Lorne sighed and wiped the sweat from his upper lip. The young woman, he thought, was far too young and attractive for this line of work. Young people should be distanced from such things, not placed directly in their path and hardened by them before they had a chance to fully take the measure of life.
It was almost two hours before the cars began to arrive. First came Marion, then David, Monica and Katie. Half an hour after that came Richard, Lynn and Sarah, along with Lorne’s partner Ken and his family. None were injured, though all were white-faced and shaken.
The moment all were safely within the confines of the house, Garth entered from the back and took Lorne aside. Before Lorne could say a word, Garth began to speak.
‘Of the twelve gunmen ten surrendered without incident. One took his own life, and the last died in a hail of bullets when he opened fire and tried to take a hostage. All of the gunmen are foreigners: two are Austrian, five are Belgian, two are Russian, two are from the United States and the last is Canadian. The one that took his own life was Belgian; the one that got himself shot was the sole Canadian, a Canadian citizen possibly of Lebanese origin.