Day 206 - Repeat Offenders - Chapter 5.2 - (1417 words)

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REPEAT OFFENDERS

By Wayne Webb

CHAPTER 5.2

Brian was struggling with moving Simon's arms, he had fallen heavily onto his side, trapping one arm under his body and making it difficult to pry the arm free to shackle it to the one lying free on top of his body. It was odd, trying to move a man fully unconscious, he was a dead weight and did not react to the ginger movements that the now timid once more man was trying to use.

“Just turn him over or shoot him in the head and be done with it for fuck's sake.” Michael was getting irritated watching and waiting. A whimper rose from the floor as a woman lying among the 'hostages' as she heard the casual mention of shooting someone in the head. Michael pinched his brow and put his head in his hands, nothing was going to plan.

“God is laughing.” he muttered to himself and then walked over to help move Simon onto his back. Then Brian sighed in relief as he put the cuffs on the knocked out guard and rolled him on his side to be in a recovery position.

“You know that it doesn't... you know what... forget it. Let's just get on with it yes?”

“Yes, the police will be here in a few minutes, we should get into the vault.” Brian walked to the back of the bank and straight to the Manager, nodding at the vault room, expecting him to know what to do, but getting a blank look in response.

“He doesn't know, he's not done this before.”

Mike and Brian spun around to find Ivan standing in the doorway, and calling across the floor. “You want to secure this door?”

Brian stared at the unexpected guest, he had not been synced to the wrist device, it was anomalous that he was here and not tethered to any of the reset switches. Already he was thinking about the potential issues of Ivan being within range of one of the devices when they reset. They did not need the added complication of having him here and there at the same time, and yet here he was. How could they avoid that?

“What are you doing here?” Michael was not pointing the gun at Ivan, but the semi casual grip he held it suggested it was ready, Ivan's eyes darted to it every few seconds, watching for the movement. The lethargic, concussed way that Ivan was moving earlier was gone now and his eyes and hands moved with care and fluidity that showed he was back 'up to speed' again, ready to be part of the plan, or potentially a spanner in it.

“Helping.”

“We don't need it.” Michael said bluntly, the gun hand still limp, but there was nothing in his way if he decided to raise it for a shot.

“Yeah you do. He can't hack it, just look at him.”

Brian looked lost with the gun in his hand, standing near the bank manager and watching the two men face each other off. Harold White, the bank manager was close enough to take the gun from the scientist, and from the distracted way that Brain was just standing there, gun lowered, watching intently but not keeping an eye on the people near him, he could have gotten away with it.

Harold white knew enough about the clientèle who the delivery was for. He knew the kind of business they did and the element they attracted, the consequences of dealing with rougher men in an ugly business. He was no hero, he was not responsible for throwing himself on the grenade for his customers. He knew that the best thing he could offer was the identity of the men who dared to steal from them.

An example would be made of the men, there were cameras trained on them, and there were back ups of the video feed that went to an unknown destination. It was signed off as a private security firm in the plans, but the security was more than just private, it was connected. They would already have a copy of the faces of these men, they would already see what was going on if they were looking. The police were alerted, and when the police were alerted it was highly likely that “they” would already be aware of the raid, the heist or whatever this was. A delivery is made and then the minute the client clears then these guys just show up. He could have taken the gun from this guy, the one standing there looking like he did not belong. The other one though, he looked like he knew what he was doing, like he would not hesitate and he would out draw, out shoot and out live them all in the here and now.

Once the tapes were seen, then his life expectancy was much, much shorter. The best case scenario was that he died in a police shoot out, that they all did all three of the men in on this ill-advised job. This guy was out of place, he did not know what he was doing, and this guy that just appeared from nowhere, he was more the guy he would have expected. They had been robbed before, just once a few years ago and they caught the guys who did it. Those robbers, they were more organised and more efficient and definitely better at hiding their identity. They were caught, they were arrested, they were tried and sentenced to varying degrees of prison terms. Every single person involved in that crime, even the peripheral ones were now dead. Twelve people over three years, his clients were patient and still unforgiving.

But these guys today? All three seemed uninterested in hiding, the cameras were in plain sight and while the sense of urgency was there, but they still made no effort to work towards an exit strategy, did they even plan on getting out alive. If they were caught then they were dead, if they got away by some miracle then they would be found. The death toll on the first, last and only previous robbery at this bank stretched to people that the police and the bank did not know were involved. Yet they still died and evidence linking them to the crime was 'discovered'. They were examples, to prevent guys like this from attempting the very thing they did not appear to be interested in concealing themselves from.

Harold caught Michael's eye and he raised his hands and took a step back from Brian, showing how he posed no threat at all. That caught Brian's attention and he swung round suddenly, gun still lowered in his hand, pointed down at his feet, not even pointed far enough away to avoid self harm.

“Block the door.” he growled at Ivan and strode over to Brian. He took the gun away from him, getting a blinking relief in return. “Head's up!” he yelled and threw the gun across the room in a lazy arc to land in Ivan's outstretched hand. With a grin Ivan pulled a stanchion from the queue line and jammed it through the handles of the bank door and then shot at the glass section of the double doors. The glass fractured around the impact, showing a crater but it did not bow or shatter.

“What the hell! Why are you shooting? Did you not listen to us at all?” Brian's stress and tension were back and his head began to pound, he could feel the vein in his head throbbing and pulsing under the thin skin of his temples.

“Calm yourself Brains. Calm yourself. He's advertising the fact that we are in here and armed. We already know they'll come in with tear gas and that was when we shot a bunch of people, gunfire told them how we play, we haven't killed anyone here but this way they know we are armed, but also that no one is dead yet. It's a non verbal message.”

“Do you know who you are robbing?” As soon as Harold opened his mouth he regretted it, he was not supposed to bring attention to himself. He should have just kept his mouth shut and waited for the police, for them to take what they wanted and move on. Whatever plan they had, it should be either spectacular or completely insane, and from the conversation he was hearing, his money was on crazy.

“Yeah, we do.”