Policemen were everywhere in Bern now, following the attack on the police station which resulted in many officers getting knocked out and an escaped prisoner. A squad or two of gendarmerie had even been summoned to help with the patrols.
Meanwhile, due to the situation in the city, Darko and Paul had temporarily moved to the town of Vaduz, capital of Liechtenstein. Liechtenstein and Switzerland both used the same currency and had an open border.
Vaduz was also the operations base for a Templar-owned bank called the Grand Bank of Zudav. However, the Grand Bank of Zudav was far from grand, with its main and only outlet a two-storey building in Vaduz.
The Grand Bank of Vaduz was used by Templars around the world to store their ill-gotten funds, and the bank would protect those funds from discovery from law enforcement and tax.
Darko and Paul, along with Johnny Guvera and George Dayton, both of whom had travelled from Spain, launched a heist on the Grand Bank of Vaduz, in order to cause a further dent in the Templars' pocket.
On a Friday, three armed men in balaclavas stormed the outlet in Vaduz. A fourth man, George, was waiting nearby in a flatbed truck.
"Hands up, make sure we can see them!" Johnny yelled.
The staff, the only other people in the building, raised their hands. While Johnny kept his MP 18 trained on the group, Darko and Paul slowly walked towards them. Tying the staff members up, the two Assassins brought them to the centre of the lobby, where they knelt down in a circle and were watched over by Paul.
"Who has the vault key?" Darko asked.
A brave staff member, a receptionist, spat on the floor and said, "You think you can rob a bank and get away with it? Go kill yourselves!"
Paul responded by knocking the receptionist unconscious, causing the other staff members to gasp. "Shut up!" Paul ordered.
Darko repeated his question. "Who has the vault key?"
One of the staff members replied, "Me…me. I have…have the key."
"No tricks, or we'll put bullets in your body," Johnny warned. "Come on now, we haven't got all day."
Leading the two Assassins to the vault door, the staff member unlocked it for them. The second he had done so, Darko knocked him out.
Stacks of various currencies were laid out on a large metal table in the middle of the vault. Darko and Johnny stuffed a bit of each currency into their backpacks. Instead of the stereotypical heist crew who used duffle bags to store their loot, the Assassin heist team used backpacks as they provided more mobility.
Once all three backpacks had been filled up, the two Assassins left the vault and returned to Paul, passing him one of the backpacks.
Rather than leaving the bank through the front door, which would be plain suicide, Darko, Johnny and Paul left through the roof, where they traversed the rooftops to get to the rendezvous point.
"Thought you all would never come," George said as he started the engine of the truck.
Closing the passenger door, Darko told him, "Let's go, George."
Seconds later, policemen burst through the main entrance into the bank. To their surprise, they found only the captured staff members and not the robbers.
Driving to the neighbouring town of Schaan, where Darko had purchased a small property, the Assassin heist team unloaded their cargo into the apartment unit. But the job was not done yet. The Assassins sat down and counted their earnings.
"One thousand five hundred US dollars, two thousand French francs, two thousand Spanish peseta, a thousand British pounds and four thousand Swiss francs," Darko said. "Not a bad sum. Keep the Swiss francs, the rest of the money send it to our allies in the respective countries."
Templars had been alerted to their funds being stolen, first ten thousand Swiss francs taken from the late Sakon Takamatsu and now the Grand Bank of Zudav in Liechtenstein.
Grandmaster of the Spanish Templars, Prime Minister of Spain Miguel de Rivera, was perturbed when he heard the news. They were losing a lot of funds, and lesser funds meant a harder time controlling his populace.
"Must be that Darko Kerzhakov and his friends behind all this," de Rivera said. "After so many setbacks, he does not give up. That I must hand it to him. But let's see how long his perseverance will last. Find his whereabouts as soon as possible and report it to me."
"Yes, sir," three elite Templar henchmen said in unison before hurrying out of the room. They had work to do.
Darko knew he was being followed. They were always in his peripheral vision, gone when he turned around to look. That confirmed that the men tailing him were trained and not just any Tom, Dick and Henry.
"Templar men," Paul told Darko. "Who else could it be?"
He nodded in agreement. "Get Assassins to take out my stalkers, but do so discreetly. We'll make it a decision those Templars will regret."
"Sir…" the same three henchmen said as they entered de Rivera's office several days later. "The men we sent after Darko Kerzhakov, they're dead."
"Crafty bastard," Miguel swore as he slammed a fist on his desk, stunning the men. "Where were their bodies found?"
"In Liechtenstein, sir. Less than a street away from the Grand Bank of Zudav," a henchman informed. "We suspect that their bodies were moved."
"Obviously. Stupid as they are, the Assassins will not dare to go so near the bank, especially so soon after the heist," de Rivera sighed. "Leave them alone for now, they've done well enough to earn a short rest. They'll definitely need it."