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©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 6.0
Ivan saw Mike's head around the edge of the door just as he was walking one of the 'hostages' to the door to parade her around and tease the police with the idea that he was letting her go free, or alternately showing the power that he had. It was a delaying tactic until the other two had the jewels, had the plan ready and then they could leave together. He realised that he was the weak link in the equation, but he had been useful and had learned from the situation. There would be two of him when they got back to reality, but the older version of himself would be weak and disoriented, as he was a short while ago. If he needed to then he could kill the older version of himself and continue on unaffected, in the scheme of things it meant very little as that previous version was a 'back up' of sorts, and he was the up to date version, the 1.1 or better.
Ivan forgot the hostage and ran towards the vault, he heard or felt her tension and deciding to run outside rather than saw the actual action, but he gathered that was what was happening behind his back. If he got to the room on time then he just needed to be close enough, just like the tear gas. If he was too late then he would never know, he would just cease to be. It was a good trade off in his mind, and he did not think too long about it. If he ceased to exist there was nothing he could do about it and therefore it was easy enough to accept. Even easier when he factored in that the nett effect of him was a memory loss, he would be back in the older self but with no memory of any of this.
It was a philosophical zero sum in his reckoning, he did not die or lose anything except the awareness of what it was he had to lose. It was hardly a win win, but it was close enough and ultimately his own actions had determined this, so all was good. The ultimate would be that he got back, he teamed up with his other self and the balance of power shifted to himself, or themselves. He was not sure what he would do exactly in that situation, except watch his own back. He understood the need for Michael, and he owed Mike for past debts, and he knew that not only was there no one but Brian that could operate the machine, no one but Brains should operate the machine.
Time travel, or anomaly resetting or whatever it was that they were doing, was very tricky business. The potential for what you could do was endless and Ivan was beginning to appreciate that. He had gone a little overboard in violence and death, but it was less of a psychopathic need to have excessive satisfaction from it, and more a celebration of the form. It was an ecstatic homage to the ability, the pure and unfettered expression of free action without consequence.
He had obviously gone too far, the other travellers, anomalies or whatever they were, could not appreciate the expression of that, and it was foolish to want to bring others in line with the way that he saw things, just for the sake of it. Foolish.
He rounded the corner and looked back over his shoulder with a grin as the hostage was legging it through the bank doors.
His accomplices were gone and standing at the back of the room with expressions of shock and disbelief were Barbara and the assistant manager.
“Where are they?” Ivan said, not really asking anyone, scanning the room to see where they could have gone.
“They just disappeared, into thin air. How did they do that?” Barbara was reaching into the space where she had last seen the men and waving her hand through it, feeling for wires or mirrors, the tell-tale trademarks of an illusionist's magic trick.
“Why are we still here?” Ivan spoke aloud, and suddenly remembered that the front of the bank was unguarded and unblocked. He turned tail and sprinted through the bank to replace the stanchion through the handles of the glass door. Momentarily as he was handling the heavy metal object he saw a flash of red LED on his shirt, a sniper's gaze lining him up.
Please don't shoot. Was all he could think of, working quickly and retreating back out of sight lines.
“Fuck.” he said and sat down in the middle of the floor, out of sight of the windows, behind a bench at the right height to obscure his position.
What the hell had happened to him? They must have left via the device, there was nowhere else to go and there was no exit beyond the vault. They would have had to pass him on the way out of the locked room. There was no other explanation, they had left, they had reset.
Barbara and Jerry were still in the vault room, unguarded and unrestrained and all of a sudden Ivan's laissez faire attitude evaporated. He needed to lock it down fast or it would all spin out of control, rapidly and irreversibly.
“Hey! You two get out here now, hands up and where I can see them!” Ivan shouted and there was the sound of low voices as they whispered hurriedly to each other, he cut across it, now impatient and driven by the new paradigm of reality. “Now!”
Hesitantly Jerry spoke from inside the room “Okay! We are coming out, we have our hands up, don't shoot, please?” And then a pair of hands appeared around the corner and Barbara was first out the door, moving in a sudden and jerky motion, apparently being pushed out by the assistant manager.
“Ivan, baby, please?” She was saying as Jerry came our behind her and his face reddened at the realisation that she was in league with the gunman, gunmen.
“What the fuck Babs? You know this guy? Are you in on this? You fucking bitch, they...” Jerry blanched as he knew he had said too much and was being a douche-bag to the woman that the man with the gun obviously knew and was connected to intimately. She had called him baby, who else but a boy friend, a lover would call him that?
“Just shut it and sit down.” Ivan waved the gun to where he wanted them to sit and Jerry wisely kept his mouth shut and sat down on his knees, his hands still in the air. Barbara lowered hers and came towards Ivan, but he levelled the gun at her chest and gave her a look that told her all she needed to know about her state as an 'inside woman'.
She looked crestfallen and heartbroken in the knowledge that she had nothing with the man now, and that she had never really had anything at all.. The relationship was not real, the connection that they had was one of convenience and there was never a future in it for her. For Ivan though it was a double edged sword, he had to cut ties with his only ally, one who was never really in on the plan, but one that had been loose with the details that allowed them to progress with the heist. This cold shoulder, the distancing was a painful necessity though, she was now insulated from the crime and the criminals. The down side was that he too was insulated now. She had it in the protective meaning, she was shielded from the external forces that would come to bear on the robbers. Ivan had in the isolating meaning, he was not protected at all, he would face the brunt of those forces alone.
“Where's the guy?” He asked.
“Which guy?” She responded sullenly, through red eyes, tears welling but not breaking their dams.
“There were five people in the vault, now there are two. Where's the fifth man?”
