Chapter 13 Tuesday 2015 hours (8:15 PM)

The meeting with Brian had gone as planned, but Joshua felt unexplainably angry. Anger as well as all other strong emotions were foreign to him. Ever since he was a kid, he suppressed his emotions. You were less likely to get hurt if you didn't show your feelings. Joshua thought back to his tortured childhood and his lost youth and began to soften.

"No," he shouted. He made fists with both hands and hit his knuckles together until it hurt.

He was interrupted by the walkie-talkie. The message wasn't for him, but he took it anyway. It was a Calfer on patrol who was reporting the re-capture of the Jeffrey kid. Joshua, who didn’t even know about the escape, was furious, both about the escape, and about not knowing about it.

"Take the little escape artist, and lock him up. Over," said Joshua.

"Lock him up? Where? Over."

Joshua thought a moment.

"In the snow leopard enclosure, Over."

There was a pause.

"Don’t worry," said Joshua. "The leopards are out prowling the zoo. The cage is empty. You’ll find the key on the hook outside the enclosure. Lock the kid up and bring the keys back to me at the end of your shift. Over and out."

Joshua slammed the walkie-talkie back on its belt snap. Then he picked it up again. He was getting fed up with these escapes. Joshua had noticed earlier that the first floor windows of all the buildings were barred. Joshua directed his message to the head of the guard duty. The hostages were to be moved from the second floor to the first. Brian should be the one to give this order, but Joshua knew that after the lesson, Brian would not be a problem.

Joshua smiled. He knew it was time for him to take command, and Yes. It was certainly time to hurt a hostage.