"Stop!" Mo Lan shouted, nary a hint of fear in her voice. "What do you guys have to be afraid of? I'm your hostage now, and you still have a couple more. Protocol dictated that we disconnect the carriages, to minimize the losses. Do you not understand this?"
"Fine. Stay your hands!" the leader of the terrorists commanded. "Miss Mo Lan is right. We have a lot of leverage. The Federal government is a democracy, right? Let's see if they'll release our comrades in exchange for these hostages. Take her cousin to the back. Miss Mo Lan, you can continue talking with your headquarters. Just understand that, from this moment on, I will execute ten hostages every five minutes until the remaining forty minutes are up. Then boom! We all go to heaven."
"Ow! That hurts!" Tang Wulin exclaimed as one of the terrorists pushed him toward the fourth carriage. Before he left, he managed to sneak a wink at Mo Lan.