Bad Mooned Rising

MoonYu eased up to the bar. He was nervous. He had never been in such a seedy bar with such seedy low life types nursing their drinks. He got the bartender's attention and ordered the hardest drink he knew.
“Slo Gin Fizz, no straw.” He said and everyone at the bar that heard him did a spit take including the bartender who wasn't drinking. MoonYu slowly wiped the spittle off his face as the bartender reached for a dust covered bottle and didn't bother cleaning it first as he made MoonYu's drink.
“Anything else tough guy?” The Bartender asked in a voice that would have been intimidating had it not been so high pitched.
“I'll let you know.” MoonYu said as he tried to fish the cherry out by its stem. He finally got a hold of it and popped it in his mouth as he surveyed the bar. In the corner he spotted his contact and waved. The contact glared back at him and tried unsuccessfully to get him to act casual.
“Hi Hardlicker.” MoonYu said as he sat down across from the man.
“Fuck Moon! Why don't you just put an ad in the paper while you're at it!” He hissed and slammed back his whiskey.
“No one reads the papers anymore.” MoonYu tried explain, but Hardlicker cut him off.
“I meant don't announce it to the world you idiot!” He threw his empty glass at the bartender and bounced it off his head. The bartender never looked up, but poured another double for him. “Now you got the plans?”
“Right here.” MoonYu said and spread out a set of blueprints on the table, but the table was so sticky and wet, when he tried to shift it, it stuck. “Shit.” MoonYu tried to gently lift the prints off the table, but large sections of it tore and Hardlicker almost snapped the table top off were his hands were clenching it in rage.
“Just stop!” He order has MoonYu tried for a third time. “Please just stop!”
“Sorry, I'll get another copy tomorrow when the office opens again.” MoonYu frowned and could stop himself from trying to peel it up one more time, but the bartender slammed down Hardlicker's whiskey on the table and some of it splashed onto the blueprints as well.
“Bank job?” The bartender asked.
“Piss off Grammaticus!” Hardlicker grabbed the shotglass and managed to spill a little more of the cheap whiskey on the prints, farther ruining them. MoonYu's frown deepened as he watched the liquid create rings that slowly grew in size. The bartender stood there for a moment more trying to read the prints himself, but the name of the building was now a tattered mess. With a harumph! He went back to his side of the bar.
“Nice guy. Part of the team?” MoonYu asked and Hardlicker had to keep himself from shooting MoonYu right then and there! MoonYu was no criminal mastermind, but he had a sweet gig setup and Hardlicker wanted his piece of the pie.
“Hell no!” He said through clenched teeth, “I haven't assembled a team yet because I don't know enough about this job!” He hoped that his words would sink through MoonYu's thick skull, but no.
“Well that puts a damper on things.” MoonYu said and took of his drink. He made a face like it was extremely rough, but addded, “Smooth.” in a raspy voice.
“Tell more about the job and I can start assembling a team.” Hardlicker said quietly as he leaned in close to MoonYu. MoonYu leaned in as well and quietly said,
“Its a bank robbery.” Hardlicker blinked and suddenly reached out and grabbed MoonYu by his shirt!
“No shit Sherlock!” He yelled and paused to look around the bar, but no one was paying attention to them anymore. Golf was on the Television and the brutes at the bar were watching the player trying to make a long put. Hardlicker looked back at MoonYu who was trying to take another sip of his drink, but Hardlicker's hand was in the way. Hardlicker released his grip with a shove and MoonYu split some of his drink on the blueprints as well.
“What else is there to know?” MoonYu genuinely looked lost at this point. Hardlicker took a deep breath and thought about grabbing the shirt again, but settled for just glaring at Moonyu.
“First? What fucking bank?” He snarled, “How much money are we talking? Why this bank? What kind of security is in place?” He thought he might have seen a glimmer of understanding!
“Oh! Its the First National Bank of Sarn!” MoonYu said proudly and a little too loudly for Hardlicker's taste, but just then the put went in and the goons at the bar erupted in applause!
“And Why that bank?” Hardlicker asked.
“On Fridays, it will have fifteen million in the vault to handle payday.” MoonYu explained and Hardlicker's eyes got very wide! “And it has to be this bank because it hasn't had the security upgrade to prevent someone from being able to get through the outer walls that abut the old office building next door and that's the key!”
“Pray tell why?” Hardlicker may have underestimated this guy!
“Do you have any idea how much space fifteen million dollars takes up?” MoonYu finally sounded intelligent, but he paused to have another go at his drink and almost choked on it.
“Yeah, you got a point. Money is bulky. But what about these security measures? And how do you know about them?” Hardlicker thought about just killing MoonYu right then, but without being able to read the address of the building, it might take him too long to locate it on his own.
“I work in the firm the bank has hired to improve their security and that's how I know how to get away once we got the dough!” MoonYu smiled and Hardlicker decided that he would play along for now. He hated to admit it, but MoonYu may be on to something!

Hardlicker watched MoonYu leave with the tattered remains of the blueprints and waited for the door to shut behind him.
“Vakirauta! Get your ass over here!” He commanded. Vakirauta sighed and rolled his eyes. He was going to miss the next golfer's opening drive on the fifth hole!
“What now?” Vakirauta snarled. He didn't like Hardlicker's bossing him around simply because Hardlicker was his boss.
“We're going need a crew. Got a big job coming up!” Hardlicker went for a high five, but Vakirauta had turned to watch the tee shot. “Did you hear what I just said?”
“Yeah, get a Jew and pump him up.” Vakirauta replied as he turned back, the tee shot hadn't been that exciting after all. A mere 260 yards. “But why do we need a Jew that lifts weights?” Hardlicker just stared at him for an extend time before he even blinked again.
“A crew! A fucking crew and,... and,... forget it! Just get Fire Kid, Upandatem, and Totalbackline. We'll figure out who else we need later!” Hardlicker slammed down the rest of his whiskey, but started to make a strange looking face. Vakirauta looked puzzled until Hardlicker pulled out the cherry stem from MoonYu's drink.
“You're the boss. Boss.” Vakirauta said and stood there waiting. Hardlicker sighed and reached into his pocket and gave Vakirauta a piece of gum. Vakirauta smiled as he stuck the gum in his mouth. “Get right on it!” And he went back to his seat at the bar. Hardlicker sat there staring at Vakirauta's back and slowly increased the grip he had on his shotglass. What had he done to deserve this? He he relaxed his grip.
“Oh yeah. I'm a criminal.” He said to himself and threw the glass so it hit Grammaticus again. He paused and looked up from his newspaper and turned to grab the cheap whiskey again.
Hardlicker took out his cellphone and ran through a bunch of names till his thumb stopped on one name. He pressed the autodial and waited.
“Hi you have reached Bhavv. I can't come to phone rihgt now as I am probably in jail again. If you would care to post my bail, please press 1 now. For more options please press the pound sign.”
Hardlicker paused, then hit the pound sign.
“Thank you for calling Bhavv Incorporated. All representatives are busy currently helping over crooks plan their crimes. Please hold until a Representative can assist you.” Hardlicker sighed and hung the phone up. Damn! He thought to himself and looked at his phone before making another call. The phone rang and rang and rang, but no answer. “Shit! Where is everyone? No Bhavv! No Daemon!
“Hey boss!” Varikauta came back over to the table now that there was a commercial on. “What you want me to do again?” He asked chewing his gum loudly.
“Die?” Hardlicker replied sarcastically.
“Why would you want me to do that?” Vakirauta asked and pulled the gum with his finger while holding it between his teeth and then pulled it back in again. Hardlicker could fell the sawed off shotgun under his seat, but resisted the temptation. For now.
“I need Totalbackline and Upandatem ready to go. Got it?” He tried to give Vakirauta a dirty look, but the cheap whiskey was beginning to numb his face and his nasty look came off rather dopey.
“Why didn't you just ask that in the first place? Jesus! I thought you were the brains around here.” Vakirauta said and went back to his seat at the bar now that the commercials were over.
“Must be Wednesday.” Hardlicker said to his glass. “I hate Wednesdays.”

Charan didn't look forward to this meeting. The Commissioner and the Mayor both wanted him fired as Chief of Police. He had publicly supported their rivals in the last election and he knew that his days were numbered. But they needed an excuse to fire him first.
“Yeah?” He said as he entered the Mayor's office and plopped down in one of the chairs. The Mayor was already stewing and disliked not being shown proper respect!
“Its Mayor Nightmare90! Not yeah! Is that understood.” Nightmare90 was livid.
“Fucking little creep!” Commissioner Dirk Austin sneered, “I should can your ass right now!” But Charan just sat there with a blank look on his face. He hated these two, but he wasn't going to speak to them like they spoke to him. That would be just the excuse they would need.
“Sorry.” Charan said with a deadpan delivery that fairly dripped scorn, “Greetings and salutations. Better?” He knew it was even worse and allowed himself a thin lip smile and pulled out a cigarette.
“There's no smoking in this building!” Nightmare90 warned him.
“Then I won't light it.” Charan said casually and put the cigarette between his lips. He didn't actually smoke, but carried a pack just for occasions like this. He knew it was annoying on many levels and that made him feel better considering the ass chewing his was about to get.
The meeting was almost two long with the Mayor and the Commissioner taking turns ripping his entire career to shreds. They made sure to tarnish every accomplishment he had been cited for on his record. Through it all, he sat there and took it. He knew it was only a matter of time till they would find a smoking gun to fire him and he had given up caring.
He drove home that night and when he pulled up to his house he could see his neighbor MoonYu just getting home too. He waved and MoonYu waved back, but quickly went inside. Charan shrugged and went inside too. His first stop was the fridge. He opened the door and sighed. Beer and takeout leftovers. What a fucking life he thought to himself.
MoonYu was glad the Chief hadn't come over that night. He still had pieces of the blueprints stuck to various parts of his body and he needed to get in the shower to get it off. It would have been embarrassing to say the least! After the shower, MoonYu sat down at his computer and reviewed his plans. It was foolproof! But he paused and wondered if it was idiot proof too. But the payout was worth the risk! He had never done anything criminal before in his life, but he knew a golden opportunity went he saw one! Only having to trust Hardlicker and his men to do their jobs right was keeping him up at night. The rest should go like clockwork.

Hardlicker was getting tired of waiting. Vakirauta was late as usual and Olive Garden's bread sticks may be unlimited, but they aren't that great. He took another bite of his bread stick and looked around the restaurant. He almost gagged on his bite when he saw Vakirauta, Fire Kid, Totalbackline and Upandatem at another table eating their entrees.
He got up an went over to their table and put both of his fists down on the table. They all stopped eating and looked up at him. He started to speak, but the last bite of bread stick was still refusing to go down enough for him to say anything. He grabbed Fire kid's drink and quickly spit it back into the glass! It wasn't wine, but a drink called a Purple Hollywood!
“Hey!” Fire Kid complained, “I wasn't done with that yet!”
“What in the name of Odin's ball sweat was that?!” Hardlicker tried wiping his tongue with a napkin and then grabbed Totalbackline's beer. Non-alcoholic beer....
“Hey boss. I got them together like you asked.” Vakirauta said and shoved another forkful of salad in his mouth. “Mumm bla mmummm.” He added. Everyone looked at him, but Hardlicker pounded the table with his fist.
“Right! I have been waiting for you for well over an hour!” He said between clenched teeth.
“Oh yeah. We saw you other there, but our drinks just came then.” Totalbackline said.
“That's a wonderful story.” Hardlicker growled, “Now make room!” He shoved Upandatem in the shoulder and he in turn pushed Totalbackline over too. He sat down and put his elbow in Upandatem's lasagna. “Mother fucker!”
“How do think I feel? I wasn't done with that.” Upandatem said as he looked at the remains of his dinner. Hardlicker wiped the food from his elbow and thought about throwing the napkin at Vakirauta, but they had lost too much time already!
“Now listen up! I got a lead on a big job and we are going to need a big crew to get it done right.” He said as he reached out to stop Vakirauta from shoving another forkful of salad in his mouth. “From what I know, the guy planning it has an inside slant and if we do everything right, we can leave him holding the bag.”
“He gets to keep the money?” Fire Kid looked puzzled.
“Not the money bag idiot!” Hardlicker rolled his eyes and Upandatem and Totalbackline giggled.
“We get the money and hand him a bag full of shredded paper huh?” Upandatem asked, thinking he understood what Hardlicker meant.
“Its a figure of speech moron.” Hardlicker explained, but quickly cut off the retort. “Stuff it! Like I said, we are going to need a large crew for this job and once I get more information about the bank, I'll get the ball rolling. But right now I know we can get a few lined up early. Like is Lachdanan available?”
“Who?” Fire Kid asked and got slapped by Totalbackline, “Ow!”
“Lachdanan is the explosive expert!” Totalbackline sneered!
“No he's not.” Hardlicker sighed, “Lachdanan is a confidence man, best in the business.”
“Then who was I thinking of?” Fire Kid asked rubbing his head.
“Avramovic. Except he's in the hospital recovering from his last job.” Upandatem told them.
“Bad fuse?” Vakirauta asked.
“Food poisoning.” Upandatem told them and they all nodded their heads and then looked down at their plates.
“Right, we'll meet again later after I get more information from the patsy. But right now, I got to leave.” Hardlicker said as he got up.
“Why?” Fire Kid asked.
“Checks coming.” Hardlicker said and left.

Hardlicker was busy going over the plans again, trying to figure out if this MoonYu guy had missed anything. But he had to admit to himself the plan was brilliant. Key was the timing. He looked up from his notes and sighed.
“Hey!” He shouted at the rest. They were busy playing catch with one of the explosive packs while trying harder and harder throws. “Knock it off before someone gets killed!”
“Spoil sport.” Fire Kid said and tossed the pack back to The Wretch. He sighed and took the blasting cap back out of the pack and put it away.
“You know, I've never been seriously hurt using explosives.” The Wretch said and pointed at Hardlicker with his hand that was missing two fingers.
“He's such a hardass, he should change his name.” Boem said and went back to pouting in the corner. He wasn't getting to do any of the fun stuff except drive and then haul the money away. He really wanted to hold someone hostage. At least once anyway.
“I heard that!” Hardlicker said and used the remote to lower the screen and then turn on the projector. “Listen up guys. This cat has dropped a big one right in our laps.”
“Why are you speaking like that?” Vakirauta asked as he helped himself to some more dip.
“Like what?” Hardlicker asked.
“Like a 60's crime drama.” Vakirauta said around a mouthful of chips and dip. Hardlicker was stunned for a moment. Did he sound that way? He shook his head and got mad.
“Fuck you Vakirauta. I'm running this show and you can be replaced.” He warned him, but Vakirauta snorted and sent crumbs flying into the salsa that Fire Kid was just dipping into.
“Aw man!” He said and left his chip in the salsa and hoped that this time they didn't just get Hawaiian pizzas.
“You need me more than ever. Who else you gonna get to drive?” Vakirauta said, barely pausing to shove another chip in his mouth.
“HermitDragon is available.” Upandatem offered and Hardlicker sighed.
“Thanks, but her and I have a history.” Hardlicker told them, “She rather see me dead than help us.”
“Good to know.” Hostileinbound said while playing go fish with Scrotie McB.
“Enough!” Hardlicker shouted and pound his fist on the flimsy table causing most of the bottles on the table to tip over. “Sorry.” He added. “Scrotie? Got the the guns?”
“Does the Homo say what?” Scrotie asked very fast.
“What?” Hardlicker asked, confused as everyone else snickered.
“Yeah I got the guns.” Scrotie McB replied and added very quietly so only the The Wretch and Fire Kid could hear him, “Homo.”
“Good! Wretch I know you got all the explosives we need, everyone else ready? Let's go over the plan one more time!” Hardlicker said and everyone sighed. “Fuck you all! If just one of you fails to do your job right, we could all go to jail!”
“What about this Moon guy?” Vakirauta asked.
“Let me worry about him.”Hardlicker nodded a knowing nod, but he could see everyone didn't get it. “I'll kill him as soon as the money is secured.” And everyone went “Ohhhh.”
“You not planning to go all Joker on us and try to take the money all for yourself are you?” Boem asked.
“Not that you would know.” Hardlicker said reassuringly.
“Ok, thanks.” Boem said and went back to picking the pineapple of his pizza slice.
“So one more run through and then its on.” Hardlicker said and everyone groaned again. “Really! Just once more! We need it!”
“Fine!” Upandatem said and grabbed a gun.
“He really is a hardass isn't he?” Hostilesinbound asked.
“I heard that!” Hardlicker shouted and started the practice run again, “Step one!”
“MoonYu enters the bank.” They all said in unison.
“Step two!”
“Hardlicker, Fire Kid, Upandatem, and Hostiesinbound enter the bank,,,,”

MoonYu entered the bank and was surprised at how calm he felt. He had never done anything criminal in his life before and thought his heart might explode when it came to time to do the job. But strangely, he felt great. He went up to the managers assistant and asked to see VictorDoom.
“Mr?” VictorDoom held out his hand and MoonYu shook it before sitting down across from him.
“Spoonman.” Moonyu lied.
“Ah yes, Spoonman. Is see you are here about moving a very large amount of money for your company....,”VictorDoom trialed off and raised one eyebrow.
“And I understand your bank is the one to see about it.” MoonYu said with a smug tone.
“Yes, well we do what we can. Only your company doesn't seem to exist.” VictorDoom told him.
“And is that a problem?” MoonYu asked, “It is a very large sum of money.”
“No. No problem, just in cases like this, we need a retainer. Say 10% of the funds being moved?” VictorDoom smiled and MoonYu smiled right back.
“So I've heard.” MoonYu looked at his watch, ten more seconds!
“Let just bring up a account file and we'll....” VictorDoom was typing away, but saw startled by the gunshots! “Fuck!” He started to reach for the silent alarm and hit the emergency vault close button, but MoonYu stuck a very large pistol in his face!
“I don't think so. Now get out there with the others!” MoonYu shouted and waved his gun towards the lobby. Hardlicker, Fire Kid, Upandatem and Hostilesinbound did a great job of gathering everyone just in front of the tellers wall just as the first large bus drove up to block the front enterance. MoonYu just hoped that the second bus was in place too. Quickly the team spread out and began spray painting the cameras and pulled down the shades.
“Now.” Hardlicker said into his phone and there came a dull rumble as the wall behind in the back fell in. “The vault!” Hardlicker ordered and Vakirauta and Boem came running with the empty dufflebags and soon to be joined by Scrotie McB and Tramshed.
“Cops!” Fire Kid shouted and MoonYu smiled. It was going perfectly! He reached into his pocket and removed a small thumb drive and plugged it into VictorDoom's computer. Then he reached for a phone and dialed 911.
“This is Spoonman.” MoonYu said into the phone after the operator picked it up. “We have the bank and each of the hostages is wired with explosives. You will stay back until I issue our demands.” And he hung up.
“What are you doing?” Hissed Hardlicker!
“Giving us more time. Duh.” MoonYu gently slapped him up against his head. “Now get the money out as fast as possible, I can stall them for maybe another half hour.” Hardlicker smiled, the money was already being thrown down into the tunnel, he would only need twenty minutes tops to get it all.
“Work your magic!” Hardlicker said and went back to helping move the money. The phone rang and MoonYu picked it up on the second ring.
“This is Captain Peachii, you are surrounded, come out with you hands up!” MoonYu laughed into the phone.
“That's rich. Teach that in negotiation school?” He asked, “Now you listen. We have taken the bank and wired the entire place to blow. Any attempt at entry and everyone dies! Got it?”
“Jesus.” Peachii said on the other end, “You don't have to be such a prick.”

Charan was late to the scene due to the traffic tie up the robbery was causing. He was steaming. Both Nightmare90 and Dirk Austin had called him already and tired to chew what was left of his ass off.
“One dollar goes missing and its your job!” Dirk Austin screamed at him over the phone.
“Just the money right?” Charan asked in a sarcastic tone.
“You better not let any of the voters..., hostages die either!” Mayor Nightmare90 demanded and Charan sighed.
“Got it. Gotta go now.” He said and closed his phone before tossing it down the sewer grate. “Mother fuckers.” He said to himself. He flashed his badge and walked over to where Peachii was trying to negotiate.
“I'll be your girlfriend.” He heard her say just before ripping the phone out of her hand.
“I take it from here.” He said and stared her down until she hung her head and shuffled away slowly. He picked up the phone and introduced himself.
“Charan! Chief of police! You have ten minutes!” He shouted into the phone. Inside MoonYu smiled, more time than he needed.
“Last going now!” Hardlicker told him and MoonYu nodded.
“Go! I'll stall them for another ten minutes. That will give you enough time to get the money out of the tunnel!” MoonYu said and Hardlicker was taken back. This guy has balls after all!
“Meet where I told you!” Hardlicker slapped MoonYu on the back and headed for the tunnel. It will be a shame to kill this guy. He thought to himself, but money is money and MoonYu was now expendable.
MoonYu watched him leave and set up the triggering box The Wretch had given him to control the explosives. He was listing to Charan making threats over the phone and began pulling his face off. The stuff itched like crazy, but it had done its job. Next was the griddle that held the fake stomach paunch. He put it on the floor and took his wig off. Next came he pulled a change of cloths from the vacuum packed bag in his briefcase and changed.
Once he was ready he put the same zip tie on one hand that they had used to secure the crowd and readied the black bag too. He then set fire to his disguise and flipped the switches on the explosives. Outside and in, tear gas and smoke grenades were exploding everywhere that The Wretch had planted. MoonYu smiled and took out the thumb drive and pocketed it before joining the rest of the Hostages. He knelt down and with his teeth, pulled the zip tie and then pulled the bag over his head. The place was already filled with smoke and he did everything he could not to laugh! At least the tear gas would help mask his emotions!
Outside Charan watched as smoke and gas bellowed out from the bank and the buses blocking the doorways.
“Go go go!” He ordered the Hostage rescue team. He watched as they stormed the buses and used a small armored personal carrier to push it aside so the team could breach the bank.
For several tense minutes everyone waited. Then the first “Clear!” calls came in and Charan ran to the bank. Inside the Hostage team was freeing the hostages while SWAT checked out the vault and found the tunnel.
“Follow it!” Charan ordered and the team went through the opening and down into the tunnel. Charan turned his attention to the hostages now being freed of their restraints, but they would all be questioned later. “MoonYu?” Charan went over to MoonYu as the Hostage Rescue member cut the zip tie off.
“Hi Charan.” MoonYu said through the tears and had to cough again, “Looks like I picked the wrong day to get me banking down!”
“You can let him go, I know him. He's a neighbor. The Hostage Rescue member saluted and let MoonYu leave.
“Peachii.” Charan called into his walkie talkie, “Hostage coming out named MoonYu, give him a ride home.”
“Yes sir.” Came the reply.
“Going to be a long day.” Charan said to himself as the SWAT team reported the tunnel lead to a warehouse outside the perimeter the police had set up and there was no sign of anyone there. Charan acknowledge the report and issued new commands to lock down the city! Just then a way too young looking uniformed officer handed him a cellphone. He knew who was on the other end.
“Charan! You get your ass down here right away and report!” Dirk Austin demanded and Charan sighed and agreed. At least it would all be over soon.

Hardlicker was getting nervous. MoonYu had failed to show up! The news was full of the story and was reporting that robbers had made a clean getaway! But where was Moon?
“Boss.” Vakirauta disturbed his train of thought, “The money boss. The crew wants their cut.”
“Right.” Hardlicker picked up his assault rifle and went to greet the men. “Hey guys! Great job!”
“Fuck you! Where's our cut?” Fire Kid sneered. Hardlicker held up his rifle.
“Alright assholes!” He shouted over their grumblings. :The whole city is looking for that money right now! What I got set aside for you right now is a couple of thousand each. Have a nice dinner, get laid, don't not speak of the job! I have the money stashed in a safe location and once the heat dies down, we'll each get out share!”
“Well, that sounds reasonable.” Vakirauta said quietly to Boem. Boem just shook his head and snatched his envelope. “Better not try to double cross us man!” He said and Fire id looked lost.
“You mean he might keep it for himself? But I thought we were friends!” Fire Kid looked like he might start to cry.
“I ain't going to double cross you! For one, I can't move that much money myself!” Hardlicker pointed out and there was a general agreement amongst the men. “But the guy that set this whole job up is missing! We need to find him and make sure he ain't crossing us!”
“But where is he?” The Wretch asked. Where he was, was at home and watching the numbers flash on his laptop while sipping a cold beer. It had been a good day!
Charan wish he could have said the same. While they didn't fire him on the spot, they did set up a review panel to make sure he did get fired soon. He drove home and pulled into his driveway. But instead of going inside, he walked over to MoonYu's house and knocked. MoonYu answered the door and the first thing Charan saw was the packed luggage on the floor.
“Going somewhere?” He asked and MoonYu smiled and handed him a cold beer.
“Think we should start in Aruba.” MoonYu told him and lead him to the laptop.
“How much we got so far?” Charan asked and took a hit off of his beer.
“2.1 million and its only been three hours.” MoonYu told him. Charan nodded. MoonYu had come to him with this plan well over a year before and Charan had to smile at balls of it all. MoonYu had been a mid level flunky at a major commerce bank and while he could excess the accounts he was tasked with monitoring, he knew that most of the money was illegally being moved by a clearinghouse bank. He just needed a password to get into the system and start diverting money to a different offshore account, or ten.
“Some year, heh Charan?” MoonYu asked and laughed. It had been Charan's idea to hire a crew to hit the bank and he had sent many a night training MoonYu on how the police would react and how to act like a hostage once it went down. He had also directed him to Hardlicker. A known criminal with a history of armed robberies. Strangely enough the toughest part of the plan was the makeup.
MoonYu had taken a class in theatrical makeup to help him make a disguie that would fool people that didn't know him. The fake paunch actually helped him change his walk to further help.
“I do have a worry Charan. What if someone checks the tapes close enough to see that I wasn't one of the original hostages?” MoonYu asked and Charan smiled wider.
“You mean these tapes?” He pulled out the small harddrives the bank's surveillance was kept on.
“But how?” MoonYu asked, he was impressed.
“Sighed them out.” Charan explained, “I am still the chief of Police for a few more days. They both laughed and clinked their bottles together.
“To Money!” MoonYu said and Charan agreed. It had been a long day, but totally worth it!

The End!