Chapter 7: Tick Tock. Tick Tock.
They had split their group into teams of two. Obviously Ste picked Brendan before anyone had any chance of speaking. Warren and Walker got stuck together by force. Ste and Brendan would be in charge of getting a vehicle and making it look like a police car. While Warren and Walker got the guns and equipment needed after they get in. They were also in charge of scouting the area again to locate the video cameras.
Ste heads to Brendan's flat at 8 AM sharp. He has been jumpy all night and barely got any sleep but his excitement is at an all-time high. He knocks on the door over and over again but gets no response.
"Brendan you lazy git open up!"
The door swings open and Ste goes sideways through the door and barely catches Brendan falling back onto the couch.
"Come on get up we gotta go look for a car remember?"
Brendan waves him off and puts a pillow over his head to try to block off any noise. Ste jumps on top of him to get him to wake up.
"Steven get off! You're not that skinny!"
"Oi!" Ste hits him with the pillow but Brendan just pushes him off him and goes back to try and sleep. Ste gives up and goes to make himself some breakfast.
After an hour Brendan finally gets up and goes to his room to presumably get ready. Ste follows him into the room and sees Brendan looking at his wardrobe.
"I bet that's difficult when you have thousands of different clothes in there. I barely even have like 10 shirts Bren."
"I just bought you about 5 different outfits last week." Brendan casually says as he starts flinging clothes onto the bed.
"Yeah that's included in the 10. No suit. It's hot out and were gonna be walking a lot."
"Yes dear." He mocks him as he picks out some jeans and a black Tshirt.
"What's on that shirt?"
"Superman!"
"Such a child." Ste shuffles underneath all the thrown clothes and rests his head on the pillow as Brendan changes.
"Steven you wanna pop out of there."
"BOO!"
"That only works if I didn't know you were there. Now come on let's go do our part."
Ste follows Brendan out the flat as the walk over to a used car lot. They all decided not to use Brendan's used cars he bought as a cover up for the warehouse he has as it would appear suspicious. They looked up police cars online and had the basic style of it down. To find one that matched would be difficult but luckily they found a car lot that sold retired police cars. All they would have to do is slight modifications to it. Brendan leads the way as he looks out for one that isn't so old. He wants it to look believable. He can't have the manager of the Securitas Depot have any doubt that it's a fake. Brendan turns around and doesn't see Ste following him. He has lost him again. Sometimes Ste has the attention span of a goldfish.
"Steven? Unbelievable." Instead of looking for a car Brendan now starts looking for an aggravating boy who gives him headaches after headaches but he wouldn't change that for the world. He spots him on the opposite side of the lot leaning forward examining a vehicle. Once Brendan gets closer he sees that Ste has found a perfect cop car.
"What you think?"
"It's perfect. Oh wait you mean the car? Yeah it's fine."
Ste blushes and quickly gets on his tip toes and gives Brendan a kiss. It lasts a few seconds until the car salesman approaches them and coughs awkwardly to get their attention. They pretend to care about the car and ask how well it runs, does it have any damages, and does he see it lasting lost. In reality they will use this car at the most for 2 days and then it's getting ditched. They agree to the price and head to the office to finish the deal and get the title to the car.
"Who should I put as the owner of this new car on the title?"
Brendan points to himself before Ste has a chance to do anything. "That'll be me. Anthony Watkins."
"Ok Mr. Watkins. Car is all yours. Enjoy."
They take the key and head over to their brand new pre owned car.
"Anthony Watkins?"
"That's the best I could come up with. I almost said Brendan Prady."
"Oh yeah no one would have known that was you."
Brendan gets in the driver's side and Ste plops into the passenger seat. They drive a bit further out until they reach an auto shop. Brendan explains to the worker what kind of lights he needs and the worker jokes and says "if I didn't know any better that car would like exactly like a police car." Brendan doesn't say anything back and just stares at him. The guy gets the point and gets to work. Ste takes a seat on the sidewalk as Brendan paces back and forth behind him.
"So what do we do after this?"
"I think that's it. I don't know if we need to actually look like officers though. Do we?"
"Umm..." Brendan thinks about it for a second. If they have the car but walk over to the manager wearing jeans and tshirts he's pretty sure he would detect something's not right. "We probably need to look like them."
"So what like hats and stuff?"
"Yeah. Maybe get fake badges or something too."
"How about black trousers and white shirts? Then just put like some trench coat on. I see that Ethan guy wear that. Isn't he a cop?"
Brendan smiles at him as he thinks this boy doesn't give himself enough credit. He's much more observant than most people. "Yeah that sounds good."
As the worker finishes making their car look like a cop car, unbeknownst to him, Ste turns his attention to something else.
"Bren you sure we can trust them two?"
"Warren yes. I don't really know Walker but we need him."
"Yeah we do and I'm sure he is thinking the same thing but how can we be sure that he won't screw all of us right at the end."
"He might."
"So shouldn't we do something?"
"Like?"
"Screw him first."
Warren and Walker are able to acquire 4 AK-47s, 4 shotguns, an Uzi, and a Skorpion. They also steal a plain white van after Brendan rings them and tells them to find one. They plan to use the van when they transfer the manager from the unmarked cop car. They make their way back to the location and look around for the cameras. Walker spots 3 of them where they plan to enter but they won't be seen as long as they hid in the van when they pull up.
"Look look the manager is coming out." They both observe him and silently make their way to the car. Warren decides to take the driver's seat as he thinks he's better at following someone without being detected. Both of them end up following the manager all the way to the house and see a boy run out of the house screaming "daddy!" as he hugs him. A woman walks out and stands by the doorframe and she and the guy give each other a small kiss as they go back inside the house.
"They seem so happy together it's...cute I guess." Warren can't help but laugh at them. "I always hated people being so happy."
"You're just cold hearted aren't you?"
"A bit. I think I have an idea though." Warren text Brendan and then waits for a response. Instead he receives a phone call.
"Foxy."
"What Brady?"
"Don't what me. Why are you two gonna dress like cops too?"
"I got a genius idea that will guarantee us we get inside."
"We're adding more stuff to our robbery aren't we?"
"Yep. See you back at the headquarters."
"It's a warehouse!"
Warren hangs up on him and motions to Walker that it's time to head back.
Back at the costume shop Ste and Brendan are getting their outfits together.
"Steven we gotta get Warren and Walker fake outfits too?"
"Why?" Ste turns around and looks ridiculous with military hat on and a fake cigar in his mouth.
"I don't know Fidel but Warren just told me to get them."
"Fine. Who's Fidel by the way? Your twink on the side huh you getting your different boys confused."
Brendan laughs at him as he slowly wraps his arms around Stes waist. "Fidel Castro is a Cuban communist. Not really my type." He gives him a kiss on the neck. "Besides there's only one person for me."
"Really? Who's that?" Ste moves his head back so it's on Brendan's shoulder.
"Well I'm basically doing this insane robbery for him so guess."
"Walker! You bastard!"
Brendan bites his neck and then pushes him a little harder than he wanted to. "Unbelievable." Brendan casually walks around the corner still trying to finish his part of the job. Ste follows him and looks like he wants to ask something.
"What Steven?" Brendan grabs 4 hats that could resemble police officers and places one on Stes head.
"So like are we you know...together?" Ste fiddles with the hat so it doesn't ruin his hair.
"You can call it whatever you like."
"Right yeah yeah. But let's just say you're talking to someone and I stumble into the conversation, how would you introduce me?"
"By your name."
"Yes but when they say oh your friend Steven would you just agree."
"Steven would you like me to introduce you to everyone as Steven my boyfriend."
"Only if you want."
"Liar."
"Ok yes! You better introduce me as your boyfriend."
"Deal." Brendan makes his way to the counter to check out as he picked out the final items. As they walk out of the counter Ste shouts in the middle of the road "My boyfriend is Brendan Brady! I'm dating Brendan Brady!" Before he gets a chance to say anything else Brendan pulls him in the direction of their car as he covers his mouth with his hand.
"Blondie! Chilly! Where are you?" Brendan shouts as he walks into the warehouse.
"Living room Green!"
Once they get to the room they see Warren and Walker yet again sitting on the same sofa.
"You know if it was anybody else they would think you two are an item foxy."
"You're full of jokes Brady."
The bags get thrown on the floor as all 4 of them start to split the weapons and items between each other. They each get a fake badge and hat. 1 AK-47 and shotgun each. Warren gets the Uzi and Brendan takes the Skorpion.
"Damn it Brady you forgot the handcuffs."
"I don't know what you have in your mind Foxy but I'm taken."
Ste squeals like a teenage girl next to him and leans into him enough where he can wrap his arms around Brendan's waist.
"Forget the handcuffs guys we will just use zip ties. They're just as good."
"Fine so why do you want us to get you the fake outfits too. I thought Steven and I were going to kidnap the guy."
"Yeah you two still are. But I got to thinking that it still might not be enough to get the guy to surrender easily. So as Walker and I were watching the place the guy left for home and we followed. We followed him to his home and turns out he has a wife and a son that I'm sure he loves with all his heart. Now if he thinks they are in danger he will do anything to have them safe."
"Guaranteed entry. I like it. So I'm assuming you two will pretend to be officers and then take them as hostages once she lets you in."
"Yes we will let the wife know he has been in a serious car accident and will gladly follow me to the hospital ". Once we are in the car we will hold them but at gunpoint. After that you two guys will meet us at a set point with the husband and that's when he gets the shock of his life."
Ste nods as he pretends to get what is going on but honestly he tuned out of the conversation long ago. He figured he will just ask Brendan later on. He always prefers it when Brendan explains things to him. He doesn't talk down to him or make him feel stupid but he breaks it down to the point he can understand it. Ste flicks his eyes up to see if Brendan is paying attention and of course he is. His eyes are locked onto Warren as he talks. When Ste looks across the table he sees Walker staring him down. Their eyes meet for a second until Walker looks at Warren and pretends to be interested.
"We let him know that if he doesn't cooperate we won't hesitate to cause harm to his lovely wife."
"I'm not gonna hit a woman or child you know that right?"
"Neither am I Brady. We're not actually going to harm them as the guy will readily give in after the threat."
Brendan leans back and does a hand signal at Warren to continue but Walker chimes in and cuts him off.
"We stick all 3 of them into the van and head over to the Depot. There are cameras right outside the entrance so we are going to have to figure out a way to make the manager drive in there with us in the back and trust he won't scream for help."
Ste then decides to at least put in his 2 cents. "We can just have a gun to the back of the wife's head I'm sure that would keep him quiet."
"You're sick Steven."
"Oh you were all thinking it."
The 3 of them stop for a second and then nod in agreement. "Fair point."
"So we will do what Ste says. One of us will remind him if he does something out of the rehearsed plan she gets a bullet through her head. Once we get inside we let him round up the employees-"
Warren interrupts this time. "We counted and there's at least 10 and at the most about 15. But we have a bag of zip ties so we're covered."
"Right so when he gets them all together we jump out with our guns pointed at them. Make sure they know it isn't a joke. Tie them up and let the fun begin."
They all agree to the plan and get to work deciding each other's role.
"So Foxy what are you gonna be in charge of?"
"I will be in charge of the employees. Make sure they all stay quiet and don't try anything. Also will be keeping time as I don't want us there for longer than we need. In and out. 1 hour max. Walker you're up."
"I'm gonna be one of the 2 of us that collects the money. We will take the manager with us as we don't really know the layout of the building. And...Ste you're helping me with that."
"No he's not. I am."
Walker looks directly at Brendan and doesn't seem to like the idea. "You could be of more help elsewhere."
"Naw my skills aren't better than yours. So I'll be helping you collect the cash then."
The room suddenly gets tense as 2 people in the group are giving each other death glares. Warren decides to say something to move this along.
"Anyway...Ste you're gonna take another employee and find the video surveillance. Destroy those and then make your way back to where I am and we will collect some of the cash that's up front so we are still able to keep an eye out on everyone."
"Gotcha."
They all sit there for a couple minutes in silence as no one seems to have anything to add on.
"Umm so what do we do afterwards?" Ste breaks the silence.
"Oh right we should probably plan that huh."
"Damn it Foxy!"
"Calm down Brady. Ok ok I got it. I'll take the employees and the manager and his family into a room and lock them in while you 3 load the van up with the bags of cash. Should we switch cars at some point?"
"Don't think it's necessary as by the time we get back to my warehouse the employees will still be locked in."
"Good point. So I guess we just drive back and get to Brendan's shop. We hid the bags somewhere in there and go about discarding the van and any other evidence we may have. I'm thinking maybe we stay in the village a week so no one gets suspicious of why all 4 of us just suddenly took off. After that I guess we split the cash and go our separate ways. That's it."
That's when it hits them that they are really going through with this. No turning back now. They have the weapons and zip ties and directions on the table in the center of them. It's now or never. Either they make it out and become infamous for being involved in the biggest robbery in UK history. Or they end up behind bars for the rest of their lives to think about where they went wrong in their lives. Why they choose these paths? What got them to the point where they became criminals? Where they didn't care if they woke up the next day or not. Where they didn't feel remorse for the people they harmed. When did they sign away their lives to the devil?
Dum dum dum dummmm…The Heist begins next chapter….at least I hope it does. Also thank you to everyone who has reviewed/followed/faved =)
