25 Hours

Jake Barlow and his wife Anne have been living a sedate life, after Jake has helped the Police solve some difficult murders. He and Anne were threatened at these times, and were glad to be finished with dead bodies, guns and knives. He begins to write books and life is peaceful. Until Jake goes into Brisbane city to do some banking and then looks forward to meeting beautiful Anne for lunch. It's a nice spring morning and Jake is at peace, waiting for his appointment at the bank. He sees three young men of middle eastern appearance come into the bank and then begin shooting, killing a security guard and taking over the bank. When things calm they let it be known that their 20 hostages will be sacrificed until the Australian people contribute ten million dollars to a ransom fund. They have three million from the bank so need seven million. Jake takes a lead role and, despite being bashed by the Jihadists, continues to try to reason with them. When donations to the ransom slow, the Muslims kill two hostages and a plain cloths policeman, detected because of his concealed pistol. The bandits decide to use Jake as a conduit for their demands, through Anne, who eventually is in touch with the Prime Minister. Jake formulates a secret plan but things go wrong until Jake can reason with the Muslims. Their demands for safe transport with the ransom money are met and they travel to an aerodrome where a jet plane awaits. Jake is tied and is kept by the bandits as the last hostage after they release all the others. They are going to take Jake to Syria where they will publicly behead him because he's been a difficult hostage Jake is securely bound with tape and a necklace bomb and a suicide bomb are attached. The watching Annie thinks that, finally, her husband has met his match. She watches , in agony, as the TV shows Jake being loaded on the jet, which takes off for Syria and his certain death. But she still has faith in her husband...

Jake Barlow, now retired from murder investigations, and living a peaceful life with his wife Annie, sets out on a nice spring morning, In Brisbane, to do some banking business, some research for his latest book and some lunch with beautiful Anne. But the bank is invaded by three young Muslims, wanting to rob it to fund the Jihad in Syria. They are ruthless, killing two security guards and a plain clothes policeman and, eventually two hostages, of the 20 they've taken. They know the Federal Government will not pay a ransom and challenge the Australian people to contribute to a ransom fund to save their countrymen. They've set up a bank account and the contributions trickle in. Jake decides to take them on and formulates a plan to thwart them. He is being used by the Jihadists as a conduit to the outside world by talking to Anne on mobile phone and he conveys his plan to her. He tries to reason with the young Muslims and they gradually relax as the fund builds up. By 10 am the next day, 25 hours after their invasion of the bank, they agree that the ransom fund is filled, and they load the money, and a bound Jake onto a van to be delivered to a jet at an airport. They release the hostages and Jake, now strapped into a suicide bomb and a necklace bomb, is the last hostage. They propose to take him to Syria to be publicly beheaded. People, including a distraught Anne, watch on TV as Jake is loaded on the plane and they take off for Syria. Anne has been loudly proclaiming to her family that Jake is indestructible, but as they see Jake securely bound and loaded on the plane, she wonders if her husband's wonderful resourcefulness and courage are going to fail him. But, deep down, she has faith that Jake will escape....

R L Humphries lives in Queensland, Australia by the sea and not far from where he was born and trained as a newspaper reporter. He moved to Brisbane to work on the State's biggest morning daily and then later to Papua/New Guinea as a correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Commission. While there he covered the big search for Michael Rockefeller, son of the then Governor of New York State, Nelson Rockefeller. He also covered an attempted Indonesian invasion of Dutch West New Guinea and witnessed the handing over of that country to Indonesia by the United Nations. He was due to transfer to Singapore in the South-East Asian office but took a job with the State Government in Brisbane until his retirement. He now fishes and writes.