Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

by Brennen Tammons

  With the officer still shining at flashlight at him, Russell while keeping one hand on his steering wheel, uses reaches over using his other hand to open the glove compartment which has many things inside of it. He is very careful to make sure the officer doesn’t see the bag of marijuana which Russell carefully hid. Russell then takes out a small folder setting it on his lap. He opens the folder taking out his registration and insurance papers. He then immediately reaches in his pocket to get his wallet. He then takes out his driver license. Russell hands all the items to the police officer at that point. Russell then sticks his hands back on the steering wheel after that. The police officer continues to flash the light at Russell’s face, and begins to scan his light on all of the items Russell gave him for a short while. Following that, the officer then proceeds to walk back towards his police car, with the items Russell gave him in his hands. Kevin while looking straight ahead, then starts to whisper to Russell.

  “Ugh Russ, I feel so nervous man. I don’t know what’s going on. Russ…”

  Russell while he’s still facing his head forward, instantly takes one hand off the steering wheel, and reaches across to squeeze Kevin’s knee. He then places both hands back on the steering wheel, and under his breath begins to whisper to Kevin.

  “Kev, what part of shut the fuck up, didn’t you understand? Shut your damn mouth man.”

  Russell continues to feel nervous as the police officer remains in his police car for a few minutes. He eventually returns to Russell’s car and hands him back the items. The police officer begins to write a ticket. As he’s writing it, he speaks to Russell.

  “You were going a little fast. Speed limit here is forty, and the meter said you were doing fifty. Was there any particular reason why you were speeding for?”

  Russell gives the officer a puzzled look for a few seconds, he then responds to him.

  “I guess I was trying to get home. I’m really tired, and I want to get home. I had no idea I was going fifty, I usually mind the speed limit. I’m so sorry officer.”

  The police officer looks out in the distance for a short while, and continues to write the ticket. He receives a call on his radio, and directly after that, he rips up the ticket. After destroying the ticket, the police officer then talks to Russell once more.

  “I’m going to let you off this time. I was going to give you a ticket, but I don’t think you meant any harm in what you did. You were speeding past the limit though, so I want you to obey the speed limit in the future. Okay sir? Good night.”

  Russell smiles at the police officer, and he thanks him.

  “Thank you officer, and I will. Thank you very much.”

  The police officer returns to his car, and quickly drives off. After that, Kevin then starts to laugh at Russell as he’s starting the ignition to his car.

  “Ha-ha, Russ. We had weed in the car and the cop let us off free. Wow, unbelievable.”

  Russell turns to look at Kevin, and shakes his head out of disapproval. Kevin quickly composes himself and remains quiet, as Russell proceeds back to driving. Russell takes Kevin to his residence, and drops him off. He says goodbye to him, and he continues driving towards his own home. Russell and Jesse get out of the car, and they head inside the apartment. Russell heads straight to the sofa area, and turns on a basketball game. Jesse walks into the kitchen and makes himself and Russell a tuna fish sandwich. Jesse returns to the sofa area, and they both eat their sandwiches. They watch television for a couple hours, then they both walk into the bedroom. Soon after this, they both fall asleep.

  The next morning, both Russell and Jesse wake up early at 8 A.M. to get ready for the day. They have to be at “United Farmers Savings”, early enough to do their heist planning, then having enough time to immediately get to work after. Russell is wearing a black polo shirt and some blue work pants with his black Adidas on. Jesse is wearing a blue sweat jacket and some cargo shorts, and has blue Nike sneakers on. Russell drives over to Kevin’s residence to pick him up. Kevin is wearing a red polo shirt, and some black dickies pants and black converse all-star shoes on. He’s eating an “Eggo” frozen waffle, wrapped in a paper towel. He is carrying his laptop in a large computer case. He gets in Russell’s car, and they all head to “Home Base”, to meet up with the rest of the guys.

  Russell uses his key, and unlocks the door to the unit. As he Kevin and Jesse are walking in, they do not see Brian, as he stepped out. Victor is asleep on the couch shirtless, only wearing pants. When Victor hears them walk in, he wakes up. He looks at the three of them with an angry look. They wave at Victor and say hello to him, but he ignores them, and Victor heads towards the bathroom. They all wait in the sofa area waiting for Brian to arrive. Kevin then quickly turns the television on to a morning news program.

  Today is the day that they case the “United Farmers Bank”, to prepare themselves for their planned heist on Friday. Kevin has brought his materials in order for them to get a better look at how the bank operates as far as the layout plan is, and to also see how the security systems of the bank work, and how Kevin can use his software to set off nearby security diversions both inside and outside of the bank. They continue to wait for Brian to arrive. Victor walks out of the bathroom, and then puts a plain white T shirt on. Victor does not greet the rest of the guys. Russell, Kevin and Jesse are also not acknowledging Victor either. Victor walks over to the kitchen area to fix him a bowl of cereal. Russell gets up from the couch, and walks over to the kitchen area Victor is. Russell then softly speaks to Victor, who’s eating his cereal.

  “Hey Victor. Do you know where Brian went? We have to be at work by twelve, and today is the day we were going to go check out “United Farmers Savings”, for our heist on Friday. Kevin bought all of his stuff, and we were gonna let Brian go in and be our lab rat to check the place out. But he’s not here, I don’t see him. Do you know where he went?”

  Victor without giving Russell eye contact, continues to eat his cereal. Russell continues.

  “Victor. I’m not trying to bother you man, I only want to know if you know where Brian is. Did he tell you he was leaving before he did? We have a time frame that’s all.”

  Victor continues to eat his cereal, but turns to Russell and shakes his head. Russell smiles at him and returns to the sofa area with the rest of the guys. Russell then starts to worry about where Brian is. He assumed that everyone was fully aware of the program, and how things were supposed to go the evening before in the board room. He starts to wonder if there is anybody he can truly trust, or depend on for situations. Their planned heist is supposed to start on Friday, yet they can’t even all meet up on time, to examine the bank they are supposed to hit later on in the week. Events such as this stress Russell out, and he becomes anxious as to whether this is a sign for what’s yet to possibly come. Russell turns his head towards the news station on television, and watches a news story about a temporary art museum exhibit. Russell then puts his head down towards the ground, rubbing his hands over his face, shaking his head. He continues to try to calm himself down. Victor finishes his cereal, and walks over to the sofa area with the rest of the guys and takes a seat.

  Russell a few minutes later, is slowly losing his patience. He takes out his phone and begins to text Brian. Ten minutes pass, and Russell starts to lose it. Russell then calls Brian. The telephone rings but he does not get an answer, only an automated voicemail alert. Russell is now angry, and quickly dials Brian’s phone number once more. It continues to ring with no answer. Russell then contemplates as to whether or not he wants to leave a voicemail. He decides to leave one.

  “Brian, this is Russell man. Call me please right now. It’s important. Thank you.”

  Russell puts his phone in his pocket and looks down to the ground, shaking his head. He is extremely stressed that Brian is not with them, and he’s already breaking the rules of them sticking together, especially during times where they all agreed to. With Russell still having his head to the ground, Jesse rubs the back of his
shoulder. Kevin notices that Russell is feeling tense; he talks to him.

  “It’s gonna be alright Russ. We don’t know what’s keeping Brian, so hold on for now.”

  Russell lifts his head up, looks towards the door of the unit hoping it will magically open. He turns his head back towards the television, which is having a report on business, finance and electronics. Russell then looks back towards the front door, again hoping out of some miracle it will open up. They all continue to wait on the sofas, and it is now 9 A.M. Russell gets up from the sofa, and goes over to the kitchen area to get himself a glass of water. Kevin watches him, feeling concerned, however he quickly turns his head back to the television screen. Russell continues to stand in the kitchen area with his arms crossed, looking down on the floor feeling outraged.

  The front door of the unit then suddenly opens. Russell unfolds his arms, and rushes straight to the door very fired up. Brian opens the door and steps into the unit. Brian has on gray polo shirt, and he has on khaki pants. He is immediately restrained by Russell, who pins him to the wall. Brian is also tussling with Russell as well. They begin to wrestle on the ground. Kevin, Jesse and Victor then try to break them up. Russell and Brian are separated, and Russell starts to stare down Brian harshly. Brian then starts to speak to Russell.

  “Russell, I know why you’re mad, and I’m sorry. My phone died. I wanted to go and surprise you guys with coffee and donuts, but my car hit a flat tire. Because I’m stupid, I didn’t bring my car jack, and all my spare tires are here. I had to get a can of “Fix-A-Flat”. Russell you need to control your temper man. Now are we all ready to fucking go?”

  Russell puts his hand over his mouth and shakes his head at Brian. He then walks closer to him and gives him a tight hug, patting him on the back of the shoulder. He then responds.

  “I’m sorry Brian, your right man. I overreacted and that was my bad. I need to work on that. Yeah we are all ready to go. Let’s head on out boys.”

  Brian stares back at Russell shaking his head and giving him an ugly look. All five of them leave “Home Base”, and Russell, Kevin and Jesse get in Russell’s car, and Victor rides with Brian. They then start to head towards the “United Farmers Savings” bank. This bank is located not that far from the buildings the men have to clean. It is located on Grand Ave. The bank is moderately sized, and is slightly larger than the “Sunset Credit Union”, but there are banks which are much larger located in the area.

  The bank is located in a somewhat concealed area, attached to a back parking structure extending out towards the street which hides the entrance. The bank also receives a moderate patron base. It’s not that crowded usually, but there are still many people that patronize the bank, and do their financial matters there. The bank like the “Sunset Credit Union”, has very lax security. A security guard is not present on duty. The bank tellers are easily accessible, and so are the cash carts located right behind them. The guys are not going to get inside the vault for this heist, but the vault similar to the way it was positioned at the “Sunset Credit Union”, is located in an area adjacent to the bank tellers.

  Russell and Brian park a few blocks away outside the bank, to not draw attention to themselves. Kevin immediately begins to open his laptop case in the passenger seat of Russell’s car. He removes his laptop, and then begins to open up the black market security software on his computer. The main objective is to analyze all the features of the bank, so they are prepared for their job on Friday. Kevin will place a pair of eyeglasses on Brian which look typical, but they are not. These eyeglasses are a camera, which also give a live feed to the other guys to what the inside of the bank looks like. This is so the other guys don’t have to walk in, and draw suspicion to themselves.

  Kevin is also pulling a pirated black market program on his laptop, which isn’t guaranteed to work and can run into hiccups and issues, but can be useful and helpful. The program allows the user to disable silent alarms in the bank, and the program can also detonate diversions from a nearby area It can set off a smoke bomb, causing the police to check that area out, and not the bank. Kevin doesn’t intend to test this feature, as they don’t need it for this heist. It also has dangerous repercussions, if the detonators are not calibrated right towards the program. Kevin only wants to see how strong the security silent alarms are, and if they are hackable according to his software. Brian also has a tiny earpiece, so that Kevin and the other guys can talk to him while he’s in the bank, and give him directions. The ear piece doesn’t have a microphone, so Brian will not be able to speak back to them. After Kevin is just about all set, Russell inconspicuously waves his hand out the door, to signal for Brian and Victor to walk towards his vehicle. They reach Russell’s car, and Victor opens Russell’s back door, and sits in the rear seat with Jesse. Brian walks up to the passenger side door, standing outside on the sidewalk. Kevin sets the glasses on Brian’s head. Kevin then warns Brian, before he goes in.

  “Now Brian, these glasses may give off static electricity vibes or waves. That might sound scary because it is. Static electricity won’t kill you, but it will give you kind of an oogy and uncomfortable feeling. I can’t promise you that it won’t happen once; it will probably zap you once, but if it happens multiple times, just take the glasses off, and come back to the car. I’ll check it out. There is a program that I can run, that can adjust the frequency so it doesn’t do that. The picture won’t come in as clear, but your health means more to me that that man. Okay?”

  Brian nods his head, and he proceeds to walk to the “United Farmers Savings” bank. In order to make Brian’s presence at the bank more believable, the men all hatched a plan that Brian would go to the teller, and ask to get change for a twenty-dollar bill. That way they get a clear picture to the bank teller areas, as he’s doing his money transaction in front of the teller. As Brian continues to walk to the bank, Kevin positions his laptop in front of Russell’s center console.

  Kevin’s laptop contains a live video feed player, so they can see in real time Brian casing the bank. Brian walks into the bank, and Russell, Jesse and Victor begin to analyze where everything is located based on the video feed. While they are watching the video feed, Kevin slightly minimizes the video screen, and on the other side of the screen, pulls up a separate program on his laptop computer. The bank isn’t currently crowded, but there are a handful of people doing business at the bank. All the bank tellers are busy helping patrons. Brian is currently standing in line. In the meantime, Kevin continues to work with another other program. The program that he pulls up, is checking to see if the silent alarms in the bank can be hacked and disarmed. It turns out in this particular bank due to the obsolete alarm system, with some slight effort which will take a short amount of time, the alarms can be disabled. Kevin looks at more diagnostics on his computer, before turning to Russell to speak to him on his findings.

  “Okay Russ. I’ve got some good news, and some kinda good news. The good news is that the alarms can be disabled, so that’s good. The kinda good news, it’s going to take some time, especially if I don’t want to seem suspicious. It gonna take like almost four minutes. My only suggestion is I can start disarming the alarms before you guys walk in. My only choice sadly.”

  Russell while looking at the video feed of Brian standing in line, nods his head. Kevin then closes that program, and pulls up a separate program, used for the detonation devices. Kevin doesn’t intend to use them for this particular heist, but wants to show them off to the other guys anyways. Brian is still waiting in line, so they use this free time they have. The detonation software is quite dangerous, and if it’s isn’t used correctly, the results could lead to unsafe results. It is mainly used to distract law enforcement into creating an explosion, which will cause the police to investigate that, rather than the bank heist. It can also be used for defensive purposes as well.

  The detonators can be placed outside outside the entrance of a bank, causing a big smokescreen distraction as well. This could possibly be used
if law enforcement is right outside the doors of the bank, and this diversion could be used as an easy escape. However, if these detonators are not calibrated or computed correctly, it could cause catastrophic results. Kevin is not that experienced with both the detonator tools or the detonator software, but he is still eager and determined to educate himself more about their use. While Brian is still in line waiting to see the teller, Kevin continues to look at the software. He talks to Russell.

  “Now Russ, this is the interesting stuff. Marvel in the technology of today Russ. Ha-ha. Don’t ask me where I get my programs Russ. You know the rules, and that’s how we originally fell out anyways. But this is awesome stuff. Look it here. The only downside is I’m still quite inexperienced with this, and I maybe want to do some test runs at “Home Base”, just to be on the safe side. Because if you don’t learn how to do this right, it’s not going to be pretty at all.”

  Russell continues to look at the feed on the computer and nods his head at Kevin. Jesse and Victor are silently watching the video feed as well. Even though Brian has an earpiece and can hear all of the guys in the car, they aren’t giving him any instructions. Brian however is not drawing attention to himself, scanning his head and giving hints to the guys, showing them different areas around the bank while he’s standing in line. Kevin continues to speak.

  “Maybe I can use this stuff in our future heists Russ. It’s way too useful for me to not mess with it. We could really make the heists a lot easier if I did. But as I said, I don’t want to risk or chance it at this point Russ. So maybe later. But boy, is this shit cool man.”

  Russell looks at the feed Brian is on, and notices that he’s next in line to see the teller. While still having his vision towards the laptop, he softly responds to Kevin.

  “Be careful Kev. If you’re not ready to use those, then don’t. I do agree, they seem cool, and that software is also interesting. However, we can use those later Kev. Don’t worry about it man. I am trying to look out of you. I really appreciate your help Kev. I do. I mean it.”