The Blacklist (sequel to The Reluctant Spy)

One Down, Two To Go

While Lucas was inside the house finalizing the 'deal' with Zach, Jack and Lucy watched the two men parked across the street in a navy blue Ford. Lucy recognized them as Zach’s business partners from the club. They were dressed like police officers on a stakeout.

After ten minutes of waiting, the two men received a mobile call. Jack and Lucy assumed that was the call from Zach signaling for his partners to begin the part of the plan most commonly called the 'brush-off'.

While Zach's partners were distracted with the phone call, Jack and Lucy got into position on either side of the car flanking the two men. Lucy brought along some fire power thanks to her contacts in the black market gun trade.

“Alright,” said one of the men after he hung up the mobile. “He's ready for us. Let's get this done.”

The man reached for the keys to start the engine when Jack appeared in the window of the driver's side. He held up a police badge while Lucy was stood at the other side of the car with an automatic AR-15 pointed at the partner.

“Scotland Yard, gentlemen. Please step out of the car immediately,” Jack ordered them with a smile.

The two men looked over at Lucy who was also smiling while keeping her rifle trained on them. That was enough to convince them to open their doors and climb out. Once they were out of the car, Jack zip tied their hands behind their backs and dropped them several meters away from their car.

Once they were in a safe zone, Lucy gave Jack the AR-15 and watched as he had quite a time making the Ford look like Swiss cheese. Before the gunfire started, Lucy placed a small brick of explosives near the petrol tank. When Jack’s shooting hit the tank, it triggered the explosives and blew the car into pieces.

Jack and Lucy left the two men crawling away from the wreckage and climbed back into their own car. They waited until they saw Lucas exit the house with a frantic Zach stumbling into the Aston Martin.

“Lucas is a dead man if he lets that twat vomit in that car,” said Jack as they pulled into the street to follow Lucas.

Lucas drove Zach back to the club very quickly with Zach constantly looking around, convinced that there were psycho killers following them. Luckily, he did not notice Jack and Lucy in the dark sedan behind them.

Once Lucas pulled up in front of the club, Zach fumbled with the door to try and get out. He stumbled out of the car and fell on all fours while Lucas came around and pulled Zach to his feet. He nearly pushed Zach ahead of him as the two men walked into the club.

Zach led Lucas toward the bar in the main dance hall. There were decorative curtains covering the wall behind the bar. Lucas pushed back the curtains in the center of the wall to expose a hidden wall safe.

So, that's where it was the entire time.

After Zach opened the safe, he pulled out a ruck sack from underneath the bar and began filling it with the real cash that was in the safe. He did it with such urgency that some of the money fell to the floor. Lucas watched every move he made in case Zach suddenly had an attack of courage and pulled out a gun.

When the safe was clean, Zach closed the ruck sack and turned to Lucas. His eyes filled with fear. Obviously, he was a coward through to the bone.

“That's all of it. £243,000. Do you think they'll come back for more?” he asked in a shaky voice.

“You had better hope not,” said Lucas as he gripped the ruck sack in his hands and walked defiantly out of the club.

When he exited the club, Lucas spotted Jack and Lucy parked just behind his car. He nodded to them as he walked toward the passenger side of the Aston Martin to place the money in the front seat. He closed the door and walked around to climb in and drove away with Jack and Lucy following behind.