Heist Online

by Victor Deckard

  “Oh I see,” Allison said. “You only need me as a backup plan, right?”

  “If you don’t like stealth games that much, why do you play this game?” I put in. “There are other shooter games, y’know.”

  “I don’t know,” she replied. “This game’s just come out, so I just wanted to test it out. And guess what? I liked it! The setting is fascinating and being a heister is freaking awesome.”

  “So you in or what?” Flynn said getting the conversation back on track. “If you don’t like our terms, get the hell outta here and don’t waste our time.”

  “Gosh, you’re so rude,” Allison exclaimed. “Chill out, man. Let me just think about it for a moment and decide if I––”

  “You in or out?” Flynn snarled, interrupting the girl.

  “Guess I’m in,” she replied although she clearly wasn’t sure if she wanted to play with us. “I’ve spent lots of money to buy the traps, the panels, and the other shit for this mission. So yeah, guess I’m in. Don’t want to lose my money for nothing.”

  “I ain’t pressed the READY button yet––”

  “No kidding?”

  “––so the game hasn’t started yet. If you leave now, the assets you’ve bought will become unavailable for us and you will get your money back because payments are refundable. So you won’t lose anything. If you don’t want to play with us, vacate the place already. You’ve already wasted too much of our time.”

  “Gosh, man,” Allison said. “Has anybody ever told you that you’re so toxic?”

  Flynn uttered a sound like a bolt thrown into a blender.

  “Okay, I’m in,” Allison said. “That’s my final word. I’ll just wait till you guys screw the stealth up and then I’ll jump in.”

  Flynn snarled something incomprehensible. He seemed to regret having taken her in already.

  After he finally pressed the READY button, a message popped up on the screen of my cell phone saying that the van was on the way. I consulted the map, turned the engine over, and drove down the street for the place where the van would be waiting for us.

  When I reached the bank, Flynn was already here. I pulled into the bank’s parking lot and climbed out. Flynn was waiting for me on the other side of the street. I crossed the road and walked up to him. We nodded at each other and started for the black van parked along the curb.

  When we reached it, the distant sounds of an engine roaring and tires crunching on the asphalt came from behind. We looked around and saw a white-colored sedan barreling down the street in our direction.

  Then there was the grating screech of brakes being applied. Whoever was behind the wheel was a crappy driver. The tortured tires squealed as the car began fishtailing. The driver was clearly fighting the steering wheel, trying to bring the vehicle into a straight line before it smashed into one of the buildings lining both sides of the street.

  The player managed to get the car under control just in time to prevent it from smashing into a car parked on the other side of the street.

  “Geez,” Flynn said. “I hope it ain’t our gal.”

  The driver’s-side door swung open and a girl jumped out of the sedan. She looked around, noticed us watching her from across the street, and waved at us vigorously. She then started to quickly cross the road.

  There was a car coming from the right, but it wasn’t until the NPC behind the wheel slammed on the brake and honked his horn at the girl that she noticed the vehicle. Startled, she jumped forward to get out of the car’s way and waved at the driver angrily.

  “What are we getting ourselves into with that girl?” Flynn said musingly.

  After the girl managed to cross the street without being run over, she walked up to us.

  Her stats popped up in my HUD.

  > Name: Allison

  > Level: 4

  “Hey guys,” she said enthusiastically. “Let’s get this party started!”

  I looked her over. She was in her earlier twenties. Slender but curvy. Her blond hair was long and curly. She wore denim pants, a black top, and a jacket. Her shiny eyes could hardly conceal her excitement.

  “I’m ready when you are,” she said prompting us to action.

  “Okay, let’s begin,” Flynn grumbled and slid open the side door of the van.

  After we retrieved our stuff from the van, our three-player team started across the street toward the bank.

  When she realized we were going to the main entrance, Allison got all nervous. “Wait a second,” she said. “We aren’t going in through the main door, are we?”

  We stopped next to the door and Flynn looked at the girl, frowning. “What’s the problem with doing so?”

  “There’re civilians in there, duh,” she whispered. “If we go in, they’ll spot us and call the police. I thought you wanted to do it in stealth. Or you changed your mind, huh?”

  Flynn just regarded her icily for a few seconds. Then he spoke slowly. “You are already level 4. You must have at least one heist completed under your belt.”

  “Yeah. So?”

  “Then why are you acting like a noob?”

  “What?” The girl blurted. “Hey, I ain’t no noob!”

  “Then how come you didn’t know that civilians got spooked only by players wearing masks or toting weapons?”

  Allison just stared at him for a moment before there was a realization in her eyes.

  “You’re right,” she exclaimed. “I totally forgot about that. Silly me! See, when I played with other players, we never tried to be stealthy. We just put our masks on right away and crashed into a place.”

  Flynn said nothing. Only his eyes gave away the fury burning inside him. He turned his head and looked at me. Although he still didn’t say anything, I knew what the look in his eyes meant. He wasn’t thrilled to have her on the team at all.

  “Alright, here’s the plan,” he finally spoke. “There three doors to the building: the front entrance, the side entrance, and the back door. Before putting our masks on, we need to take a few minutes to familiarize ourselves with the place.”

  “Sounds pretty boring,” Allison stated.

  Flynn made a visible effort not to react at the girl’s words.

  “There are four to six security guards in the bank. Plus, the camera operator in the security room. First of all, we need to just look around and locate the cameras. Then we locate and neutralize the guards. Then we need to find the manager to get the keycard to the security room.”

  “Gosh, it already sounds too complicated for me,” Allison complained. “Not to mention, mind-numbing.”

  Flynn couldn’t take it anymore.

  “Will you shut up and let me finish?” He snapped at the girl.

  She pantomimed zipping her mouth up.

  Flynn glared at her for a second and then continued speaking. “With the cameras and guards taken care of, one of us is going to deal with the tellers. It is very important because they had alarm buttons under their desks. Simultaneously, the other two players will take the entrance door and the back door to make sure no civilian gets outside. After that, all we need to do is drill open the vault door.”

  “Can I talk now?” Allison asked smiling at Flynn innocently.

  “What?” He barked.

  “Like I said, it’s too complicated,” she said. “So how about we just put our masks on and get down to business?”

  This time Flynn choose to simply ignore the girl. He looked at me and said, “Actually, there two ways to do this. One of them is fast but risky and the other one is slow and tedious but safe.”

  Allison’s eyes widened and she said in a mocking tone, “You mean the stealth can be even more boring than it is already?”

  Flynn continued to ignore her. “Which one would you like to pick?”

  “Can you tell me a little more about them?” I asked.

  “Sure thing. The tedious method is that we just wait for the guards to walk outside. Every guar
d sooner or later walks out the back door to smoke. So all we need to do is wait for a guard to walk outside, knock him or her out, and wait for the next one. Or we can take the guards hostage if you’re already learned the Real Deal skill. But if memory serves, a Shot Caller has to be at least level 7 to be able to learn that skill.”

  “You’re right. I don’t have it yet.”

  “Okay. So we need to knock the guards out then.”

  Flynn looked at Allison sternly, and added, “No killing! Do you understand me?”

  “Yes, sir,” Allison replied teasingly.

  “How long may to take to take care of all of the guards?” I asked.

  “Depends. If we’re lucky, we’ll manage to do it in ten minutes.”

  “And what if we’re not lucky?” Allison asked.

  “Then it may take thirty-forty minutes.”

  “Great,” Allison said as she made as she pretended to be yawning. “Stealth is so exciting.”

  “So what’s the second method?” I asked.

  “We locate the cameras and break one of them,” Flynn answered.

  “But if a guard spots a broken camera, they’ll call the police.”

  “We won’t let them do it. If we break a camera before taking down the camera operator, he or she will send one of the guards to investigate and we can ambush them, knocking him or her out before they calls the police. After a minute or so, the camera operator will send someone else. This way, we can ambush every single one of the guards and then take down the camera operator.”

  “That’s a good plan,” I said.

  “Bear in mind that all the cameras are inside the bank and there are lots of people in the building. Security guards wander around the place all the time, so while we deal with one guard, another one may spot us.”

  “I say we go with the risky plan,” Allison said.

  Flynn cast a glare at her and said, “I didn’t ask for your opinion.”

  “So I don’t have a say in the matter?”

  “I agree with her,” I put in. “Let’s do it the quick way.”

  “You sure?” Flynn asked. “It can be pretty hairy.”

  “Yep. I’m sure.”

  “Okay. It’s your call. You’re the boss after all.”

  “What?” Allison said. She was amazed and she didn’t pretend this time. “You mean you ain’t the boss?”

  “No,” Flynn replied as he nodded at me. “He is the leader of this gang.”

  The girl’s eyes flicked between us as if she was trying to tell if we were just teasing her. Then she said, “You could’ve fooled me. You’re the one acting like the boss here.”

  “I just know a lot about this game, so.”

  Allison didn’t ask him to elaborate on the matter. The girl couldn’t care less about it. She couldn’t wait to begin robbing the bank.

  “Okay,” Allison said impatiently. “Shall we begin? Or you got something else to explain?”

  “Nope,” Flynn replied. “Let’s begin. So you and me will go to the back door.”

  Flynn’s eyes flicked to me. “Striker, you go in through the main door. Take a look around, locate cameras and guards. Allison and I are going to check if the back door is open.”

  I knew what Flynn was doing here. He let me go in on my own because he trusted me. He knew I wouldn’t mess it up. But he couldn’t say the same about Allison, so he wanted to keep her close to keep an eye on her.

  I watched them walk down the sidewalk along the wall of the bank until they turned around the corner, disappearing from sight. I then pushed the main door open and stepped into the building.

  I found myself in the lobby. To the left, there was the teller room and to the right were several small tables and armchairs. Some of the NPCs were seated in the chairs and the others stood in front of the tellers. There was barely any activity in the room.

  In one corner, a surveillance camera was attached to the wall. A guard walked around the lobby idly, seemingly barely paying mind to me.

  Walking along the length of the room, I spotted a door on either side of me. I walked to the one to my right and pushed it open. The door led to the office. I spotted several cubicles and NPCs sitting at the computers. Above the room was a roof window.

  On the other side of the room was the manager room. Through the big window, the manager could be seen. He was seated at the desk, staring at the monitor screen in front of him.

  Also, behind the cubicles on the other side from the manager’s office was a huge vault door.

  The second guard wandered around the office. When passing by, he spotted me, stopped, and said, “Sir, this is a restricted area. Please, leave.”

  I continued to look around the place. There were also two cameras in the office. On the other side of the room was a door that seemingly led to the back of the bank.

  “Sir, you can’t be here,” the guard repeated, more urgency in his voice now.

  When I didn’t move, the guard’s right hand started to slowly go for the pistol in the holster.

  “Okay, I’m leaving,” I said. “Don’t freak out, man.”

  I returned to the lobby and crossed the room to the other door. After making sure the first guard paid me no attention, I pushed the door open and walked into a short corridor, which ran for ten feet forward before making a left-angle turn. A surveillance camera on the far wall was trained right on the door I had just stepped through.

  I knew that I had a few seconds to get out of the camera’s range, so I strode down the corridor and stooped right under the camera. I waited a few seconds. Nothing happened. I had managed to get beyond the camera’s range before the camera operator spotted me.

  To my right were another short hallway and two more doors right in front of each other. According to the signs, one of them led to the teller room, the other to the security room.

  “I found the security room,” I said. “There’s also a door to the teller room.”

  “Good,” Flynn replied, his voice coming from the earpiece in my right ear. “But don’t enter the security room just yet. Stick to the plan, Striker.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’m on the roof now,” he said. “Saw you enter the office.”

  “Didn’t notice you.”

  “I’m watching through the roof window and ducking out of sight every now and then so the NPCs can’t notice me.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “Allison’s in the back of the bank now. We’ve found a camera near the back door. She’s waiting for my signal. There’s a guard lingering near the back door. I’m watching him now. Once he walks away, Allison will shoot the camera. Be ready.”

  “Ready for what?”

  “Probably we’ll need your help,” Flynn explained. “Go find the side door so you can quickly walk around the bank and join us if needed. As far as I can tell, you should be very close to the side entrance.”

  I walked down the corridor and noticed a recessed door to my right a few feet from the security room. I walked to the recessed door and swung it open. It led to the outside indeed.

  I also spotted another guard. He stood right in front of me, smoking. Luckily, he didn’t notice me because his back was turned to me. Quickly looking around to ensure there were no cameras nearby, I drew my Sig Sauer and stepped to the guard. As he started to turn around, I smacked the butt of my pistol across the back of his head.

  He collapsed to the ground with a thud. I stuffed the Sig Sauer into my waistband, took a pair of plastic cuffs out of my bag, and zip-tied the guard’s wrists behind his back. I then grabbed the unconsciousness NPC by the hands and dragged him toward the two Dumpsters that sat nearby. After placing the lifeless body in between them, I straightened up and looked around. Nobody was nearby, so my actions went unnoticed.

  “I knocked one guard out and hid the body between two Dumpsters,” I said.

  “Good,” Flynn replied. “But keep in mind that the guard’s gonna com
e around in a few minutes. Keep an eye on him for now. Allison’s gonna shoot the camera down any minute now––”

  A single shot rang out, filling the air. It came from the inside of the bank, so it was somewhat muffled. Yet I was sure that anyone in the building heard the shot.

  “What the hell did just happen?” Flynn growled.

  “Oops,” Allison said.

  “What do you mean, ‘oops’? What the hell did you do?”

  “I did what you told me to: I shot down the camera.”

  “How come everybody was able to hear it?”

  “I forgot to attach the silencer to my pistol,” Allison stated calmly as if nothing had just happened. “My bad.”

  “What?” Flynn almost shouted. “Are you effing kidding me? How the hell could you forget to attach the suppressor? And what’s wrong with your eyes? How could you not notice that it wasn’t attached to the muzzle of your pistol?”

  “Don’t yell at me, okay?” Allison complained. “This stealth of yours is so nerve-racking. I was trying hard to avoid being seen by the guards. I was focused entirely on this task, which is why I totally forgot about the silencer.”

  I heard muted terrified screams coming from the building. While Flynn and Allison were still arguing, I rushed back into the bank donning my balaclava on the run. When I burst into the lobby, I saw NPCs scrambling for the exit.

  I dashed forward drawing my pistol. Once in front of the main door, I turned around, pointed the Sig Sauer at the NPCs, and shouted at the top of my lungs, “Don’t fucking move! Everybody down!”

  As the civilians started to drop to the ground, I spotted the gray uniform of a guard. Not willing to kill him, I raced across the room hoping as hell I would get to him before he shot me. Luckily, the guard was unwilling to open fire because some of the civilians were still lingering in his line of fire.