Stefan removed his glasses for a moment to clean them. He glanced across at his younger brother to make sure he had seen the agreed signal. Stefan’s heart raced as he smoothed his hair and then replaced his spectacles. With an air of confidence that belied his trembling body, he straightened the jacket of his pinstriped suit and walked over to the bank teller. At the vacant window, he pulled out the documents from his briefcase and laid them on the counter.
Anton recognised the pre-arranged sign and prepared
for action. With a slight smirk to himself, he looked over at Stefan as he
strode across the banking hall. Anton took the mobile phone out of his pocket
and activated the app the two brothers had developed. He swiped his finger over
the screen and the lights in the room flickered. The security guard turned to
check what was wrong while others stared upwards. Within seconds they forgot
the distraction and returned to what they were doing. Anton knew the app had
worked and made his way to the front entrance.
At the counter, Stefan produced a small,
silenced pistol from beneath the documents. While holding a finger to his lips,
he pushed the gun through the gap in the screen so only the cashier could see
it. Tired eyes widened with fear as the nozzle rested inches from the terrified
employee. He read the note in front of him and as instructed passed bundles of
banknotes across the counter. Stefan was aware the teller had activated the
alarm, but knew it was not working. He stuffed the notes into his briefcase and
sprayed a brief blast of gas at the unbelieving man, who slumped forward. With
a casual turn, Stefan headed for the entrance.
Outside the bank, Anton monitored the
security guard as he continued to greet customers at the front door. With a
glance through the window, Anton saw the disturbance behind the counter as
staff attended to their collapsed colleague. His older brother joined him, and
they strolled over to two e-scooters chained to the railings. They unlocked
them and sped off down an alley.
A minute later they skidded to a halt by
the car they had acquired earlier. After opening the boot and stashing the
e-scooters, they slipped into the front seats. Anton ripped off his latex face
mask and let out a gasp of relief. He watched as his sibling took off his
glasses and did the same. They roared with laughter as Stefan drove them away.
Two police cars raced by in the opposite
direction, sirens blaring and lights flashing. The brothers exchanged an anxious
look.
Stefan snapped, ‘You switched off your mobile,
didn’t you?’
Anton flashed him a reassuring smile. ‘Don’t
worry. I uninstalled the app and turned off the phone. There’s no way they can
track us, even if they scanned my number in the bank.’
Traffic was slow as parents collected
children from school. It took twenty minutes to clear the suburbs, but then Stefan
picked up speed before arriving at a secluded parking spot on the outskirts of
town. After transferring the briefcase with the cash to the boot of their
sports car, they dumped the masks, gun, and gas spray into a deep well at the
edge of the woods. It was only then that they removed their gloves and threw
them in too.
As they roared away, the heavens opened. Torrential
rain thrashed against the metal of the bodywork, and the speed of the wipers
increased to clear the streaming water from the windscreen. There were loud
screeches from the underside of the car as they drove through large puddles.
Amidst the gloom ahead, Anton spotted two
figures in uniform at the side of the road with a device pointed in their
direction.
‘Slow down bro,’ he screamed, ‘there’s a
couple of cops over there. We don’t want to get caught speeding.’
Stefan eased his foot on the brake pedal. They
passed the police officers, who peered at them with an accusing glare. One of
them was shouting into his phone.
As the brothers started to relax, another
man sprang out from the bushes and threw something across the road in front of
them.
‘Watch out Stef, it’s a stinger.’
Stefan mounted the pavement to avoid the
strap with its lethal metal spikes. It was too late. The tyres shredded and
within seconds the car ground to a shuddering halt.
A swarm of uniformed officers, with guns
raised, raced towards them.
‘How the hell did they know where to find
us?’ croaked Anton.
Stefan buried his head in his hands. ‘No
idea bro, you did turn your phone off, didn’t you?’
A sudden wave of realisation swept over
Anton’s face. ‘What if the cashier sneaked a tracker into the cash?’
‘Sod it, we should have checked that. I
thought we’d covered everything.’
Their shoulders fell and both brothers let
out a shriek of exasperation as guns appeared at the side windows of the car.
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Ooh! I enjoyed this story. Congrats, Robert! Thanks for hosting, Yvette. :D xo
ReplyDeleteSo did I! I hope we see more short stories from Robert in the future. Thanks for visiting, Vashti. :-)
DeleteThank you for sharing Robert's story, Yvette. I enjoyed it!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by, Jan. :-)
DeleteDefinitely a page-turner.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Shirley. :-)
Delete