“How much longer is it going to take?”
“We’ll be there!” he replied bluntly. I kept looking at my watch, watching each minute slowly tick by. Then we came to a dead end in a dark alley. On the left were two garages and on the right were the remains of three burnt cars. We all got out of the van. I walked over to the garages and opened them trying to keep the screeching, of the rusty old garage doors, to an absolute minimum. Inside one of the garages there was a car that we would be using for the rest of the journey. Inside the other was the skeleton of a dead cat. It looked like it had been trapped in there and was left to rot. The smell was excruciating. I slammed the garage door shut and walked over to the others. Scott took out the car from the other garage and we unloaded all the items from the van in to the car. I set fire to the van and rushed off.
We got in to the car and Scott recklessly sped off leaving a cloud of dust behind. I felt ecstatic after running my hand over the money and jewels but I knew it wasn’t over yet. We still had to make it back to Alberto’s villa. Alberto was an old man around the age of 65 years but he was well respected and feared by everyone. He moved to England over 40 years ago and was known for his great robberies. He was the mastermind behind this robbery. He had planned it to perfection. He had been a thief all his life yet had never been arrested. Back in his days, he was out stealing himself unlike today where he hires us to do his dirty work. He was known by most as the ‘Sly Snake’ because he got away with everything. His biggest ever robbery was for 82 million pounds and even then he got away with it. He had set an all time world record. We were working for him so we knew if we did not succeed; we would be in either prison or would end up dead. It was an all or nothing situation. We had to succeed. Yet sitting in the car we were all getting aggravated and panicky. I kept tapping my hands on the armrest trying to get my mind off what would happen if we were caught. That was not the only reason for being jumpy and uneasy. I had also set up a plan to double cross Alberto. I still couldn’t believe I was actually going to do it. This was going to be the most daring stunt of my life and I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. If this went horribly wrong even life imprisonment would be better then what Alberto would do to me. I had not bothered to tell Chris because he was Alberto’s nephew and I did not tell James because he was really close to him.
Whilst we were driving along, I could feel the tension by the pin drop silence in the car. I winded down the window to let the cool air in and to release the unwanted tension from the car. I turned on the radio to try to normalise things in the car. A few seconds later James shrieked,
“Turn the damn thing off!” I turned it off. The pin drop silence returned and it was like that for quite some time until we heard sirens. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. My eyes were wide open as a layer of water rushed on to my eyeballs. My ears pointed like a wild cats. I could feel my clothes getting heavier as they were gradually getting drenched in sweat. I felt like I was sitting in a sauna.
“Is it after us?” asked Chris. I could hear his voice tremble.
“I don’t know I can’t see it.” Replied Scott nervously. A few seconds later, all I could see was blue lights flashing; the whole of the inside of the car was lit up. My heart was racing. Scott was driving like a maniac trying to get them off his tail, swerving from side to side losing sense of direction. I glanced back hoping it was Bradley, who was my inside police officer. He was going to help me double cross Alberto. It was. I took a breath of relief and tapped Scott on the hand giving him the thumbs up sign. He calmed down understanding it was part of the plan. I took out the tranquillizer gun that I planted under my seat when we changed cars. I slowly removed it from its leather casing and loaded it. I looked back fearfully looking for the perfect opportunity to shoot. I asked,
“Are we losing them?” Chris and James both looked back as I shot two precise darts from under my headrest at point blank range. I got Chris on the neck and James on the shoulder. I leant over my seat and held them both back so they were not able to remove the darts and within thirty seconds, they were both out cold. I didn’t want to kill them but I couldn’t let them in on the plan because there would be more chance of something going wrong and then Alberto would hunt us down and kill us. I waved at Officer Bradley who then turned his sirens off. He then followed us to a quiet woodland area. There we parked the car and took the money and jewelry out and placed it in to the police car. I left a suitcase with about two million pounds in the car and I left the car keys in James’ pocket. It was hard leaving them but it had to be done.
“Shall we?” asked Bradley eager to leave.
“Ye…yeh lets.” I replied reluctantly walking backwards to the police car, not taking my eyes off Chris and James.
The first part of the mission was successfully complete. Now it was the difficult part. I had to frame Alberto so he wasn’t able to come after us. I had to ring him and tell him that I had stolen his money and somehow I had to make him say something that could prove he was the mastermind and thief behind the major robberies. I wanted him to get life imprisonment so I had to make it good. Scott was going to record the whole conversation. Bradley had hired us a private plane that would take us to Germany and from there we would go to Morocco using other means of transport. Bradley’s job was to take the tape and to arrest Alberto. He was more then happy to do it because he was getting one million pounds and a good reputation for locking up the biggest thief of all time. He would also become a higher ranked police officer, which he always wanted.
“Call him now. Tell him you’re leaving the country with his money!” insisted Bradley.
I took out my mobile phone with my left hand. I tried to dial his number but my hands were too unstable. I supported my left hand with my right hand and dialed his number. I turned on the loud speaker and put the phone in my lap. Scott pressed record on the tape recorder. The phone rang. There was no answer. I was glad in a way because speaking to him made me feel like he had a knife to my neck. Then all of a sudden, someone answered.
“Yes. Who is this and what ya want?” It was Alberto. His deep voice and foreign accent could be recognized by anyone. Every limb in my body froze. I was as still as a statue. I looked down staring at the phone.
“Who is this?” He asked again ruthlessly.
“Speak, speak!” Bradley anxiously whispered. I glared at him and then looked back down. I opened my mouth but the words wouldn’t come out. I was thunderstruck.
“Alberto it’s us!” bursted out Scott.
“Where are you? What’s the hold up? I’ve been waiting for you so long. You better get your backside back here right now!” he exclaimed in broken English.
“Tha…tha…that’s the problem you see. We…we have to leave the country.” He said whilst gulping endlessly. “We are on our way to Heathrow. We haven’t got time to bring you the money.” He explained gradually gaining more and more confidence. I looked at him. Shocked but pleased. At least one of us had the courage to speak to him.
“You thieving little rascals think you can steal from me? That money belong to me now! You work for me do not forget! You know what I can do to you! I’ll kill you! Who you think you try to con. You can’t con me I am the biggest mastermind of all time. I’ve set records in my robberies! I was stealing when you was in your nappies boy! I’ve stolen more in one day then you have in all your life. Your will pay…” he roared in furiously. I quickly put the phone down not allowing him to finish his speech of self-pride.
“Yes, we did it!” I cried. “We did it!”
“Right now give me that tape.” Bradley squealed. I took out the tape and handed it over to him.
“I’ll cut out your bits.” He told us. “Now you two get off here and get on that plane over there. Call me once you get to Germany and I’ll let you know what’s going on. Oh and are you sure he’ll go to the airport?” he asked.
“If I know Alberto he’ll use every means possible to get the money back so definitely, he’ll be there because he thinks we’re there.” I told him.
“Right, I’ll have to go there and arrest him then. Better get there quick I don’t want anyone else getting to him before me.” We took the bags out of his car leaving his share in there. He smiled and drove off turning on his siren and sticking his hand out of the window and waving goodbye.
We loaded our luggage on to the plane and got on board. I looked at Scott and smirked. I didn’t know what I would have done without him. Soon we were air born and were heading to Germany. We both sat back and relaxed after having had a long and chaotic day.
Some time later we had landed. We were in Berlin airport. I woke up Scott and we got our things and left in search of a hotel for the night. We got in to a taxi and told the driver to take us to a hotel. The Hilton Hotel was only a few minutes drive down the road. We got ourselves a suite and being careful not to let our luggage out of site we were led to our rooms. I ordered room service to bring us a three-course meal with extra dessert. That night we both fell asleep knowing we had over six million to share between us.
The next morning I woke up early, freshened up, and then called for some breakfast. Once we had eaten, we planned to spend the day shopping before heading off to Morocco. I decided to call Bradley to get the latest information of Alberto’s arrest. I called him but there was no answer. I called him again and there was no answer. What could it be? Why isn’t he answering? I thought to myself. He couldn’t be asleep it was nearly 3 o’clock in England. I turned on the television. I was horror struck by what I saw. The headline news was showing that three men in a black Mercedes had murdered a police officer by the name of Bradley Baxendale last night. The killers had not been caught yet. I called Scott. He was as speechless as was I. We were both petrified. I didn’t know what to do. What if Bradley had told him we were in Germany? What would we do now? We were doomed. We would have to go our whole life looking over our shoulders every few minutes knowing Alberto was looking for us. A wave of fear passed through the room as a tear fell form my eye. We had to get out of there. We quickly grabbed our bags frantically throwing all our belongings in there. We were heading to the door when suddenly the phone rang. I answered it. It was the reception desk from downstairs.
“Good morning Mr. Hunt.” Said the receptionist in a foreign accent. “There is a man heading up to your suite. He refused to give his name.”
“Can you describe him?” I asked worriedly.
“Yes. He is a tall man and is a little chubby. He has a deep voice and is smoking a cigar. He also has two very big men with him.” I slammed the phone down and shouted,
“Scott! Do not open the door! Alberto’s here!” He immediately backed away from the door looking at me in disbelief. I could see fear in his eyes like never before. Suddenly, there was a tough knock at the door.
By: Ayaz Rehman Year 11.
