35 A NARROW ESCAPE

KAREN'S POV While waiting for the baby girl to fall asleep, I continued to watch the online footage. The leader had made a statement about what he wanted, but no one had responded. I watched as the people were beaten, treated badly and robbed in broad daylight. The cops were outside but could not penetrate into the hotel due to the large number of hostages. Then, I thought of movies I had watched that had similar scenes. “Will the cops be working a way out to free us? Are they digging a hidden tunnel already? Will they invade and just start shooting? Or will they drop their teams on the roof? So they can slowly come into the hotel with the terrorists knowing?” I asked myself without knowing the answers. I looked over at the baby and realized she was not ready to sleep anytime soon. I sighed and continued to watch. I became startled when the leader came to speak, again. “Simon Dales. You know we are here for you. It's better you surrender what you