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“I… I don’t know why…” Tom started, and his voice wavered.
“Then think, rookie,” one of the officers snapped. “You know something…”
“Don’t jump to conclusions, buddy,” Kuno growled, leaning out from cover. “You’ve got nothing to think with as it is. Keep talking and you’ll end up without a head at all.”
The threat in the air thickened. Korbl edged backward. Just then Commissioner Engel, finishing his phone call, strode toward me.
“We’re not doing this,” he said, shaking his head, eyes still on the screen. “We’re not finding his goddamn accomplice among our own. He might not even have one. That bastard’s just buying time. Question is — why?”
He tore his gaze from the phone for a second.
“I got through to his psychiatrist. I wanted to understand what this psycho wants, but… Dr. Kruspe is out of town. He can’t come in to talk to Wulf, and he won’t say a damn thing over the phone without a court order. Fucking bureaucracy’s going to get people killed again.”
His fingers flicked through contacts and he dialed the precinct.
“Hello. Where’s the building plan? Diana, are you kidding me? Or are you waiting until he starts executing hostages? Move!”
Meanwhile, the voices by the cars grew louder — the conflict kept boiling.
“Betrayal’s about to surface! Don’t drag this out — save lives!” “So who’s the accomplice?”
“Kuno, why the hell are you quiet?!”
“Shut up, Dieter! You’re getting on my nerves!” Kuno yelled back.
“None of us is an accomplice! Are you out of your minds?” Tom said, frightened. “He could’ve left already… right when some of you pulled back from the cordon.”
“That’s why he ordered you two to stay!” someone shot back from the crowd.
“Hey!” Engel barked, deciding it was time to step in. “Shut up and do your jobs — now!”
“Everything’s under control, Commissioner!” Kuno called back — and in the same second he lunged. In two strides he reached Dieter, grabbed him by the front of his jacket, and slammed him hard into the fence.
Engel’s face went crimson with rage.
“I’ll fire both of you right now! What the hell kind of shitshow is this?”
“It’s fine,” Kuno said calmly, returning to his cover. “He just pissed me off.”
Even though Kuno knew2 that commissioners these days could barely do anything to their subordinates — more duties than actual authority — he still treated Engel with respect.
I glanced at my watch. Two minutes left.
“Plans come through? This is getting out of — ”
“No,” Becker said tensely, gripping the phone like he wanted to crush it. “Diana’s waiting on an Oracle to sign off… EMS and the fire department are en route, and the entry team’s at the intersection.”
“You really think one of us is his guy?”
Honestly, it was easy to believe.
“Hell, Klos, how would I know!” Engel snapped. “That scum loves planting paranoia…”
Hans grabbed his radio and checked in with the unit behind the warehouse. As expected, nobody confessed.
Everyone fell silent, sinking into an ocean of their own thoughts, fears, and suspicions…
“Eight minutes are up!” Reinhold said coldly. “What’s your answer?”
“So what do we tell him?” I asked the commissioner quietly.
Engel’s eyes moved over everyone, one by one. Kuno — hotheaded, crude, defiant, ex-military — Engel knew him well and didn’t believe anyone that blunt was capable of playing a double game. Tom fit even less — an overwhelmed rookie who could barely stay on his feet.
“Klos, you’ll have to tell him we don’t know. Ask what he wants. The main thing — stall for time.”
With numb fingers, I raised the bullhorn to my lips. “We don’t know, Reinhold. What do you want?”
A voice came back, full of staged disappointment: “You trust your people so blindly… Fine. That’s why I’m here. Now I’ll show you what kind of moral freaks are standing among you. But first…”
A shot rang out. The echo slammed into the warehouse walls and rolled down the street.
Thomas squeezed his eyes shut and let out a choked whimper, fists clenched.
“My secret helper — I’m speaking to you: your cowardice, greed, and worthlessness have just cost a man his life. The old man died because you kept your mouth shut. So what are you feeling now? What are you thinking, my friend? Do you remember the moment you stopped being human? I remember mine perfectly. We’re two monsters, you and I… And how many more monsters are sleeping inside the people standing there? They’re just waiting for their full moon… Werewolves! Tonight you will all witness the awakening of one of them!”
Reinhold let the silence sit.
“By the way, there are fewer of us now. Which means one of the police pigs has to leave your herd. Immediately! And I repeat — Kuno and Thomas stay. We still need them.”
It felt like Reinhold’s voice carried some kind of hypnotic effect: it wormed into your head and made you doubt everyone standing beside you. Even I felt it for a second — something scraping at me from the inside: paranoia, so sticky it wouldn’t let go.
He hadn’t named the accomplice — so did that person now have a chance to disappear before it was too late… or to stay put, so as not to raise suspicion? Which was it? Who was he?
Once again I slowly scanned the faces around me. Farthest away, in the shadow of a squad car, stood Korbl — pale and hunched in on himself.
“I’m gonna take a piss,” he tossed to the commissioner, eyes down. “I’ll be with the others at the intersection, okay?”
Engel stared at him with a look that could drill through armor, and gave a short nod.
“Don’t leave the rally point. We may need backup at any moment. Wait for orders.”
Hands in his pockets, Korbl walked along the road without looking back.
The commissioner followed him with his eyes, then pulled out his phone and gave someone an order:
“Gross is heading to the intersection. Don’t let him leave until I say so.”
Meanwhile, Reinhold made sure there was one less cop. He waited until the officer’s figure dissolved into the darkness at a safe distance, then spoke again:
“Well. Balance restored. Now we can continue. Tell me — what would you do with a couple million ameros3? Think hard. What would you be willing to do to get it fast and easy, without risking your life at a shitty job, without spending your best years on it? That’s exactly what my pet monster got paid for his work. He found the hostages, snatched them… and brought tonight’s main course right to me: Thomas and Kuno — true opposites, like yin and yang, made partners by fate. I know there’s a beast sleeping in one of them. And I’m the one who’s going to let it out of its cage.”
“What do you want in exchange for the hostages?” I tried to seize the initiative.
“Shut up!” he barked back. “You finally need to wake up and understand what kind of scum surrounds us! The vermin that have overrun this sick city… Their souls left them a long time ago! All that’s left are animals driven by greed — by mindless, planet-killing overconsumption.”
He drew a deep breath.
“And now…” Reinhold said, “let the show begin. I’m going to give you the names of the remaining hostages. Listen.” And he started listing them — slowly, pausing after each one. “Marta… Dirk… Ansobert… the Meyers: Ida and Adolf…”
Thomas looked up at the warehouse. Horror and disbelief mixed on his face — as if, in a single instant, all his armor had been ripped away. Fear locked him up for a heartbeat, paralyzed him, and then a heavy shudder ran through his body.
“Mom?..” he breathed, the word coming out as a strangled whisper. “Dad?”
A dead silence settled over the scene, broken only by Tom’s sobbing — short, ragged bursts, like he couldn’t catch his breath.
A car door slammed. Kuno stepped out slowly, eyes never leaving the window. His face was stone, but something dark — something dangerous — flickered in his pupils.
Engel, usually unflappable, a man who’d probably seen everything there was to see, was now filled with some kind of primal fear. For the first time in all the years I’d known him, I saw him like this — knocked off balance, almost lost. He stood frozen, as if he didn’t know what to do.
“To hell with those clearances!” the commissioner roared and, pulling out his phone, crouched and sprinted for the rear of the warehouse. “Come on, Diana — pick up, goddamn it!”
The ringing tightened nerves that were already stretched to snapping. Finally a woman’s voice came through.
“Well?!” Engel exhaled as he burst onto the riverfront behind the warehouse.
A pause.
He listened, teeth clenched.
“The neighboring warehouse? Perfect. The entry team has breaching charges. But we need reinforcements — one unit at every intersection on both sides of the warehouse. And a boat on the river, now!”
“…”
“I don’t care if it’s janitors — pull them off desks, pull them off calls — nothing is more important than this right now… Damn it! And for the love of God, hurry.”
* * *
Meanwhile, Reinhold kept playing his deadly game: “And finally… the Werners: Caroline and Franziska…”
Kuno froze for a beat — then slammed his fist into the hood so hard it left a deep dent. Snatching up his pistol, eyes blazing with hate, he charged toward the warehouse.
“You’re dead, you piece of shit!” His roar was pure, uncontrolled rage.
“Stop!” I shouted, rushing after Kuno. He didn’t listen. “Stop!” I repeated, harder. “You’re risking the hostages’ lives! Stop right now!”
“I don’t give a fuck! Fuck off!”
I tried to grab him, but Kuno shoved me aside roughly, the last scraps of self-control gone.
“Explosives! Did you forget?! We have to move carefully! This whole place could go up!”
He stopped. His heavy breathing made his shoulders pump up and down in a frantic rhythm.
I got up, stepped closer, and set a hand on his shoulder — careful, but firm.
“Let’s just hear him out,” I said quietly, as calm as I could manage, though I was barely holding it together myself. “Find out what he wants. We’ll stop that bastard…”
Kuno drew a deep, ragged breath. Then let it out slowly. His fingers still held the pistol grip in a death grip.
“We don’t do a damn thing, like always… We stand here like idiots… and those animals up in the brass…” He looked at me like it hurt to breathe. “You don’t understand, Klos! My wife and my daughter are in there!”
“I understand,” I whispered, squeezing his shoulder tighter. “That’s exactly why we have to hear him out. Buy time. You can’t act on impulse. Chaos — that’s what he’s waiting for. Reinhold is provoking us on purpose. Don’t give him that. Engel is working on a way through this. Trust him.”
Kuno shook his head. Hopelessness and fear stared out of his eyes.
“He’s a fucking psycho! That scum will kill them all anyway — it’s only a matter of time!”
“Then we have to win that time,” I said quietly, but firmly. “If you rush in there now, nobody’s going to have a chance. You’ll put everyone in danger — them and us. Come on. Get a grip. We’ll find a smart, safe way out.”
He stared at me for a long moment, hard and searching. Then he took one more deep breath, lowered the weapon, and nodded.
The rain didn’t let up. It drummed on car roofs and our shoulders, washing dust off the asphalt. Cold drops slid down behind our collars, but nobody noticed. Something very dangerous was building — something terrifying. We didn’t understand it yet. Not fully. Or how far its consequences would reach…
* * *
Thomas dialed his mother, fingers trembling. Ring. Again. Again. Then silence. The phone slipped from his hand and splashed into a filthy puddle.
Rain and tears ran together down his face. He didn’t even bend to pick the phone up — he just stood there, staring into nothing.
I lifted the bullhorn again.
“What’s next, Reinhold? What do you want?”
The answer came instantly.
“I just… want to play.”
His face flickered in the window — a wide, ugly grin stretching his mouth.
“The rules are simple. I won’t repeat them. Someone’s silence kills. Someone else’s silence can save lives. My accomplice’s silence just sent an old man — innocent in your eyes — to the other side. So now he’s not just a bought-and-paid-for sellout — he’s a killer. But their silence,” Reinhold gestured toward Kuno and Thomas, “might save someone.”
The silence turned unbearable. The watch on my wrist buzzed for the third time in ten minutes, warning me my heart rate was too high.
Reinhold went on: “So. Right beside me are your mother and father, Thomas — your dear parents. They’re scared to death. Crying. On their knees, begging to speak to you one last time. Looks like they’ve already made their peace with dying, but it’s not for me to decide their fate. And it’s not for you either, Tom. Whether they’re lying tomorrow in neighboring graves, dead on the same day… or whether they’ll tear out of this city with you, improvising a new life as they go — their fate will be decided by… Kuno.”
Kuno’s mouth fell open in shock. He turned slowly toward Thomas and spread his hands, helpless.
“And who’s this little girl here? Franziska, is it?” Reinhold continued in a sweet, vile voice. “And her mother, Caroline… God, they’re adorable. And they look so alike. She takes after her mom, huh? That’s what people say, right?”
“Give me the bullhorn, Klos,” Kuno said through clenched teeth — and without waiting for me to respond, he stepped in and yanked it out of my hands.
“Listen to me, you bastard!” he screamed into the window, his voice rasping with rage. “You lay a finger on them and I’ll kill you! I’ll rip your guts out and wrap them around your ugly head. You hear me, you piece of shit?!”
Reinhold only laughed in reply.
“You know what? I believe you. I studied you for a long time, Kuno. You always thought force solves everything. But right now your strength can only get in the way. Your daughter’s life — and your wife’s — aren’t in your powerful hands. They’re in Thomas’s weak, shaking little ones!”
Kuno let out an animal howl and whirled toward us. The officers began to close around him slowly, like he was a cornered beast — ready to stop him from doing something irreversible.
“Back the fuck off!” he roared, raising his pistol.
Reinhold watched our reaction for a moment, then continued:
“You can keep poking a wounded animal with a stick, waiting for the monster to break loose and gun you down in a rabid fit. You won’t stop him. So I suggest we take a breath and listen to the rules of the game — especially since neither you nor I have time to waste. The piggies are surely looking for a way inside, if they haven’t found it already. The rules are simple: two hostages will die. That part doesn’t depend on you. But you can try to save your own.”
He let that hang, and in the silence the only sound was the broken whistle in Kuno’s chest.
“You’ll have exactly eight minutes. If I don’t hear what I need in that time, I’ll give the choice to one of the hostages — say, that student. If he can’t handle it, he dies himself. Your loved ones could end up in bags. Or they might not. Roulette. But there’s another way…”
His voice sharpened.
“I’m talking to you, Thomas. Tell me something interesting about Werner — something truly dirty — and I’ll release your parents immediately, but… I’ll kill his daughter and his wife. Same offer for you, Kuno. Air Thomas’s dirty laundry — and the Meyers die, while your family lives, and you get to see your Franziska alive again.”
Reinhold gave a tired sigh, as if he was already bored by it all.
“Before you do anything, remember this: the people sitting in front of me don’t want to die. And don’t forget — those three… they have families too.”
Once again a crushing silence settled over the warehouse.
“So,” the psychopath continued, “you’re facing a difficult dilemma. How much do you trust each other? How much do your loved ones’ lives matter to you? Can you keep your mouths shut? Eight minutes. The choice is yours.”
Thomas collapsed onto the asphalt, clutching his head in both hands. His face went pale, his lower lip trembled, and his big, frightened eyes stared into emptiness — like he’d lost his grip on reality.
Kuno threw the bullhorn down at his feet, yanked his wallet from his pocket, and flipped it open. In the photo, his wife and little daughter looked back at him. A cold raindrop fell straight onto Franziska’s face… or was it a tear?
“My love,” Kuno whispered, tracing the picture with his finger. Then he snapped his head up and locked onto Thomas. “No… I won’t let them die. I won’t. You so much as squeak, you pup, and I’ll tear you to pieces! You hear me?! You hear me? Answer me!”
“Kuno, calm down,” I said as gently as I could, taking a cautious step forward. We were slowly tightening the circle, careful not to provoke him.
“Klos, shut up. For once.”
“But you don’t understand — » Hans started.
“All of you, shut the hell up!!! Don’t get involved! This isn’t your business!”
He didn’t blink. His stare was pinned to Thomas — heavy, wild, like he was ready to pounce at any second.
A flash of lightning tore his twisted face out of the darkness. Swaying slightly, he moved in on his partner and clamped his hand around his throat.
“Let him go!” I shouted — but he didn’t hear me.
“Tom… look at them. Look at my little girl…” he said in a harsh half-whisper. “She’s got her whole life ahead of her… You don’t want her to die because of you, do you?”
Thomas shook his head frantically.
“No,” he forced out through tears. “We’ll stay quiet… we will…”
“I have to save them. I don’t have a choice.”
“No!” Tom screamed with such desperate force that something inside me clenched.
I stepped aside and called Engel. The situation had collapsed. We needed decisions — now. Where the hell was he when we needed him most?! Busy. Damn it.
“Time’s ti-i-icking!” Reinhold sang.
Kuno started trembling.
“Two random hostages… that’s our best option!” I tried to stop them.
Christ, what am I saying? The best option is to burn that bastard alive… but Engel probably has orders to bring him in alive.
“Best option? For us?” Kuno snapped. “There is no ‘us’! There’s me and my family. And my best option is saving them!”
“What if he’s bluffing?” I blurted. “What if your loved ones aren’t even in there? Did you think of that?”
Sure, Thomas wasn’t a saint — none of us were. But what could Kuno even say about his partner? The kid had graduated the academy with honors, spotless reputation, not a single reprimand in his first year.
“One minute left!” Reinhold announced. “Everyone’s crying in here, waiting on your decision, killers…”
“Damn…” Kuno breathed. His chin was shaking, his lips had gone white. He grabbed the bullhorn and brought it to his mouth. It felt like everything around us went still, waiting. Even the branches stopped swaying in the wind, and the rain softened. And then eight shots came out of him, each one like a bullet:
“Tom… paid a bribe… bought his spot… on the force…”
And then one more, hoarse, almost a whisper:
“Sorry.”
The bullhorn slipped from his hand and hit the asphalt with a dull thud.
The wind picked up again. It felt like it burst straight out of Tom’s throat when he screamed:
“No-o-o! I… That’s a lie! I never… never did that!”
Kuno dropped to his knees beside the discarded bullhorn, covering his face with his hands. Thick blood seeped from his shot-through shoulder. He was crying — for the first time that night — silently, convulsively. It was as if the rage had left his body and moved into Thomas, driving him to scream through that mind-splitting pain squeezing at his temples.
“No! I didn’t do it! Kuno… you bastard! You goddamn bastard!”
Tom lunged for the bullhorn, stumbled, went down in a puddle — but still managed to reach the weapon of retribution…
“Tom, no!” I shouted, but it was too late.
“He… beats detainees!” Thomas yelled, his voice cracking into a shriek. “Abuse of power! Steals evidence! And I… I never paid bribes… Never did… I became a cop… I earned it… I — ”
When he finished, he rose on shaking legs, sobbing, staggered to a car, and dropped to his knees in front of it, pressing his forehead to the cold metal. His body couldn’t take it — he doubled over and vomited onto the wet asphalt.
“Son of a bitch!” Kuno bellowed and charged his partner.
He grabbed the kid by the head and smashed his face into the door with all his strength. Hans and I rushed in, barely dragging Werner back, while Dieter snatched up the bullhorn.
Thomas spat blood and stared at his partner in silence. In his eyes: a mix of horror, pain, and pure hate. He’d gotten his revenge. But did it feel any better?
“Let me go! I’ll kill him! And I’ll kill Reinhold!” Kuno snarled, fighting us. “Let go, I said!”
“Where’s the commissioner?!” Hans asked anxiously, clamping a hand on the furious father’s elbow.
“At the intersection,” I answered, eyes still fixed on the third-floor window.
“And he’d better — ”
Hans didn’t get to finish. From the warehouse came Reinhold’s voice again — nasty, as if soaked in poison:
“Your time is up. Though, honestly, it doesn’t matter anymore. I heard everything I wanted — and more. Regrettably… both families will die. You made that choice yourselves. Because you two — pigs who imagine yourselves guardians of the law — are unworthy of the uniform you wear. I didn’t doubt you for a second… Well then.”
“No…” Thomas rasped. “No! I didn’t… do anything! Kuno lied!” His voice snapped into a hysterical scream. “Don’t touch them! You bastard!”
“We’re fucked…” Kuno hissed through his teeth, wrenching against our grip. “If anything happens to them, I — Let me go, bitch!”
A shot rang out. Another. Another. And another…
Thomas collapsed to the ground and howled in pain — long, piercing, like something inside him was breaking.
“Freak!” Kuno finally tore free, yanked a pistol from Hans, and sprinted for the warehouse, firing at the third-floor window as he ran, barely even aiming.
Reinhold burst into laughter — loud, insane — and with a precise shot dropped Kuno by the fence, punching a round through his thigh.
At that moment the commissioner appeared by the warehouse, out of breath.
“Who fired?! What the hell is going on here?”
“We need to get Kuno out of here — now! And Thomas…” I blurted.
Engel, crouched low, crept to the moaning Kuno, took his weapon, slung Kuno’s arm over his shoulder, and hauled him up. Staying behind cover, they moved slowly toward the intersection.
The commissioner ordered Hans and me to take Thomas. The kid was deathly pale, his face locked in terror. His lips moved strangely, but no sound came out. We hooked our arms under his and, keeping our distance from Kuno, followed.
Reinhold watched it all with undisguised pleasure.
“I did it…” His voice trembled with excitement. “Two monsters got loose tonight!”
Then, addressing us, he shouted louder: