"How'd they ID him?" asked George. "Did they watch him go in?"

Volont shook his head. "He wasn't the one I'd picked, remember? My pick got lost in the fucking fog." He sounded disgusted. "The replacement is Unger. Built like a fullback. Moves like a cat. Looks nothing like a clerk or teller. They probably just took one look and neutralized him."

Sure. The agent in the bank would have been under very strict orders not to endanger anybody, so if they picked him out right away… I would hate to be in the shoes of the "lost" agent when Volont got hold of him.

He resumed his conversation on the radio. "Each post… check your six, very carefully," he said. Warning the agents to make sure there was nobody trying to maneuver into position behind them.

As he put the mike down, a klaxon began to sound in the distance. We all looked toward the bank. No apparent activity there.

"What is that damned thing?" asked Hester.

The phone rang, and Sally answered. We were all expecting Gabriel, I think. She listened for a second, and leapt to her feet, looking out the window toward the General Beauregard. We followed her gaze. Through the thickening fog, we could make out what seemed to be thick green smoke coming from the after section of the boat. Green.

"What burns green?" asked George.

"The horn sounding off is the fire alarm on the boat," said Sally. "This is our office, and they've got a fire alarm on the boat."

There was a small marine band radio on top of a filing cabinet in a corner of Hester's office. It came to life.

"General Beauregard to the DCI office in the Port of Frieberg," came a calm, clear voice. "This is Captain Hanson, calling the DCI office at the Port of Frieberg."

Hester picked up the mike. "Beauregard, this is Agent Gorse. Go ahead."

"Ma'am," said Captain Hanson, "there's a man here with a mask on and a gun to my head, who says I'm to call you and give you a situation report on my vessel."

Hester was more self-possessed than I was at that point. She actually answered in a normal tone of voice. "Go ahead with your report."

"Well, ma'am, first of all we don't have any fire. I repeat, there is no fire. We have some intruders who pulled the alarm and say they just set off a smoke candle. Then my engineer tells me that we have an engineering casualty, in that somebody has set off a little bit of explosive that has disabled our engines. We don't have a fire. We still have generating capability, but we can't move the boat under her own power."

"Right," said Hester.

"Then," said the captain, "the head of security tells me that the cash cages on the oh-one, oh-two, and oh-three decks and the counting room on the second deck have just been forcibly entered by armed men. They are going to remove all the money from the ship." He paused.

"Yes…" said Hester.

"And I'm to tell you that we don't have any casualties yet."

Silence.

"Captain?"

Nothing. Hester picked up her binoculars, and looked toward the Beauregard. "I can't see for shit…" She paused. "The green smoke is letting up… I think…"

The marine band radio came back to life. "DO?"

"Go ahead, Captain," said Hester.

"This man says that they are to be allowed off the boat unhindered, or they will sink her." You could faintly hear some other voice in the background. "And he also says that they are going to break our radios here, and that they've confiscated all the walkie-talkies from security. I guess this is the last trans…"

It apparently was.

"Fuck," said Art. He did have a way with words.

"We don't negotiate yet," said Volont. "We don't know enough."

"This isn't yours," said Hester. "There are about six hundred people on that boat. This is us and the sheriff only. We have jurisdiction here."

I would have been just as happy if she had left me and my department out of it. "We'd appreciate your help, though," I said.

Hester glared at me. I shrugged. She and I had no assets on the ground in this one. Ours were all at the other banks… A lightbulb might as well have come on over my head.

I held up my right hand, and counted on my fingers, out loud. "One, the Frieberg bank. Two, the cash cage on the oh-three deck. Three, the cash cage on the oh-two deck. Four, the cash cage on the oh-one deck. Five, the counting room on the second deck." I grinned. "That's our 'five banks.' And they're close together, just like everybody said."

In the silence, I told Sally to contact the Sheriffs Department, and have all the troops watching the other areas head for Frieberg. "Ten-thirty-three all the way, please."

Nobody argued.

"You want the chopper up here, too?" asked Sally.

"Yeah, if it can fly in this stuff. Might as well have her close. The airport across the river will be just fine, if the fog permits. Otherwise, anywhere close they can land."

"The fog's just along the river," interjected Sally. "The higher areas are clear. They don't have any fog at all in Maitland…"

"Excellent." I looked at Volont, who was calmly staring out the window, toward the vague shape of the Beauregard. "Trying to do it to us again, isn't he?"

He didn't answer.

Art, bless him, was doing his usual muttering to himself, and came up with a good point. "So, how is this supposed to work?" he asked, rhetorically. "I mean, he gets his people out of the bank… okay… then he gets off the boat with those people… they leave, and we get them, right?" He looked around. "I mean, what's the advantage here? How's he gonna sink the boat after he leaves? Why would he sink it after he left?" He kept tapping his foot on the side of a metal desk, unconsciously. "I don't get this… all we gotta do is watch him leave, and hustle the people off the boat…"

Good point. One I somehow was sure Gabriel hadn't overlooked.

"Let's get boat security up here," said Hester. She spoke to Art. "Get our bosses informed, and get supervisors and hostage negotiators on the way. Get a second TAC team, too."

"Maybe," said George, "we should call the bank like Gabriel suggested we do?"

George always comes through in a pinch. Volont just nodded at him. George waved his hand at Sally. "What's the number of the bank?"

Sally, who was on the phone to our office, getting everybody heading our way, simply reached over and threw the phone book at him. In itself it was no big thing, inasmuch as the phone book for all of Nation County is less than an inch thick. But it was the thought that counted, and it helped to break the tension. Especially since George was caught off guard, and missed the book.

Our secure radio came back to life. "CP from Alpha Two? Two things, up there. One is that, ah, we have another truck backing toward the bank. And there seems to be a problem on that gambling boat…" Alpha 2 was about 100 yards closer to the boat than we were. They apparently could see her, anyway.

"Yeah, and Alpha Mobile has the new truck, too. Straight truck, double axle, with a lift gate."

Maybe they were going to take the change as well. Regardless, it sure looked like they weren't worried about time.

"I've got the teller on the line," shouted George. Since nobody else was talking at the time, it sounded sort of strange. "She says," he said, in a more normal tone, "that everybody is just fine, and that they are going to set off another explosion." He held his hand up for silence. Nobody was talking. "Uh-oh, I've got a fireman coming to the phone now…"

"Calm down," said Volont.

George looked surprised. He hadn't realized he was shouting. "I see… I see… yes, that's very considerate, isn't it? Yes…"

He looked up. "The firemen say that they've been allowed to watch, and that the bad guys are going to take out a section of wall with explosives, so they can load straight into the truck on that side. That they will seek shelter in the vault, and that the firemen are supposed to be ready in case of fire." He was back on the phone. "Right, all right. Yes, we will…"