Shit begins to go down as the bad guys take everyone in the library hostage. And kill Cal Granderson! NOOOOOO!!!!
Trigger Warning Chapter 25 Summary:
Jake hears the gunshots and throws himself on top of Natalie to protect her. He manages to do this without any of his usual ‘playful’ commentary about sexist microaggressions.
From their hiding space, Jake can see one of the gunmen. He assess not only the threat level, but the attractiveness of his opponent.
The man was around Jake’s age, maybe a little older, somewhere between twenty-five and thirty. Six-one, around one-seventy. Wiry. Brown hair. Good-looking in a cocky way.
Johnstone, William W.. Trigger Warning (p. 199). Kensington. Kindle Edition.
I ship it?
The gunman takes some time to assert that he’s not a terrorist and makes vague statements about his team’s “objective” to make “America wake up”. Jake is unable to resist some risky snarking.
Under his breath, Jake said to Natalie, “I thought he claimed he wasn’t a terrorist or a fanatic. Sounds like it to me.”
Johnstone, William W.. Trigger Warning (p. 201). Kensington. Kindle Edition.
NOT FUCKING NOW, JAKE!
The gunman demands that one hundred million dollars be transferred to an offshore bank account.
“…That’s a one with eight zeroes after it, for those of you who believe math is racist.” The man chuckled, of all things. “And I know there are some of you in here right now who believe that. Trust me, I can see your point. Racism really is systemic in this country.”
Johnstone, William W.. Trigger Warning (p. 202). Kensington. Kindle Edition.
Systematic racism != math itself is racist. I can’t even tell if this is a jab at the villain at a personal level or another fundamentally missing the point LOL LIBERALS MATH CAN’T BE RACIST WHY DO YOU THINK IT IS???
Imagine I have a can of pringles in my bed, and my husband is frustrated with me because once I start eating these pringles, I’ll get crumbs all over the bed. When my husband points this out to me, my retort is to just start shouting that once you pop the fun DON’T STOP, and he keeps trying to point out that it’s not about the slogan or whether or not the fun will or will not stop once I pop, but rather the desire to keep the bed free of crumbs. And then imagine someone comes in and tries to make sense of the argument and summarise it and you have my whole experience reading this book.
(Also…is it even considered math to know how many 0s are in a hundred million? Like I would not say that being aware of the existence of numbers is math but once you start doing something like adding them together, you get the magic of math.)
Okay, so back to the demands of the gunman.
“Which brings me to my next point. We’re not demanding that the government pay that hundred million dollars. No. It needs to come from the families of students here at Kelton College. There are approximately three thousand students enrolled here. That means—and again, I’ll help out the math-challenged among you—that each of their families would have to come up with less than thirty-five thousand dollars.”
Johnstone, William W.. Trigger Warning (p. 202). Kensington. Kindle Edition.
Okay, yes, that’s math because of division.
The gunman continues his speech with convoluted logic about who can and can’t afford to pay and how he only wants the richest parents at the school to pay into this fund. He also then goes on to explain their entire escape plan for after the money has been deposited.
“Nobody’s going to try to stop us,” the gunman went on. “We’ll be taken to the airport in Austin where a jet will be waiting to fly us out of the country. When we’ve landed where we’re going—and the flight shouldn’t take much more than about three hours—it’ll be all over and you’ll be safe. But until then . . .”
Johnstone, William W.. Trigger Warning (p. 205). Kensington. Kindle Edition.
WHY IS HE TELLING US THIS INFORMATION? Seriously! Why would be obscure their destination but then he’s willing to narrow it down to within a 3-hour flight radius?
He then reveals there are bomb all over campus. OH NO!