Cairo

chapter 14

"Papa!!!! What are you doing??" Denver cried, as he pulled his mask over his face and sprinted towards him.

He tackled his father to the floor, trying to hide his face as the sickening blur of the alarm sounded, and the entrance doors opened gradually, exposing us all to the police who waited outside with their guns loaded.

"I need to get out! I need to get out!" Moscow repeated, shaking, like he was in a trance.
"No Papa, listen to me-" Denver interrupted.
"I need to go, hijo." Moscow pleaded, struggling to move underneath his son.

The police outside were less than 20 metres away, and had raised their guns in response to the fighting in front of them. It was only a matter of time before they fired at Moscow and Denver.

I threw my mask over my face and ran towards the panel to the side of the doors, pressing the button that closed them, as tears brimmed in Moscow's eyes, desperately trying to get free from Denver.

"Papa you will get out, just not yet!" Denver panted frantically.
"I need air-I need to get out-" Moscow begged, pleading for the chance to get away from the mess this heist had become.

Clearly the news of his son supposedly murdering Monica had pushed him way over the edge, and he couldn't bear to be locked in the same building as him anymore.

I knew how desperate Moscow must have been feeling, I had been in the same position not even 24 hours earlier.
Suddenly, Moscow had been drowned with new information, that lead him to believe his only son was evil.

My Papa's death was such a long time ago, and I know that Denver was young, vulnerable, and under the influence of his old gang, who were known murderers, so I was able to give him an ounce of forgiveness.
However, Moscow wasn't in the same position, and he believed that Denver had murdered Monica out of malicious choice.

Our situations were similar, but I was strong-minded and had learnt yesterday that in order to get through this heist, I would have to put any personal feelings of anger behind me for the time being.

But Denver was all that Moscow had left, and the thought of his son being so wicked was destroying him.
It hurt me to see him in such pain, and all I wanted to do was help.

"We can get you air! The roof!! We can take you to the roof!" Denver tried to calm his father down, maintaining his tight grip on Moscow's arms as the doors were bolted closed.

Denver then whispered something out of earshot to his father, and Moscow stopped fighting to get free. With relief, I assumed he had told him that Monica was alive.

"We can take the hostages too, the police won't be able to tell who is who, so they won't be foolish enough to fire at anyone!!" I added, standing above the two, forming the plan in my head.

"Yes!! See Papa-See!" Denver smiled through the sharp sting of tears.
"It will be ok! We can take you on the roof!" He looked pitifully at his father, who lay on his back staring at the ceiling, trying to steady his breathing.

Moscow lay in complete silence for what felt like forever, contemplating his limited options.

"...Ok son." He finally said with a sigh, his body still trembling slightly, but there was a small smile of relief on his face.

Relieved that his beloved hijo wasn't a murderer.

Although we both knew that that wasn't entirely true...and a large part of me still felt sick at the thought of Denver's involvement in my father's death.

But I chose to ignore my feelings of hatred, and focussed on the positives. At least Moscow was now calming down, we just needed to successfully get him on the roof.

After the calamity of the past few days, a breath of fresh air would do Denver and Moscow both some good.

"Cairo, let's go." Tokyo said, snapping me out of my thoughts. As I gave Denver a last quick glance, to check he had the situation under control, he gave me a subtle smile.
"Gracious Cairo."

Leading Tokyo and Nairobi upstairs, we stormed into Berlins's office unannounced, gun's held threateningly in our hands.
He lay in his chair with his boots up on the desk, clearly unaware or just unbothered about what had happened downstairs with Moscow, not 5 minutes ago.

"Ah, Hola Chicas! To what do I owe the pleasure?" He chuckled to himself, leaning further back into his chair.

"It's Moscow. Denver is taking him on the roof for air, with some hostages." Nairobi said sternly.
"And there's nothing you can do to stop us." Tokyo added, as we each pointed the barrels of our guns towards Berlin, who smiled smugly.

As insane as he was, we all tended to agree with him when he made important decisions. I trusted the Professor, and he had obviously put the man in charge for a reason, but there was something so quietly sinister about him that made me dislike him passionately.

I knew Berlin wouldn't agree with our decision to take Moscow and the hostages on the roof, no matter how good of a plan it was.
If an idea wasn't his, then he automatically assumed it was a bad one, and would end in failure.
But Moscow and Denver both desperately needed this, so we would proceed with the plan even if Berlin disagreed.