"Oh, yes kid,” Bruno replied. “I’ll spare him alive before Bradshaw. He will do whatever he wants to do with you two. But I’m giving you two my word, once I’ll get the vault, one among you two will rest in peace forever.”par“Oh no,” Steve said getting worried.

“Don’t worry. Nothing will happen to you,” Harold said to Steve.

Steve after a silence for a while said looking at Harold,

“I’m really sorry for getting us in all this trouble.”parHarold looked up at Bruno and said,

“Can we go now?”

“I’ll release you guys under my own supervision. Next week, the two of you will be followed everywhere. My men will stick with you.”par

***************

One Week Later

After Harold had gained complete access of the place where they were about to conduct their heist, he got some alone time with Steve. Steve who had been embarrassed throughout, finally said to him in his house,

“Harold, this all is happening because of me.”par“You don’t have to blame yourself for anything. I am the one they targeted. They just used you, your cell number.”par“What about Mrs Greenwood?”par“Mrs Greenwood is out of danger. I called her day before yesterday; she told me that she had issued a restraining order.”par“Against whom?”par“Her husband, Bradshaw.”par“So?”par“So, this means that Bradshaw would never do anything as stupid as harming her.”par“Bradshaw won’t but Bruno can,”

Steve answered.

“Bruno won’t be able to. Bradshaw won’t let him. They are affiliated, they would have to cooperate with each other.”par“So, you think that they are just scaring us but they won’t actually harm her?”par“Yes, that is precisely what I am saying and we need to hold their weakness.”par“Okay, so what is exactly our plan?”par“We will do everything as they have ordered us to do except that in the end I will…”par“'85Wait, hang on” Steve interrupted, “you are actually going to commit that heist?”par“Yes, we both will. My other team members are also joining me in this crime.”par“Crime! You do know that it is a crime and yet you are doing this? I mean I’m sorry, maybe I’m not understanding the situation here, but you are saying that they cannot harm Miss Greenwood and yet you shall carry out this robbery?”par“This is not about anyone else. These people will most likely kill both of us. I am just trying to prevent that.”par“Come on, you know better than me that this man is really dangerous. He will kill us both regardless of how much we cooperate with him.”par“Don’t worry, Steve. I know what I’m doing. Tomorrow is our day of robbery. If you trust me, you will do exactly what I’ll ask you to do, without any questions.”parSteve who was unsatisfied asked after a while,

“What about this mask of yours?”par“I would come without my mask, but I won’t be the one who shall carry out the activities. I will simply give instructions.”parSteve had nothing else to say except,

“I trust you, and I will leave the matters on you.”par

***************

Next afternoon, Harold’s house door knocked. Harold and Steve who were completely ready went to answer the gate. Harold was not wearing his mask. He coughed out loudly before opening the gate,

“Are you okay?”

Steve asked him.

“I think that I’m coming with a flu.”parAs they answered the door, they saw two men holding large weapons. One of them said,

“Let’s go.”par“Actually, this is not how it’s going to work. I’ll stay here, the two of you Steve here will come with you guys and I will instruct them through my computer room.”par“We know. We both will stay here and keep an eye on you, he is going to sit in our car.”parSteve looked at Harold and they both shook hands. Steve got deeply upset thinking this might be their last time together.

Two minutes later, Steve and two of Harold’s partners were seated inside the van. Six of Bruno’s men were inside the car including the driver who was headed to their appointed location.

“We cannot trust these guys,” one of Harold’s partners said to Steve in his ear.

“I know,” Steve answered sadly.

“We better escape all of this or else the cops might catch us.”par“No sir, we are trapped through all sides. There is no way out.”parOne of the gangsters who was seated on the front seat said pointing his gun towards Steve,

“Shut up, you two! If anyone will whisper in this car, he won’t step outside alive.”parSteve made an angry face giving an expression of hatred.

Several minutes later, they reached the location they were headed for. Steve and his partners connected their ears with earplugs as per Harold’s instructions.

As they stepped outside,

Steve asked,

“Is this place a casino? It looks like one.”par“Yes, it is,” his partner replied.

“But this wasn’t the place we were…”parHis partner kept his finger on his lips indicating Steve to keep quite. Steve realised that they were sort of betraying Bruno and his gang.

Steve silently stepped up the stairs and walked inside the casino. He was walking with his team members and as they finally entered inside, Steve’s close partner said to Steve in his ears,

“Follow me without any questions. Just follow my lead, I’m going to the basement, I’ll explain everything to you there.”parHis partner went ahead and walked quite fast. Steve followed him but said in his heart,

These crazy people will get us all killed.

Several minutes later, the two of them met in the underground basement. Steve said to his partner,

“What are you guys doing? These people are very dangerous. They’ll kill us all and they shall…”par“'85Alright, listen to me” his partner interrupted, “our initial target was some other place, but Harold had misdirected them to this casino. He told them that a certain code can be gained through this place.”par“And they believed us?”par“Yes.”par“What about Bruno? He was fooled that easily.”

“Look, the deal here is that these people have nothing to blackmail us with.”par“How come?”par“You know very well that these people cannot harm Mrs Greenwood. What we are actually doing here is that we are throwing dust on their faces and then we’ll escape.”par“You mean we will escape?” Steve asked getting delightfully.

“Yes. And that is why I was giving you these indications in the car. So now please just stay with us. Don’t question our acts. We are looking for a secret alarm here. One of our team members will ring that alarm and it shall directly ring in the CID office.”par“Wow, but wouldn’t that make us all criminals?”par“Yes, which is why we have to stay hidden here. The cops will come arrest them. They are standing by the gates.”par“Look, these goons will be arrested, fine. What about Bruno and Bradshaw? What about those two goons who are aiming their guns at Harold.”par“Don’t worry, Harold has a plan for this too.”

Steve looked around at the place feeling hopeful and he eventually asked,

“Aren’t they following our other partners inside this casino?”par“They are, but that’s not quite problematic. By the time we’ll press that alarm, and the cops will get here, it won’t be too late.”parMeanwhile inside Harold’s computer room, he was working on his device and the two criminals had pointed their guns straight on his head from behind. Harold said in his thoughts,

These two are not educated enough to find out how I’m fooling their boss. I just know that they cannot harm me.

Back inside the casino after quite a while, Steve heard the sirens of the police vans,

he asked,

“They are here?”par“Yes. Now just stay here until I ask you to leave with me.”parOutside the entrance of the casino, two police vans came and Bruno’s men got frightened. Two of his men showed their guns aiming towards the police vans, but as they saw that more and more police vehicles were coming, they dropped their weapons.

“Call Bruno immediately,” one of the goons said to another.

Few minutes later, at some restaurant Bruno and Bradshaw were seated together and they were using their separate laptops when Bruno received a phone call. He answered the call and heard from one of his men,

“The police is here.”par“What?”parBruno angrily disconnected the call and said to Bradshaw,

“The cops are there.

Do something!”par“What?” Bradshaw also got surprised. “How?”par“I don’t know, this is where you can help.”par“How can I help? I had no idea that they would come and ruin our plan like this.”par“They are not ruining our plan, you are!”parBradshaw got angry on this and stood up. He yelled,

“What do you mean that I am responsible for this?”par“Don’t waste our time, do something, save my men. Get them out of there.”parBradshaw cooled down a bit and said,

“I can’t. Okay? I just can’t.

If I could I would have.”parBruno stood up with his clenched fists feeling extremely angry.

He said to him,

“My men are a bunch of cowards. If they’ll get arrested, they’ll rat me out.”par“That’s your problem; you trained them to be like you.”parBruno got really angry on this and he took out his gun.

Bradshaw said to Bruno,

“There’s one thing you want and there is one thing that I want. You wanted Harold alive, I wanted him dead. Now, one among us has to compromise here. And I’m afraid that you are the one.”par“You are not helping your case. The gun is in my hand, the trigger is under my finger. If you won’t help me out here, I’ll forget everything and shoot you.”par“My suggestion for you is that you must kill Harold. Your men can do this. After that we’ll settle our dispute. If you won’t focus, you might lose Harold as well.”parBruno gave his words a thought and then made a phone call keeping the gun on table.

His goon from Harold’s house answered the call, Bruno turned his face in the opposite direction and instructed him,

“Harold has betrayed us. Just wait for a few minutes and then shoot him.”par“Alright!”parQuite unexpectedly, he got shot from behind on his back side. He felt the pain and looked behind himself.

Bradshaw had cunningly picked up his gun and had shot him. Bradshaw was giving a devilish smile.

“You traitor,” Bruno said as he fell down.

Meanwhile back under the basement of the casino, Steve’s partner said to him after disconnecting the call,

“Our plan is successful. The cops have arrested all of their men. We can go now.”par“What about Harold?”

“That’s where we are going, we shall have to rescue him.”

Back inside Harold’s computer room, Bruno’s man said to Harold,

“You betrayed us, and we have been given this order.”par“What order?”par“We must kill you here.”parHarold stood up and said,

“Oh, you don’t want to do that. Your master, he won’t be too kind on you. He’ll kill you both once he finds out that you two did not keep a good eye on me.”par“What do you mean?”par“I mean that everything I did to betray you all was done just now right in front of you two.”parThe other

criminal said,

“Maybe, we are at fault but if we kill you then our mistake would remain a secret before our boss.”parHarold chuckled

and said,

“Wow! You turned out to be very clever.”parThe two criminals loaded their guns and aimed straight at Harold. Harold raised his arms higher with a smile on his face.

“Farewell,” Harold said out loud.

The two started firing towards him causing him to fall backwards and die.

Several minutes later, Steve and his team finally reached Harold’s underground house. They saw that the main door was left open. They all entered inside the house knowing that the criminals had left.

As they all reached the computer room, they saw Harold lying dead on the ground with blood all over.

to be continued...