"I see,” Nicholas muttered. “So how exactly are we going to make it happen?”

“Okay, listen to me carefully,” Cornelius instructed.

“Everything shall remain the same. You guys will walk in there and you, Nicholas, will wait in the car. The only thing that will change will be my part. Instead of deactivating the alarm system, I will make it ring.”

“Make it ring?” Nicholas asked. “What do you mean by making it ring?”

“The alarm siren shall ring. I will make it happen. The cops will arrive and we shall have to escape.”

“Won’t that be risky?”

asked Kennedy.

“You guys don’t have to worry about it,” Cornelius replied. “Don’t think about it. That’s my area of concern.”

“No, we need an answer to that!” Nicholas said to Cornelius.

“Ok… Let me answer this my own way...”

Nicholas waited for his explanation hoping for a good answer. Cornelius said, “I will give you guys a signal just one minute before. You guys just have to get ready and escape.”

“What about you and Ashton?”

“Ashton already has an escape plan that he hasn’t shared with us. He always keeps such secret plans and never shares. I’m sure he must have planned it this time as well”

“And what about you?”

“I’ll appear before the cops and misdirect them.”

“Misdirect?” Billy asked. “You mean you’ll run some other way and make them follow you?”

“Exactly.”

“What if you get caught?”

Nicholas asked.

“Okay, now stop worrying about me. You need to worry about yourselves. Rest, I’ll manage on my own. Focus on your own job now.”

“I’m not satisfied with the plan.” Nicholas stated.

“Look guys, you need to stick with the plan. The cops won’t catch me. I’ll escape the way I have before.”

“And Ashton?” Nicholas asked. “What if he gets caught?”

“That shouldn’t happen. If that happens then we won’t be able to work on plan B. He must not die. He must not get caught.”

“Has he escaped cops before?”

“As a matter of fact, yes he has. He has and it’s not a problem for him to escape again I’m sure.”

“Guys, I’m not liking it.” Kennedy commented. “I think the job is dangerous.”

“Don’t worry.” Cornelius raised his voice calmly. “It’ll be fine. Ashton knows that place way more than the owners of that mall do. He’ll hide somewhere trust me. If you guys will work according to me then each one of you will be a billionaire.”

They all paused for a moment. Their eyes were left wide open.

“Say again please?” Kennedy said to Cornelius.

“You heard me correct. What I’m offering you is a billion dollar idea. And like every other great idea, this one also carries some risk. But first we need to make our current plan unsuccessful.”

“Got it.” Kennedy replied. “No more questions.”

“So are we done? Do you all agree with me now?”

“Yes!” Kennedy and Billy exclaimed together.

Nicholas was silent. They waited for him to respond. Nicholas hesitantly spoke: “Alright fine.”

“Good” Nicholas spoke standing up.

He walked towards the exit and spoke:

“Get ready for day after tomorrow. It shall be the beginning”

He turned and looked at them while speaking the last sentence. He then walked and left the place. Billy looked at Nicholas who appeared unsatisfied and asked:

“What are you thinking Nick? Don’t you trust this guy?”

“I trust him but I don’t trust his plan.”

“Which plan? The one we need to make unsuccessful or the one we will work on afterwards.”

“The one that shall be carried out after two days.”

*********

Two Days Later

During late evening, inside some wagon, Nicholas was seated on the driver’s seat. Cornelius was seated on the front seat next to him. Kennedy was seated on the back seat. They were waiting for their partners to show up.

“You guys know what we are going to do, right?” Cornelius asked.

“Yup.” Kennedy answered. Nicholas nodded.

Billy arrived after a minute, opened the door and sat next to Kennedy.

“Well?” Cornelius asked.

“Ashton said he’ll be on his bike”

“Where is he right now?”

Billy looked behind. They all looked behind their car and saw someone sitting on his bike putting on his helmet. Nicholas spoke looking at the rear view mirror: “It’s him. Let’s go.”

Nicholas turned the engine on and got ready. The vehicles started moving.

Several minutes later, they all reached the mall. Nicholas parked the car outside. Cornelius looked at the guys sitting behind and spoke:

“Alright let’s go!”

“Best of luck.” Nicholas said to them.

Cornelius, Billy and Kennedy stepped out of the car and started walking towards the mall. Kennedy was holding a large bag which was a bit heavy as it contained a lot of instruments.

As they reached near the entrance door, Cornelius walked in through the metal detector device. Billy walked but tripped on something. He fell over Cornelius, pushing him and the woman ahead of him.

The woman’s husband got angry and looked at Cornelius furiously. Cornelius began to fight with Billy grabbing his collar saying:

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Billy fought back hitting him on his head. The woman’s husband also intervened pushing Cornelius. The security guards got distracted and one of them went to release them. Taking advantage of the situation, Kennedy walked inside holding the bag and skipping the metal detector to pass through the process. He safely entered inside and no one caught him since a huge crowd was gathered.

A minute later while Kennedy was waiting for his partners inside, he sent a text message to Ashton.

Next minute, he saw Cornelius and Billy walking towards him. Ashton was right behind them following them. Now the four men were standing together.

“Good job boys.” Ashton said to all of them.

Cornelius’ left cheek was swelling, he said to Billy:

“Couldn’t you have hit me a little lighter?”

“Sorry.” Billy chuckled.

“Alright boys, let’s waste no time. Split up and move.”

In one minute, they all took out their respective instruments from the bag and then separated and walked towards different directions.

Outside the mall, Nicholas had finally parked his car at the back side. Through the window he saw the lid of the underground sewerage. He shut his eyes and whispered:

“Oh I hope we don’t get betrayed.”

At the underground basement parking, four large suit cases were kept. Billy ran towards them immediately and picked two of them. Kennedy held him from behind and said:

“What are you doing? We are not supposed to make this plan successful, remember? We won’t be really working on anything as agreed.”

“I know. But what if Ashton finds out?”

“He won’t come here.”

“Oh yes he would. Remember he said that he would be supervising and keeping eyes on things around. He might come here and check on us.”

“Anyways, tell me are you holding the instruments?”

“Yes I’ve hidden them here inside my jacket.”

At the security department’s door, Cornelius was standing. He was holding a screw driver and a wire cutter. He was about to begin his operation.

Meanwhile at the underground basement, Billy and Kennedy were seated together on a car’s bonnet. Kennedy asked Billy:

“Is there any stall around here?”

“What do you mean?”

“I want to buy a drink. A soft drink.”

“Forget the drink, we’re supposed to wait for Cornelius’ signal here.”

Nicholas was standing

outside the car looking at his cell phone waiting for Cornelius’ text message.

Several minutes later, Ashton was secretly talking to a dark skinned guy in some private room. After they were done with their conversation, Ashton walked and before leaving the room he spoke his last words:

“And if he doesn’t agree, just kill him.”

He walked out and shut the door.

More than fifteen minutes had passed and there was no text message from anyone. Billy who was quite anxious dialed Nicholas’ number. Kennedy said to him:

“Ask him what we must do now.”

“Hello?” Nicholas answered the call.

“Listen Nick, we haven’t received any kind of message from Cornelius. Should we wait or should we start?”

“I’m not sure about what we must do now. Should we conduct the robbery or should we escape?”

“We’re confused as you are.”

“Alright here’s the deal. You guys wait for a couple of minutes in the mean time I will ask Cornelius about what we must do.”

“Okay.”

The call got disconnected. And the very next second, Billy received the text message. Kennedy’s cell phone also vibrated as it got the text message as well. They checked their cell phones and Kennedy read out aloud:

“The alarm’s deactivated.”

“Is this Cornelius’ text message?” Billy asked reading his similar text message.

“Well I have received this from some unknown number.”

“Yeah me too, it must be from Cornelius. Who else could it be?”

Outside the mall at the back side, Nicholas was reading his same text message. He spoke to himself:

The alarm’s deactivated? I thought it was supposed to ring.

Billy and Kennedy were walking towards the secret elevator and their mind had changed now. Kennedy spoke:

“Let’s begin now.”

“Yeah just forget what Cornelius asked us to do regarding failure of plan and focus on the job at hand.”

They were holding their tools and were preparing themselves to go underground.

Inside the mall, Ashton was standing at some clothes shop. He was looking at himself through the mirror. He held his gold chain that he was wearing as a necklace.

Few minutes later, Kennedy and Billy were at the sewage side. They were climbing down through the ladder and as they landed they saw the large vault at a little distance. Billy rushed towards it and didn’t wait up for Kennedy.

As Kennedy landed, he received a text message from the same unknown number. He read the text message:

“The vault’s code is blackfireinhell…”

He then ran after Billy to inform him.

Nicholas who was waiting outside was confused and unaware of what plan they were working on. He thought of dialing Kennedy’s cell number but then stopped realising it was not allowed in their plan by Ashton.

Meanwhile, Billy and Kennedy inserted the code. Kennedy tried to pull open the door and after exerting great amount of strength, he finally opened it.

“Yeah, good!” Billy exclaimed, getting excited. “Well done my friend.”

“Should we inform Ashton or anyone?” Kennedy asked.

“Not him. Text Nicholas.”

Inside the mall’s men’s toilet, Cornelius was looking at his’ face in the mirror. He was trying to bandage the minor wound on his cheek. He saw someone else in the mirror walking behind him. As he paid attention, it was Ashton. He turned around and looked at him.

Ashton was looking at him sternly. Cornelius stared back.

“Don’t waste time.” Ashton spoke looking at him.

“Time is in my hands today” Cornelius replied.

He continued looking at his face in the mirror.

At the sewage side, Billy and Kennedy were looking at the money inside the vault. Kennedy spoke:

“It’s huge.”

“I know let’s get started.”

Billy opened his suit case and kept it close to the door of the vault. He jumped inside the large vault and started throwing the money outside in the suit case. Kennedy did the same but standing outside.

Nicholas who was standing all alone outside asked himself:

I just don’t know what’s going on inside. Should I call them and ask? I suppose so.

He took out his cell phone and dialed Cornelius’ cell number. The phone was powered off. So he dialed Kennedy’s cell

phone number.

Kennedy, who had gathered enough money in the suit case, received the phone call. He stopped what he was doing and answered the phone call after informing Billy:

“It’s Nicholas’ call.”

“Didn’t you text him?” Billy asked.

“I was about to but I don’t know how I forgot.”

Kennedy kept the phone next to his ear and spoke:

“Yes Nicholas?”

“What are you guys up to?”

“We’re doing as per plan. We have found the vault and we are now fetching the money.”

“What? Really!” Nicholas asked getting surprised. “Did you insert the code?”

“Yes we did.”

“How did you guys get the code?”

“Cornelius texted us”

“Oh man, I really don’t get this guy.”

“Neither do us. Let’s just collect the money and see later what we have to do with the plan.”

“Ok, just let me know when I have to get ready.”

“Sure.”

Inside the mall, Ashton was walking towards the elevator. Outside the elevator, there was an aged guy who had been hiding from him for quite a while.

to be continued...