Day 216 - Repeat Offenders - Chapter 7.3 - (1394 words)

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REPEAT OFFENDERS

By Wayne Webb

CHAPTER 7.3

All four men now wore the device on their wrists and were marked as anomalous at the same exact time. Ivan was watching the whole procedure, but without context for the actions that Brian was taking he knew it was near impossible to replicate the steps to mark himself and isolate the others. There were a bunch numbers, strings of letters and numerals that Brian took from one machine and typed into the other, followed by a number of parameters that he tried to remember without taking notes, but was lost within only a few steps. There was about fifteen different steps that Brian was taking to set them and the machine for an anomaly field, and Ivan could not even recall the first one in sequence now.


Michael was waiting patiently for the chance to get back to the bank, the plan was straightforward and he would take advantage of the need to prove a point to the hitch-hiker. Of course it wasn't Mike or Ivan that needed to prove a point, it was Brains. He was a necessary part of the plan, they could not do this without him and so his... squeamishness... needed to be worked around. Michael would have been happy enough to have done with this man, he was an irritant and a roadblock, he was slowing them down. Brian could not be dissuaded easily, and they could not afford to piss the guy off. No one could operate the machinery without him and if he was too far off side with them? There would be dire consequences if he wanted to use the machine to screw with them, and they would never know. Hence the need to have all four people set at the same time, so he could satisfy himself they were all getting as close to the right, same settings as each other.


Harold was going along with the idea, but he was not one hundred percent sure that what was about to happen was real, or not a hoax or some delusional mix of the two. Brian, the man who was the man behind the science to all accounts, was very clear about the no violence, a position that he could see did no sit well with the other two men. The best thing to do was go along with it, let it go as far as it needed to go before he could either make his escape or prove one of his theories right. IF he tried to leave too soon then he could see the nasty one, Ivan the thug, not taking Brian's words into account when sorting out the potential problem. He needed to stay close to Brian, stay inside the circle and not present more of a problem than he already was. If they went out and came near to a cop, he doubted that he or any single cop would be much help with little notice.


They were at the bank later than usual, the delivery had been made and when the four men walked into the bank directly things and people were not in the places that they were used to. Brian had been clear that this was to prove a point to the additional member to their team. Ivan and Mike both glanced at each other as he had referred to Harold as suddenly in on the deal, part of the team, without a discussion or consultation. Michael was the planer, the organiser and the leader, but they were dependent on this boffin to make things work. Up until this point he had not pushed any agenda or made big demands, he followed along with the plot as per instructed, happy to reap the rewards of the robbery while taking a back seat and handling the technical elements on his own.


This shift was a seismic movement in the balance of power between the men and it was not a welcome one to the experienced criminals. You can't change leaders in the middle of a job and not expect problems, whenever things like this happened in their experience they came at the end of a gun, mistrust and chaos would follow. Eventually there would be serious follow on, violence or incarceration as a result. This was not a good sign.


Jerry, the assistant manager was walking out of the Bank as Harold and his new 'team-mates' walked in and he nodded and smiled at his boss as he passed them on the way out for his mid-morning coffee routine. Every day after eleven but before his actual lunch hour, Jerry would go across the plaza and order the same coffee from the same girl at this time of day. He did this for two reasons, firstly he hated queueing, which was ironic considering where he worked, and second he was attracted to the girl who worked the till at the coffee shop. Jerry was a married man, and he was not exactly looking for an affair. If the opportunity presented itself, as it did so often in his mind, he was sure he would turn it down and play the gentleman to the lovestruck young woman across the counter. Of course that was the way he saw it in his head, the reality of what he would really do if a relative stranger actually hit on him seriously enough to offer a tryst, he had not a clue how he would react. For now it was an unrealistic and highly improbable fantasy that occupied his mind for maybe fifteen minutes a day, he looked forward to the chance to lightly flirt with her, stay high on it for hours and was slightly depressed on days when he was there, but his muse was absent.


That was why when Harold shot past him with merely a nod and a rumble of recognition, it barely even registered and he continued on his merry way, no alarm bells ringing in his head. He was halfway to the coffee shop when he realised that it was odd to see his boss coming into the bank when he had just left his office a few seconds before that to go and get this coffee. Jerry stopped in mid step and turned back to look at the bank, noting that there was absolutely nothing to see. He swiveled back and could see Sarah at the counter, she looked out at him and gave a wave and a smile.


Instantly he felt his heart skip a few beats at being recognised and acknowledged by this girl, one he barely knew but affected him none the less. He walked on towards the coffee shop, but as Sarah turned and looked away again his mind re-engaged to the problem at hand and he walked almost blindly into the coffee shop.


“The usual?” Sarah's voice broke through the fog in his mind as his conscience battled with his ego about what he thought he saw.


“What?” Jerry looked at her, but he was barely seeing her, the woman that usually gave him enough endorphins to set him right for the day, and instead he kept seeing Harold and those men walking into the bank. Harold was not in the place he was supposed to be. Those men, there was something about them, he could not put his finger on it, they walked with purpose.


They walked with hands in their pockets and Harold virtually ignored him. The man who made a point of addressing everyone by name at every opportunity, to prove he cared about all people he met personally, as if they were the only one in the room, ignored him.


Hands. In pockets.


“Fuck me.” Jerry swore to himself.


“Excuse me?” Said Sarah, but broke into a big grin. “I mean, sure but can't we at least wait until my shift is over?” She smiled and laughed with her eyes, flirty and light, knowing he was distracted was talking about something else.


That would have been enough, under different circumstances to get the blood flowing to inappropriate parts of his body in flash flood volumes, but he did not even hear the sexiest thing that she had ever said to him.


“I need the phone.” He said after patting his pockets, remembering the mobile he had obviously forgotten on his desk.