The Gambit (12 page)

“Stand up,” I said.

“I can’t help you,” she retorted.

I shook my head and walked around to her desk and pressed the gun against her back.

“Are you
sure
about that?” I whispered into her ear.

She stood out of her desk and walked out of the office into the lobby.

“To the vault, now!” I yelled. I shot another bullet into the ceiling.

“The cops are on their way here,” she said calmly as we walked.

“Then hurry up!” I pushed her forward.

When we reached the vault, she didn’t do anything.

“I’m not going to open it.”

My time is running out
…

I stood beside her and pressed the gun against her temple.

“I
will
fucking blow your brains out!” I screamed.

Tears filled her eyes and I saw her swallow. I would have never blown her brains out. I was not a killer…but everybody in this bank thought I was a terrorist who already
had
killed, and I was going to use that to my advantage.

She pressed six digits and the vault lock clicked open.

I turned the lock and pulled open the heavy, metal door. Inside was the most cash I had ever seen at one time. Shelves upon shelves of money. I immediately unzipped my backpack and started piling in bundles of hundred dollar bills. I kept my gun pointed at the bank manager, to keep her in the vault with me. If I was in here alone, all they would have to do is—

The vault door slammed shut, and I heard the mechanism lock.

My face turned blank. We were trapped.

The bank manager stared at me with a smile.

“Now you’re just a sitting duck,” she laughed.

Anger surged through my body. I knew there were other employees right outside the vault door.

“I will fucking kill her right here! Open this goddamn door! Do you all want her blood on your hands? Open the fucking door!” I screamed at the top of my lungs and pounded on the metal door with my free hand.

I started to panic. I searched around the vault for a way out, for anything…and in one of the top corners I saw it. It was a security camera. I stared at it, and in that moment I tried to plead with my facial expression, displaying how desperate I was.

I know you’re watching Grey
.
Get me out of here, I know you can do it. Please find a way before it’s too late.

“I will fucking kill her! I swear to God I’ll do it!” Owen screamed in a rage.

“Please Owen, don’t blow her brains out…” I mumbled, watching the security camera video.

I looked at my script. It was cracking the encrypted digits from the last ping that the manager just punched in moments ago. My timer read twenty-nine seconds. Twenty-nine seconds until I could remotely enter the passcode to the vault.

Come on…come on…

On another screen, I was simultaneously opening up the emergency functions of the bank just in case the cops were closing in. It had been seven minutes. They couldn’t have been far off now.

Eleven seconds. Ten. Nine. Eight.

I zoomed out to see all twenty security cameras. Scanning quickly through them, the cameras that faced down the street showed Richmond Police approaching at high speed.

“Oh fuck! Fuck!” I yelled.

One
—the digits appeared.

378416. I punched them in immediately. Switching over to the emergency functions, I locked all the automatic doors from the outside and turned on all the fire sprinklers. The dozens of people that were lying on the floors were now standing up and scrambling towards the exits.

“It’s all up to you now…” I said, covering my mouth from the intensity of what was unfolding at my work.

I turned the vault lock open. All the employees and patrons were running out of the bank. The emergency sprinklers were spraying water everywhere.

God damn Grey. You saved me, you fucking genius
.

The sound of sirens echoed from outside. I saw officers scrambling up the bank steps.

“Oh shit!” I yelled and began sprinting towards the exit on the side where I parked my bike. I
had
to get to my bike before they did. The police ran into the automatic doors and tried to pry them open. They appeared to be locked.

I heard gunshots and saw the glass door to my right shatter, I ran through the glass in an attempt to get out faster. I might have cut myself, but I couldn’t tell.

With a backpack full of money, I hopped onto my bike as more cop cars whipped around the intersection. I heard bullets fly past.

I popped a wheelie, maneuvering myself around the cars. When I turned on the next street, I went back on two wheels and accelerated as quickly as I could. In my rearview I could still see the police. I-95 would be coming up any moment. I saw the sign and looped onto the on-ramp. My knee scraped the asphalt as I leaned into the curve. Without a destination, I sped up over 150 miles per hour on I-95 South.

“How in the
fuck
did we lose him?” I shouted and slammed my hands against the metallic counter. I felt my left eyelid twitching and I had my teeth clenched.

The fifty-something people in the room stared at me. I couldn’t wait to see which one of these mindless shits had the nerve to speak up first.

“Ma’am, those were the Richmond Police. The FBI and Homeland Security were shortly behind them. Something went wrong. Apparently someone had access to the bank’s main server and assisted Owen in his robbery.”

I pursed my lips and exhaled through my nose. I was
furious
. A tiny bead of sweat began to drip down the forehead of the man who had answered my question.

“You are the Central Intelligence Agency for Christ’s sake! How in the hell are you going to let him slip by so easily? Everyone in this room is going to need to take their position more seriously, unless you want to end up decommissioned with a reputation so terrible you won’t be able to land a job as a mall cop.”

No one said a word.

“We just got word Owen is heading south on I-95,” someone said in the crowd.

The security camera video populated the many screens in the room. It showed Owen tucked into his bike, zipping by like a little black blip.

“Get a chopper in the air,” I demanded. “Call all the police stations along 95, give them his info. We are
not
going to let him get away again…”