On the Run

Charlotte giggled. "I love it when you get tongue-tied."

Oliver's mind whirred as he frantically thought through the ramifications. "OK, if he got the pass then it must have been given to him by someone quite senior," he argued and Charlotte nodded.

"Yeah, probably."

"I'll check and make sure it is handed in or deactivated at the end of the week," Oliver added and Charlotte didn't respond as she had a phone call to deal with.

Tony had made it past the main door and had worked his way along the sales office to an interconnecting door to the main house. There was silence and quietness as he swiped his card in front of the sensor and walked through.

Oliver had clearly known what he was doing when he created the pass and he appeared in a small lobby which led into a corridor. There was a CCTV camera in the corner of the room and he glanced up at it and then strode confidently down the corridor and through a big security door. The main house was big and Tony had a rough diagram Emma had supplied to him of the layout of the floors he needed to visit.

He had seen on the electrical and wiring plan Emma had found in a bundle of documents Oliver had given her exactly where the alarm system was wired up to and he made his way to a small security office near the front door; it was staffed but the alarm system was held in a cupboard just outside and he nervously opened the panel as he could hear the guard talking.

He took a couple of pictures on Emma's phone and then silently closed the panel before sliding away from the security guard. He heard a noise and slid into an alcove and then watched a pretty girl walk past him without noticing his shape pressed up against the wall. Tony worked his way back to the door and then passed through it, with the help of his access card; he was nervous, he heard of Jaroslav Doszak and did not like the idea of being caught skulking around his house.

He returned to reception and then nodded towards Oliver and Charlotte, sliding over his pass. "Cheers love."

"You fixed it?" Charlotte asked and he just grunted,.

"Course," he said and leant over the counter. "I can control any leaking plumbing."

Charlotte giggled and he raised his eyebrows at her, blowing her a kiss. He returned to his Transit van to drove to see Emma at his local café who was waiting for him.

Emma nodded at him as she entered and he swigged from his can of fizzy cola. "So you can knock out the alarm system?"

"Easy," he replied, sliding Emma's phone over to her. "Piss easy." Emma squinted and he sat back in the chair. "But I want 'alf."

"Half?" Emma exclaimed, her smile disappearing.

"'Alf," he said. "I is big and ya can't do it without me. And Jaroslav is a fuckin' nutter."

Emma sighed and held her finger out, jabbing it into his chest. "It's a third each or ya not on the job."

"I done all the spying. I want half. Call it danger money"

Emma rubbed her chin. She had already said to Tony that she was definitely taking at least a third as it was her idea and she had done all the planning. He wondered if this Jamie be happy with a sixth, and looked at her inquisitively. "Why half?"

"Cos ya ain't doing na job if I don't get half."

Emma took a deep breath and nodded. "I'll speak to Jamie," she promised and he got up from the table.

"Me isn't waiting for too long, ya hear me?"

"I hear you," Emma snapped. "Where's pass?"

"Gave it to ya friend on reception." She scowled and watched as he left the café and started walking down the hill towards the flat he shared with his girlfriend and two children. Tony glanced behind him as Emma emerged from the café and he turned around to face her, walking backwards as three police men came running past, bundling Tony to the ground,.

"Tony Walker, I am arresting you on suspicion of theft, burglary and breaking and entering," she heard from the me-lee and groaned; she was about to find out just how crucial Tony was to the operation.

* * * * *

"Oliver," Jamie called gesturing to his brother, who stormed past him with a scowl.

"You gave that guy a pass to go swanning in. Questions were asked."

"What guy?" Jamie asked and Emma shook her head.

"Our alarms expert. Who has been nicked."

"Nicked?" Oliver squealed. "Right well I want out. I want ..."

"He was nicked for a job he pulled two weeks ago," Emma snapped. "Nothing to do with this one. It's fine."

"So, what do we do 'bout alarms then?" Jamie asked.

"Right well I need to take care of the alarms. Shouldn't be too much of a problem as I've been studying the plans and they are little basic. We just need one more for the distraction."

Emma looked at Oliver who was shaking his head. "No way."

"What?"

"No way. No way am I being part of your raid."

"Too fookin' right," Jamie added and looked at Emma. "You've lost ya marbles if ya think he can do it."

Emma sighed. "They go to the auction house soon. It's now or never Jamie. Shit or get off the pot. I need someone I can trust."

"What?"

"I mean, if we don't go tomorrow night then we aren't getting our fifty, or hundred thousand each. And I've spent too much time planning this to not do it." Jamie grumbled and then muttered something about Chelsea or Drake. "I ain't working with anyone I don't know," Emma said firmly. "I need to know they are good."

"Chelsea is cool," Jamie replied and Emma rolled her eyes. "She'll be fine."

"The answer is no. I need someone who has been around the house, and the only person is Oliver."

"But ..."

"But either him or we don't do it."

Jamie threw his gloves down onto the floor in anger and scowled at Emma, ignoring his brother. "For fucks sake."

"I am not doing it," Oliver told her, his heart beating angrily and shook his head. "I don't want to do any time. I want to settle down."

"I ain't doing no bird," Emma said forcefully. "I ain't planning on getting caught. The job is easy as I've been back through the plans you got. Jaroslav clearly reckons that no-one will nick from him so his security is a bit amateurish."

Jamie grunted causing Emma to glare at him. "Well it's not that easy."

"Listen, I did over a five bedroom detached in Dorset last year and that had more security than this place. All we need is the code to the vault."

"Oh is that all?" Oliver taunted. "Look, this is a bad idea. Just leave it."

Emma rolled her eyes. "I can reset the alarm system if we have to but I'd rather just walk in, it's easier."

"Well I still don't want to know," Oliver said resolutely and Emma glanced at him and then Jamie.

"Look Oliver, we can probably do it without you, but we need two people to cause distractions and if we have to scarper we need someone who knows the layout 'cos if the shit hits the fan, I want to go to the double glazing offices 'cos there will be fuck all people there."

"I don't want to break in to Jaroslav Doszak's house and steal his statues."

"You'll get money. And respect."

Oliver screwed up his face and got up to leave. "No way, I am not corruptible."

Jamie grunted and swore at him. "Stupid fuckin' cunt."

Oliver shook his head and Emma sighed. "Jamie, tell me how many times have you got laid since comin' out?"

"Four," Jamie lied and looked at Oliver, sensing Emma's trick. "The girls love a bad boy."

"I've said I want a nice girl to settle down with. And I'll find her, but I won't if I am doing time or propping up the M62. So I don't want to do it."

"If I do it, then I'll go straight," Jamie promised and Emma bit her lip as Oliver swung around to face his brother.

"You're supposed to be going straight anyway."

"Yeah but with the money from this I will go straight."

"Please Oli," Emma begged. "Hey, just help us do the distractions and then we'll leave you in the garden on your own."

"On my own?" Oliver shrieked and Emma opened her hands.

"OK come inside then. Please." She passed him a bottle of beer and then looked into his eyes. "For the kudos, the sex and helping out your brother."

Oliver took a deep breath and pointed at Emma. "If this goes wrong I am going to blame you," he told her. "But OK. I'll help you with the distractions."

"Oh and if you can find out the security code before tomorrow night it'll be a big help," Emma said quickly and turned to the plans in front of her before Oliver could register a protest.

* * * * *

Oliver glanced up at Charlotte messing around with the some chairs in the reception area but wasn't really listening to what she was saying. He had been distracted as he had taken the post around the offices in the morning and run into Jaroslav Doszak talking to his a familial member who had come over from the Ukraine. They had been on their own in Jaroslav's office but Oliver had heard everything that had been said from outside the door, which included the admission that Jaroslav had shot a drug dealer the week before.

Oliver went white; he ignored half of the boasting about Jaroslav's brothels but he knew if they were caught it would be him, Jamie and Emma getting shot in the woods. The raid was a bad idea.

"You OK?" Charlotte asked and Oliver nodded as he came out of his trance. "You've been daydreaming all day."

"I'm fine," Oliver muttered and Charlotte grinned, before continuing with the story Oliver hadn't been listening to.

"Of course, he said he wanted to see me again, but I had to tell 'im, ya hear me, what sort of gal d'ya think I am?" Oliver rolled his eyes as he pushed Emma's USB pen drive into the computer while Charlotte could not see the screen and dragged over a thousand files from the Search window to the folder window that had popped up.

"Indeed," Oliver muttered as she held out her hands waiting for a response to her rhetorical question.

Over a thousand files were copied to his USB pen drive and looked at her. "I mean, he might have got laid that night and in the morning, but I don't just date any bloke who wants to. I got standards, so when he starts spouting off about anal I was out of there, but he's been texting me all day."

Oliver stretched his arms and sighed. "You don't want it?"

"Do I 'ell, not on a first meeting. He gotta take me out somewhere posh before he fucks me up the poop-shute."

Oliver looked at his workstation and carefully dropped the pen drive into his rucksack underneath the table. He laughed at his co-colleague and then looked up at the clock. "Nearly going home time."

"Well he said he wants to meet tonight so I tell him, that's fine but I tellin' 'im to expect nowt." Oliver sucked in air and looked at her.

"Is that likely?"

"It is fuck," she replied quickly. "After being 'ere all day, course I wanna get laid. But I ain't no slut. He 'as to work for it."

Oliver couldn't stop smiling and saw the battered Transit of Emma in the car park outside through the double-glazed windows. "Hey is that ya brother?" Charlotte asked and Oliver nodded.

"Yeah."

"He looks well fit," Charlotte cried and looked at Oliver. "He can take me on a date any day."

"Well he's been inside. Had lots of gym access ain't he?"

Charlotte cooed at the man in the Transit. "Oo, that bird of his is pretty nice as well. That businessman the other week, he asked me on our first date, to do a threesome with his mistress at a hotel room he'd just booked."

Oliver screwed up his face and Charlotte giggled. "That's a bit ..." Oliver didn't know how to finish the sentence but Charlotte guessed and continued.

"I know. Even worse, she was well mingin' and she didn't shave herself. It was like going down on a cat." Oliver rolled his eyes and she giggled. "Or maybe a pussy."

Oliver shut down his workstation and stretched as Charlotte laughed at her own joke; he had been in the chair all day and his muscles had tensed up. He had been nervous since he arrived, panicking about the job they were about to pull on his employer later that evening but Charlotte's incessant talking about sex had certainly taken his mind off of his problems.

The more Oliver knew about Jaroslav the more he didn't want to know; he was an evil, malevolent bully who dominated and threatened everyone. He was a nightmare to be involved with and Oliver just could not believe that he was going to be complicit in one of the biggest heists in the local area. Charlotte glanced over at the clock. "Fuck it," she cried and walked back over to the small door that led to their pod. Oliver picked up his bag and bade Charlotte farewell; in truth, he guessed it might be the last time he ever saw her, but she gave a gentle wave and he wished her the best of luck for her date that night.

"Right, I've got hundreds of files," Oliver announced as the door closed and passed Emma her USB memory stick. "Everything that relates to security, alarms, the fucking works."

"Crackin'," Jamie said and passed Oliver a can of beer from the behind the seat as he drank from his one.

"Oh, and Charlotte thinks you are well fit," Oliver said with a smile on his face.

"Course. She's only 'uman. Is she sexy?"

"She'll sleep with anyone," Oliver told him and Jamie grunted.

"'Cept ya," he replied and Oliver scowled at his brother. Emma drove the three miles to her small flat, parking in a side street. She pushed the pen drive into her laptop and started looking through the files immediately.

Jamie and Oliver ordered a curry from the local takeaway and Emma grumbled when they told her she had to pay for it as neither Oliver or Jamie had any money on them. "I'll give it ya back," Jamie told her and Emma started looking through the files.

"Isn't worrying about alarms a bit of a big thing to leave until the last minute?" Oliver asked as he strummed on the table, the beer giving him drunken confidence to suggest Emma was fallible. "I mean, isn't it, a bit like, fucking crucial?"

Jamie threw his empty beer can at him. "Shut up. What the fuck do you know about breaking into houses?"

Oliver grimaced as the can struck him and he put it down on the table, wiping off the drops of lager from his shirt. "What the fuck do you know about breaking into houses?" Oliver replied. "It was warehouses and post offices."

Jamie blew air through his lips. "Course I know. I did a few, didn't I?" He turned to Emma, leaning back on the sofa and pushing his neck as far back as it would go. "Love, what we doin' 'bout 'larms if there fuck all on that?"

Emma didn't answer and looked at Oliver. "You have here the tender documents for the alarm system, and design and stuff." Oliver shrugged and Emma smiled. "I know most of this stuff but there's a bit about the key."

"Right."

"I got the code it was set when they set up the vault but not sure what it will be now."

"So ... we can't do it?"

Emma sniffed. "We can try it. If it's wrong, I'll go and try and override the alarms."

Oliver sighed; he didn't like the sound of "try" but his musings were interrupted by a doorbell and their arrival of a takeaway dinner. He returned to see Emma smashing up her USB stick and watched her place the remnants in her fire, before turning it on and filling he room with acrid smoke. "What ya do that for?"

Emma gave a snort. "Cos if the Police ever do get involved and link me to it, I'd rather not have the plans on a USB stick lying around." Oliver hummed in realisation and she cocked her head. "Don't tell me you still got your USB drive from before."

"It's in my drawer at home," Oliver replied. "Well it's 16 gigabyte. Cost me an arm and a leg."

Emma snorted. "Well if Jaroslav uses it to find out you robbed him, it will cost you an arm and a leg," she joked and then had to reassure the panicking man that she wasn't serious. "Look, after the raid there will be nothing linking you to the crime, so go to work tomorrow."

"You are joking?" Oliver asked and Emma gave a snort.

"If you don't it will look real bad," she told him. "Go to work, act as nothing happened. Anyway, I have something to leave behind." She pulled out a little packet of matches with some cigarette butts and held it out. "There are from the Gold Lounge – Jaroslav's big rival. I'm going to leave them near the gate with a half smoked cigarette. When he finds 'em he will instantly think it's a rival brothel."

Oliver nodded. "I am not sure I do want to go to work. I was distributing the post today and heard all sorts of things from Jarolsav's office."

"What?" Jamie asked and Oliver thought.

"Oh I heard him talking to some guy and explained about how he gets his girls in, and where they are living. All sorts. I think twas his cousin, from Kiev, but he was bigging himself up and then he starts talking about poppin' someones knees off. He's a fuckin' nutter."

Emma smiled. "Yeah I know. But his security is piss poor."

"Yeah 'cos no-one wants to get caught nickin' from Doszak." Emma pursed her lips and told him that she wasn't planning on getting caught, and left him to his dinner. Oliver barely ate any of the curry and had to evacuate his bowels three times as they got closer to leaving the flat.

Emma and Jamie had been out and bought everything they needed, and on the dining room table were all the clothing and equipment they would require in three neat piles.

"OK," Emma said, picking up one of the three rucksacks and looking at her two companions. "We better go."

Oliver yelped but grabbed the bag he was given and Emma told him to change into the clothing she had provided; it was jet black with a balaclava. He had trouble undoing his trouser zip but changed and put his clothes in his bag. The two men followed Emma out of the flat in silence; there was a nervous anxiety to them.

Oliver rubbed his hands to stop them from shaking and they climbed into Transit.

"Here's to a profitable evening," she muttered as the battered van sparked into life and she forced it into first gear with a grinding sound.

Chapter V

"You can't just leave me here?" Oliver asked and Jamie looked at Emma. "I could, ya know, cause a distraction here."

"You know what to do. And you know the building," Emma replied firmly. "Weren't you listening on the way over, I explained it twice for you."

Oliver grunted and Jamie shook his head. "Told ya he wasn't up for it. Bet ya he pisses himself on th' job."

"Shut up," Emma snapped. "Now, I have a way-in and out I want but if we have to take a detour out then you know the building. And anyway, I think I might need you to sort out the dogs." Oliver yelped and the female burglar glared at him. "What? You like dogs. I remember that little Jack Russell you used to dote over."

"Yeah, a Jack Russell. Not like these dogs, I've seen them. They are big ... man-eating dogs."

Jamie laughed and even Oliver smiled. "Look, there is nothing that will go wrong, I've got everything I need," Emma promised. "And anyway, I've been watching the 'ouse night 'n' day. They are only out a bit, but I can't be in two places at once. And if they are there I'll give you meat to keep them happy."

Oliver gulped. "I'm not sure about this." Emma leant in and kissed him on the check.

"It'll be easy," she promised and opened the van door. "Come on." She pulled out her backpack, and waited for Jamie and Oliver to get down. "We ain't got all night."

"Well actually love, we have," Jamie teased and Emma snorted.

"Yeah, I was hoping to have as much time to get away as possible," she told him. The road was eerily quiet and Oliver looked at her.

"This isn't the Manor," he told her. "This is, actually where is this?"

Emma chortled to herself and crossed the country lane, pushing aside the branches of a tree in darkness by the side of the road and pushed the switch on her torch. "We are in the right place," she told him firmly and pulled herself up to the branch and then onto a wall next to it, before jumping down.

"So where's she gone?" Oliver asked his brother and there was a sound of metal being prised apart and a gate swung open a few feet from where they are standing.