Jack:

If you ask me, Stockholm syndrome was kind of funny concept. What kind of people can get attached to somebody who's keeping you around for personal gain? Maybe I'm misunderstanding the concept of it but it just feels strange to me. Anyways I guess I should start us off from the beginning, not the very beginning but close enough, the Harvest and Trustee Bank. Our first hit wasn't anything too big, just enough to get us back into the swing of things and get us used to the D.C area. Nice and simple. As if…

Now things didn't go exactly as we planned. There was really no need to blame anyone but if we had to blame somebody, it'd probably be me. My job was to fetch the thermal drill out of the parking lot and place an electronic countermeasure jammer, (or E.C.M jammer) by the side entrance of the bank. The jammers have a pretty small radius of effect, but when used right they can cut off most electronics that would allow anybody inside the bank to call for help. Cell phones, security cameras, pagers, walkie talkies, and even the alarm.

Because of the weak radius for the jammer we'd need multiple jammers placed in different spots to cover the entire area of the bank. So while I place the mine in the doorway off to the side my partners Andy and Terra would also place jammers in the front lobby of the bank and the back offices respectively. Once we cut off all forms of communication outside of the bank Andy and Terra will kill any security guard that try to resist and tie down the civilians while I restrain the tellers and set the drill up at the vault.

We had a very short window to get the situation under control but if we could handle it then it would just come down to waiting for the vault to open and taking the cash. Of course, no such luck. As we weren't sure how this would go we packed pretty light for equipment, I carried just a 556 caliber automatic carbine, a 9MM handgun and the E.C.M. As we got ready to get into position I darted across the street and around the side of the bank to avoid being seen. In the parking lot I could see a grey pickup truck with an orange duffel bag in the back, that was definitely the drill

"I've got the drill, I'm gonna wait at door until you guys are ready to move." I said throwing the bag over my shoulder.
"Copy." Andy said. "Once Terra gets into position we'll wait outside for you to set the first jammer and we'll all rush."
"It's Terra, I'm at the back door but it looks like someone came through here already." That was an unnerving thought. We got the bank's schedule from our planner, Bain's inside guy. If there was a schedule change or the plans we got were inaccurate who knows what else could be different inside. I waited a response from somebody until I heard a shocked gasp from Terra and what sounded like a struggle.

"Terra come in. Terra?" Andy cursed. "Jack, if she's burnt you need to check because you're closest and if I start running it's going to look suspicious." He said quietly. I knew he was right, and if Terra did get busted we could only have a few seconds until the cops were all over us. I was ready to drop the drill and run for her when suddenly I heard a thud over the radio and Terra sigh.
"No, stick to the plan, I'm fine. I just ran into a guard."

"There weren't supposed to be guards patrolling outside." I said.

"It looked like he was just going for an unscheduled smoke break, just stick to the plan." She warned.

"Alright, the door I'm taking is locked." I said trying to force my way through. "Just remember when we get inside Terra, if the cameras come back online and the civilians are all on the ground, the guy in the security room is going to call it in. If you plant the jammer at the edge of the stairwell you should be able to silence the civilians in the office and shut off the electronic lock at the same time." I reminded her.
"So just force my way into the security room and kill the guard in there first?"
"And be quick to get back to the civilians. There should only be one other guard in the back of the bank if Bain's Intel is correct.

"It will be." Andy said. I forced the pins on the door lock upwards and turned the lock causing the door to drift open.
"Alright. E.C.M up!" I said sticking the magnetized surface to the metal door and twisting the knob on top.
"E.C.M up!" They repeated.
"Go go go!" I yelled pulling the drill assembly from my bag and lining it up with the lock on the vault.
"Get on fucking ground, nobody move or I'll kill you!" Andy screamed as he charged through the front door and shot the first guard. I heard another gunshot from the back and assumed that Terra had taken out the guard in the Camera room like she was supposed to.

I held my pistol in one hand and a lighter in the other as I tried to light the spark plate on the drill which would cause it to ignite and start on the vault. I heard footsteps coming at me and turned just in time to see the last guard running at me. "Freeze! Let me see your hands!" He yelled. I pulled my gun and fired off three rounds and he dropped to the ground.

"Fifth guard down!" I yelled. "We should be clear!"

"Stay down! The first one of you to get up, is dead!" Terra yelled. "This isn't the movies so just let it happen, no one likes a dead hero."

"Jack! How's the drill going?" Andy called. I repeatedly flicked the lighter under the spark plate hoping the copper plate heating would cause the flint to spark and prime the flammable gas inside the drill.

"Light you friggin- Ahah!" I yelled as the spark plate lit up and the drill came to life.

"Music to my ears. Now get the tellers." he yelled pointing his shotgun at them through window. I ran to the door and tried to open it but it was locked.

"Open the door!" I yelled.

"No! Stay away you fucking vulture!" Yelled the angry old woman locked behind the counter.
"Have it your way… I'm coming in anyways." I said as I kicked open the door. I restrained her and the older man inside the booth, hopefully we didn't have to kill anyone "I don't want to hurt you two if not necessary, so please don't make it." I told them.

"Mister, you triggered the silent when you opened the door." The man said. I turned and saw the electric tripwire by the door.

"Response times?" I asked.

"Thirty seconds."

Our job meant trying to spare as many hostages as we could. We might be thieves but we're not cold-blooded murderers as much as we needed our hostages to think. For the cops we used our guns and for the civilians we used fear as our weapons.

"You listen to me," I said. "I'm not going to kill you, or any of these people out here. But if the bullets start flying between us and the cops, you keep your heads down and you won't be in the line of fire." I warned them. The man put his hands over his head and lied down on the ground.

"Thank you sir"

"Jack! Company!" Andy called from the lobby. I peeked around the corner and saw three cop cars in the street, with four cops behind them with their guns drawn and two cops walking towards the front door. Andy fired his shotgun blindly at them and they scattered and ran back to their cars, probably to call for backup. "Stop there! We have hostages, and we will kill them!" He lied. Our goal was to use the hostages for leverage for as long as we could. Once the police realize that we have no intentions of killing them they'll send in a light extraction force to attempt to free them. After the hostage rescue fails, then we'll be in for some real fighting, but we want to hold out until then if we can.

"Come out now." One of the cops warned over megaphone. "You're putting our officers, yourselves, and the citizens in danger. We can work out peaceful solution without anyone getting hurt now."

"If you want a non-violent solution, here's how we do it. Back the fuck off and let us do our thing, we will take what we're after and leave. But you try to come in here or start shooting these people are dead!" Andy warned.

"That isn't going to work. You can give yourselves up now and face the consequences, that'll be your safest bet."

"That's not how it works. We're in charge here, not you." I said.

"Listen tough guy-"

"No you listen to me! You're going to turn this into a homicide, and that's something I think you want to do. So if I were you I'd-" Suddenly we were interrupted by the sounds of glass shattering and gunshots in Terra's direction.

"Shots fired, shots fired!" The cops yelled firing into the lobby at Andy and I.
"Terra, what the fuck?!" Andy yelled.

"Stay down! S.W.A.T team, they're moving on the hostages already!"

"Use the cubicles for cover!" I warned. We spent a lot of time looking at pictures, security footage, and blueprints/floorplans of the building, I knew every inch of this bank and I was as ready for a fight as I ever was.

"Chopper's coming on the roof guys! Keep your heads on straight." Bain warned. I gave Andy a hand signal to hold and ran around the corner past Terra and the offices. I passed the security room and back door where Terra came in, to the stairwell.

"Hey man, where you been?" I asked as I hustled my way to the roof to counter the chopper.

"I've been quiet but I'm watching and listening. You're taking control of a dangerous situation well." He said.

"Hah. Danger is my middle name." I laughed

"I thought it was Michael?" Terra asked holding back the first of our resistance.

I made my way to the roof and saw S.W.A.T units repelling out of a Blackhawk. I got ready to take a shot until the lens glare off a sniper rifle caught my eye. I ducked behind an A.C unit and waited for the helicopter to take off. "He's right there, move in on him!" One yelled. I snuck around the corner knowing that they'd move in my cover from both side, as two enemies came around the side I jumped out and got the drop them. I continued around the side so now I was on the opposite side of the air conditioner from where I started. I expected to have the two remaining enemies come at me from both sides so I fired blindly around one side of the A.C and presumably hit one. So I took my opportunity and peeked around the corner on the other side, killing the last cop.

"I handled the chopper, I'm coming back down!" I called expecting things to be alright inside.

As I came down the stairs I ran right into Terra who immediately ushered me back upstairs. "There's too many." She warned.

"Where's Andy" I asked quickly.

"He got taken down, there's nothing I could do."

"Is he dead?"

"I'm not sure." She said grimly. I had to think of a way to get through the police and back to the lobby quickly. In light of the lack of better ideas I decided we'd just have to fight our way through.

"Bain? Andy might be in custody, Terra and I are gonna try to get back in control of the bank. We need you to work on negotiations, just do whatever you can." I said on my way down the stairs.

"Shield! Back up!" Terra yelled as a cop carrying a riot shield charged into the room forcing us back up the stairs. I stopped where the staircase stopped and the second set of stairs led to the roof began.

"Wait for him to come up the stairs, I'm going to charge him, as soon as he's exposed kill him." She nodded.

I waited for a short second and he came up the stairs with his shield out blocking any bullets from the front. He saw me and got ready to charge but I slammed him with all my weight and we both went tumbling down the stairs. I lost my guns on the way down and he dropped his shield, so I grabbed it and threw it across the room. "Now!" I yelled. "Now!" Just as he was sitting up, Terra shot him once in the chest knocking him back down and again in the head killing him. She handed my rifle and pulled me back on to my feet.

"Good job danger, now we've got to go." She warned. "Stay right at the offices and you can use the copy room and loop back around into the lobby."

"Alright. Stay safe." I said. We both ran into the offices and split in different directions, she needed to clear out the police that had come in through the offices to save the hostages, and I needed to do the same and look for Andy in the lobby.

Unfortunately for me I didn't check my corners and ran out of the copy room straight past a cop. "Taser taser taser!" he shouted and suddenly my entire body tensed up beyond control. There was a loud crackling sound and I was on the ground. I couldn't control my muscles and I could barely see, the world around me was flashing bright colors and swirling, it felt like I was underwater. Once it was over the electricity stopped, but I still couldn't move and my vision was heavily obscured. I felt my mask come off and the barrel of a gun between my shoulder blades.

"Stay on the ground!" Yelled a voice. "And you don't move or I'll kill him!" I couldn't move my head to look around but I could hear Terra behind me.

"Don't do it. You kill him and there's no way you're getting out of here alive.

"Put your weapons down, and I'll take you both into custody and you'll both make it out of here, otherwise he's dead." Warned the voice.

I couldn't move, I couldn't speak, and I couldn't do anything besides lay there and stare straight ahead of me. Suddenly my vision came slightly more into focus and I realized my pistol was lying on the ground in front of me. I tried to reach for it but every time I extended my arm it spasmed and left me in a great deal of pain. Suddenly my sight became a little more focused, and I noticed the young girl sitting on the floor in front of me. Her hands were bound with zip ties and she just silently observed me without saying a word. Her long dark hair was covering parts of her face but her dark browns eyes were impossible to miss through the dark brown/black. As Terra's arguing with the cop faded into the background I was so focused on her almost pitch black eyes as it felt like she was staring right into my soul. I was so focused on her eyes that I didn't even notice her sliding closer to my gun.

Looking at her I felt like she was moving in slow motion but then I realized, she wasn't reaching for the gun with her hands, she was nudging it towards me with her foot. She kicked the gun ever so gently sliding it just close enough for me to wrap my hand around the grip. Things still felt like they were moving so slowly around me but not for long, I mustered all the strength left in my aching muscles and grabbed the barrel of the shotgun and threw it away from me. I quickly rolled over on to my back and fired at the only place I could hit with the cop standing directly over me, his crotch. I managed to fire off about four or five shots and Terra shot him in the head and killed him. We were safe for the moment.

"I managed to make a deal with the police." Bain said. "They'll give you Andy but they want one hostage off the bank's premises." I put my mask back on and Terra pulled my shaky self-up off the ground.

"I'll make the trade." I said.

"Chose whoever you want. Terra said. I don't think Terra knew how I got ahold of my gun but it doesn't matter, what mattered is that I owed that girl something, and I don't like owing people. I walked up to her and pointed my gun at her.

"Get up now." I said forcefully. She stood up and I grabbed ahold of her bound hands and turned her around.

"What are you going to do?" She asked as we walked towards the door. I gave her a shove to quiet her down and I held her in the doorway while I hid behind it. "Does anyone know what I did?" She asked.

"Just you and me. That's all that needs to know."

"Alright. We got your man here and he's not hurt. Did you injure the girl?" Called the cop with the megaphone.

"Shake your head." I told her, and she did.

"Okay, we're sending him over now. I don't want any gunshots going until that girls safe. One, two, three." He called as I let go of the girl. I waited behind the corner and Andy slowly walked in and took cover behind me. He was unarmed so I handed him my pistol.

"Alright now. Since we have proven that we can be reasonable and that we can work things out together, how about we find a way to get you all out there together?" He called.

"Would you like to do the honors?" I asked.

"My fucking pleasure." Andy said as he fired off the first shots back, and the gunfire resumed. At last, after all the time we'd been waiting, the drill was finally done and the vault came drifting open. "We're good to go now!" He said running to the vault with Terra and I closely behind. We finally got to the open vault and were met a by a steel safety gate.

"Are you actually serious right now?" I asked.

"My guy left you the key behind the counter, in the teller's booth." Bain said. "The only thing is… He doesn't know exactly which key is for the vault, so you'll have to try them all."

"It is what it is." I said as I ran behind the counter and started digging through the drawers. "Andy, Terra, cover me." I went through quite a few drawers before I found the key ring but when I did, I was surprised by the actual amount of them. "It got them." I said as Andy Terra shot back and forth with the cops.

"There must be twenty keys on that thing!" Andy said

"I'll say there's at least four."

"That's not wrong." Terra said. I started by trying the first key and moved counter-clockwise around the ring. "Nope, god dammit. Nope, god dammit. Nope, god dammit." I said as I got about half way through the keys. "There we go!" I said as the key actually turned and the gate opened.

"Inside!" Andy yelled.

We ran into the vault and there was cash everywhere and safe deposit boxes covered three of the four walls. "Grab everything." Andy said as he pulled his duffle bag and started loading it with cash.

"Hey, those deposit boxes might be a bit of a gamble, but we could get some real nice loot out of there too." I said.

"There's too much heat, I think we just need to leave while we're ahead." Terra said. As much as I hated the thought of leaving all the potential loot, she was probably right. It wasn't safe. I stuffed my bag with as much money as I could carry and then filled my pockets.

"I'll come back for you." I called as we ran and left the boxes behind.

"What's our out?" Andy asked as we left the vault.

"We'll head out the back door where Terra came in, the van is a straight shot across the street." I said cutting through the copy room, past the offices, and back into the room were Terra and I were ambushed by the shield.

"You said there were snipers by straight across from us?" She asked as we made it out back.

"Yeah." Those are going to be a problem when we try to cross the street." Andy looked around.

"I've got an idea. We'll throw the bags across the street and just charge through the snipers.

"Is there a better plan?" I asked.

"Is there?" I think we all knew the answer to that."

We decided to move Andy across the street first, then Terra, then me. We'd alternate cover fire to protect whoever was moving at the time. So Terra and I would cover Andy from this side of the street, Andy and I would cover Terra from both sides, and they'd both cover me from the other side.

"Alright, let's do this." Andy said as he threw the first bag of money across the street and ran.

"Suppressing!" I yelled firing at anything that even looked like a person down the road. Andy grabbed his bag and ducked down behind a car opposite of us.

"You're good Terra. Come to me." We both continued to fire at the cops, but I was starting to run low on ammo. Terra threw the bag but it only caught half the distance Andy's did and landed in the middle of the street.

"Crap!" She yelled.

"Just keep moving." Andy said. Terra ignored the bag and ran straight across the road to Andy and ducked down behind the car. Things were getting super risky and I was feeling that same usual urge to do something stupid for money. I must have been zoning out because Andy tried to get my attention by snapping me back to reality. "Hey!" He yelled. "Don't do it, just stick to the plan!" I couldn't help it when I looked at that money sitting in the street and the bag over my shoulder. I couldn't just let it go.

"Just cover me the best you can!" I said, still eyeing the bag.

"It's not worth it!" Terra yelled.

"Do it!" Andy looked at me, then at Terra, and back at me. Then finally he gave her a hand signal pointing towards the police and moved from the back of the car to the side.

"Alright! On you, Jack!" Yelled Terra. I got some air in my lungs, and ran. Andy and Terra both started firing on the cops in attempt to keep them off me, while I hauled one bag over my shoulder and grabbed the bag and dragged it. I ran straight past Andy and Terra and into the alley with the van.

"Go go go!" I yelled. Terra jumped in the passenger seat of the van and Andy helped me get our three bags loaded in and we hopped in the back and closed the doors.

"Drive! Now!" He yelled and the driver took off and left the bank far behind us.

"That was great!" Bain yelled. "That was f'ing amazing guys! Great work! All of you!" Andy clapped for us all.

"Hell yeah!"

"Unbelievable." Said the driver. "Y'all kids really are the best."

"We'd have a lot less cash right now if it wasn't for Mr. Danger." Terra laughed.

Andy gave me a high five. "To Action Jackson!" He yelled.

"Action Jackson!" Everyone cheered.

"Action Jackson has some good news everybody." Bain said.

"I do?" I asked.

"About that Russian thing?"

"Oh yeah. Bain's got the first of his D.C contacts, a Russian mob boss, Vladimir Kozak, looking for work."

"Actually. Mr. Kozak is ready to work with you guys now." This was a big deal for is because even though Bain was considered a contractor for us, the Russian would be our first "real" contractor in D.C which could open us up to a lot more work, and a lot more contacts in the future

"So when do we start?" Andy asked.

"As soon as you guys can."