Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

by Brennen Tammons

  Kevin walks over to Max and talks to him as well.

  “Your detonation software is really something Max. I’ve been studying it all week, and I think I got it down. There are still some minor kinks I’m not entirely sure I’ve managed to fix. That’s okay, as I basically got the general idea on how they work. They are going to be a major help with this heist, and I’m so glad to use them.”

  Max puts his hand over Kevin’s shoulder, and softly responds to him.

  “Be extremely careful with those. They are wonderful gadgets yes, but they can also be dangerous to work with as well. I don’t want you to get hurt by using them. I’ll take your word that you have studied them enough to properly manage them. Please be careful.”

  The detonators are an interesting tool to use for a bank heist; causing a distraction and diversion, however they are in fact risky to use. Even the slightest error when trying to connect the computer software to make them explode, can cause unfortunate results. The detonators can go off for no reason if they aren’t calibrated correctly. Kevin does have complete control to if, and when the detonators go off by computer. However, they can also explode without being controlled to by the computer program. If someone moves by the detonator, and it wasn’t properly coded by the computer, it will explode and go off in that case. Despite all of this, Kevin feels he has enough knowledge to deal with these detonators. He feels comfortable enough to use them in the heist, as a major advantage to their tactics. Kevin replies to Max.

  “Don’t worry, I have it under control and I know the risk factors. I appreciate your concern, but please don’t worry about any of that. I have it all under control, and everything is going to plan out fine. That’s why I did many practice runs with them. I wouldn’t be using them if I wasn’t sure I could plant and code them right.”

  Kevin then pats Max on the shoulder, and Max smiles back at him. Russell then starts to slightly worry about Kevin. He walks over to him and puts his hand on his shoulder.

  “Kev, listen to me. If you don’t want to use the detonators, you don’t have to. I know I said you could use them, but if you don’t feel safe about it, you can leave them alone, and it won’t bother me at all. It’s your choice Kev. Whatever you do, I’ll be okay with. I only care about your safety, and I don’t want to see you get hurt man. Be careful Kev, alright?”

  Kevin starts to walk towards the van, while talking to Russell.

  “Russ, this is my specialty man. I know all about computers, and all this fancy stuff. This is where I come in and offer my skills, over stuff like this. If this is going to be our last heist, why not do it in style Russ? You said it yourself, which is why you have the drill. So you can use the drill to open the vault, but I can’t use the detonators? Come on Russ, you know that’s not fair at all. I should be able to have fun as well. Come on Russ.”

  Russell looks down towards the ground, and then starts to hug Kevin.

  “Kev, I only want you to be careful man. I love you too much, and care about you.”

  Brian walks over to Russell and Kevin, and angrily speaks to them.

  “You guys, we are gonna have to move out of here. I appreciate all the sentimental shit, but we don’t have any time for that. We have to get going, like, now. Come on guys.”

  Max then proceeds to walk away from the unit, saying goodbye to the men.

  “Again, I want you guys to take care and be safe. I was scared the first time you guys went out. This time I’m not as nervous, but I still care about all of you. Work together, and please be safe. I want to see all of you later celebrating, and I’ll celebrate with you. For now, I’ll wish you guys goodbye, and I shall see you later. Take care you guys.”

  The men then wave goodbye to Max, and he leaves the area of the unit. They each then get inside of their vehicles. Kevin gets inside of the black van and starts the ignition. Directly to the right of the van, is the vehicle Russell is driving, with Jesse sitting in the passenger seat. Russell turns on the ignition and waits. Right behind Russell is the vehicle Brian will be driving, with Victor in the passenger seat. Kevin then tests the earpiece system.

  “Alright. I’m going to head out now guys. Before I go, if you guys can hear me, I want all of you to honk your horns now. Once I hear the horns, I’ll take off towards where I need to go and plant the detonators. As soon as I get to the bank, I’ll let all of you know. I’m going now.”

  Russell and Kevin honk their horns, conforming they can hear Kevin through the earpiece system. Immediately after that, Kevin drives out of the unit, and heads straight to the location to plant the diversion detonator. Directly behind Kevin, Russell drives out of the unit, and heads towards the “First Savings and Trust” bank. Brian creeps out of the garage door of the unit, and gets out of the vehicle. After shutting and locking the gate, he gets back into the car and heads towards the bank. Each of the men are now on the highway, heading towards the same area following each other. The highway has slight traffic, which is very custom for Los Angeles. The men are all keeping a moderate speed, trying act as normal as they can. Russell is driving directly behind Kevin in the same lane on the highway. They are not going to the same destination though. Russell along with Brian, will be going to the bank. Kevin will be heading towards a courtyard area nearby, to plant the diversion. Russell while he’s heading towards the bank, starts to feel slightly worried about Kevin. He honestly feels that Kevin shouldn’t be dealing with any of the detonation software. They are far too dangerous to not take lightly, or without great concern and care. Russell at this point can only trust Kevin’s expertise towards things such as that. Russell also starts to feel scared, as he cannot keep in contact and talk to Kevin. He again, can only trust Kevin’s own behavior and actions.

  Russell then is beginning to slightly regret planning for the guys to split up on the way to the bank. In the first heist, he was more secure and felt comfortable, because all of the guys were in the same van. The fact they are split up and travelling in different directions, causes Russell to be anxious somewhat. He does however still believe that this can be a satisfactory method for them to finish the heist in an orderly manner. Brian who’s briefly speeding, is able to catch up to Kevin and Russell. The men keep a straight single file line on the lane. Brian along with Russell, for some reason is starting to worry about Kevin as well. Brian now starts to also believe that separating and splitting up wasn’t such a good idea, despite it being a swifter way for them to travel to and from the heist. It’s interesting how when they were planning the heist, it seemed it was a good idea. Now that the action has started to commence, and they are on the spot, they start to have second thoughts about it. Jesse who’s sitting next to Russell in their vehicle, remains quiet, submissive and relaxed. He trusts Russell, and he understands that they are now committing a heist; he needs to be completely focused. Victor is also keeping calm at the moment. He is sitting beside Brian in their vehicle. Victor is under a great amount of stress, but he is managing to get his emotions in order.

  All five of the men in separate vehicles continue down the highway, anticipating all the events they are about to commit. The men stay in very close proximity, making sure not to lose track of each other. As they stay on the highway, the traffic starts to dwindle down, and the men instinctively speed up at that point. The bank is not far from the distance the men at currently at. Staying on the highway, the men still form a single line together on the lane, one right behind the other. Russell then starts to notice that Kevin is starting to pick up speed. He is very puzzled as to why Kevin feels the need to drive that fast. They are still on the highway, so there is no need for Kevin to separate and distance himself at this point. Russell shakes his head, as Kevin starts to speed up even more, and stray away farther down the lane. Russell has no choice but to speed up as well in order to stay in Kevin’s distance. Brian who was right behind Russell, increase his speed too, so all the men remain together. Russell can only assume that Kevin is possibly nervous and anxious, and that explains hi
s sudden burst of erratic driving. He doesn’t want them to cause any attention to themselves if they can avoid it. If they are speeding down the highway at high speeds, it will alarm the other drivers on the road. Something like that will have people assume they are up to no good, and that isn’t what Russell needs at this point.

  Kevin continues to keep a high speed down the highway. Russell wishes he could speak to Kevin, and tell him to decrease his speed. The men are trying to be inconspicuous, and are trying to blend in as much as they can. Driving fast, is putting an unneeded target on their back. Brian can tell that Kevin is speeding as well. He knows that Russell wouldn’t be increasing his speed that fast, unless Kevin who was travelling in front of him was speeding. Brian like Russell, doesn’t understand why Kevin is driving the way he is either. Only guessing that Kevin is under stress and doesn’t realize what he’s doing. Russell tries to think of a way to signal to Kevin to slow down. Russell thinks to himself for a minute, and wonders if he uses his windshield wipers, would Kevin get the hint or not. He then decides not to do it, as he’s not sure Kevin would understand the message or point behind that. A few minutes later, Kevin does return to a normal speed down the highway. Russell then begins to feel more calm, and not as tense as he was; knowing that Kevin is no longer speeding.

  The men stay on the highway, until the reach the exit heading towards the surface streets. After getting off the highway, the men continue to keep close towards each other. Being only a few blocks away from the bank, Kevin begins to make his turn, towards the diversion area. Russell and Brian continue through a separate route to the bank. The men are separated at this point. With Russell driving, he starts to have an unwanted anxious feeling course all through his body once more. They did agree to split up at this point of the heist, but Russell still feels uncomfortable. Again, when the men were planning all out of this out, it seemed easy to understand and accept. With the fact they are now sticking to the plan and living it out, it’s a different feeling. Deep regret is now starting to flow all throughout Russell. He begins to completely feel that perhaps made a mistake by allowing Kevin to separate from them. Despite his methods of trying to self-assure himself that everything will go according to how they mapped it out, it’s still not enough to calm Russell down. Russell tries his best to ignore all of these doubts that he’s feeling, and continues to head towards the parking structure of the bank. Brian starts to feel apprehensive. He along with Russell, is worried about Kevin. It’s too late for them to go back on their plan, and these feelings they are experiencing, have to be ignored. The heist is going to go through in only a couple minutes or so. They have to proceed, and stick with the plan. Being worried and anxious isn’t going to help them any. As Russell and Brian are seconds away from pulling up to the bank, Kevin finally reaches the diversion area.

  Kevin pulls up to the curb, and parks the van outside of a courtyard, located a couple blocks away from the bank in front of a commercial office building. From the way he’s parked against the curb, there is an array of bushes and shrubbery to where he’s going to put the devices at. He’s offered enough ambiguity, to where outsiders cannot detect what he’s doing. While he’s parked, Kevin gets his laptop case, and quickly turns on the computer. With the computer on, he navigates over to the detonation software. It takes a minute for the computer load the program up. After the program loads, Kevin carefully enters in the correct coordinates to operate the detonators. Once he’s finished processing all of the information into the computer, Kevin then grabs two of the detonators. He grabs two, only in case if the first one does not explode. There is a chance that the detonators might not explode due to a rare chance of malfunction glitches. If he uses two of them, if one detonator doesn’t go off, the other should without any issue. Kevin has two more spare detonators that he is not going to use. He sets them in the back of the van. Kevin reaches across to the passenger side door of the van, and briefly cracks it open. He tosses both detonators into the bushes in the courtyard.

  Kevin quickly closes the door, and starts to set the detonators, using the program on the computer. They detonators are now set, so all Kevin has to do is click on button on the computer when he’s ready, and the whole area will give off a powerful distraction explosion. It should cause the authorities to head over to that area, instead of heading towards the bank. Kevin then starts to drive over to the bank. Russell and Brian finally reach the parking lot of the “First Savings and Trust” bank. They park on the end of the parking structure, so then can quickly get in and out of the area quickly. Russell reaches behind him and grabs his gun, the duffel bag containing the drill, and the empty duffel bag. Jesse also grabs his gun from this section as well. Brian grabs both of his duffel bags, and his gun. Directly following him, Victor reaches back and grabs his gun. All four of the men wait for Kevin to arrive across the street, so he can disable the alarms inside the bank. During this time, the men are starting to feel the same exact way they felt during their first heist. This feeling shouldn’t be happening at all. If anything, they should be feeling confident of themselves. They have done a bank heist before. This is going to be their final heist, and they should not have any doubts running through their minds.

  Kevin at this time finally arrives across the street from the bank. From the position that he’s parked, there is a fenced barrier blocking the other side of the street, where the bank is located. Kevin then starts to disable the alarm system of the bank. He is able to do quickly, and soon as he’s done with that, he alerts the other guys to head inside the bank through their earpieces. Right them, all four of the men get out their vehicles, and lock them. Russell is carrying his gun in his hands, the duffel bag containing the drill, is strapped around his shoulder. Also carrying another duffel bag, containing the drill. Brian is carrying the empty duffel bag around his shoulder, with his second bag also stuffed inside. Victor and Jesse are carrying their guns.

  The men continue to race through the parking lot into the “First Savings and Trust” bank. As they are running, they feel extremely heavy with all of their steps. Time is passing by slow, and it seems like minutes have passed since they left their vehicles, even though it has only been a few seconds so far. The men are continuing out of the parking structure. Victor is ahead of all of the men, so it seems that he is going to be the one that is going to open the door. They are only a few steps away from leaving out of the parking lot. Getting closer and closer to the front door of the bank, they feel like they are walking through quicksand. They exit out of the parking structure, and head into a courtyard on the side of the bank.

  Being that they are now visible to pedestrians and other civilians on the street, this doesn’t seem to matter. Others on the street are not able to notice them from how fast the men are running, and they shockingly going unnoticed. With every second counting, wanting to finish the heist as quickly as possible; trying to get in and out of the bank with fast time. The men finally make the turn from the side courtyard, and make their way to the front door of the bank. Feeling as if they are moving in extreme slow motion, the guys start to slightly freeze for a half a second upon reaching the front door. They start to put their game faces on. They are about to go inside the bank, and there are now at the ultimate point of no return. Inches away from the door, the men position themselves to strike. Victor reaches his arm out for the handle, and opens the door. All of the men enter the bank, and rush inside. They continue running past the entrance, going through the vestibule, leading themselves into the lobby. Victor then aims his gun and then begins to shout very loudly.

  “DOWN ON THE FLOOR, GET DOWN ON THE FUCKING FLOOR NOW! EVERY BODY GET DOWN ON THE FLOOR. I WANT TO SEE EVERYBODY DOWN NOW!”

  Kevin across the street from the bank, sees the men are now inside, and quickly disables the alarm system. He then immediately sets off the diversion a few blocks away. Kevin correctly calibrated the detonators to cause a slight explosion, leading to no injuries to people in the area. However, it does act a distraction t
owards their heist, as many people did notice the explosion, and immediately start to call the police over that. Kevin then keeps his view towards the front door of the bank. The men act accordingly to their plan, and get down to business. All of the patrons in the lobby are immobilized on the floor and in fear. The tellers who are in shock, quickly raise their hands up, as Brian aims his rifles at the both of them. There are currently two bank tellers working currently. Brian who is going to take care of them all, walks over to the first teller who is an attractive blond female. He then points his gun and loudly screams at her.

  “Give me everything in the drawer and put in the bag! Empty the drawer!”

  The teller immediately begins to drop cash from inside her cash drawer, inside the duffel bag Brian has. Victor and Jesse stay in the lobby. At this point, while Brian is taking care of tellers, with Victor and Jesse being his backup, Russell heads over to the vault. He clips his gun across his shoulder, and takes out the drill from the duffel bag. Russell using all of his strength, begins to drill through the lock on the vault. Pieces of metal shrapnel from the vault are flying everywhere. Sparks are also coming out of the lock, from the force Russell is giving it. The drill is powerful enough to withstand all of the punishment Russell is currently using. As he continues to thrust the drill into the lock, Russell starts to hear faint clicking sounds meaning he’s getting closer to destroying the lock on the vault. Meanwhile, Brian tells the teller to empty her cart.

  “I need for you to give me all of that! Put it all in the bag right now!”

  The teller empties the cash cart behind her teller, dropping all of the cash from it, inside the duffel bag that Brian is holding. Brian then goes behind to the area the teller is in, and grabs her back and brings her to the lobby area. He then starts to shout at her.

  “Don’t you fucking move! Stay down on the fucking floor! Stay down!”