PART 12: The Confrontation on the Quay
"If you come a step closer, I'll throw the child in the water!" screamed the man in a hoarse, hysterical voice from the deck of the trapped yacht. My heart felt like it stopped beating. The world around me vanished; there was only that little pink bundle in his rough hands. The police officers held their breath and took a step back so as not to push the man further into a corner.
Mr. Van Dijk ran over and held me back as I tried to run onto the pier myself. "Wait, let the negotiators..." he began, but I wrenched myself free. I ran to the edge of the quay, directly opposite the yacht, and screamed with all the strength I had: "No! Don't do it! Don't hurt her!" The man looked at me with wild eyes. "You ruined this! You should have kept your mouth shut!" he yelled back, holding the bundle over the dark, churning water.
At that exact moment, I heard a sound I hadn't expected—the soft buzzing of a police drone hovering silently out of the fog above the yacht. Lightning-fast, the drone flashed a blinding floodlight right into the man's eyes, causing him to squeeze them shut in disorientation and lose his balance. That was the exact second the tactical team had been waiting for. With a swift leap from the patrol boat, two officers climbed aboard, tackled the man to the ground, and ripped the pink bundle from his arms. A few seconds later, a baby's cry carried across the water. It sounded louder than ever before.
