that was in the vault and a safe passage out of the country, and if the demands were not met he would kill the hostages one by one and it would all be my fault.
The security of the banks vault is that when the panic button is pushed the bank vault automatically closes. There are two codes that will open the bank vault; one of them lies with the chief of the police department and the other one lies with me. Also, the codes are never written and have to me memorized by me.
When the incident occurred the vault manager pressed the panic button closing the vault and a distress signal to the Police Station had been sent.
I called the chief and briefed him on the situation. He told me to let professional negotiators handle the situation. I argued on the fact that this would only infuriate the situation even more and one of my people could die because of that.
After arguing we came to the conclusion that
we would give the codes to open the bank vault
that would make them happy and an exchange of
prisoners could also be made. After having agreed
on that I made a call to the captors and told
them that the codes will be given if some of the
hostages were freed. The deal was made and they
assured me as soon as the vault was opened they
would free five hostages.
After a good fifteen minutes in which I was hoping and praying that the codes that I gave him were correct, suddenly the bank doors were opened and five of my bank people came out running. They were scared, and praying to the good lord that they were safe and sound.
The cashier who I had known very well was called by the police to ask for information on what was going on inside. He confirmed with us the fact that they were three captors in there with ten people as hostages. The captors had automatic rifles and explosives attached to them; they were indeed from some Eastern country.
I was happy that five of my people were safe but the ordeal was far from over, I still had ten more people who were stuck inside and the possibility of seeing a happy ending to all this was far from being true. However, the fact that they had freed five people gave me signs of renewed hope. The situation was very tense as the SWAT teams were waiting for a chance to come up with a plan. I phoned the police department to ask him what I should do next. All that he could tell me was to wait and see what new developments takes place. After what seemed like an eternity, the phone rang, the captors were calling, and they had asked me if I had devised a plan for them to get to the airport for their safe passage. I told them that I was working on things for them so that they and the hostages would be safe. However, they told me to get a bus so that the money and the hostages could go to the airport.
I managed to convince them that if I managed
to convince the Police about this they would have
to release some more hostages to show the Police
department that the captors meant their every
word good or bad. This had somehow managed to
convince them and said that they would release
five more people and the other five would be released
as soon as they are satisfied with the situation
of the plane at the airport.
The bus was bought in the driver was asked to move out of the bus and an escort car would lead them to the airport on roads that had been cleared before hand so if any outward incident happened they could handle the situation without anymore civilians getting hurt. I had to go with the officer in charge who would brief me on the plan that was devised to apprehend the captors and how the deal would be made.
The plan was that the remaining hostages were to go in the plane and hopefully that they would not have anyone who would know how to drive the plane. The entire plane would be full of SWAT team members and FBI people ready to take the kidnappers dead or alive. The deal was that once the hostages would be free the FBI and the SWAT team would look after the rest. The Emergency Rescue Team would be hiding in different places of the plane.
Once we arrived at the airport, we then informed the captors that the plane was ready and they could enter the plane. They covered themselves with one huge black cloth and the hostages and the captors went below the camouflage of the black cloth. Therefore, the possibility that the money was being carried between them was much higher.
They then released two hostages and told me that the others will be released as soon as the plane was checked. My heart was beating at about 200 beats per minute, as I was scared that in case the agents on board the plane were found they would be a shootout and that could mean instant death of my people. Something happened that later I discovered that one of the men was spotted, but due to some miraculous intervention my people were saved. However, one of them was badly injured and had to be admitted to the hospital where he was pronounced out of the danger. In the event one of the FBI had died in his attempt to save one of the hostages, and I salute the officer for putting his life on the line. |