Day 204 - Repeat Offenders - Chapter 5 - (1428 words)

©Wayne Webb and constantwriting.blogspot.com, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Wayne Webb and constantwriting.blogspot.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

REPEAT OFFENDERS

By Wayne Webb

CHAPTER 5

Monday 11:10 a.m. April 17^th


Michael was determined to get this right, and that meant they needed to follow a plan, stick to that plan and then leave as soon as the plan was in place. The coffee shop where Brian had held a gun on the girl at the register, was the perfect staging area. They had the clear view of the plaza, they knew exactly when and where things would be happening, they knew how much time they would have.


Brian had his coffee but his hands were still shaking from the stress, the tear gas and the sudden violence in his little group. Things were not going according to plan, not at all the way he envisioned things. Mike was definitely a plus for the team, he knew from the start that he was not going to be able to do this on his own, he needed someone like him on his side. Someone canny, someone knowledgeable and ruthless. There was no way that they could cut Brian out of the deal, and he had ensured that not only was there no way for them to learn how to use the machine, there was also a back plan, or two. Mike was the guy who would stop at nothing, he would just continue on and get things done regardless of who or what was in the way. He was not a bulldozer, but he was an irresistible force of will.


The blunt instrument in the pack was Ivan, he was the muscle and the intimidation, when necessary. Michael had picked him because they had history, they worked together before and he had always been solid and dependable, at least by Mike's accounting. He was there to hit, to stand over people and to task orders, follow them and be a team player. To be fair that's exactly what he was doing, but there was a madness to him that neither man predicted. He had taken to time travel like a drunk to a free drink, and it created a new element in his psyche.


Killing without consequences was his addiction, he enjoyed the violence because it was meaningless and technically he was correct about the lack of issue with it, morally or ethically it was almost an irrelevance. The problem was only partly with Ivan though and Brian knew this was something he did not fully understand yet.


He did not like watching these people die, over and over even knowing that they would be anomalous and these events would be removed from time, from existence and they would not have really happened. Except for the fact that they did happen and Brian and Michael both watched them happen. The first act of violence, the breaking of the first guards nose, incapacitating him and distraction enough for Ivan to act, was expected. He knew it was going to happen, he had steeled himself for it. The blood and the sound were shocking, yet it had a cinematic drama to it, like a script being acted out in front of him, it was the way it was going to be.


The air around the shots was energised and fraught with tension though, as soon as the trigger was pulled and the staccato refrain from the machine gun was in the air, things changed in that instant. The heist, the scam and the physics of it all was real enough to Brian, he knew it would work, he knew it could happen. This was not his first rodeo on minor crime and getting away with it, like any good experimenter he hypothesised, he planned and he did variations on a theme before he recruited his accomplices. He needed to up the reward exponentially, he needed so much more than just the petty cash he had managed to get, he had a few hundred thousand when what he needed was tens of millions.


The diamonds, they were a good start and he even planned to hit them over and over again to extend the initial investment in his much bigger plan. He could not have walked in and got through the guards, through to the vault and taken on the bank manager to get at the goods on his own. He got in Michael and with him came Ivan, to be the blunt instrument they needed. He was cannier than Brian had surmised when he was introduced, he and Michael devised the details, finding out when the undocumented diamonds would be in play, and got them an inside man.


The whole sub plot to seduce and manipulate Barbara was Ivan's idea, he relished the chance to act a narrative where he would be the dashing anti-hero, getting the girl to do his will. He manipulated her expertly, turning the woman to be his faucet for information. She spilled all the details they needed on the guards, the weaknesses and even how the alarms worked. She thought the bank impregnable and the back up systems of alarms and police response were enough of a deterrent to put any potential robbers off.


The truck that delivered was nondescript and the delivery had little pomp or circumstance with it. It looked to be like any other secure delivery of documents in a bag, but inside this bag was the locked and loaded box of undocumented diamonds. The people they came from were not interested in too much security, these stones were currency and untraceable because they did not want them to be traced. No one in their right mind would steal from them and the bank knew their clients well enough to neither know nor care what was in the bag, just that it was theirs and to be secured for a few days.


Barbara knew who the client was, the whole bank staff did, it was a secret impossible to keep. It also meant that no one was likely to make a mistake and no one was likely to take any chances with it. It was dangerous, dealing with organised criminals, they did not want any attention but it was a thrill knowing that you were part of a front for their money laundering. They were not untouchable of course, but they were careful about how and where they transacted their business. Barbara was there for most deliveries because the guy that drove up with the bag, he requested a dedicate teller to check the bag in and be a witness to the weighing with the managers in tow. They would weigh the box, minus the bag, as it went into the safe deposit box and they would weigh it again on the way out.


No one really 'knew' what was in it, there was plenty of assumptions made about the usual suspects. Drugs, evidence, money and anything that was of value and needed to be secured for short periods of time. Brian knew what was in the box, he knew for a fact what was in there because he had seen it. Michael was told what he was to do and how he was needed for his assistance, but he was never told how it was that Brian came to know what was in the box, what was so valuable and important to these criminals.


As he planned and plotted Mike could see that Brian knew more than he was sharing, and that would be something he would need to keep an eye on for the future. None of the people that he and Ivan were looking into had any concrete information except the set up inside the bank, and that was now clear explanation of why the Brains needed their help to get it.


The delivery truck was driving across the plaza and the time was approaching where they would swing into action.


“Are you ready?” Mike asked his companion.


“As I will ever be.”


“Can you do it? There is another way.” Michael was asking out of politeness only, neither of them really wanted to do it the 'other' way, Ivan's way.


“I can. I can. Don't … I can.” Brian nodded grimly and downed the last of his coffee. He held his hand up in the air and watched it trembling slightly in mid air. He made a fist and let it go, pumping it in and out of that state until he was satisfied he had it under control.



Michaels watch gave off two beeps, he had it on the wrong wrist so he could wear the anomaly device. “Let's go.”