The Great Robbery (Patreon)

Part 1

The two women sat silently in the car. Sitting in the drivers seat, was an attractive woman with long mouse brown hair, Rachel. In the passenger seat sat Jo, her blonde hair cut slightly shorter and tied back in a pony tail. They both Wore relatively plain outfits, however Jo's top allowed her to show a slight amount of cleavage, as was always the way with Jo.  They both sat, hands on their thighs, waiting, looking forwards at the bank ahead of them. 

The clock on the dashboard showed that it was five to twelve. Rachel adjusted her seating position and gave a half glance down her side at the sawn off shotgun. The dark grey weapon sat wedged between her seat and the gear stick. Jo was cradling a far more cumbersome looking weapon between her legs. 

It had been tested by them several times before but Rachel still wasn't convinced by the capabilities. Jo had insisted that she carry it in replacement of an ordinary weapon. Rachel wasn't particularly bothered, their plan did not include them needing to actually use the weapons. They just needed to look the part.

Rachel looked back at the clock. Two minutes. She glanced at the large rectangular building ahead of them, the bank. Then she allowed her gaze to sweep around, it was a small town, one would say almost a backwater town, the place was rarely busy but Rachel knew exactly what was inside the bank, and what was inside that bank made this town very important indeed.   

"Ready?" Jo asked abruptly, startling Rachel out of her thoughts. She nodded silently. Suddenly she could feel her pulse accelerate. She knew that as soon as she set one foot through the bank armed, that would be it. Her life would be changed forever. But that didn't matter so much, as her life had already been changed... by him! and now it was time, time for Rachel to take back what was rightfully hers. 

"Okay, it's twelve," Rachel stated, "let's do it." 

"You sure you wanna go through with this?" Jo asked with a sideways look. Rachel turned her head to hide her expression of anxiety. 

"Yeah, let's just get it over and done with." Jo continued to look at Rachel and then suddenly she took in a deep breath. 

"DAMN RIGHT!" She shouted as she opened the car door and exited with speed. Rachel was with her and the two young women dashed across the square to the aged stone building. 

They burst through the double doors of the bank and skidded to a halt at the cashiers desk. Through her mask Rachel screamed at the wide eyed people. 

"SIT THE FUCK DOWN!" She shouted, pointing the stubby nose of the shotgun at the crowd. Jo was already starting to round people up together in groups. The bank had been relatively busy, there were at least twenty members of public and three employees at the cashier desk. 

Rachel pointed the shotgun at the glazed panel in front of her, 

"Open the fucking door or I'll blow your brains out!" She shouted in a voice as husky and with as much volume as she could muster. She directed the gun towards a small tubby bank employee who seemed to be quivering over his whole body. His large belly shook with terror. 

"You!" She shouted at him. "Open the door!" She pointed at the security door at the end of the cashier's desk. 

"Y...yes... ma'am," he replied in terror, stumbling over his chair as he started towards the door on the other side. They weren't to know that the shotgun was only loaded with rocksalt and the shotgun probably wouldn't have blown through the security glass in any case. 

Rachel strode, in what appeared to be confidence, over to the security door and glared through the eyeholes in her mask at the small man through the security glass. He was peering up at her through his stress induced condensation filled glasses. She tapped the muzzle of the shotgun against the thickened glass, she wasn't sure whether he could hear it on the other side, but he could quite clearly see the action, as he started to fumble with the keys. 

Rachel looked back over towards Jo, the first time she had looked at the other woman since the twenty seconds of drawing her weapon. She could feel her gun hand start to shake.

"Hows it going babe?" She asked over at Jo. They had already pre-arranged to call each other babe, in which case codenames would be unecessary. 

Jo's masked head spun round to look at Rachel. She had managed to get the members of public all into one corner of the bank lying on their fronts on the floor with their hands behind their heads. A woman was sobbing quite audibly. 

"Fine, how about you?" Rachel nodded towards the door, Jo nodded. 

Suddenly a figure lept up from the cluster of people on the floor and charged towards Jo. Jo had clearly spotted Rachel's sudden reaction and was already spinning to meet the figure, her weapon also turning to meet him. A split second before he reached her, there was a bright flash and the figure completely disappeared. 

Rachel blinked quickly. It was a human reaction, she knew, her brain attempting to compensate for the impossible, by double checking. She had seen the weapon in action before but not in such a situation. In fact, the figure hadn't entirely disappeared. 

Looking hard Rachel could just discern what appeared to be a mouse at Jo's boots. But it wasn't a mouse. It was a human being who had been shrunk. Jo was looking down at the tiny form she had freshly shrunk, then she looked up at the crowd, some of whom were looking up. 

"Let this be a lesson to you all." Jo stated to them. "I want you all to look at this!" She demanded. Most of the heads turned upwards to look up. 

"LOOK!" She shouted. The final heads turned up to look. She took one step away from the tiny human looking up at her.

"This is what happens to heroes!" Jo warned. 

"No!" Rachel shouted. "DON'T..." But it was too late. Jo's boot stamped down on the tiny person with a thud. There was an instant splatter of liquid under pressure, followed by a trickle of dark red starting to flow from underneath her foot. 

Rachel stumbled backwards in shock. They had agreed not to hurt anyone and Jo had agreed to only use that thing as an absolute last resort. 

"What are you doing!" Rachel shouted at her. Jo spun back towards her. 

"Get on with it!" She shouted back. "Get what we've come to get and we'll get outta here!" Rachel turned back towards the door. It was open and the small man stood cowering behind it, peering around the side through his circular rimmed glasses. 

"Ma...Ma'am..." he invited her in. She immediately took the opening, storming through the door, deliberately catching her elbow across his chin as she went in. 

Out the corner of her eye she saw him stumbling and rubbing his face in surprise. 

"Where is it?!" She demanded. 

"I...I'm sorry ?" He asked, in confusion. 

"Where the fuck is it?!" She asked, pointing the muzzle of her shotgun deep into the flabby recesses of his gut. The chubby man visibly quivvered with shock. 

"Would... would you like us to bag it all for you?" his big round eyes, accentuated by the thick lenses of his glasses, gazed back at her in terror. 

"Bag what?" She asked, a look of distaste crossing her face. 

"The money," he replied, his voice uncertain. 

"Money?" She asked in anger. "I'm not after money for godsake!" She pushed the muzzle harder into his gut. "I'm after my bloody inheritance that was taken from me... the box."

"The box?" He asked. 

"The fucking BOX!" She shouted at him, slamming the grip of the shotgun deep into his face. He recoiled in shock, squealing and turning to guard his face with his hand. "The BOX!" She reiterated. 

"Please!" He pleaded. "Please, don't hit me again..." She raised her gun to strike him again, then he raised a hand in a weak blocking motion. "I'll take you to it... Please... just don't hit me again!" She slowly lowered her hand, but continued to glare at him. 

*

Jo watched Rachel disappear through the cashier security door. She turned back to her group of quivvering hostages. She glanced down at the floor, where she had stamped on the man she had shrunk. She could see tiny limbs amidst the crimson pool. She merely shrugged and looked back up. 

One of the older women was staring directly at her in a manner she didn't much care for. She took several steps forwards the woman. 

*

Rachel glanced around the brightly lit room. The small man had led her round a few corridors and finally to a small room with a large thick safe door. 

"This isn't it!" She snapped at the small man. He cowered backwards, bumping backwards into the wall. He adjusted his thick rimmed glasses nervously. 

"This is where we keep all the money ma'am..."

"I told you!" She roared at him. "I'm not after fucking money!" He pressed his back against the wall. 

"Please... don't hurt me... I want to help you... just tell me what you want..."

"It's a box." She paused to think. "It's about metre in length by half a metre in height. It looks like a music instrument case. It's jet black and has six locks on it..."

"Oh... OH!" The man jumped up and down in excitement, then calmed slightly as he regained his composure. "I know where that is." Rachel's heart started to beat faster again. 

"Show me..."

*

Jo stood over the woman then she half turned as her ears caught the faint sound of sirens. 'That was quick!' she mused to herself. 'Someone must have called the alarm.' 

She grabbed at the radio fixed to her belt. 

"Hurry up babe!" She shouted down the radio. She looked back down at her hostages. 

*

"Hurry up babe!" the voice crackled over the radio. Rachel looked down at the handset than back up at the case. She gave a sly smile as she ran her hand down the smooth leather covered case. "...babe!" Her headset crackled again. 

She whipped her handset up. 

"I've got the package," she replied. 

"Meet me at position B," she heard a breathless Jo order. 

"Okay babe." She turned and grabbed the handle of the case. 

She started out the door, then paused next to the small man. She ran a hand slowly down his face and touched his chin.

"Cheers my dear," she rasped, then she was out the door. 

The small man sighed in relief. His back slid down the wall as he slowly collapsed in a pile of exhaustion. 

Rachel bounced off walls and around corners as she ran through the back corridors of the bank. She saw the exit door ahead of her and kicked through the exit bar. The door slammed open with a crash, flooding her eyes with bright sunlight. 

The cadillac was purring in front of her, but Jo wasn't in it. Rachel looked around her in panic. Jo stood ten metres from the car pointing the shrinking device at a police car that had suddenly turned around the corner and skidded to a sharp halt. 

Jo fired the device and the car suddenly flashed and vanished. 

Rachel held her hands over her mouth in shock. This wasn't part of the plan! Her eyes darted towards Jo, and she lunged at the other woman. 

"Jo what are you..." Jo, however, was already in motion and started off down the road at a sprint. 

Rachel saw what she was chasing. The police car hadn't vanished, it had been shrunk to remote control toy size and it was powering down the road, tiny lights flashing with a giant Jo in hot pursuit. 

"Shit!" She shouted after Jo, then turned towards their own car. It's engine was ticking over. Sirens started to grow louder and louder around her and Rachel made a snap decision. She skidded around the drivers door, threw the case into the passenger seat and herself into the drivers seat. The door had barely slammed shut as the rear wheels spun with a squeal and the car accelerated towards Jo. 

Jo was stumbling as she kept trying to grab at the tiny police car as it attempted to speed away from her, eventually she ran out of breath. Seeing the car behind her she spun round and jumped into the passenger seat. She left the door open.

"Drive!" She ordered. "I'll grab them as we pass." Rachel hit the accelerator, careful not to hit the open door against the buildings that were flashing past in the alleyway. Her side of the car hit the wall a few times, throwing out sparks and loud screaches. 

Jo hung out the passenger door, leaning on her side, her face parallel to the road. 

"A bit faster!" she shouted. Then she grabbed at something, pulled herself in and shut the door. 

Rachel looked over at the noise. The police sirens were still squealing away, Jo had the tiny car in her hands. She forced the drivers door open with her fingers. The wheels were spinning fiercely to no avail. Jo tipped the car on its side and shook. Nothing came out. They must have had their belts on. Jo's fingers immediately delved inside the car. The wheels stopped and over the siren Rachel could hear tiny screams. 

She averted her gaze back to the road and slammed her foot down further on the accelerator. They had already attracted more attention than they had planned to. 

Eventually Jo's hand withdrew, holding two squirming bodies. She discarded the car over her shoulder, it landed in the back seat of the car. She held the two tiny men in a single hand, they both dangled from her fingers holding each of their arms. They were placed inside the bag Jo had been carrying with her. 

"That'll teach 'em," Jo stated, as she slumped back in her seat. She glanced at Rachel and gave her a wink. 

"We're not out of this yet Jo!" Rachel warned, nodding towards the road ahead where police cars were filing together. 

"Hunny, we've never been in it," she patted the shrinking device that sat resting between her legs.