Day and Night
Twenty-two
"All right, we do this by the numbers," Wolf ordered as they rushed into the bank. Screams of terror natural followed as the animal themed augments attacked.
Hyena and Jackal were cyborgs, technology provided by various sources. Panther was biologically enhanced with spliced animal DNA, making her stronger, tougher, furry and clawed. Coyote was another animal augment, with speed and agility boosts. Wolf, unlike everyone else, had just chosen powered armor, the latest from Xanatos Enterprises.
"Where's the branch manager?" Hyena asked as they rounded up the staff.
"The manager locked himself in the office. It's got reinforced doors," Panther reported.
"I could shoot the door off," Wolf offered, bringing up a wrist mounted gun.
"Let me try something first," Coyote said, jumping up to an air vent. "We don't want you to end up with bouncing bullets or you shooting the guy...," he muttered as he ripped the protective screen off, then wiggled inside.
"You think it connects or is he just gonna fall in a furnace?" Hyena wondered aloud, looking like the furnace idea didn't bother her at all.
"We'll see, dear sister," Jackal smiled.
A few moments later the office door opened, and a slightly dusty Coyote pushed the manager out. "Don't ask," Coyote cut them off.
"Okay, okay, I'll open the vault for you!" Mr Henderson said quickly.
"Who says we want in the vault?" Jackal wondered aloud.
"Huh?" Henderson asked.
"We want the computer passwords...," Jackal grinned.
"I'm still not entirely sure how this is going to work," Wolf admitted to Panther.
"We're going to raid bank accounts belonging to enemies of our boss," Panther explained calmly, "we'll use a program to bounce the money through various off-shore banks then drop it in five numbered Swiss bank accounts."
"Why not just empty the vaults?" Wolf wondered.
Panther gave him a dubious look. "Because physical cash and valuables are traceable?" she reminded him.
"Besides," Coyote observed, "this is just a side job. We're out here to get attention."
"Well," Wolf said as sirens howled outside and the cops arrived, "I'd say it worked.
"Okay, lovely people!" Jackal addressed the captives, "you are now hostages! However, if you cooperate, we'll let you go once our business is over."
There was unhappy muttering.
"And as a bonus, one of our demands will be to get you all dinner," Jackal added, "assuming we're stuck here that long."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Dominique Destine kept a eye on local news. In fact her laptop had a system that gave her alerts on various keywords, along with business and other issues. So when she heard a chime from her browser, she clicked the alert and blinked.
"The Pack?" she wondered aloud.
A moment later Alicia Sevarius knocked on the door, then when Dominique answered opened it. "You saw?" she asked.
"The Pack is robbing a bank," Dominique noted. She added thoughtfully, "In broad daylight too. Interesting."
"There's another problem," Alicia sighed.
"Hmm?" Dominique asked.
Alicia looked serious, "One of our staffers is in there."
"WHAT," Dominique yelped.
"Jessica Nicholes told her co-worker that she was going there, and she hasn't come back..." Alicia revealed.
Dominique cursed softly as she brought up footage. The Pack had released an image of the captives, and she zoomed in. Yes, there was Jessica, the black haired and suit clad woman sitting miserably with the hostages.
"Oh dear," Alicia muttered.
"I wonder if we could just let the Pack keep her...?" Dominique sighed.
"Ma'am!" Alicia scolded.
Once again Dominique was impressed with how nice Alicia was. The other woman was an officious pain in the ass, but Alicia apparently help no grudges...
"Besides, the pack might convert her into 'The Weasel' or something and be even worse," Alicia mused wryly.
Dominique snorted in laughter.
"I'm going to hell for that...," Alicia blushed.
Dominique ignored that. "We should contact the police and let them know that Ms. Nicholes is there," she said, "in case it does come up."
"Yes ma'am," Alicia agreed and hurried off to do so.
Dominique turned in her chair and looked out at the city. 'WHY a bank robbery, though? Of the possible things they could do, why that? It made very little sense...' she thought to herself.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
They waited until the cops were fully involved with the bank robbery, then moved out.
'Boss' Scaletti was based in Little Italy. He had been a major player, once, but now just controlled the local action in his area. Mace Malone was in talks with him, apparently pressuring the older man into siding with him in the local gang war.
"No I am NOT selling off my options for that little!" Scaletti said into the phone as he relaxed in a local coffee shop. "He's a fake, not the real Mace. I expect a serious offer!"
Scaletti was careful about his personal security, doing his 'business' in semi-random places in his territory so that he could avoid being hit. Sadly, he was unaware he had been sold out by someone who knew his route...
Up at the counter, an absolutely gorgeous blonde was drawing everyone's eyes. Especially Scaletti, who liked 'em buxom but not to bright. She bent over to pick up a dropped napkin, and made everyone stare as the skirt rode up.
A mousy woman in business wear walked up to the distracted Scaletti, drew the silenced pistol from under her coat, and fired into his chest. AS he slumped in the private corner he used for work calls, she smoothly and invisibly left.
It took nearly ten minutes for a waiter to realize that Scaletti was dead. By then the hitter and her distraction were both long gone...
Tony Dacon got the news an hour later, just a simple verification from his contact. He then waited until it hit the news, and made a phone call.
"Miss Scaletti, I'm terribly sorry for your loss," Tony lied.
"Thank you," the very miss-named Angelica Scaletti answered. "I am, of course, heart broken," she lied.
"I hope we can get together, possibly next week, to discuss business," Tony said, as they had arranged earlier.
"I hope you will be able to help with my father's estate," Angelica agreed.
Tony hung up, then sat back with a sigh. "Fuck that's cold," he muttered, "sold out her own father for money."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Elisa Maza and Matt Bluestone were on the street out by the bank, as a negotiator talked to the Pack via a landline phone. They were waiting on heavy weapons teams, tho privately Elza was hoping they could just stall until nightfall and let the Gargoyles handle it.
"Mr Jackal, as a gesture of good faith, could you release a few hostages?" Matt asked politely.
"I can tell you have snipers set up out there," Jackal noted cheerfully, "we want all the meat shields we can get."
Matt winced.
In the background they heard Panther going, "Could you NOT call them meat shields? Please?"
"Why?" Jackal asked.
"Because we want the police to not think we're fucking sociopaths!"
"Look," Matt said frankly, "you KNOW we're not just going to let you go..."
"Maybe, maybe not...," Jackal replied.
The phone hung up, and Matt sighed. He looked over at Elisa, "Have we heard about the heavy units coming?"
"The only folks we've got that are equipped to take them on are National Guard units," Elisa pointed out flatly.
"Or Xanatos in his Gargoyle Power Armor," Matt suggested.
"Not likely," Elisa noted, "too much risk of him having created the first Pack going public. Jackal or Hyena would say something..."
"And the Gargoyles?" Matt asked softly.
"Sundown's an hour away...," Elisa sighed.
After another half hour, they tried calling again. No answer. Both exchanged worried looks... then blinked as the front doors opened and all the hostages rushed out.
"The fuck?" Matt blinked.
A bank employee rushed over, "They escaped through a sewer access under the bank."
Elisa looked horrified, "That wasn't on the maps we had!"
"Shit...," Matt groaned.
To be continued...
Notes: I wanted to write the Pack as actually knowing what they were doing. Also, if it wasn't obvious, the whole bank job was just to keep the cops busy while Tony carried out a hit.