The Heist

Present time—3:43 PM

“Die!” he said, pulling the trigger. The muffled sound of the bullet was drowned by the unremarkable song playing on the radio.

He drove the van on the hilly terrain for almost half an hour. He stopped the vehicle for a few seconds and checked the rear view mirrors to ensure that there were no vehicles following him. He turned right, drove through the clearing in the brush and floored the gas pedal as he saw the deep gorge ahead. He threw the three black duffel bags out and jumped from the van seconds before it plunged into the gorge.. He dusted off the dirt from his clothes and walked towards the bags.

Three days ago

Kasinathan ran down the options in his mind, thought about it intently for a few minutes and finalized his team. The armored car would carry half a day’s cash transactions from Safetrust Bank’s busiest branch in the country. He would assemble a small team consisting of a fixer, who would get them access to the vault, a wheelman who would arrange transport, a trigger man who would arrange weapons.

Two days ago

They went through the plan again for the third time. Sridhar was the wheelman, Sam was the fixer and Reddy was in-charge of weapons. Sam said it was going to be impossible for them to get in and out of the vault in sufficient time and accomplish their goal. Kasinathan wasn’t happy about this, but he had to improvise based on Sam’s assessment. He would take care of Sam later. They agreed to change their tactic to an attack, precisely timed to occur when the cash was transported from the vault to the armored car.

Kasinathan would be at the branch and feign a heart attack just after the cash was readied for transport from the vault. Sam would make the call. Sridhar and Reddy will arrive at the branch in a fake ambulance within 3 minutes. They would attack the guards just as the cash gets loaded into the armored car.

The plan was risky, but Kasinathan was clear what he wanted to do.

Twenty hours ago

Kasinathan turned the DVD on. The opening scenes of The Dark Knight were his favorite. His plan wasn’t original after all. He was going to do exactly what The Joker did during that heist in the opening scenes of that movie—Kill off his entire team after the heist was complete. Kasinathan wanted to retire.

Day of heist, 2 minutes 44 seconds after Sam’s call

The ambulance screeched to a halt in front of Safetrust Bank. Sam came out along with another man who was assisting him carrying Kasinathan. As soon they got out of the building, Kasinathan jumped down and grabbed the man who was assisting Sam by his neck. The crew shot the guards who carried the cash and transferred the three duffel bags into the ambulance van.

After that, Kasinathan shot his three accomplices. He held the gun to his captive’s head and ordered him, “Drive!”

The ambulance van sped away.

A minute ago

“You were not part of the original plan. But I needed a hostage anyway, just in case the police were on my tail. Don’t try anything stupid and you will live. I am going to put this gun away”, gestured Kasinathan.

“You don’t mind if I turn on the radio, do you?” asked Kasinathan lighting a cigarette.

The hostage was silent while Kasinathan reached forward and turned on the radio.

“What did you say you did for a living?”

The hostage pulled out a Glock that was concealed under his jacket and pressed it against Kasinathan’s head.

“I didn't. I head security for Safetrust Bank that you just robbed!”