Prologue

Jack Desi Jr. was sprinting as fast as he could through an alleyway; behind him a rather large man was chasing him. He had just taken a small bag of skittles from his grocery store.
“Venir ici bask coquin!” If you don’t speak French, that means, “Come back here, you scoundrel!”

Jack vaulted over a wall and landed in a small garden. He kept running, and soon he arrived at his own house. He told his dad what happened. He knew his dad would not be mad, he never was. He found his dad lifting weights in the garage.

“Wow, if you think that’s cool then listen to this story…”

***

After weeks of planning it was finally going into operation. We had planned with backup plans that went through the whole alphabet, twice. In case you are wondering, my crew and I were going to throw the biggest heist in history.
“Alright guys, let’s go over the plan on more time. Matt, you’re going into the museum and staying in the pre-hollowed base that we built earlier right? Right.
“Claire, you’re gonna invite the guard in sector B6 to a bar downtown, ‘kay? Eric, please don’t mess up the fake security footage. That could land us all a spot behind bars for up to 100 years!

“Carlos, when you blow a hole in the vault wall use as little explosive as possible, noise could attract guards and that would be terrible. Wheels, have the bullet proof van ready. Now Jose, have the fake van ready. Drive it over the edge of the dam. At the LAST minute, open your parachute. We want the cops to think we’re dead. Now everyone, get ready.”

They seemed relatively calm, except Eric, but this was his first big heist so I couldn’t blame him.

This was going so smoothly. We had even done dry runs at the warehouses in the abandoned parts of town. I could see Carlos packing C4 into his bag (he was a heavily built man with a thin beard), Jose strapping on his base jumping suit. Wheels was putting on his driving gloves and doing meditation to relieve his stress. “Now, masks everyone.” Since this was the biggest heist in history we decided to wear clown masks. We would be known as… THE CLOWN GANG. Now Wheels had gotten our van running. Before long we were arriving at the service entrance of the museum.
“At ten o’clock… we move in.” This reminded me of my past… oh, my very first big robbery, it was wondrous. I had robbed a jewel emporium. I can still smell the gunsmoke and burnt rubber of my tires. The cops had a road block about a 100 feet from my speeding car. It was at that moment that I veered into the woods and into a river. I floated down stream I then hit a rock and climbed out and ran away. Robbing always gave me an adrenaline rush that I didn’t get doing other things.

As I daydreamed, Carlos reminded me, “Boss, it’s ten o’clock.”

I thanked him and said, “Move in.”  We walked toward the door as planned. Matt opened it from the inside. We all looked pretty creepy sneaking around in our clown masks. “Carlos, go to the vault.”

He knew where it was, we had spent hours pouring over maps of the museum. As he arrived at the vault I saw the last guard disappear with Claire to that bar. I looked over to see Carlos running towards me.

“DUCK!” he said. A split second after those words, a shock wave plowed me backwards. I was fine, and as promised the vault door had a smoldering hole in it. I stepped into the vault. It was heaven for any thief. It was a mess of priceless jewels, artwork, and artifacts. We started stuffing it into sacks as fast as we could. By now the guards had arrived at the scene of the crime. We ran to the roof; we had expected some guards to still be in the building and had come up with a plan to escape, which we were about to execute. As we arrived at the roof, Eric pulled a gun out and pointed it  at me and the rest of the crew.

“Jack, stop now, I’m with the police!”

“Eric,” I said calmly, “You know I have the guts to shoot you, yet you don’t. I trusted you Eric. You were part of this team.” I didn’t want to do this but I had to.

Carlos handed me a gun which I took, but kept it behind my back. The wind from the police helicopter whipped my hair around. I pulled out the gun and time seemed to slow down as my finger wrapped around the trigger. I took careful aim, and pulled. Eric went flying of the roof, his bulletproof vest had saved him and he landed in a bush, but he was stunned.

Then I heard a voice from the helicopter say, “JACK DAISI! STAND DOWN!”

“NEVER!” I shouted back. I was doing this for a dirtbike daredevil, and Zara, my fiance. We had met a demolition derby someplace in Texas. Fortunately, she approved of my line of work and thought it was very mysterious. Then my crew and I jumped of the roof and onto a mat we had placed there earlier. We sprinted to a van. Wheels hopped in the drivers seat.
“Go, Go, Go” I shouted.

We drove off into the night. The cops were soon on our tail, a roadblock was put up but Wheels just rammed it and kept on driving. We got to our secret base in northern Canada. It turns out the old saying is wrong, Crime does pay!   

EPILOGUE
Jack Daisi took his share of the loot and moved to France where he bought a small mansion in Provence. he later started a small family with Zara had one son who is now eight. They led a easy going life and Jack retired from his life of crime.

Claire Moji stayed in N.Y  and bought a brownstone in Brooklyn. She has stayed single (so far). She has a current profession as a bartender.

Eric Wilson is alive but is recovering in a Swedish rehab center. The doctors say he is making steady progress and will be out by 2018.

Carlos Brenes moved to Mexico where he used his explosive skills to help immigrants get past the wall after he blows holes in it.

Adam Smith (a.k.a. Wheels) took his share of the money and opened a meditation place in San Francisco. He is living in a studio apartment.

And finally Jose gave up his life of crime and became a base jumping instructor.