Chapter 17
Erik
We’ve been living in a cave for almost a week now.
Food has been fairly easy to come by. Walk into a supermarket with my brothers and walk out with enough for a day hidden in our clothes.
Shoplifting, as Avery calls it. People here don’t seem to be as suspicious as we feared as long as we remember to say hello, ma’am and praise Morlock occasionally.
I hate praising a god I don’t believe in, even if I don’t mean it, but it’s necessary to keep our cover. As far as everyone knows, we’re just ordinary people. Ordinary people who are currently putting the final touches on our plan to rob a bank.
“Two security guards. They might as well leave the doors wide open,” Sigurd snorts, looking over the plans I’ve laid out. “You’re sure that’s all the security they have?”
“I’ve been staking this bank out for days. It’s always two,” I confirm, leaning back against a rock.
“That’s not surprising for this era, based on Earth history. I know it’s not identical, but people weren’t as worried about crime,” Avery adds. “And the people here haven’t even developed the kind of weapons we had. They’re more peaceful than we were.”
“The security guards won’t be an issue. We can kill them easily, along with all the employees.” Ivar waves a hand dismissively.
“Wait, you can’t just kill them all,” Avery protests, shaking her head.
“Better than leaving witnesses,” Sigurd counters. “Witnesses can tell them who we are.”
“You should wear masks and just tie them up,” Avery says, folding her arms across her chest. “Think about it. If you rob a bank, you’re going to attract a lot of attention.
If you rob a bank and kill everyone, you’re going to attract a lot more.
The entire city will be looking for you. It’ll be a heinous crime.”
“Our mate is right,” I say. “We don’t want to draw more attention than we have to, and if we massacre everyone in the bank, it’ll make things more complicated. It’s not our way to leave witnesses, but we have to consider how the people on this planet will react.”
“They can’t react if they’re all dead,” Sigurd grunts. “But fine, we’ll do it your way if you think it’s the safest option.”
“It is,” I say. “Based on my observations, the bank does business all day, and then they move everything upstairs to the safe at the end of the day. The first day of the week is their busiest, so that’s the day we’ll hit them.”
I lean down and trace the route we’ll take on my crudely drawn map of the bank’s interior.
It’s a pretty simple plan. Bank robberies are rare here, based on my research.
In the city of New Egypt, there hasn’t been one in several years, and the last one that was attempted was thwarted by a security guard.
The bank we’re targeting is the Sphinx-Metropolitan Bank. It’s the biggest bank in New Egypt, but since they don’t have much security, it’s as easy to rob that one as it would be to rob a smaller one.
“In and out with a lot of fucking gold,” Sigurd grins. “Reminds me of the good old days. Except we’re not going to kill everyone.”
“We’ll escape on foot and use our wolves if necessary.
Hopefully, it won’t be, but if we run into trouble, the rules will change.
We can’t get caught,” I explain. “One of the ways these people have remained peaceful is how they punish crime. If we get caught, we’ll be executed in less than twenty-four hours. ”
“Yeah, these fuckers aren’t going to arrest me,” Sigurd rumbles. “I’ll kill every single one of them before I let that happen.”
“I’m not sure if escaping on foot is the best option,” Avery says. “If you were planning this robbery on Earth, you would have a getaway vehicle. And a getaway driver.”
“Can’t risk it. We need three to keep control of everyone inside the bank,” I say. “I found us some guns, but if we’re not going to kill anyone, they will only be for show. We can’t risk the situation getting out of control.”
“Um, hello?” Avery points at herself. “I know how to drive. The cars on this world are almost identical to the ones from Earth.”
“You’re not going with us,” Ivar says, shaking his head. “Too risky. If we run into trouble, we’ll call our wolves.”
“And call a lot more attention to yourselves,” Avery argues. “Besides, won’t it be difficult to carry around a bunch of gold without hands?”
“We can manage. It might slow us down, but we can carry them in our mouth,” Ivar says. “Granted, we might have to abandon a few bags, depending on how many we get.”
“Or I could drive, you could load the trunk down with gold, and then we could ditch the car as soon as we get it all back to the ship,” Avery presses. “I’m no bank robber, but a getaway car seems safer than having to shift in the middle of New Egypt because an angry mob has caught up with you.”
I lean forward and look over the plan. As much as I hate to admit it, she’s right.
I’ve mapped out the escape route through New Egypt.
We’ll be slow on foot. They could come after us.
If we’re forced to shift, we likely would have to abandon some of the gold, even if we could still get away with enough to get us started on repairing the ship.
“We’ll need to steal a car,” I say. “One that goes fast.”
“You’re actually considering this? Putting our mate in danger?” Ivar asks, disbelief in his voice.
“What happens if we get caught? She’ll be alone on a strange world without us,” I say. “And on our world, we didn’t leave our women behind when we went on raids. Wives fought by our side unless they were carrying a child.”
“She’s no warrior,” Sigurd scoffs.
“I may not be a warrior, but I can drive a car,” Avery counters. “I don’t plan on fighting anyone. I’ll just help you get away once you get the gold.”
“In that case, we’ll need to find you a mask,” Ivar says, leaning over and picking up a few of them. “Any of these to your liking?”
I gathered an assortment of masks from a costume shop a couple of nights ago. Most of them are fictional characters on this world, which seems to be the most popular costumes. I took enough so there are plenty to choose from.
“I guess I’ll be the ugly green guy.” Avery shrugs and picks up a mask. “What was his name again?”
“The Mighty Fish Man,” I say. “Or something like that.”
“Then I guess I’m the Mighty Avery,” she laughs, slipping on the mask. “How do I look?”
“You wear that mask to bed, and I’ll roll over and go to sleep,” Sigurd threatens, but there’s some humor in his voice.
“I would be very offended if you did that,” Avery says, her voice muffled by the mask. She leans closer to Sigurd, poking him in his stomach. “Don’t you like me? I’m just a fish out of water…”
“Get the fuck away from me,” Sigurd chuckles teasingly, giving her a playful nudge. “That mask is fucking weird.”
“You’ve seen all sorts of aliens and a mask bothers you?” Avery laughs, pulling the mask off. She turns it to face her. “Maybe with a little makeup… some lipstick.”
Sigurd reaches over and grabs a rubber mask that looks like a normal person, except there is black paint around the eyes and a smile around a comically large plastic cigar that dangles from the mouth. I can’t remember the name of the character. It was from a television show on this planet.
Sigurd slides the mask on and growls at Avery. “What if I wore this to bed, huh? Bet you wouldn’t like that.”
“I don’t know, being taken by a masked man?” she asks playfully. “Wouldn’t be the scariest thing that’s happened to me recently. I got kidnapped by Viking wolves, you know.”
“Alright, we don’t have time to play around,” I sigh. “We’ve got a plan. I’ll go find us a car.”
“We’ll keep going over everything while you’re gone,” Ivar says, glancing over at Sigurd and Avery. “If these two can behave.”
“I didn’t start it,” Sigurd grumbles.
I laugh under my breath and stand up. I doubt they’ll behave, but maybe Ivar will keep them focused on the plan. The more preparation the better. I’ve memorized it, but that’s because I’m the one who came up with it. Hopefully, they will do the same.
I walk out of the cave and call my wolf. It’s faster to travel this way, even in the daylight, as long as I’m not running through the streets of New Egypt. I cut through the forest, replaying the plan in my head, saying a few silent prayers to the gods I do believe in.
Once I get to the edge of New Egypt, I shapeshift back to man, then adjust my hat before I mingle with the crowd of people on the busy sidewalk.
“Best place to steal a car. Hmm. Maybe the department store or the mall. They have big parking lots,” I mutter as I walk down the street.
Cars on this world aren’t very different from the primitive vehicles on ours.
After the plague, it was easier to get those moving for transportation, because we didn’t have much fuel for our ships.
Cars run on gasoline. It was easy enough to get a refinery going again.
It took a lot longer to get the other fuel refineries operational.
Thankfully, the ship we took from the Intergalactic Alliance has renewable energy. We just have to find a way to get it back in the air.
I do some surveillance on the department store parking lot first, then move on to the mall.
The mall seems like a safer option based on my observations.
People stay inside longer, which means it’ll take longer for them to notice their car is missing.
Even longer before they realize it’s been stolen.
“I guess they all drive the same. Just need one that will hold the four of us,” I muse as I move through the parking lot.
I blend in well enough that nobody seems to pay attention to me. I’ve been shaving every day. My hair is still short. Other than being a little bigger than most people on this world, I don’t look that out of place in my suit and tie.
After walking around the parking lot for a while, I settle on a car called a Chrysler 300. It’s black, built like a tank, and the interior has plenty of room. But most important, there’s a lot of trunk space. We’ll need that for hauling gold.
The doors are unlocked, which makes my job easier.
I look around until I’m sure nobody is paying attention before climbing inside.
I’ve researched how vehicles on this world work, just to be safe, so I have two options.
I can force the ignition or hotwire it. With my strength, hotwiring seems like a waste of time. Brute force is much faster.
“Come on, fucking turn.” I apply pressure to the metal ring around the keyhole.
I hear something crunch and then the bezel rolls over.
The car roars to life. It’s a lot louder than I expect, but I like the way it rumbles beneath me.
The steering is easy enough, but it takes me a second to get the hang of the clutch.
Ours are a little different, but I get a good feel for everything as I back it out of the parking space.
“Now I just have to find somewhere to hide this until later today,” I mutter, turning onto New Egypt’s busy main street. A car nearly clips me, honking as it veers right. “Fuck, should have read more about how traffic works.”
I steer my way through traffic, trying to match their speed without hitting anyone. It’s similar to vehicles from our world, but much harder to handle. I eventually get a feel for it and can safely move through the streets without looking out of place.
I find an empty alley three blocks from the Sphinx-Metropolitan Bank and park the Chrysler in the shadows.
It’s close enough for us to retrieve it before the robbery, but out of the way so that nobody should spot it.
I quickly make my way to the edge of town and shift.
We’ll need to move fast if we’re going to do this today.
It’s a good thing Avery is going to be our getaway driver.
I’m faster on four paws than behind a wheel.