The Kasparov Agenda (Omega Ops Legion Book 1) (21 page)

“Hello, there!” The man who was seated on the bench waved at Lucas and Mark. It was Tony Calzone.

***

“Ah, just who I wanted to see!” Enrique exclaimed, upon seeing the Solly brothers at the counter. But their attention was elsewhere.

“Funny, I was thinking the exact same thing!” Tony shouted at Enrique and the Solly brothers.

Lucas stared at Tony. “What is this?” he growled.

Tony placed his newspaper on the bench and stood up. “This, my friend—is
retribution
.”

The doors to the bank unlocked and opened from the outside. One by one, they entered: Tony’s men—armed to the teeth. Screams of panic erupted inside the bank. The mother by the door was in shock. She immediately got knocked to the ground by the intruders. The two bank employees were thrown to the ground as well. The little girl rushed to her mother’s side to help her up. Tony grinned. “Told you to stay away from the doors.”

Bringing up the rear was Hachiuma and his guard of Thai mercenaries. Ramon walked over to Tony and handed him a pistol and the bank door keys they had acquired prior to the operation. “Here ya go, boss.” Tony pocketed the keys and cocked back the gun.

“Get outta here,” Mark muttered under his breath to Enrique. The manager slowly began to back up.

“STAY WHERE YOU ARE!” Tony bellowed, pointing his gun at Enrique, who gasped in panic. “Right there—that’s a good boy. No one moves unless told to.” Tony paced around the bank, taking in the frightened expressions on the people’s faces. “Right then, everyone to the center. Gather ‘round in front of the counters and have a seat. Get comfy.” Tony eyed the Solly brothers. “You two pricks stay right where you are—you’ll be dealt with in a minute.” Tony pointed his gun at Enrique. “You as well, Smiley.
Stay put
.” The hostages did as they were told without question. Hachiuma’s eyes followed Tony as he worked.

“Any sort of weapon on you?” Lucas muttered to Mark.

“Nothing. We need to contact our guys somehow.”

The Solly brothers had come with two other men, who were waiting outside the bank at this very moment: Zerneck Wells and Brody Sasso. “They’ll figure out something,” Lucas whispered. “Unless they were both sleeping, they saw these guys rush in here with guns.”

Tony stood beside Ramon and surveyed the layout. “Keep the hostages in line. Secure the exits—keep it locked down and get the windows covered.”

“Will do.” Ramon began directing the men to their positions.

“Alright, boss, we’re ready to make the withdrawal,” Tony informed Hachiuma.

“Good.” Hachiuma spoke briefly to his guard in Thai, then followed Tony.

“Jack Solly’s vault. You can access it?” Tony asked Enrique. Enrique glanced at the Solly brothers.

“
Don’t
—
look at them,
” Hachiuma growled through gritted teeth. “Your business is with us, not them.”

“Yes, I-I can do it,” Enrique stuttered.

“Then lead the way,” Tony instructed. “But before you do that, have you contacted the police? The silent alarm?”

“No,” Enrique answered truthfully. “I was told not to move, I would never—”

“Contact the police,” Hachiuma demanded. “Do it
now
.”

Enrique was perplexed but did as he was told. He was drenched in a cold sweat and was too petrified to think about what he was doing.

“Good. Now let’s go,” Tony said, smiling. “You two as well,” Tony indicated to the Solly brothers. “And bring your briefcases. There are some valuables in there which now belong to us.” Lucas and Mark exchanged glances. “Just in case you two were getting any bright ideas, let me clue you in on something.” With his finger, Tony directed the brothers’ attention towards Hachiuma. “This man could snap both your necks in a second.” Lucas didn’t need to be told that from Tony. He had never met Hachiuma before, but just by looking at him, he was quite certain that he was in a completely different league from Mark and himself. He was not going to test him. Not at this moment at least.

Enrique led them to the back of the bank where the vault was located. He was breathing heavy...h
e couldn’t handle this
. He froze in front of the vault and looked down at his trembling hands. “Open the vault
now
,” Hachiuma ordered. He raised a glowing fist to Enrique’s face. “Or I will do it myself and destroy you along with the vault door.” Enrique turned ghostly white. He was shaking even more now, but nevertheless, he overrode the security measures and released the locks. The vault door swung open, revealing several safety deposit boxes lining the walls. “Solly’s box. Open it.” Lucas gritted his teeth as he watched helplessly. Enrique quickly located the box and unlocked it. Hachiuma inspected the contents of the box, then collected the valuables. “Get the briefcases,” Hachiuma instructed to Tony. Tony smiled, with an outstretched hand in front of Mark and the other hand pointing a gun. Mark handed over his briefcase to Tony, who in turn gave it to Hachiuma. Hachiuma opened the briefcase to discover millions of dollars in bearer bonds. He smiled, satisfied, then placed the valuables from Solly’s box into the briefcase. Lucas stared grimly at Tony, who casually approached him for the second case. Tony grabbed the handle of the briefcase and pulled. Reluctantly, Lucas finally let go.

Tony grinned. “Good boy.” They moved swiftly. Tony and Hachiuma carried the spoils of their plunder and marched the Solly brothers and Enrique back to the front entrance of the bank.

Hachiuma handed his briefcase over to Tony. “Get these out of here right now. The police will be here momentarily.”

Tony ran over to Saul (one of Tony’s loyal grunts) and gave him the two briefcases and the bank door keys. “Go.”
It was a game of hot potato.
Saul took the briefcases and moved towards the entrance. He unlocked the doors and tossed the keys back to Tony.

Saul stepped out into bright daylight. He could hear cop sirens already approaching from some distance away. His eyes scoured the line of cars in front of the bank and spotted Turly. He moved as quickly as possible without breaking into a conspicuous run.

“Wells, this is stupid. We need to do something,” Brody muttered. Zerneck Wells and Brody Sasso were also parked outside the bank.

“Do what exactly? You saw the amount of men and firepower they had. The best thing we can do is wait. We’re gonna put our faith in the cops to handle this one. All we can do is hope that Mark and Lucas find a way to stay alive until then.” Zerneck ran his fingers along the steering wheel as he waited patiently. And then they saw the bank doors opening...and a man walking out with two briefcases...

“Those are our cases!” Brody yelled. “No chance in hell they’re getting those!” He opened the car door and rushed to intervene.

“No, you idiot, I said stay!” Zerneck Wells called after him, but he was already gone.
Idiot’s going to ruin everything
.
 

Brody was on the intercept path. There was a great deal of space between him and his target. Turly leaned over, unlocked the passenger-side door, and pushed it open. “C’mon, hurry up,” Turly muttered to himself, while watching Saul approach his vehicle. Brody sprinted forward; he had Saul in sight. Saul reached the vehicle just as Brody stopped to draw his silenced gun. He took aim and fired.

Turly watched in shock as Saul screamed out and dropped one of the briefcases. He staggered on the spot, holding his shoulder.
“Get in!” Turly yelled. Saul stumbled and fell onto the sidewalk. He struggled to climb into the car.  Another shot pierced Saul through the back. His hand was grazing the car seat when it began to go limp. Turly watched wide-eyed as Saul’s arm slowly slid out of the car and his body crumpled by the passenger-side door.
Shit
.
There was only one thought on Turly’s mind.
The briefcases
. He scrambled over to the passenger side and reached out to pick up the cases.
 

Brody ran forward. “Leave it!” he roared. He fired wildly while running, trying to shoot Turly through the rear windshield. Turly  ducked down just before the rear window was shattered by gunfire. With only his arm protruding out from the car, he loaded the two briefcases in. He then closed the door and stepped on the gas. Brody had reached the back of the car the moment the wheels began to peel out. Brody put an extra burst of effort into his running and fired at the passenger-side window. With a spectacular lunge, Brody managed to get his hand through the shattered window and hold on as the car took off.

Zerneck groaned.
Goddammit.
He had watched the entire scene unfold in front of him.
He started his car and joined in the chase.
 

Turly looked to the passenger side to see Brody hanging from his car door. Brody managed to get both arms into the car, and one was aiming a pistol. With his left hand still on the steering wheel, Turly lunged and grabbed Brody by the wrist. Turly directed Brody’s gun upwards, forcing his shots into the car roof. Brody tried to work his way into the car, but Turly wouldn’t allow it. He kept his foot down on the accelerator. Turly swerved his car back and forth, attempting to shake off Brody, but he was firmly grasping on to the door handle from the inside. As Turly’s driving became increasingly more erratic, Brody quickly released the door handle and grabbed Turly’s thinning hair for grip instead. Turly screamed as his body lurched towards the passenger side. Turly looked Brody dead in the eye, baring his teeth and wearing an expression of utmost contempt. Brody was the stronger of the two and was forcing his gun down towards Turly, despite Turly’s resistance. Turly knew that in about a second he was going to be done in, and he had had just about enough of this slime contaminating his vehicle. He released the steering wheel and stomped down all the way on the accelerator pedal. Reaching into his suit pocket, he extracted his pen blade. With his teeth, Turly bit off the top of the pen and swiftly thrust the ceramic blade in and out of Brody’s hand. Another stab—this time, Turly forced the blade in as deep as he could. Brody cried out in agony and dropped his gun, but pulled on Turly’s hair even harder. In this instant, Turly let go of his pen and caught the gun by the handle before it landed on the seat. Still holding Brody by the wrist, with the pen stuck firmly through his hand, Turly pressed the silenced gun barrel into Brody’s cheek. Turly was nose to nose with Brody, staring him down with unfettered rage. “
Get the
hell
out of my car
.
” Before the scream could escape Brody’s throat, Turly unloaded the entire clip into his face. Turly released Brody’s wrist and allowed his corpse to tumble out into the street. Zerneck, who had been following behind Turly’s car from the time it left the bank, slammed his brakes to avoid running over the body. He stared out the window at Brody’s corpse, and the slightest of smiles crossed Zerneck’s face. He rolled up his window and drove off. His eyes were focused on the road ahead, and his resolve was firm.

***

Two squad cars had arrived at the bank in response to the silent alarm being tripped. One by one, the officers exited their vehicles—four officers in total. They weren’t sure what to expect. For all they knew, this was a false alarm—it wouldn’t be the first time. But judging by the crowd gathered in front of the bank, something was definitely wrong. “Officer!” one of the bystanders called. “We can’t get into the bank!”

“The doors are locked and we can’t see inside. The windows have been covered up,” said another. The officers exchanged glances.

A panicked lady ran up to the officers. “There was a shooting! I saw someone firing a gun on the road, and then they just drove off!”

“When and where?” asked Sergeant Alden, the lead officer.

“Just before you all got here. It happened by the sidewalk there,” the lady informed, pointing to the strip in front of the bank. One of the officers walked over to where the woman indicated and examined the asphalt. He signalled the other officers to the spot. Broken glass from car windows littered the road. They drew their guns—this was definitely not a false alarm.

“Ladies and gentleman, I ask that you please step away from the bank doors for your own safety,” Sergeant Alden announced. The people cleared a path as the officers marched up the concrete steps. Alden suddenly froze and raised a hand to stop the other officers. The bank doors slowly creaked open. Tony Calzone slipped out and closed the door behind him.

“Ah, I thought I heard sirens!” Tony proclaimed to the police.

“Hands in the air where we can see them!” Alden ordered. All four officers had their guns directed at Tony. “Identify yourself!”

Tony’s hands were in the air, but he had no intention to surrender. He smiled at the police. “Okay, officers, let me lay out the situation for you. We have a bank full of hostages. Shoot me now and I can guarantee you that every last one of them will be executed. But don’t misunderstand me—we have no intention of harming anyone. As long as the police don’t do anything stupid, that is.” Tony looked from one officer’s face to the next. “But I suppose that stupidity is part of your job description. Is it safe to assume I can lower my hands?” Alden stared coldly at Tony and said nothing. Tony’s smile grew wider.  He slowly lowered his hands to his side. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

“What do you want?” Alden demanded.

“What I
want—
is a news crew here in fifteen minutes...at which point, I’ll make my demands public. In the mean time, no one will be allowed in or out of the bank unless we okay it. I don’t think I need to tell you what will happen if you try to force your way into the bank. That will be all for now. I’ll be back out in fifteen.” The officers watched helplessly while Tony turned his back to them and casually walked up the stairs. Tony paused on the top step. “Oh, and one more thing—get in touch with Captain Bruce Kasparov. I know there isn’t an officer here in New York that doesn’t know his name. Make sure he’s watching the broadcast.” Tony retreated back inside the bank and closed the door behind him.