Chapter 5 REWRITE
'Goodnight and joy, be with you all'
Alex heard a knock at his door, removed his earphones, drew his knife from under his hotel pillow and placed it into his off hand, his right hand, leaned against the doorway, placing his right hand on the wall and slowly opened the door.
Simons' face appeared in the doorway and Alex took his offhand away from the wall and slid the knife through the belt loops on his jeans.
A brief look of shock flickered across Simon's face as he took his eyes away from Alex and began to talk.
"Them lot should be here to pick us up in about two hours," he flicked a tuft of hair off of his forehead. "I'd suggest you start getting ready."
Simon shut the door and walked back across the hall into the adjacent room.
Alex stepped into the en-suite bathroom, undressed and stepped into the shower, turning the dial to just below full heat and turning on the shower jets.
After a few minutes, he stepped out of the shower, placed a towel around his waist, dried his long messy blonde hair and stepped back out into his hotel room, redressing into a full black suit and a tie.
He picked up his phone from the bed and put his earphones back into his ears and listened to music until he heard another set of knocks on his hotel room door.
Again, he took his earphones out, quickly put a two of his antidepressant tablets into his mouth, taking a sip of his water bottle with it and swallowing.
Alex stood up and answered the door, to Simon.
"The Carpool's waiting for us downstairs, best not to keep them waiting."
He slid his room keycard into his pocket and followed Simon down the hallway into the lift, pressing the button for the ground floor and stepping out of the elevator doors once they reached the ground floor and following Simon outside, both of them stepping into a fully blacked out Rolls Royce.
Simon heavy-handedly shut the car door behind him and pulled his phone from his pocket and scrolled through Instagram for a few minutes before putting his phone back into his pocket.
Alex sat absent-mindedly in the car and stared out the window, watching the city pass by as they journeyed through it before arriving at Our Lady Of Lourdes.
They both stepped out of the car, the driver remaining in the car with his glare fixed on the church.
The two followed a crowd of people into the church and took separate seats amongst the church pews.
A priest stepped up behind where the coffin was placed and began to speak into the microphone.
"We are all gathered here today, not to mourn the death or Mr Alan Blunt, but to celebrate the many achievements he had reached during his life. And while some of his life might still be shrouded in mystery, given the nature of his former occupation, we do know that Mr Blunt achieved much in his life, serving in the Special Forces at a point in his life, during his early years. Playing for the English national Rugby Team and passing his separate university degrees, all with first class passes, what we do know is that Mr Blunt achieved a lot in his life."
A few people, none of which Alex knew were called up by the priest to say some words about Alan Blunt.
After a while, Jones was called up by the priest to give a speech about her ex-colleague.
"Given the nature of the job we had, no one was really close, especially with Alan during his job, but after a while of working with him, you gained a certain telepathy with him, at certain times it became obvious to you what he was going to say or do. Not many people knew this, especially at his workplace, but Blunt was on the inside, a caring, protective person with a tragicomic, but funny sense of humour that came to light after knowing him for a while."
Mrs Jones sniffled and the priest began to speak again.
Alex let out a small laugh.
"Thank you, Mrs Jones."
Ave Maria began to play on the organ and a choir stepped out from a section of the church.
After another few minutes, the funeral was over and everyone went back to their cars and began the journey home.
As Alex exited the church he noticed someone stood on the other side of the churchyard walking towards the crowd of people leaving the church and climbing into sports cars or blacked out SUV's.
For a moment he stood still and stared at Alex before turning around and heading back into the city.
Alex climbed into the back of the blacked out car and loosened his tie, slamming the door behind him and falling asleep as the car began its journey back into the city.
He started at the passing city for a while before pulling out his phone, plugging his earphones in and beginning to fall asleep.
Alex woke up with a jolt as the driver stopped the car and took a brief moment to rub his eyes and stepped out of the Rolls and headed back into the hotel doors.
The receptionist gave him a short smile as he walked past and stepped into the lift and headed upstairs to his room.
He walked through the hallway to his room and swiped his keycard on the door and stepped in.
Alex took his jacket off and began to repack everything he had unpacked in the messy hotel suite.
After he had repacked he slid his phone out of his pocket and stepped into the living room of the suite he had only been in once before. He walked over to and flopped onto the sofa and reached for the remote and put on the football.
He picked up his phone and texted Chloe.
'Flying back to NY tomorrow x'
He waited a while for a reply and then put the phone back into his pocket and fell asleep on the sofa.
'A car pulled over to the side of the road and stopped for Alex.
"Where you headed?" Alex said.
"Phoenix." The man said.
"Counter-offer." Alex replied, "250 bucks for you to take me to San Fran airport."
Alex pulled the money out of his pocket and flashed it at the man.
The stranger took a moment to consider and gave Alex a nod.
Alex climbed into the car and the man began to turn around, back towards San Francisco.
"So." The man said, "Whats ya story kid, what d'you do."
The man was in his mid 50's and spoke with a thick New Orleans accent.
Alex ignored him and the man spoke again.
"I ain't-a grass kid, it's obvious you've done something bad, else you wouldn't be runnin.'"
Alex tried to speak but couldn't get the words out
The man gave a sigh and turned the radio on and Alex began to doze off as the man sped down the highway towards San Francisco airport.
Alex woke early in the morning and heard a heavy knock on the door and drunk shouting from somewhere down the corridor.
He stood up, pushing the hair out of his eyes and opening the door already knowing who was on the other side of the door.
"Flight leaves in three hours, let's go."
Alex picked up his suitcase and bag from off of his bed and stepped out of his hotel room, giving the keycard back to the receptionist on the way out.
The pair stepped out into the cold winter air of the city in the early morning, walking around the corner to an official-looking car and stepping into the back.
Alex stared out of the window, watching the city gradually turning into the countryside as they headed towards Heathrow.
Once they had arrived at the airport and were waiting at the shopping court, Alex received a news alert on his phone and slid across to unlock it.
What he opened his phone to left everyone in the airport who had seen it with their jaws hanging open in shock. He began reading what was the early news report on the first and only successful robbery of the Federal Reserve bank in New York city centre. A group of heavily armed masked men, stormed the bank with heavy firearms, taking Federal Reserve Police officers hostage and forcing them to open the vault.
The firefight that ensued left several dead and even more in critical condition. The men were reported by the BBC to have made off with around 30 million dollars' worth of gold they had stolen from the high security bank vault. Before making their getaway through an old unused early New York subway tunnel.
Simon turned to Alex in shock and awe.
"Holy shit Al'. They fuckin' got away with it mate."