La Casa de Papel (Palermo) // Translation

24. que en la vida solo hay

"Don't shoot him!" Palermo whispers in her ear and lets go of her. Tokyo stops beating Gandía and at that very moment a hail of bullets penetrates the room. Palermo immediately grabs Velez's arm, but when Denver's blood splatters on her face, she falls to the ground. Several hostages were shot and injured. The gang falls to the ground while Arturo, machine gun in a hand, screams and flees down the hallway with a handful of hostages.

"Take care of Gandía!" Lisbon calls. Helsinki and Rio follow her orders and Velez runs to Denver.

"No no no!" she says, startled, while she holds on to Denver's arm, from which the blood is running like a faucet. Denver winces in pain, but immediately gets up and runs in the direction Arturo fled. "No!" Velez and Stockholm shout at the same time. Velez gets up and grabs a rifle and ammunition. She, Palermo, Lisbon and Tokyo are running after Denver and the hostages. In a hopeless situation, the hostages manages to get into the armory. Lisbon, Denver and Tokyo hide behind one column and Velez and Palermo behind the other, so that the corridor remains free, through which a hail of bullets from Arturo goes through like a rocket.

"These son of a bitches are in the storage room," Palermo says and uses the moment when Arturo is hiding and not shooting. "How much ammo do we have left?" he asks Velez.

"Two magazines," she replies in frustration and anger.

"How are we going to take them on two damn magazines?" Denver shouts desperately.

"I know where we can get more from," Tokyo announces and immediately disappears. Palermo looks at Velez and notices her fear and anger.

"You are not wearing a bulletproof vest, go to Stockholm and Helsinki," Palermo orders, or rather, threatens. She looks at him like he said something crazy.

"Are you crazy? No way," she declined firmly, clutching her rifle tighter. Two or three more bullets ricochet off the wall and then it's quiet again.

"Velez you are not wearing a bulletproof vest," Palermo repeats in a strong voice. "Go to Stockholm..."

"

Shut up!" she yells amd interrupts him. Two or three more bullets ricochet off the ceiling and walls. The group uses the silence to shoot the door. While Velez keeps pulling the trigger, Palermo suddenly screams and falls to the ground. "No!" Velez screams, startled and without thinking for a second, she comes out of her hiding place, pulls the trigger again and shoots the rifle out of the hand of the guilty hostage.

"Velez no!" Palermo yells. At that moment, Velez is paralyzed by the screams of the hostages she has just wounded. She feels a guilt that hits her with full force.

1 month before the hour x

"His name was Lucas," Velez begins and Palermo listens carefully. "I was ready to do anything for him. At that point he was the only thing I had to lose. Only him. And I defended him like it was for my life. I messed with his ex-wife and I defended him when he argued with other men. We lived in the village, so you can imagine what kind of men and what kind of fights I am talking about, "she says and Palermo nods. "I would hurt anyone who messed with him and I felt so good defending him. But the moment I did it, I felt so guilty, you can't imagine it. I felt like a violent, crazy bastard ... Just because of him. And every time I did, I realized what I could do for someone I cared about, no matter how much pain or how much damage I did to others . "

(...)

Finally, they force a reaction to the bullets that she evades like a miracle.

"Velez come out of there!" Denver exclaims desperately. Palermo comes out of hiding, grabs Velez and pulls her to him, to safety.

"You are crazy!" Palermo yells while Velez leans against the wall. "Why the hell are you shooting at a hostage?" he screams angrily. At that moment Velez regains her senses and remembers that Palermo is wounded. She ignores the fact that he is yelling at her and quickly opens his jumpsuit to look at his wound. Velez breathes a sigh of relief when she sees that it is the same wound as before that is bleeding.

"It was another graze on the same spot. Your old wound was torn open again," she says, closes his overalls and stands next to him against the wall.

"I think God means well with me," says Palermo. "Please go, you have no vest. If you get shot, I swear to God, I'll die too."

"I will not give up. I will be anything but a coward," she replies without listening to him. "You're not telling me what to do."

"Tokyo comes with the ammunition!" Lisbon calls. Velez cranks her head to see Denver and it breaks her heart when she sees him sitting there. He pretends to be strong, but inside he is dying of pain. Velez's eyes fill with tears, but a grenade that hits the ground inches away from them takes all of her attention.

"Grenade!" Palermo yells. Lisbon and Denver run away immediately and Palermo gets up in a flash, ignoring the pain of his wound, grabs Velez by the arm and pulls her away, pressing her with his whole body against the wall. She covers her ears and closes her eyes as the grenade detonates and the deafening noise of the explosion prevents her from hearing anything else.