The Bank Shot Job

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The heat was sweltering. Her red curls were high in a bun. The couple of strands that fell out, were sticking to the back of her neck.

"Hardison, could you stop complaining, please?" Danielle sounded annoyed.

Two weeks in a sweltering heat in San Juan, to rip off a corrupted judge. Two weeks of bad food, bad motels, and heatwaves. She was as sick as Hardison of this town but his complaining wouldn't make anything go faster. It was getting on her nerves more than anything. And the heat certainly didn't help with her irritability.

"How we coming on the break down?" Hardison came through comms.

"Fake addresses are shut down. Post office boxes are closed. The phones are cleared." Eliot answered while Danielle climbed in the passenger seat. "Five more minutes, we never existed."

"Want me to call the Delgado family to tell them the news?" Hardison questioned him.

"Nah. Soon as I clear the county line, I want to do it." He said as he climbed into the driver's seat. "I just wish we could do more than just bankrupt that corrupt son of a bitch."

"Don't we all?" Danielle said as he revved up the car.

Their job was coming to an end. Right this instant, Nate and Sophie were at the bank. The money was being handed to Nate as they spoke. They had been contacted by the Delagado family after the loss of their daughter; Beth Delgado. Corrupted Judge Roy had released the man responsible for her death. They had worked for two weeks on this scam and lured him into a good deal. Only so, they could rip him off and give the money to the Delgado family.

Two weeks of suffocating heat that were coming to an end. Danielle couldn't wait to get out of this place. The heavy and humid heat had a way to cling to her skin. It made her all clammy. She hated the feel of clothes on her body. She couldn't wait to go back to the sweet world of air conditioning. She just needed to not feel like her clothes were suffocating her.

"This is a robbery." Came through the comms. Danielle glanced at Eliot. "I don't want to hurt anybody. But we will if you don't do exactly what we say."

"This can't be real." Dani groaned.

"You've got to be kidding me," Parker said through comms.

"Oh, hell no!" Hardison sounded as displeased as Dani.

"I knew this went too smooth!" Eliot exclaimed angrily.

It was almost over; Danielle thought angrily. What were the chances of this happening? One in a million. Law enforcement was already on their way to the bank. In no time, it would be surrounded. Parker and Hardison, had thankfully already left the perimeter. Still, Nate and Sophie were in the bank. And the rest of them had to get them out.

Eliot and Danielle pushed through the crowd of people. "Tell me what's going on in there?"

"I'm afraid I can't do that. This is an active crime scene. And you need to take—"

"I'm not talking to you." Eliot cut the deputy off. "How many are there?"

"Yeah, you're right. Clearly amateurs those two." Nate answered. "The other one looks like he never handled a gun before."

"Is judge blow-hard right next to you?"

"Yeah, uh, uh, definitely amateurs. That's what makes them so dangerous."

"Alright, two guys, both armed." Eliot summed up. "Neither one a criminal mastermind. You want us in there?"

"Probably—a good idea just to sit tight, don't you think? You know, see where these guys' heads are at, you know?"

"All right, your call, boss," Eliot said, leaving with Danielle in tow.

"We got to take control of the situation," Danielle said as they walked away from the crowd. "We got to be the police."

"My thoughts exactly." Nate agreed.

A black car pulled up in the parking lot. Parker and Hardison climbed out of the car. Both of them were wearing FBI gear.

"Nice ride," Eliot said, handing Parker a folder.

"It's embarrassing," Parker said opening the folder and handing out a fake badge to Hardison. "Everyone knows, you don't rob a bank without an exit strategy. Those two deserve to get caught." She slammed the folder on Danielle's chest. "42 seconds."

"What?" Hardison questioned.

"To rob this bank." Parker continued. Eliot and Danielle leant against the car. "One security guard who's never fired his gun, two closed-circuit cameras outside, one inside, and a Glenn-Reeder safe built in the 50s. Whose default combination is the birth date of the manager's wife. Get in, get out, 42 seconds."

"Only confirms that they are not professionals. And this was definitely not planned." Danielle exhaled. "We need to find out more about them Hardison."

The Sheriff had already called the FBI. No swat teams. This would quickly turn into a shit show if they didn't figure out what those men wanted. And the last thing Dani wanted was a blood bath. Or for Nate and Sophie to get caught in the crossfire.

"The older guy is U.S. Military. Derrick Clark—" Hardison told them. "—served as an officer in the Navy for 20 years. Retired last spring." Eliot and Danielle were back in the truck.

"Well, it doesn't make sen—uh, doesn't make sense." Nate said. "Why would a guy like that rob a bank?"

"I'm accessing his financials," Hardison informed him. "Looks like Derrick cleared out all of his accounts, this morning. Even visited a bunch of ATMs around town, hitting the daily withdrawal limit on all his credit cards."

"Yeah, but who takes all their money out of a bank, and then comes back later only to rob it?"

"Only someone in desperate need of money, I guess." Danielle mused out loud.

Danielle, surprisingly, had never taken part in a bank robbery. Or even been linked to one. She was no thief, although, one would argue that she was one now. It was not so much the robbery in itself that was the problem. No. Where she had an issue was with the fact that two of her people were taken hostage in said robbery. And there was nothing she could do to keep them safe. Other than working from the outside. And she didn't like that. She didn't like that at all.

Sophie and Nate were not inactive but they were in immediate danger. They did work from the inside but still, it was dangerous for them.

"The house's been broken into," Eliot informed the others. A few minutes ago, Hardison had sent them Derrick Clark's address.

Dani followed Eliot in. The house was a complete mess. Furniture had been thrown on the floor, framed photos were thrown on the floor, broken glass, scattered papers.

"Someone's put a hell of a fight," Danielle said and crouched down to grab one of the broken framed photos. On it, there was Derrick Clark who, she thought, to be his wife. "I'm guessing she's the reason why they desperately need that money."

"His name is Michael." Dani turned to Eliot; he handed her a piece of paper. "I found his report card on the floor."

"—get back on the ground," Danielle heard through their earpiece.

"It's not too late, Michael." Danielle glanced worriedly at Eliot, as she heard Nate's voice come through. "That's right—you—can still save her. Do you know who took her?"

Michael Clark had gotten mixed with the wrong crowd. He did small jobs for them. It went from running errands to eventually selling meth. They took his mother as retaliation after one of their shipments disappeared. They asked for their shipment back or a hundred thousand dollars to get his mother back. Money that neither he nor his father possessed.

"You're thieves!" Derrick exclaimed.

"And we're your only chance," Sophie told him. "Police have this place surrounded. You're not going anywhere. My people are the only ones who can make the job."

Danielle glanced at Eliot from her spot on the Clark's couch. This job was not going the way it was supposed to.

"But how are they gonna do that?" Derrick questioned. "The deadline's half an hour. Your friends just happen to have a hundred thousand dollars lying around."

"We're gonna use the money that we have in here," Nate said.

"It's not enough. We're still short thirty grand." Michael reminded Nate.

"No, Michael, not that money. We have an alternate revenue source."

"Is he suggesting what I think he is suggesting?" Hardison asked them.

"Are you suggesting what we think you are suggesting?" Parker asked Nate directly. "You want to give our bad guys money to some other bad guys?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm suggesting we do," Nate answered them both. "But we are going to do without blowing our covers gang."

"Easier said than done." Danielle sighed.

"Maybe I'm just dense, Nate." Eliot started. "But your alternate revenue source is sitting two feet from Boss Hog himself. In the middle of a bank surrounded by a bunch of cops."

"I didn't say it was gonna be easy but nothing's impossible. Especially, when you have the world's greatest thief on your payroll." Nate retorted. "Parker, have you ever robbed a bank that's being robbed?"

"He's not serious." Danielle stood up.

"There's a first time for everything." Danielle could hear the smirk in Parker's voice. "Bank's been built prior to 1980, before computers. Means it's got a larger than normal night deposit chute."

"Cause business owners had to drop off ledgers with their daily hauls," Hardison added. "What? You thought my genius was only limited to ones and zeros?"

Danielle and Eliot walked out the Clark's household and made their way back to the truck.

"I'm thinking the chute's my way in. Only problem is, it's in the alley on this side of the building." The thief explained.

"You'd be visible to the cops out front." Danielle pointed out.

"I could take care of that," Hardison said. "But we actually have bigger problems."

"What's that?" Eliot asked him.

"Sheriff Coltrane, over here, called the FBI—the real FBI." Hardison replied. "Now the closes office is in San Diego. So, they should be here in about—um—give it 45 minutes."

"We can't worry about that now." Nate said.

"When do we worry about it?" Hardison questioned him.

"In about 45 minutes."

Danielle rolled her eyes at that as Hardison started ranting about their time window of 45 minutes. Forty-five minutes did not seem like it was enough. A lot could happen during that time. Things could get a lot worse.

And unfortunately, it did.

A gun went off. Sophie screamed Nate's name. Danielle could only imagine what was happening.

"Just please. Everybody just calm down." Sophie tried to reason with all the parties involved. "Just—just put the guns down. We can talk this thing through."

"I'm not taking orders from you, missy." It was Judge Roy.

"What is your problem?" Sophie snapped at him.

"Hardison, talk to us." Danielle said.

Judge Roy had taken control of the situation. He went from being a hostage to being the gunman in a robbery. Michael and Derrick were now made hostages. This was not how it was supposed to go.

There was one thing that Danielle always prided herself in. It was organization. Her job was planned to a T. Well, at least, she liked to think so. And if, something unexpected happened. She adapted to the change and turned it to her advantage. With the team, it was the same way. Nate always seemed to be ahead of everything. As though, he had a library of possibilities in his brain. As though, he planned for every change, every unexpected event and picked a solution from that. Danielle was not as good as him. She knew that. She usually improvised on the fly and by some miracles she made it work. But there, how could she do that? Her team was split. Two posing as FBI agents, two being held hostages in a bank. And Eliot and she were waiting for the kidnappers to show up.

She winced when her earbud let out a screeching noise.

"Was that what I thought it was?" Eliot asked.

"I'm afraid so," Hardison replied. "Nate looks pretty messed up, man. We're gonna need that briefcase back."

A dark SUV pulled up to their location. The briefcase was waiting for them.

"We're working on it," Danielle assured him.

Eliot and Danielle left their position as two young males climbed out of the SUV. There was a third one in the passenger seat. A woman fell out of the car and was quickly dragged to the front of the car. The meth head was about to strike her before being stopped by Eliot.

"Hey. What smells like crank and screams like a girl?" He kicked the guy's knee causing him to wail in pain. He fell to the ground.

"I'm gonna need that back," Danielle said to the second guy before kicking him in his chest. His back slammed against the trunk, and he dropped the briefcase.

While Eliot took care of the other two kidnappers, Danielle dealt with this one. He was relentless. He kept coming at her, no matter how hard she hit him. She had to give him that. He was not a quitter. However, she couldn't waste any more time. They have an open window of 45 minutes to finish this job. And that window was closing soon. Her foot collided with the side of his face, and he flew in the air and landed on the ditch by the side of the dirt road.

"Who are you?" The woman asked them. Danielle recognized Derrick's wife from the photos; Ellen.

"Well, Ma'am. We'd be the calvary." Eliot smiled at her.

"The calvary?" Danielle asked him.

"It's a long story."

"That you're not going to tell me, uh?"

"No." Eliot helped Ellen up.

"Figured." She scoffed as she grabbed the briefcase.

Eliot, Danielle, and Ellen had changed into paramedics' uniforms. They waited for Hardison to put the final touches to their plan before their interventions. There was no way for them to exactly know what was going on inside. Hopefully, things would go their way.

"Seems like we're getting our wish after all," Danielle whispered to Eliot by the gurney.

"What's that?"

"We might do more than bankrupt that corrupted son of a bitch."

The door behind them opened. Eliot and Danielle kept their heads down, and their faces hidden. They pushed the gurney inside the building.

"I was told you were expecting this," Hardison said to Judge Roy. Before, he grabbed the pizza box on top and brought it to the counter.

Inside the box was the money the Judge had been asking for. His money. He chuckled delighted to see his demands had been met. Eliot and Danielle just moved the pizza boxes from the gurney as quickly as possible while Hardison kept on talking to Judge Roy.

"Well, it's about time," Nate said as soon as Danielle and Eliot revealed themselves.

"We're gonna need your clothes," Eliot said to Derrick and Michael. As both he and Dani started to undress themselves.

"Now!" Danielle urged them.

Once the clothes were exchanged, they hissed Nate on the gurney and made their way out of the bank. Judge Roy was desperately trying to convince the sheriff and his deputies of his innocence.

"Listen to me, he's one of them. He's in on it." Roy said.

"In on what? With who?" The Sheriff asked him.

"With her?" He pointed to Sophie. "And these two over here." Roy rushed to Danielle and Eliot as they made their way out of the bank. "These two." He took off their hats, probably thinking he would find Micheal and Derrick. But they were long gone.

Judge Roy had tried to convince the Sheriff's department but to no avail. All of the pieces of evidence pointed to him. In the eyes of the Sheriff, and the public, he was the one who started it all. The team had made sure of that. Derrick and Micheal had not been mentioned by anyone. Even the people that had been taken hostage, had corroborated their version. Judge Roy would not see the light of day for a very long time.

"Hey, thanks, Parker," Sophie said.

"Whatever," Parker replied.

Danielle smiled at that. The redhead had gloves on and was stitching up Nate's shoulder. "No, it was an excellent performance," Sophie told her.

"Yeah, I think I can act okay when I'm yelling at people and bossing them around."

"Well, it's a good start."

"Listen, we have to make sure we get the cash—to the Delgado family," Nate told them. "OW!"

"Sorry," Dani said sheepishly.

"You act like you've never been shot before." Eliot glanced over at Sophie. Dani snorted.

"So, pizza boxes, uh?" Nate shouted over to Hardison.

"Yeah, I know. I know. You could've done better." Hardison retorted.

"No, no, no. No, I couldn't have."