Chapter 6 The thorny tree

Acacia was actually one of the robbers, her name meant thorny tree(s). The name was from a Greek origin, she lived in Bogota few years before moving in to Russia where she learnt the act of conception with local ammunition. Due to her eagerness to learn and be assertive, she went to Japan and had a little training on her martial skills. She learnt it for her own sake and not to serve any public or government asshole.

She just visited China and just then, her fate met with the detective one certain evening at the local restaurant where he proffered to buy her any meal she wanted to take and from there, the revelation of what she has been waiting for came to pass even from the country she never expected. Furthermore, she was their illegal connection to getting arms because she got a lot of arms dealers and through her influence, they were able to get as many as possible without traces.

Just like her name sounded, she was never seen smiling throughout their four weeks of classes on how to secure the money from the bank. She was always mean and ready for business all the time. Something must have tortured her memory to behave in such a radical way because no human being in his or her right sense of reasoning would chose to life like her. No one knew her story apart from the detective and that was what kept the both of them bounded.

It was time to abandon the former detached building because they needed somewhere that could never be suspected for such a crime to take place. There was a restaurant in town just few kilometers to the bank of China. The shocker note was that the restaurant belonged to the detective, he bought it few years back just to add to his preparations for the heist. It was a legal property and he would be operating from within, by doing that, no one would even suspect that ever had hands in what was going on. Being wise and innovation, he used the past years to construct a secret room just inside the restaurant, it had wall-like door making it difficult for someone to determine if there was an extra room there. The room was big enough to contain certain number of persons and since it was just him and Alicia, it also gave them enough space to rest and eat together. That room served as a control room for inside and outside operation because with that, they were able to know the situation inside the bank and that outside the bank, adding to that, they were also able to take note of the activities going on in the restaurant to avoid bad fate. It wasn't a local restaurant, it was well equipped with the necessary modern facilities that a restaurant should have, dignified persons do visit the restaurant for a good meal that's to say, the place never lacked customers and because of that, suspecting there would be of zero possibility.

The news was all around China that the great bank of China has been hijacked by an unknown gang and nothing has been heard from them and the worst part of it was that they government or police couldn't do anything because of the lives of the civilians involved, they were rendered useless but yet, they just had to wait for the gang leader to call and state what he or she wanted. Just few minutes after the new was announced on tv, the entire bank was surrounded by multiple policeman, in fact, they had erected a tent close to the bank just to help them with their operation. It was a state of emergency and no one was allowed to get close to the bank for any reason at all.

That was when the operation inside the bank set on perfectly, as they gathered everyone in the main banking hall which had the largest space, Lorenzo remember what the detective said to him once they were done gathering everyone.

" Do you know who's picture am holding right here?" he asked them while standing in front of the class and there was a picture in his left hand.

They didn't out rightly give him a direct response but from the looks on their faces, he knew he was meant to continue what he was saying since they seemed not to be familiar with the person in the picture.

" This is the governor of the bank of China, he would be our first target, once everyone had gathered at the main banking hall, look for the manager and separate him from where the rest of the captives are. He would be out guiding step since the bank is a very large establishment, his presence would be needed for certain purposes to avoid delay", he told the whole class.

He then looked at Lorenzo and made it clear to the whole gang that he was the person in charge of the heist inside the bank, the directives would be issued by him unless there would be a need for me to address the whole gang. Any complaint or request should come from him to me and likewise, I will communicate orders to him which he would get back to you guys. He then told them that anyone that wasn't cool with it should survive that particular heist first and the case would be settled. That was when they knew that the heist was going to be a very tough one since he was speaking like that.

Lorenzo, unknown to others, was already searching for the governor of the bank, he held his picture in his hand but since the searching was delaying, he decided to be very assertive.

" Where's the governor of this bank?" he asked just once and out of fear, the man indicated at once.

The touched his earpiece just to make sure his speech was concealed from the captives.

" Detective, we got him", he said and he dragged the governor to where they needed to keep him.

There was a place in the plan that once they successfully get into the bank, their names would automatically changed. That was simply a way of keeping their identify safe. Not only that, once they were dealing with the captives or hostages, their mask should be on their faces too for the same purpose. The detective knew the importance of changing names, after he explained to them, he also gave them the opportunity to choose the name they would want, maybe names of places or animals. It still appeared that they left that decision for him to make as well and just then, he brought out a book where he wrote down suitable names for each of the robbers.

" These are names of animals that I have here, there are eight of them. I personally chose the name for you because it seemed to be the most suitable. It's fine if you don't like the name you were given but just know that it's just for the robbery and we are done with it".

The first person he called was Lorenzo, he changed his name to Kangaroo. That was because of his skills in driving and the relentless speed attached to it. In as much as the name had a better meaning attached to it, he still had to inquire from him if he liked that name, since he was positive, his name became Kangaroo till the heist was over. The second person was Alicia whom he gave the name of a monkey. The ridiculous smile on her face made it clear that the name was very contrary to what she looked like but yet, for the sake of the robbery she just had to go by the name. She got the name because of her flexibility in hacking and her smartness in outsmarting securities and since she accepted the name, she went by it till the heist was over.

All the rest were then anxious of what their name would look like, if they would change it or leave it like that since no one has changed his or hers. Yan came up next with the name Cockroach. Definitely, the cockroach in the cupboard as the adage had it. The name got to her because of her deep rooted hacking, going into stuffs she wasn't expected to just like cockroach normally do. That became her name for the rest of the robbery. Miguel got the name of a tiger whereas Acacia became his tigress. The two names have their similar meaning just that one is masculine while the other is feminine. Both known for their agility and fearlessness in time of danger. The name was very suitable and comfortable for the both of them and so, they went by those names till the robbery was over.

Their plan for the heist was gathering a lot of momentum because the whole bank was under their control and with the help of the governor of the bank, it would be much more easy to get what they wanted. They really came prepared, they knew it wasn't a day robbery and because of that, they brought food for the hostages and similar dresses with mask but the mask was made of a lighter material than theirs. The total number of hostages inside the bank summed up to two hundred and twenty persons. The civilians were two hundred in number whereas, the rest were security personnel. That was very close to the estimate the detective made, prior before then, he made a provision for one hundred and fifty persons but seemed they weren't luckier.

Since the bank had many wide spaces, half of them were taken to the upper part of the building while the rest stayed down. That was a trick because they couldn't just keep the whole hostages inside and be feeding them, they might lose sight of anyone anytime. So the plan was that they ones upstairs would be their main hostages whereas the ones staying downstairs which included all the security personnel would be their bait for the meantime. The selection was properly made, those with health issues or pregnant women or little children or older people were made to stay downstairs because they would be going out any time.

It was time for the detective to finally speak to the outside, the inspector has been waiting, they had wanted to go in and that was why the detective called just to interrupt their movement. With Alicia's help, the telephone signals were secured and untraceable, the artificial voice moderator was in place . The cameras were in set and like it was mentioned earlier, she made use of the satellite and could track anything on the earth surface, cameras were necessary in certain enclosures where her penetration could get to.

" Hello inspector, how is it going?" he ridiculously asked.

Since they had been waiting for that certain unknown call to come in, everybody was on alert and he tried to delay the call for them to be able to track the signal without knowing who he was dealing with.

" You finally called, what do you want Mr terrorist?" the inspector asked him.

The time just hit forty seconds and that was how long it would take for a call to be traced but seemed his radio analyst wasn't getting any signal, it was totally blank as if he was talking to a ghost. Just then, he knew that the detective was having an edge over him.

" I guess it's forty seconds already, did you succeed?"

" Who the hell are you?" he asked vehemently.

" Well, for now call me Mr Anonymous but I'm not a terrorist. We deal on this with dialogue....simple dialogue".

" What dialogue are you talking about Mr Anonymous?"

" If I were you, I wouldn't make any move to go close to the bank entrance or any where close to the exit doors. If you have any ongoing operation on that, I advise you abort it immediately and remember, lives of two hundred and twenty persons are in your hands. I will call you when I need to talk to you inspector.. ...over and out", he said and dropped the telephone.

That was when the inspector knew that it wasn't business as usual, he knew that those people were in for business and he wouldn't want to mess around with the lives of the civilians inside the bank. But then, he needed to address the press on the issue at the bank.