6:28 P.M.
It’s all too much, Miranda thinks as she looks at Grace screaming over the bodies of Cole and his brother—only a few feet apart from each other. There’s been so much carnage today. She can’t do this anymore. She just can’t. She squeezes her eyes closed.
But then above the shouts and screams of the hostages and the orders of the police, she hears a little voice shrieking.
She opens her eyes. Her stomach bottoms out. No, she thinks. No, please, God, I’m not seeing this.
Facing the police, one of the killers is holding Moxie tight against his chest with his left arm. His other hand has shoved the silenced pistol so tightly under her chin that it’s forcing her small tearstained face to look up at the ceiling.
Moxie must know that it’s a gun, because she’s not squirming, not kicking her feet. Instead, she is perfectly still.
Miranda fights off a surge of nausea.
“Moxie! No! Moxie!” Parker’s voice hitches and rises a notch. His empty hands reach out to her. He’s about twenty feet away, but it’s clear he doesn’t dare go any closer.
The cops nearest the killer go still and watchful. Nothing moves but their eyes. The stillness ripples out as hostages and rescuers alike realize the horror is still not over.
“Back off or I’m going to kill this kid!” the killers’ leader says. His voice cuts through the remaining din. “You need to get me a car. And then you’re going to let me walk out of here.”
No one moves. One of the policemen says in a slow and careful voice, “Okay, let’s talk about this.”
“Don’t talk,” he commands. “Do.” He shifts the pistol so that it’s pressed against Moxie’s arm. “Get me that car. NOW. Or I’ll start by shooting her in the hand or the foot.”
If he leaves with Moxie, then she’s dead. It’s as simple as that. Discarded as soon as she’s no longer needed. Or killed in a high-speed chase. Or when a policeman’s bullet misses its intended target.
And if she dies, Miranda is sure that a big part of Parker will too.
Someone has to stop this.
Miranda remembers the scarves stuffed in her pocket, the ones they had originally planned to use to tie up anyone who came to check out the remote-control car. Now she pulls out a length of silky fabric and loops an end tight around each hand. The killer’s attention is on the cops facing him. Not on the hostages behind him.
Before she can think better of it, Miranda runs up behind him, ignoring how the broken glass bites at her stockinged feet. She loops the scarf over his head and around his neck and then jerks back as hard and as fast as she can. He staggers back, falling to his butt, which sends Miranda to her knees. As his left hand rises to claw at the scarf, Moxie squirms free and runs to Parker. But the killer doesn’t loosen his grip on the pistol. In fact, he keeps rotating his hand so that his gun is pointing behind him. Pointing right at her. Desperate to choke off his oxygen, Miranda pulls even harder. But she still sees his finger begin to tighten on the trigger.
With a flat clang, scorching metal punches her forehead, snapping it back. Hot blood pours down her face.
Then everything goes white.
MURDERS, HOSTAGE TAKING
AT PORTLAND’S FAIRGATE MALL
REVEALED TO BE SMOKESCREEN
FOR $22 MILLION HEIST
(Associated Press)
Portland, Ore.—The FBI has revealed that the brazen shooting spree and hostage taking at Portland’s Fairgate Mall last December was not just an act of domestic terrorism but also a distraction that allowed thieves to make off unmolested with more than $22 million in precious metals. The thieves are still at large, and the gold and silver they stole has not yet been recovered.
Nineteen people died in the attack, including three of the killers. Another twenty-three people were wounded. Several victims are still undergoing treatment for their injuries.
The group behind the attack, Liberty Makers, have in the past described themselves as patriots. They claim that the greatest threat America faces is not from hostile countries or Islamic terrorists but from the federal government. Authorities say group members are heavily armed extremists with an anti-government mindset. Many are current or former members of the military.
Mark Goforth of the Southern Poverty Law Center says, “The core ideas of these so-called patriot groups relate to the fear that elites in this country and around the world are nefariously moving us toward a one-world government.”
The group was led by a charismatic ex-Marine named Karl McKinley. Other members included the three Bond brothers. Gabriel and Zach Bond had both been honorably discharged from the army after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their younger brother, Nicholas “Cole” Bond, had recently graduated from high school. All three had trouble finding jobs that paid much more than minimum wage. Disillusioned, they joined Liberty Makers. The two older brothers had finally gotten work as security guards at Fairgate Mall. There, they introduced another security guard, Ron Skinner, to their cause. Tim Hollingsworth, a sixth Liberty Maker who joined the assault at the mall, had a long criminal record for petty crimes such as shoplifting and public drunkenness. Hollingsworth, along with Nicholas and Zach Bond, ultimately died in the mall.
What the others in the group didn’t know was that McKinley had become disillusioned. Even though he had founded the group, he no longer believed it was possible to change society. So he decided to use Liberty Makers for his own purposes. He had learned about a shipment of gold and silver bars that would be aboard a tractor-trailer traveling from Boise, Idaho, to a processing plant in Vancouver, Washington. He wanted to rob the truck but needed a distraction so that he could get away clean.
The attack at Fairgate Mall provided that distraction. He persuaded the group that a blitz attack on the mall, followed by the holding of hostages, would bring needed attention to their cause.
McKinley’s plan worked. By the time the theft of the precious metals was reported, all law enforcement within a hundred miles was busy responding to the unfolding tragedy at Fairgate Mall. A robbery, even one of such high-value items, had to be put on the back burner.
In the intervening weeks, authorities have not been able to locate McKinley or any associates he may have had and they fear that he may have fled the country. The two surviving attackers—Skinner and Gabriel Bond—claim to have had no knowledge of McKinley’s secondary plan and not to know his current whereabouts.