Partners (Fire & Lies - One) (22 page)

We’ve
commandeered two identical vehicles that aren’t connected in any
way to any of us, or to anyone we know. They were chosen completely
at random and will be the cars at the scene. Once we’ve achieved
our goal and made our escape, we’ll switch out cars and remove our
disguises before we stash everything in my floor safe at the
warehouse, and go back home like nothing happened.

It all sounds
perfect. Now we just have to pull it off.

“Good morning,
Bonnie and Clyde,” Jared says with a grin, as Chloe and I get out
of the car. He hits the button on the wall and lowers the roller
door. “Are we ready to have some fun?”

“If that’s
what you call it,” Chloe says, heading over to sit next to Leah.
They exchange a few words in greeting and I watch them carefully,
concerned that there may be something going on that I don’t know
about. Knowing Chloe, it wouldn’t surprise me if there was.

I catch
Jared’s eye and signal that he needs to watch them. He nods,
heading over to the table where there are some takeaway coffee cups
that appear to be empty and a massive tray of sugared donuts,
already half gone.

“Where we at?”
I ask Jared, as he grabs one of the donuts and stuffs most of it in
his mouth.

He sits on a
metal stool in front of the computer set up he’s created in here
and points to one of the screens that has a small window open with
constant scrolling updates inside it. “I’m just monitoring police
reports and making sure we’re good to go.” He then points to a
window on the next screen. “And our target in the bank has clocked
on and they’ll be opening their doors in exactly one hour and fifty
minutes.”

“So that gives
us two hours to get ready and leave here.”

“You’ve got
it. I’ll be locking down the Goldsmith building in exactly ninety
minutes. So get your faces on, ladies. We’ve got a heist to pull
off.”

I clap him on
the back and head over to where Chloe is still sitting with Leah
and as I approach. They stop talking and Chloe looks up at me with
a welcoming smile.

“No cold
feet?” I ask, looking between them.

“No, bro. I’m
all in,” Leah says, holding out his hand to shake mine. “And if I
don’t get the chance to say it – thank you. For all your help and
shit. It’s been real, man.”

“Thank me
later. We’ll have a beer when it’s all done,” I say, taking a hold
of Chloe’s hand and pulling her to stand. “You ready to do your
magic?”

“Sure am,” she
says, and I press my lips to hers in the last kiss we’ll get before
we go in there. I kiss her with everything I have in me, trying to
let her know exactly how much she means in the simple meeting of
our mouths.

“For luck,” I
say as I pull away, leaving her lips pink and her cheeks
flushed.

“Get to it you
two,” Jared butts in. “I said ‘get your faces on, ladies’ not ‘get
your face
on a lady
’.”

Laughing, I
move to another stool where we have everything ready to go and from
that moment, the plan begins its final move forward until we’re
transformed. Jared does a final countdown then enters the commands
that set the first part of our plan into motion.

The emergency
lockdown gets triggered at the Goldsmith Building. Dozens of
pre-recorded panic calls, mostly lifted from TV and movies, go out
to emergency services and report sightings of man with a bomb
strapped to his chest. Communications are cut off from the building
and police, fire and ambulance are mobilised. It all happens in
minutes. A massive panic, started by the calculated press of a
button. It’s beautiful to watch.

Jared listens
intently to the headset, hearing the calls, and the orders. I
wonder how he makes sense of it all, but he’s focused, he’s
confident. This is going to work.

To mark this
momentous occasion, there’s no wailing sound. No flickering of
lights. No screams from the public. Nothing. There’s just four
people, standing in a warehouse staring at three computer screens
that monitor the mayhem we’ve just unleashed. The only sound, our
breathing, the buzzing of the fluorescent lighting overhead, and
our nervous hearts, beating in our chests.

“Done,” Jared
says, and I slap him on the back, giving him a grateful nod as we
collect our weapons and get into our respective vehicles. It’s time
to move onto phase two.

AS WE drive to
the bank, we hear the sound of sirens as emergency services are
sent to the scene of our false bomb threat. A slight tinge of guilt
pulls at my gut as I watch them wail past. I know it’s a hoax, and
I know that we’re wasting their time. But I promised myself I’d do
whatever it takes to do this right. And I have to do it. The life
of my father depends on it.

We pull up in
front of the bank, and Aiden shuts off the engine. “Ready?” he
asks, and I nod, even though I don’t think anyone with any type of
conscience can ever feel completely ready to do what’s about to be
done.

He moves to
open the door but I reach out, grabbing his arm to stop him, my
fingers digging into his muscular forearm. “Wait.”

“What is it?”
he frowns. “It’s too late to back out now, sugar. I need you to
stay with me.”

“No. I’m not
backing out. I just want you to know… I
need
you to know
that no matter what happens today…or tomorrow.” I swallow, my mouth
suddenly feeling dry. “I need you to know that I love you, and that
I always have,” I force out of my mouth. It needs to be said. He
needs to know that I’m not doing any of this because I want to. He
needs to know that if our world were a different place; if my
father was a different man; if I was a different person–then he
would be my one choice. My only choice.

He takes my
hand in his, running his thumb over the flesh coloured glove. “I
know, sugar. But we’re going to be ok. Just stick to the plan.”

I nod, glad in
a way that he didn’t claim to love me back. It makes this so much
easier knowing that I need him more than he needs me. I reach for
the door, nerves swirling about in my stomach as I push it open,
stepping out and walking confidently toward the glass doors.
Already, I can see a couple of customers lined up at the tellers.
But it isn’t busy. Good. Less people to control.

I sling a
heavy laptop bag over my shoulder and straighten the baseball cap
on my head. Aiden walks beside me, carrying a briefcase. Look
closely and you’ll think that perhaps there’s something odd about
the stiffness in our faces. But to most, we look completely normal.
Not like the bank robbers in the movies at all.

Moving through
the door, we both scan the area and I note that there aren’t any
red lights beside the cameras. We’re not being filmed in here. Our
disguise is primarily for the CC footage that will be recorded on
the street. We’re counting on them to help misidentify us.

Jared said
that he could hack into the CC network and black out the cameras,
or add some sort of loop. But on top of everything else he’s had to
do, to help us pull this off, he would have needed a team of
hackers to help him. The disguises would do. Our plan was
sound.

“Benson
Tanner, please. We have an appointment,” Aiden says to the staff
member on the floor as she greets us.

Obliging, she
asks him his name and then goes to get Mr Tanner who is the man
who’s going to kindly let us inside the vault–even though he has no
idea about that as yet.

The electronic
doors open and close behind us, and Leah walks in. His own disguise
is on to conceal his identity, as he heads over to the customer
bench where he pulls out a deposit form and sets about looking busy
so he can keep an eye on the floor for us.

We’re hoping
he won’t need to do anything because we want to keep this as quiet
as possible. But you never know, and even though Jared has disabled
all alarms, and blocked phone reception, we don’t need anyone
trying to be a hero.

Benson Tanner,
a dark skinned man with a soft friendly face and a soft belly to
match, comes to the floor and greets us warmly, escorting us to his
office where he closes the door and offers us a seat.

“Now, what can
I do for you gentlemen this morning? I understand you have some
farm holdings you’re looking for help to manage.”

Aiden opens
the briefcase on his lap and reaches inside. “Actually, I’d much
prefer it if you’d put this on and escort us on a tour of your
safe,” he says, holding up an explosive vest for Mr Tanner to
see.

Immediately,
the man breaks out in a sweat, his eyes widening as he glances at
me, his mouth trembling as he shakes his head.

Looking at me
doesn’t help him. It just adds to his fear as he spots the gun I’ve
pulled from my bag, and now have trained on him. I raise my
eyebrows at him, not daring to speak so he can’t recognise that I
don’t have a male voice. But I don’t need my voice. Mr Tanner very
quickly obeys without the need for words.

Aiden steps
toward him and he flinches back, his hands held up in surrender.
“You have two choices here, Mr Tanner. You can put this on under
your jacket and you can walk us out nicely so no one gets hurt, or
you can fight us and our man out there starts taking out your
employees.”

“I…I..I’ll
cooperate,” he stutters, his round head nodding and wobbling as he
looks at me to see if he can take his jacket off. I nod.

Aiden quickly
gets him strapped up then shows him the remote detonator. “Try
anything, and we turn you into dog mince. Got it?”

“G…got it,” he
says.

“Ok. Now take
us to the safety deposit vault.”

Benson leads
the way, walking a little stiff and nervous, but we make it through
the first door without a problem then he takes us to the safe.

“The power’s
out. Do the manual lock,” Aiden commands, watching as Benson
complies. It’s in that moment that I decide I like Benson. He
hasn’t said no to us once, which shows he values his life and isn’t
going to do anything stupid. “Good work. Now, you’re going to stand
out here with my partner and be nice and quiet while I go in.
Ok?”

Once again,
Benson nods, letting out a light cry when he glances at me and the
gun in my hand. I’ve never seen a man sweat so much in my life and
I wonder if the vest he’s wearing is waterproof. God help us if it
isn’t.

Reaching out,
Aiden takes the laptop bag from me and enters the vault, spending
less than thirty seconds in there before coming out and closing the
door. “Hold your breath and count to five,” he says with a smile.
“Those doors are about to go ‘boom’.” Realising that Aiden has just
placed explosives in the vault, poor Benson’s eyes grow to the size
of saucers.

Grinning,
Aiden places a finger against his lips and listens until a soft
popping sound is heard from the other side of the vault door. I
would have thought there’d be more noise, but the vault door
obviously trapped the sound.

“Let’s see
what we’ve got in here,” Aiden says as he opens it up again. Smoke
billows out, causes us all to cough as we wave at the air to clear
our vision.

I glance at
Benson, the colour has all but vanished from his face as he surveys
the destruction of the vault. Aiden places his arm around the
frightened man’s shoulders. “You’re doing great, Benny,” he says,
giving Benson a slap on the arm before he heads back into the
vault.

I keep the gun
trained on Benson and glance inside the vault, letting out a low
whistle as I see the mess of money and busted safety deposit doors
lying all over the floor.

Aiden pulls
out box after box, emptying their contents into the canvas bags we
brought with us. Three in total. Big enough to fit an adult inside
if we had to. He puts in cash, he puts in jewellery, he puts in all
the papers he can find and when one bag is full, he tests the
weight of it and drops it by my feet. “Can you carry that?”

I reach down
and lift it. It’s fucking heavy and the straps press into my hands,
but I nod.

He fills the
next two in much the same manner, checking his watch periodically
for time. And when he’s done, he moves back over to poor Benson,
who, I’m pretty sure, has peed his pants by now.

“You’ve been a
wonderful help, Mr Tanner. And there’s just one more thing you need
to do.” Aiden grips his shoulders and moves him inside the
safe.

Benson shakes
his head. “No, no. Please don’t put me in here. Without the
power–”

“You won’t run
out of air, and you’ll be out before you know it. Now, you can give
me back the vest now. I’m sure you’re tired of it.”

Benson nods,
instant relief washing over his face when Aiden takes it back.
“Now, Mr Tanner. Once I close you in here, you’ll be stuck for
exactly thirty minutes. Then the power will come back on and your
safety features will be back online so you can get out. Do you
understand?”

“Y–yes.”

“Good.” Aiden
holds out his hand, taking Benson’s in his in a firm handshake.
“Thank you for your help today, Mr Tanner. I’ll be sure to
recommend your services to all my friends. This has been a
wonderful experience.”

With that, we
shut a very frightened looking Benson inside the vault and walk
out, me carrying one large bag, struggling under its weight, and
Aiden carrying two either side of him as if they weighed little
more than a few shopping bags.

We glance at
Leah who lifts his hand to scratch his head, which is the signal
that all is clear. Then we head to the front door and we don’t look
back.

I’m sure that
someone thought it odd that we were carrying such huge bags. And
I’m sure that it crossed someone’s mind that we were carrying
duffels of cash. But the calm way in which we did it must have made
them think twice about questioning us. After all, people collected
things from their safety deposit boxes every day…