A Different Kind of Heist

[Sociopathos]

It aint special, it aint new, it aint one of my favorite stories. However, it is my first real attempt at a short story. Butcher it as much as possible. I've posted it on other forums but I always appreciate more criticism.

A Different Kind of Heist

Adam Greenlin was sitting in his favorite café. It didn’t have much going for it. The coffee sucked and the waitresses weren’t good looking enough to make a pass at. It did have one distinguishing feature different from the rest of the cafes in the area. It looked right at the National 5th Bank of Rannick City. It was a beautiful view of the ongoing traffic surrounding the bank, something of which Adam Greenlin took special note. Then his view was obscured by a wiry little white man.

“Mornin’, Greeny! Fancy meeting you here,” the man said before waving and blowing kisses at one of the more mannish waitresses.

“You’re late,” Adam said with a tone of disdain.

“Late is relative. I’m not late; I am here exactly when I want to be.”

“You’re quoting Tolkien again. Badly.”

“I’m sorry if I love the classics, Greeny. I read it recently on the flight over.” The wiry little man then turned around in his street and nodded at the building. “So, do you think it’ll go over fine tomorrow?”
“It should. Yurin and Edstein have got demolitions covered and Sederly is pretty damn good crowd control.”

“And you’re not worried about Warner driving through the city afterwards,” the wiry man asked with concern. “This’ll only be his third heist and…well, I’ve seen him crash a car before.” Adam Greenlin rolled his eyes and made an intimidating stance.

“I’m in control of this operation. Do not worry about my choices. Relax,” he said as he relaxed into a slumped position, “this is a piece of cake. It’s only the 5th National. I’ve been looking at the traffic all day and I haven’t seen a problem at all. The cop station is more than four minutes away and with our setup, they won’t even know we’re there.”

“I dunno, I still don’t feel great about this one, Greeny. We’ve been through, what… twenty years in this business? I just feel weird about this one.”
“Purson, there is nothing to worry about. We got every base covered.”
-
“Greeny, get the fuck over here!”

Adam Greenlin looked up from his position behind the teller’s drawer and stopped stuffing the bag with cash. Yurin and Edstein were both standing next to the blown apart vault stupefied. When Greenlin saw it himself he didn’t really believe it. There were no safes, no safety deposit boxes, only a doorway leading down. Greenlin had not counted on the bank’s funds being further below the surface. They were not in his blueprints.

“What the hell is going on?! Purson, get over here!” Purson was occupied with a particular teller’s drawer. For some reason it was locked. Greenlin didn’t have time for this so he shot his pistol near the wiry little man.

“Goddamnit, Greeny! What the hell are you doing?!”

“I’m getting your attention, you fuck. Now come over to the vault and tell me what I’m supposed to see.” Purson put down his bag and trudged over towards the 40-year old man known as Greenlin.

“I don’t see the fucking problem in the setup, Greenlin. There’s a few safe-depo-WHAT THE FUCK!? WHERE ARE THE BOXES?!”

“That’s what I wanted to know. Didn’t you get the blueprints yourself?”

“Greeny, I got them from the same guy as always. Everything he has is good. Or at least, it was until now. He owes us now,” Purson said as he shook his head in disappointment. “Well, the boxes are probably just below. I really doubt there’s a guard down there, but you may as well take a few people down just in case.”

“Oh, good, that’s your solution, Purson? Oh, that’s so swell, I DIDN’T THINK I’D BE ABLE TO THINK THAT PLAN OUT MYSELF! You’re coming with, get out your gun.”

“What the hell is happening guys? Shouldn’t we already be done? My trigger-finger is itchin’ awful,” came a voice from the entrance of the bank. It was Sederly, doing his best at crowd control. He was the one keeping the people calm and in line for appearances. He’d already made a few of the uppity ones lay down in a pool of blood.

“Sederly, don’t worry about it. Just keep doing your part.”

“Well, hurry the fuck up.”

“Well, you heard the man,” Adam Greenlin said before walking down the stairs to the unknown.
-
“Okay, we’ve been walking down for a really fucking long time, Greeny. Let’s just wrap this up and call it a failure. We can’t risk the cops.”

“Yurin, don’t talk, I’m concentrating,” Adam Greenlin said before reaching the bottom of the staircase. It seemed to have taken at least five minutes. Sederly better be doing his job, he thought before being taken aback at the scene before him.

He could have expected a basement. He could have even expected the sewer. He did not expect the complete ivory setup of the hall in front of him. The hall just seemed to go on and on. Yurin came up behind him and had a more verbal response.

“What the fuck is this?” Greenlin in normal circumstances may have smacked his cohort. Instead, he walked forward as if in a daze. It was the most alien thing he’d ever seen. His underlings followed behind, unable to suppress their like feelings of awe.

Soon enough, the group reached a doorway on the right. Right next to the doorway was a panel with a little blue button. Greenlin hesitated for a second, but then reached out to touch the button. Yurin leaped forward and batted the older man’s hand away in an instant.

“Greeny, stop that! Let’s just go, there’s no fucking reason to stay here. Let’s just go!” He said in an urgent whisper.

“Yurin, calm down. We need to at least get something to take back. Here,” Purson said while gesturing to the door opposite the one with a blue button. This door was an old fashioned door and looked very modest in comparison to the one dominated by the shiny blue button. “You and I can go through this door, and since Greeny wants to go through that one he can take Edstein with him. Okay?”

“Stop being such a pussy, Yurin, Sederly would be on the radio if something was wrong. The silent alarm definitely wasn’t tripped. Let’s just explore these two rooms and then we can go,” Edstein said in his usual blunt way before slamming his hand against the blue button, raising his handgun and walking through the door. Greenlin admired his initiative and followed suit. Purson opened the other door with a false welcoming expression on his face and soon enough Yurin and the wiry little man had gone through the threshold.
-
Greenlin walked through the door and was floored by what he saw. It was like there was a hanger beneath the city. There was no way his eyes were 20/20 like his optometrist said. When he did stop looking at the ceiling he saw Edstein staring wide-eyed at something behind a curtain. Intrigued on what could possibly put Edstein in awe, Greenlin walked over to wear the bigger man was standing. He instantly knew why Edstein was just standing there.

“Well, how do you do, my name is Krethtox, nice to meet you.”

[Sociopathos]

Yurin and Purson walked into the room and, as expected, they were walking into a room filled with inventory. What they didn’t expect was the exceeding number of shiny things on tables. Just laying there. They were all tagged with weird signs and numbers. The two bank robbers couldn’t make heads or tails of them. That did not keep them from stuffing every single object into their bags along with the money from the teller drawers.

They took special care with the tiny ones and not much care at all with the big ones. They had no idea what they were, so it was best they didn’t crush a single one. They were disappointed they were unable to get money but they should at least get something for the little trinkets.

“Now, do you see a reason to worry, Yurin?” As he said this, Purson heard the unmistakable crackle of the secure two-way radio at his hip. “Oh, shit…”
-
Malcolm Warner was an intelligent young African-American who had been raised a good Christian in the heart of Rannick City. Currently, he was waiting outside the National 5th Bank of Rannick City and was debating on whether to go inside. His comrades were there for far too long. This was only the third heist he had ever participated in. Sure he’d hustled plenty before, but this was still a little new to him. He was the driver, and as a driver, one of his principal duties was to never abandon the car.

Malcolm Warner hurried from his parked van but not fast enough to be noticed. He didn’t want to alert attention. In his mind there was trouble in the bank. They had been in there for twenty minutes and he hadn’t heard even a single bit of radio static from his 2-way and he couldn’t stand waiting any longer. He turned the corner and looked at the bank. There didn’t seem to be any trouble. Either Sederly was damn fine at his job or Malcolm Warner was hovering around the wrong bank.

Malcolm hurried up the steps leading into the banks and then burst through the glass doors. He heard the click of the hammer and knew it was the first option.

“Sederly, it’s me! Don’t shoot!”

“I should anyways, you fucking nigger! Why aren’t you in the car?!”

“I think we can do this without the fucking racism, Sederly. I was just wondering why it was taking so long.”

“It takes as long as it needs to. You should have known that before this project. Anyways, get ba-” Sederly was interrupted by a loud beeping at his left hip. “That…that says if the silent alarm is tripped…,” he said before looking up towards the tellers’ desk. There was a rather pudgy, disheveled man looking pleased with himself standing right there behind the counter.

“I’m sorry this heist isn’t going so well, murderer. I’ll see you in hell.”

“Die,” Sederly said before shooting his pistol right between the eyes of the bank manager. He then desperately grasped for the two-way radio positioned on his right hip and with his thumb he pressed the transmit button. He then turned to Warner. “YOU FUCKING GET THAT VAN NOW,” he exploded and then turned back to the radio.

“The alarm was tripped. Get your mangy asses up here.”
-
Yurin and Purson had never quite panicked like that before. They picked up their bags and then burst through the entryway of the storeroom. They turned right and sprinted as fast as they came. Halfway down the hall Purson noticed there weren’t footsteps right behind them. He didn’t bother to look back, he knew they weren’t following. That was their problem.
-
Greenlin and Edstein had heard the radio crackle on and off and understood its meaning, but they couldn’t stop staring at the gray deformity before them. There was a real live alien right in front of them. Bulbous head, grey skin, luminous eyes. This thing had it all. Krethtox saw their reaction and heard Sederly’s comment.

“Umm, shouldn’t you guys be running very fast the way you came?”

“Yes.”

“Well, go on,” Krethtox said to the befuddled men. “I’m certainly not going to stop you. All of my weapons are in the storeroom.”

“Not anymore, our friends have them, probably,” Greenlin said to the thing standing before him. He was rather stupefied by the good manners of the little creature.

“Oh, well, then I have a request. May I come with you? I would appreciate it greatly. And if I could get a piggy-back ride that would certainly be welcome.”

The two burglars certainly couldn’t refuse. He was just being too nice.
-
Sederly did his best to his exterminate any witnesses. He wasn’t fond of wasting ammo. He didn’t enjoy killing; it was just what he was best at. He had already waited three minutes waiting for the four people below the surface. This was certainly not what was supposed to happen today. He was supposed to be far away already enjoying a brand new stack of money. Not waiting for the corpses around him to start festering.

He saw Purson and then Yurin finally climb up the stairs and he could tell they were sprinting for their life. Just how far down were these guys?

“I’m seeing you’re enjoying your work, Sederly. We have stories to tell,” Purson said before bursting through the glass doors of the National 5th Bank of Rannick City. He immediately saw the van positioned in front of the bank and he slid open the white, nondescript doors once he reached it. He was followed immediately by Yurin and they both started wheezing from their recent exercise. Malcolm looked back at the two thieves and asked the obvious question.

“Where the hell are the others?”
-
Adam Greenlin was not in good shape. He had only been sprinting three minutes up the staircase and he was panting like a dog on a 115 degree day. Edstein in front of him was easily huffing and puffing his way along while carrying their little package. I would say youth is wasted on the young but Edstein aint bad, he thought as he sprinted up the stairs.

As he neared the top of the staircase he was surprised by a yelp coming from Sederly. He was usually collected, but exemptions can be made whenever Krethtox was involved.

“What the fuck is that?”

“Hell, I’m Krethtox, I’m what you human bei-” Krethtox started before being jostled by Edstein.

“That can wait until we get away from the authorities.”

“Well, once I obtain my weapons I highly doubt we’ll have to worry too much.” The three remaining bank-robbers and the alien all left the bank full of corpses and each one clambered into the white van. Yurin and Purson were struck dumb. Warner saw Krethtox and only one thing came to mind.

“I need to do more of these heists. Aliens are awesome.”

“Warner, start driving or I will kill you!”

“Got it, Boss. You do know none of us will get out of this one, right?”

“On the contrary,” Krethtox started. Since Edstein had dropped him inside the van he had been busy rummaging through Purson and Yurin’s bags in order to find one particular trinket. It wasn’t special looking, it just looked a little like a tin Christmas tree ornament. He touched the top end of the ornament and it instantly morphed into a fluid-like sphere which then extended a field outwards. It now seemed clear, but there was something odd about it still.

“This would be something you humans would refer to as a force field. On my planet we call it a grkthakixilsos. You are free to drive wherever you want in this contraption. The humans will not be able to harm you, and they will not be able to see you.” The occupants of the car just stared at the grey, deformed creature.

“Welcome to the team, Krethtox.”