‘Now, now Charles,’ said Henry, ‘no need to get stroppy, we’re the ones holding the guns.’ Charles looked at Henry with venom.
‘The bank vault in on a delay, you can’t get in,’ he said. Even though I was holding the gun, he still gave me the fear.
‘Let us worry about that, shall we?’ I said. I took out my mobile and texted Rich a short message telling him we have control of the conference room. I nodded to Henry.
‘If you’ll excuse me?’ Henry left the conference room, opening the door with a handkerchief. We heard him ask the secretary where the facilities were before the door wheezed shut. Henry was as cool as a cucumber.
‘You’ll never get away with…with whatever it is you’re planning,’ sneered Charles, ‘we don’t pay ransoms.’
‘Great,’ I said.
‘You’re in the middle of the city of London,’ he almost shouted, ‘what you’re doing is madness…madness! There are cameras, cameras everywhere.’
‘Really? I never thought of that…’ I mused, ‘Charles, could you do me a favor?’ he looked at me blankly. Obviously not keen. ‘Could you keep your voice down? Because I might have to break your jaw if you raise your voice again, okay?’
We all jumped when the loud, shrill baying of the fire alarm started. Oliver looked at us anxiously and Sam went to the door in case anyone decided to rescue our two captives. The door swung open and a secretary came in, she looked around and humphed, as if this kind of thing wasn’t in her agenda on Outlook.
‘Sit,’ said Sam. She looked at him and then at Charles, who nodded, she sat down. ‘Mobiles, Blackberry’s on the table.’ She looked at Sam for a bit, trying to remember his face probably, and put a slim Motorola on the table.
Sam was as dark as a Spaniard, with jet black hair and brown contacts. His nose had been expertly remodeled and he looked nothing like Sam at all. She would be remembering a ghost.
We waited a moment longer and Henry came back. Henry was dark as well, with wavy hair and a short goatee. He had designer glasses on and his hazel eyes were piercing. He was wearing slightly lifted shoes so he was a touch taller than before. We’d also put a quite prominent, fake scar on his neck. Everyone will remember that, I figured.
Sam and Henry took out their MP5s as we heard sounds of alarm coming from the other side of the bank. Here we go. They charged the weapons and trained them on Charles and Oliver. I got out my MP5, pulled on some gloves and pocketed the Sig. I took out a new mobile and group sent a text: start the clock.
‘Let’s do this,’ I opened the door and Sam led Oliver and Charles out of the conference room. I knew exactly where I was going and dodged round tables and chairs. Henry peeled off and went to clear out offices of stragglers. I found the door, which was locked, obviously. I reached into my pocket and took out the suppressor and screwed it on. It wouldn’t have fit in the briefcase screwed on.
I took aim and burst shot into the lock and the hinges, like Henry had told me to do. I pushed the door but it still wouldn’t budge. I gave two more bursts into the lock and tried again, this time it gave, splintered a bit and opened.
I went and sat down and wiggled the mouse, the screen came up with a login page. I put in the password and hit enter. I was in. Fuck. Thank fuck. I picked a new mobile out of my pocket and Rang Andy on one of the mobiles I had bought.
‘Account numbers,’ I said, there was a pause, ‘come on your retard, give me the fucking account numbers.’ I tapped the numbers in, hung up, and did the transfer. Fifteen point seven million. The number was arbitrary. They might track his account down, they might not, I didn’t care.
It took considerably longer to transfer money to our account, what we were trying to do was skim small amounts from lots and lots of accounts and then transfer it, then it might not be missed. Maybe. I looked at my watch, I had spent nearly all of my five minutes. I quit the program and deleted the logs and the login logs. I went to disk utility and started a format of the drive, and all slaves cut the monitor cable and left the room. That should take them a rainy weekend to sort out.
I left the room and went to the conference room and wiped down the table and chairs – just in case, we’d touched nothing - with a silicone cloth and Windolene and went to front of the bank. Rich and Denzel had busied themselves plastic tying everyone’s hands behind their backs and they now all sat neatly on the floor quietly waiting to see what we’d do next.
‘I couldn’t open the fucking safe’ I said, just loud enough for Rich and a couple of our captives to hear, ‘but we’ve got to go, man.’
‘Fuck,’ he said quietly, he hung his head and then said to the rest ‘it’s time to go.’ Rich, Henry and Denzel put their MP5s back in the briefcases. Rich looked at me, smiled slightly, and grabbed the handle of the door. ‘Who knows what’ll be on the other side?’ I shrugged and he opened the door.
There were no shouts, no gun fire, just the steady thrum of the city. A man was standing just outside door. Rich pulled him in.
‘What the blazes…?’ Rich pushed him against a wall and Denzel pulled a plastic tie around his wrists. Rich smiled.
‘Looking good,’ he said, ‘see you in five.’ The group left and we waited a what seemed like hours. I watched the seconds hand swing round like a super-tanker until it was time. We stashed the guns and Sam took out an epoxy glue gun and glued the doorframe. We pushed some detonator caps into the glue that were connected to a Braun alarm clock. Pulling it shut, some of the glue oozed out the gaps. We debated whether the risk of leaving trace evidence – i.e the plastic explosive residue in the glue - would be worse than delaying either the escape of our captives or entry by their rescuers but decided it was worth the risk.
We turned left and walked purposefully towards an small passage that ran parallel to the road at the end but provided a useful shortcut to the next street, a CCTV blind spot. We turned down it and started walking towards the end, one of my mobiles rang. ‘Dan, we have a chopper overhead – I don’t know if it’s connected to us, but…’ said Henry, ‘we’ve gone round the block and we’ll be there by the time you get out.’
‘Is there any other police?’ I asked.
‘Not that I can tell.’
‘Is it definitely a police chopper?’
‘Yes.’ Okay, that was bad. We didn’t know whether it was us they were interested in or something else entirely. We emerged from the passage way looking in both directions. Sam was as white as a sheet and I could feel my heart thumping in my chest, my body wanted to shake and shake but the adrenaline was keeping me from doing a boogaloo in the street. We heard the clatter of a taxi. Thank god, it was Steve.
I didn’t want Steve involved, but we needed someone to drive the taxi. We figured that if we got away then the taxi bit was easy, but if we got caught in the act he could just drive away and no one would be the wiser. No one said anything as Sam got in. I went to the passenger door and opened it and took out an oblong bag. Henry got out and took the handheld surface-to-air-missile launcher and flipped the sights.
‘You sure this won’t hit them?’ I panted. He shook his head.
‘The targeting is disabled, we hit them it’ll be a one in a thousand chance.’ He shouldered the weapon and pulled the trigger. A couple of people walking in the street turned and ran. The rocket corkscrewed into the air missing the chopper by a couple of hundred feet or so. The chopper did nothing for a bit and then quickly banked and fled. I went round to the front of the cab and peeled off a phony registration sticker, Henry did the same on the back. We both got into the back and lay on the floor.
‘Take it easy, Steve.’ I said. Steve was being a bit jerky with the brake and we were bouncing around a bit. Steve was going to drop us at tube stations that had public urinals, where we could pull off our disguises and get lost in the crowd.
The ten minutes on the floor of the cab were hard. No one said a thing. We could hear police sirens everywhere. The first one out was Rich. He winked at me ‘see you back at the warehouse, I
’ll get a brew on’ he said. He sauntered towards the tube checking out his reflection in the glass of a window. The sirens got more and more distant, we knew that by now they’d be finding out that the doors were rigged and that bomb disposal would be involved.
We had time. We bought the cab with cash and nicked some plates off another cab that was parked near Steve’s house. The congestion charge camera’s had caught us, but that didn’t matter, we’d take it out of the zone and torch it soon enough.
The final stop was Baker Street. We were stop starting along the Euston Road. ‘How was it?’ asked Steve. I scrunched my face up a bit.
‘Much easier than I thought it’d be,’ I said, ‘but I feel as if I have taken ten years off my life with the stress of it.’
‘You were all wired when you got into the cab,’ he hit the steering wheel,’ you didn’t tell me you had a rocket launcher! I nearly shit my pants when that went off.’
‘Sorry, we had to get rid of the chopper’ we were pulling up to Great Portland Street, ’I’ll see you later Steve…or not.’
‘Sounds like you got away with it,’ he said, smiling.
‘Hold that thought.’
CHAPTER 15
As I pushed the door to the warehouse open, I could sense – Mystic Meg style – that something was wrong. I was expecting Columbo-esque C.I.D to be sitting in the plastic chairs awaiting my arrival, incriminating photos splayed out like poker hands as the smoke from their cigarettes curled up to the ceiling.
But what I got was Barney, Denzel and Sam sitting in the plastic chairs. Sam was white as a sheet and his eyes darted around like a cornered animal. There was a fug of cigarette smoke. I felt a shot of fear, like acid indigestion, flood through my stomach.
I was half expecting Barney to be here, but his appearance was still off putting. He was dressed in a dark grey suit, no tie, a half length coat draped over the chair back. His face was serious but his eyes betrayed a smile.
‘Well, well, well,’ he said, staying seated, ‘quite the criminal mastermind, aren’t we?’
‘Did you get the transfer?’ I asked. I walked to the table and picked up Sam’s packet of cigarettes. Underneath, my feet crumpled a huge, clear plastic sheet. He looked me in the eye and tightened his lips, but looked away again. What the fuck was happening? If I didn’t have the fear before it was back now.
‘I did,’ smiled Barney, ‘my banker confirmed it.’ I lit the cigarette and kept quiet. Where was Rich? Where was Henry? I grabbed another chair, sat down and laid my rucksack on the floor. Denzel and Sam both had their pistols in front of them. Barney, had his mobile phone, which I suppose was the same thing. Sam was smoking nervously. Denzel looked at me steadily.
‘You guys get back alright?’ They both nodded.
‘The rocket was a nice touch,’ Barney snorted, ‘you grounded most of the helicopters in London.’ I could feel my heart hammering in my chest. Barney wanted something off of me and I couldn’t figure out what. If he wanted me dead he would have shot me on the way in, it would have been easy. But he hasn’t shot me…yet, so what is it that he wants?
I casually looked around the warehouse, trying to be nonchalant. There didn’t seem to be anything amiss. Apart from the plastic sheeting. Which was a worry. A major worry.
‘I’m cold,’ I said. I got up and walked to the heater and switched it on. It gradually spun into life and the scraping sound jarred as I swung it towards the chairs.
I sat down again. Behind them, the cardboard façade of the bank loomed over us.
‘So, are we in the clear then?’ I asked. Barney nodded, tilting his head.
‘Yes, completely,’ said Barney, he frowned slightly, ‘and thank you. I mean that, I might give up this tawdry life after all.’ Just under the gentle whirring of the heater and the very quiet hum of the A40 a couple of streets away I heard a twang. It was a jokey twang, a twang that said: ‘look at me, aren’t I a laugh-a-minute kinda guy? I have imbued even my mobile phone with my zany personality.’
It was a twang that told Rich he had a new message.
It came from the Transit van to my left. Maybe they didn’t hear it, maybe they did. I couldn’t tell, my eyes darted from face to face trying to read their expressions.
My blood ran ice cold. I could feel my stomach turning to rock. I looked to Sam and he glanced away. That’s why he is acting so strained, they did something to Rich. Please god he’s not dead.
I scratched my forehead, looked down and saw the rucksack below me. It may well have been in Andorra. Denzel would shoot me in 3 seconds. I would barely get a gun out in ten.
I cleared my throat a bit, ‘what do you want?’ I asked, looking at Barney. He looked back, blinking. He frowned, scratching the side of his nose.
‘The transfer.’ he looked to me. I didn’t move or say anything. My whole body was tingling with the tension of the moment. Rich, Oh Rich, I’ll do anything for you to be alright, you’re all that I have. ‘I wonder if I will get away with this…I wonder if the second I touch that money,’ he nudged his mobile phone so that it spun once, ‘I will have every copper in the Cayman’s slappin’ bracelets on me,’ said Barney. I pursed my lips.
‘I don’t know what to say…I’m not a banker’ He smiled a quick smile.
‘Well, we are not square if it is a problem, are we?’ he said. I bit my lip, my stomach was a rock, I was controlling the urge to break down. I wasn’t looking at anyone, just at the floor. I was trying to think of the last thing that Rich had said to me, but I couldn’t pick it out. It was gone.
‘The thing is,’ said Barney, ‘you have the same problem. Am I right?’ I sighed a heavy sigh, I could feel my throat tightening. Rich wouldn’t give it up and they hurt him. They might have killed him. They must have killed him. I could feel myself starting to cry, but I stopped it.
‘I guess so,’ I whispered. Barney craned his head quickly.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said, ’I didn’t quite catch that.’
‘I said,’ not looking at him, ‘that I guess we have the same problem.’ He sighed.
‘I don’t know…’ he got up, turned, looking at the cardboard construction he lifted his arms into the air. ‘All this! Look at it, it’s magnificent.’ He turned back to me, pacing slowly. ‘When Sam and Denzel told me about the goings on ‘ere, the practicing, the timings, the disguises – fuck me! I didn’t even recognize Denzel, did I?’ Denzel shook his head, a ghost of a smile on his lips. ‘I’m telling ya…I thought it was a right load of bollocks…just go in there, shove a shooter in someone’s face – ‘gimme the money, you wanker’ that’s more my style.’ He whistled lightly, ‘but what you did today…it was art - it was a military fucking exercise.’
By now Barney was behind me. I could sense he was quite close but I felt nothing but grief, nothing but pure loss. If I was afraid of him before, what he might do to me, I didn’t give a shit anymore. He wants our money? Fuck him. Fuck him to hell.
‘Shall I tell you what I’m thinking?’ I felt his breath at my ear, ‘I’m thinking: if you went to this much trouble to get in there and get out – then you’d be a right couple of Muppets to not have anything to show at the end of it.’
He walked round so that he was facing me. I blinked and looked up at him, I felt hollow inside, like a Matryoshka doll without her innards, as if Rich was a part of me and no longer there. ‘Think what you want,’ I said flatly. He shook his head.
‘I know that you managed to steal a lot of money, I know this, I ain’t stupid,’ he clasped his hands together, a reasonable man, ‘all I want to know is how you laundered it, that’s all. You tell me that and we’re square. I’ll even put it in writing.’
‘And Rich?’ I croaked.
‘Him too,’ he said.
I felt a glimmer of hope but I knew deep down that Rich must be dead, otherwise they’d use him as leverage. I looked at Denzel, but he was looking at Barney, a mixture of respect and boredom played over his features. Sam was jumpy. I caught his eye
and he shook his head ever so slightly that only I could’ve seen it.
I reached down to my rucksack. I picked it up, fumbling with the zip. I didn’t care, I was going to shoot Barney, I might die trying, but so help me I was going to kill him. I heard a click and glanced up, Denzel was pointing his pistol at me, I ignored him and finally found the zip pulling the bag open.
I found myself on the floor before I knew what happened. Blood was pouring – literally – onto the floor from a cut on my forehead, making pat-pat sounds as it hit the plastic. Barney had hit me with the other pistol, striking me so hard that I fell to the floor. I used my sleeve to wipe blood from my eye and groped for the rucksack. Barney used his foot to push the rucksack under the table where Sam and Denzel were sitting, he looked at the gun in his hand and put in back in front of Sam who looked like he didn’t know what to do with it.
Barney grabbed me by the hair and pulled me up so I was sitting with my legs splayed in front of me. Denzel still had his arm out pointing the gun. Barney sat on his haunches in front on me.
‘Okay, we’ll do this the hard way,’ he said, ‘tell me how you did it and you keep your eyes,’ He reached into his jacket pocket and took out a Leatherman. ‘You’d be surprised at how much information you can get with one of these.’
‘Fuck you,’ I spat, ‘Take my eyes, at least I won’t have to look at your fucking face again.’
‘Let me tell you what I have learnt over the years,’ he pulled apart the Leatherman and extracted the small saw, ‘everyone - even with nothing to lose - has a breaking point. There is only so much physical abuse you can take. I have seen men - men much, much harder than you – break after two or three minutes.’
Denzel walked around the table towards me, I tried to get up but he struck me with the pistol, hard. I felt crushing pain on the top of my head and a spreading warmth of blood as it ran down through my hair. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cable tie and bound my arms. He hooked his arms under mine and lifted me into the chair. I looked up to see Barney in front of me. He shook the Leatherman at me.
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