FicWad

“Okay,” Ray said finally looking up from his laptop, “they’ve cleared out.”
“Definitely? All of them? No one hiding?”
Ray grinned and nodded. “That’s the beauty of these security systems, they’re specifically designed to ensure that there are no blind spots. Even the areas underneath the cameras are covered by another. It’s clear, Frank, no question.”

Frank smiled. That’s what he liked about Ray; the man had serious talent but was never egotistical. Not once had he ever said anything like ‘don’t you trust me?’ or ‘I know what I’m doing!’. He always explained for the benefit of Frank and Bob who, while being talented in their own fields, understood little about computing.

“Bob, can you help me, please,” Frank turned as he spoke, realising as he did that Bob still had his hands full with Mikey. He was no longer struggling, but it still looked as though Bob had to use a lot of his strength to restrain him.
Bob nodded to Mikey. “What do I do with him?”
“Let go of me and let me help!” Mikey replied frustrated at his inability to break free from his grip.
Frank nodded briefly. “Take his cuffs off.”
“Frank? Are you sure?” Ray asked, standing to remove the key from his pocket.
“Yeah,” Frank nodded as he realised that he felt he could trust Mikey not to make a bid for freedom or try to attack them. And it wasn’t even because they had his brother lying on the ground, shot, unable to go with him. Frank genuinely trusted him.

Turning the small key in the locks, Ray released Mikey from the handcuffs. Finally able to move his hands after what had felt like an eternity, Mikey hoped that this period of being free of the cuffs would last a lot longer than the last. Moving immediately towards the door, through which Gerard lay still bleeding, Frank stopped him within inches of the door itself.

“What? I’m only going to help Gerard! I’m not trying to escape!” he yelled angrily trying to shove Frank out of the way, only to be grabbed and held by Bob once more.
“Ray, check the cameras again, please,” Frank asked with caution in his tone.
Kneeling at the laptop, Ray flicked through all of the camera views, stopping on the one that showed the corridor leading up to the vault room. At the very end, his weapon trained on a spot roughly four feet above where Gerard lay, a police marksman stood pressed against the wall, almost hidden by the darkness.
Nodding, Ray admired Frank’s foresight to check again for anyone returning. Showing Frank, Mikey and Bob the screen, Ray silently pointed to where the man was standing in wait.
“Mikey,” Frank turned to him asking the question in a hushed whisper, “are you really helping us?”
“Yeah,” Mikey nodded his head with assurance. “I am.”
Frank desperately wanted to ask why, but he knew there simply wasn’t time.
“I’m going to insist they get out and stay out, but I made a threat of what I’d do if they didn’t go and I have to carry it out for then to take us seriously.”
Mikey’s eyes widened in horror. Frank’s threat was to kill Gerard if they didn’t pull back. As willing as he was to help, he couldn’t allow that.
“No!” Frank whispered hoarsely and waving his hands in front of him as he realised what Mikey was thinking. “I mean, I’m going to fire a shot, into the vault so it’s safe, but I want you to scream like I just shot you. Can you do that?”
“Yeah,” Mikey smiled, a little embarrassed to have doubted Frank once more. “I can do that.”
“Gerard,” Frank kneeled on the floor near to the door, “I’m sorry to have left you so long. Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” he croaked turning his head.

He wasn’t badly hurt, but the shock of it had taken its toll on him. Of course, now he realised that the shock of being shot was nothing compared to the surprise of seeing how Frank was handling the situation. He obviously cared about Mikey’s feelings and by default, at least, he cared about him. In all his dealings with him, Frank had been nothing but a controlling, almost sadistic and determined and focussed criminal. Now, well now, he was just a guy and a nice one, at that. He had assumed responsibility for the four men in the room, be they associates or hostages. As he stared up at him, he began to see how Mikey had developed a different opinion of him and realised that Frank’s behaviour on visits to the bank and his apartment had been merely an act.

“There’s a police marksman at the end of the corridor that I’m going to have to get rid of. I’ll get you back in here as soon as I can. Bob’s had first aid training, he’ll fix you up. I’m sorry this happened to you.”
Gerard lowered his eyes. “Thanks,” he replied, not knowing what else to say.

Getting to his feet once more, Frank yelled into the corridor.
“I told you what would happen if you didn’t get out! This is on your head!”

Turning, Frank drew his gun and aimed a shot inside the vault. Immediately, Mikey let out a chilling scream, allowing himself to drop to the floor with a convincing thud. Subsequent faltering cries and of pain followed ending with a low moaning. Frank was impressed, but Gerard was alarmed.

“Mikey!” he yelled, terrified, believing that Frank had actually shot his brother. His mind was in turmoil; confused, shocked and traumatised at the sound of the shot. Frank had appeared to care. Gerard had even begun to change his mind about him and then this! It was unfathomable. Trying to stand, Gerard was taken by surprised at the level of pain emanating from the wound and fell back instantly with a pained groan.

“He’s gone,” Ray announced, “he had a radio message and he pulled back. I followed him on the cameras, he’s outside, no one’s left.”
“Get him in here!” Frank ordered. “Patch him up.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, both Mikey and Bob stepped into the corridor and gently helped Gerard to his feet.
“Gee, are you okay?”
Gerard turned a thoroughly confused expression towards his brother.
“But… he… what happened?”
“It was a trick,” Mikey admitted as Gerard was almost carried between him and Bob back into the vault room. “Gee, can we trust you?”
“We?” Gerard asked in surprise.
“Yeah,” Mikey nodded gravely.
“You were in on this all along?” Gerard gasped.
“No!” Mikey replied, suddenly realising how what he had said sounded. “No, it was all very real! But, like I said before…”
“I know,” Gerard nodded. “You want me to promise not to try to escape?”
“Yeah,” Mikey nodded.
“Well, my last attempt wasn’t particularly successful,” Gerard gave a small laugh. “I think I’m safer in here with these guys. You’re sure you know what you’re doing?”
Mikey nodded. “I’m certain, Gee. Trust me.”
Gerard sighed. He had seen enough for his own eyes to convince him that Mikey’s trust in them had been repaid. He had no idea how it had come about, but he was finally willing to listen to his brother’s advice.
“You can trust me, I promise.”

At the words, Ray bent down and unlocked Gerard’s handcuffs. He didn’t entirely trust Gerard and whilst he felt sorry for him that he had been hurt, Ray was a little relieved that he couldn’t make any sudden moves against them now.

Frank sighed deeply. “Okay, so, we’re in here and they’re out there. I’d say we have a bit of a problem here.”

Frank could see that Bob, in particular, was scared, and the frustrating part was that he truly couldn’t see a way out. The police had already shown themselves willing to ignore their threats. Worse still, they had opened fire on Gerard without even waiting to check who he was. Ray had seen the marksman waiting for them, ready to kill and it could so easily, and would most likely, have been Mikey who had rushed to the aid of his brother. They didn’t seem too interested in discriminating between criminals and victims. The likelihood that they would be allowed simply to walk out, even with hostages, seemed very small indeed.

“Gee, this is your bank, you know it inside out,” Mikey implored, “is there anything you can think of? Any way out of here?”
Gerard looked up at him; he couldn’t believe the irony of the situation. Mikey helping his kidnappers to escape, the fact that they cared so much about both of them, the nice work Bob had done covering the small gun shot wound on his leg. All that weighed against the fact that the police had just shot him without warning or care to establish his identity.
“I can’t believe they shot me,” he finally replied. “I kinda thought they’d be a little more careful.”
“You told Frank you’d never seen an innocent man jailed?”
Gerard nodded. “Yeah, why?”
“He was innocent, he really was. He was nineteen, putting himself through college. There was a raid on the market he worked at, he tried to help, but the owner mistakenly believed he was in on it and knocked him out. He didn’t do anything wrong, Gee, but he went to prison. Just like you, you tried to stop the robbery and you end up getting shot.”
“I didn’t try to stop the robbery, Mikes, I don’t care if they clean the place out. I just wanted the police at my place when they came so you’d be safe. I’m sorry I messed things up.”
Leaning down, Mikey gave his brother a comforting hug. He had meant well, it just hadn’t gone well.
“How do we get out, Gee?”
“The bunker,” Gerard sighed. “It’s the only option.”
Frank stepped forward, having kept an ear on the touching conversation.
“Isn’t there more than a chance of us being cornered even more than we are now?”
“I’m not trying to trap you,” Gerard said as he looked up at Frank. “You have to give me the benefit of the doubt here. I mean, whenever I saw you, you were… well I’ll just say you act tough well.”
Frank smiled at the strange compliment.
“Okay, but even if you mean well, isn’t there still a chance that…”

Frank was interrupted as two hard objects hit the wall in the corridor with a loud bang before bouncing into the vault room itself. As they rolled inside, Frank noticed the canisters lying on the floor, with a white cloud of gas pouring from each.

“Tear gas!” Frank gasped. “We’ve got no choice, do it, quickly, they’ll be in here any second.”

Mikey quickly helped Gerard to his feet as they headed to a small area at the back of the vault room. Lifting a floor panel, Gerard revealed a small hatch. Pulling his set of keys from his pocket, Gerard quickly inserted a large key in the lock and pulled open the thick steel door and flicked a switch to light the way down.

“Everyone in, quick,” Frank ushered Mikey, Ray and Bob into the bunker entrance, each of them dispensing with the stairs on the ladder and merely sliding down.

“Now you,” Gerard nodded, “I’ll follow and lock it.”

Frank smiled weakly, this would be the moment of truth. Either Gerard would lock them in and fetch the police or he would do as he said and follow them in. It was hard for Frank to trust a man he had threatened, but, in truth, he had little choice. Following the others into the bunker, he looked up to see what Gerard would do. Frank sighed with relief as, true to his word, Gerard followed. As he stood on the steps of the ladder and lowered the hatch, Gerard heard the sound of footsteps running towards the vault room. They had made it in time. Turning the key in the lock, he watched momentarily as all the bolts slid back into place almost silently, before descending the ladder slowly being careful with his leg.

“What now?” asked Bob. “We’re stuck here now, we can’t even check to see if they leave.”
“We don’t have to,” Gerard announced.
“What do you mean?” Mikey asked, puzzled by the response.
“There’s a second exit, it comes out in the manager’s office. Well, actually that’s the main entrance, the one in the vault room was added later because they wanted an alternative exit in case one got blocked and they thought that the vault room was more likely to withstand a blast from a bomb.”
“So, this other exit will take us right up to your office?” Frank asked.
“Not mine, the manager’s, but that’s just next door. Not far from the staff entrance we came in through.”
“So, what do you suggest?”
“I think sooner rather than later. They’ll wonder where we went and some bank official is bound to know about this.”
“Won’t we be likely to get caught?” asked Ray suspiciously.
Frank shrugged. “It sounds like we definitely will if we stay here.”
“It could be a trick,” Ray grumbled.
Frank drew his lips into a thin line as he considered the words.
“I don’t think so. If he wanted that, he could have just locked us in here without coming in. I trust him.”
Gerard smiled; this man had so much to lose, but was willing to accept him at his word, despite everything.
“I’ll lead the way. Mikey can you help me, please.”
“Sure, Gee.”

Mikey stepped forward to help his brother walk.
“This isn’t a trick, is it?” he whispered.
“No,” Gerard whispered in reply. “I’ve long since come round to your thinking.”
Mikey smiled and gave him a squeeze. “You won’t regret this, Gee. I have an idea, and I think you’re going to like it.”