2017, 9 months before the Bank of Spain raid.
Villa 31, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Nona opens the door of her house and whoever is on the other side gives her a pleasant surprise. "Sergio!" the lady exclaims, touched and delighted to see him, and he enters the house.
"I'm so glad to see you, Nona," Sergio says as his cheeks are pressed by her. Sergio loved going to Argentina every year to visit the nanny who took care of him and Berlin when they were little. The affection Sergio feels for her is the same as he feels for his mother.
"Come on, sit down. You surprised me. I'll start cooking in a moment," the lady says, searching in the drawer with pots and taking out a packet of pasta. "And Andres?" she asks, noticing his absence.
"He couldn't come this year because they didn't give him vacation from work," he lies, not wanting to tell her that he just discovered his brother's illness. this news would kill her with disgust. Sergio distracts himself by looking out the window at the precarious area, the people who live there and the view thanks to the fact that he's on the third floor of some sort of building.
"How many days are you staying?" Nona asks while chopping onions and tomatoes.
"I'm staying until dark because I actually came to get some stuff for a project I'm working on," he explains, leaving out that it's about a robbery on the Bank of Spain.
"Very good, I'll prepare some cakes and a take away dinner for you", Sergio smiles. a few shots in the street make him get up from his chair. "Don't worry," Nona says, as if it were the most normal thing in the world. "That's how things are done here." Sergio looks out the window and down the street from there. A young man with a girl hides behind a car and shoots at two other men who are hiding behind a pole. the people passing run away screaming while locking themselves in their homes. "Surely he is Chintya's husband." But the girl is the one who gets all of Sergio's attention.
"There's a girl," he now says, anxious, nervous, but somehow amazed.
"Indeed it is," Nona confirms, who cooks so normally, as if this Balasera were just Sergio's fantasy. "Get away from the window or a stray bullet will hit you."
"So this is normal?" he asks, because what's happening down there isn't extraterrestrial. Nothing that doesn't happen in a slum. but he cannot take his eyes off the girl.
"Yes. Cinthya's husband is always fixing things for the balasos. He's a soldier here for a narco. He also spends the dirty money he earns on more drugs. And on top of that he steals. I think he prefers to play the gunslinger.” Sergio watches the chase. this girl who shoots with great skill, hides and knows exactly when to come out and return the shots. The men escape in a car that makes a lot of noise. the girl and the young man emerge from their hiding place as if nothing had happened and trott off until they disappear around the corner.
"and you?" Sergio asks curiously and sits back down at the table.
"She hardly ever does that. Very rarely does she come out to defend him from gunfire. Just today was such a time,” she says, pouring the vegetables into the tomato sauce. "Even if they are both loved in the neighborhood. They are very young. They could have a decent life, study, work. For example, I regret that. They are my children's age, both a shame", Sergio remains thoughtful. and thinks. and thinks. This girl reminds him of Silene, whom he only met a week ago, but who she has already been able to recruit. and feels that he can do this Can't let go of potential Rotting in this neighborhood.
"How come these young people carry these guns?" he asks her, who is preparing napkins.
"I don't know, dear. But they even have machine guns. And you don't know how they use them. The drug world. These neighborhoods are no man's land. They think they own these streets. Every little problem will be solved by shooting. No matter where, when or who is there. If a stray bullet hits you, fuck you. Nobody will care. The police rarely come here. The ambulances aren't even coming here. Imagine that." Sergio listens to everything very carefully, as if he was studying.
"What did you say the girl's name is, Nona?"
"chintya" she replies while putting the noodles in the water. "She lives around the corner."
At dusk, after saying goodbye to Nona, Sergio walks the neighborhood sidewalks in search of a place. Carrying the bag full of groceries that Nona gave him, he stumbles through the neighborhood full of music, small children speaking loudly in a language that even he doesn't understand. Kids are running and playing like it's two o'clock in the afternoon, cars are playing loud music, men are drinking beer on every corner, and he feels eyes on him, so he clears his throat. the dirt road makes it difficult for him to walk with his shoes, which are not suitable for these places. Sergio stops in front of a door and knocks three times. gets no answer. "Who's there?" says a woman's voice from the window. Watching the same girl from the shooting from behind a curtain, Sergio approaches the window.
"Chintya, right?"
"Yes?" she answers doubtfully.
"Here," he hands her a note, which she suspiciously accepts. "My name is Sergio. We'll talk" is the last thing he says and walks down the street. She immediately closes the curtains and turns to see her boyfriend lying on the couch, unconscious from the drug. She opens the paper and reads it.
"Say goodbye to this shitty life forever. Start over. It's worth 2 billion euros. The professor. 4 p.m."
and behind the paper a place. Chinthya falls silent and suddenly laughs. "This guy wants to kidnap me," she says loudly. crumples up the paper and throws it in the trash.
(...)
As the group finds itself in a period of peace since the gold has been successfully transported and is now being bullioned again, Denver finds Palermo wandering the hallways alone with the machine gun. With no one around besides the two of them, he decides it's time to talk things over privately. "Palermo" he begins. The Argentine turns to him and rolls his eyes as he sees it's Denver speaking to him. "we need to talk"
"Not now," he says, and starts to walk, but Denver grabs his arm.
"We need to talk," he raises his voice.
"What do you want to talk about, asshole?" is released immediately. "You Fucked My Girlfriend"
"That was nothing! Damn it!" palermo snorts and decides to listen to him just because he has nothing better to do at the moment. "it was like..." he tries to find the right words. "To close something. Look, I confess. I felt things for her from the moment I met her.” Palermo's stomach churns at the words. how the thought of someone else having those feelings for her causes violence, nervousness, and sadness. “I could not have lived in peace without knowing what would have happened. I kissed her, yes.” Palermo feels like throwing up just thinking about kissing his girl again. "But just to find out. I had to close this chapter in my life. And I realized that the woman of my life is Monica. Even if it was Velez, it would never become our thing. She loves You. No matter how hard she gives me a thousand illusions. there is no chance Neither I nor ten thousand men she knows in the future after you. I swear to god there's no chance as long as you exist. forgive her She is really loving. Please. We might make it out of here alive, or we might not. Don't end your last hours here fighting her." Palermo feels a little better through the last part of his speech, but equally refuses to accept it. until he gets a message on the radio.
"palermo" the voice of the professor. Palermo gets excited when he hears his voice again and quickly grabs the radio.
"Sergio! Yes! I'm here!" he says really happily.
"they stole our gold" he announces and everything seems to collapse in palermo's body.
"What?!" he asks angrily.
“They came in and pretended to be police officers. They were thieves. They stole everything from us."
“It was stolen just before transport? You know what that means, don't you? There is a traitor among us.”
“No one should know about this except the group. No one. If so, then we're all dead. Please tell Lisbon.”
"Understood Professor" Palermo says and breaks off the communication. He lets out the breath he was holding during the conversation and runs his hands through his hair. think. think. And think . He knows it's only a matter of time before the police find out they don't have the gold. then, little by little, he begins to fall into reality and accept that this will not work. They will probably die there. They have a countdown before they blast the roofs and kill them all. and only one person comes him to mind. Her. Palermo hurries to look for her. but he finds lisbon on the way to her first. then he decides to stop for a second to tell her the news. "They stole our gold," he tells her in a low voice, grabbing her arms. lisboa's facial expression changes little by little.
"What?" she asks shocked.
"Nobody must find out," he warns her. He realizes that Lisbon is desperate and hugs her. Velez and Rio continue their hour-long walk around the bank, walking at a slow pace, arms crossed like handcuffs. they meet palermo and lisboa, and the first picture velez takes is of the two embracing. She immediately gets it wrong and can't help but feel blindly out of control.
"No" he says immediately and pulls her back. "Come on" Velez lets go of him and walks towards them quickly and awkwardly. She gets in the middle of the two, separating them and pushing for Lisbon. palermo takes it by surprise and lisboa looks at her blankly.
"What are you doing?" she says to Palermo, shoving him with the obvious anger in her voice. she quickly turns to Raquel and looks at her.
"Go fuck your Denver," Palermo tells her to tease her, winking at Lisbon. Velez turns to him and her eyes fill with tears.
"Asshole" she tells him with all her hate and resentment. She leaves the corridor, but in a hurry so that Palermo and Rio don't see her emotional imbalance. Rio tries to follow her but is stopped by Palermo, who grabs his forearm.
"Where are you going, little one?" he asks and Rio looks at him hatefully.
"With her," he replies, forcibly releasing himself from his grip. palermo laughs exaggeratedly and shakes his head.
"You won't go with her. I'll go with her," he emphasizes with every word. "You're going to keep walking around here. Oh, and they stole our gold.” Rio's face changes as he hears the news. Palermo then walks away in the direction Velez fled. he finds her in one of the rooms when he opens the door.
"Go away!" Velez yells at him and throws a book at him, which crashes into the wall inches away from him, causing Palermo to reflexively cover his head. "Fucking bastard," she yells at him, wiping away her tears. palermo smiles and approaches her to face her. “You come to bully me, tell me ugly things, tell me I dare cheat on you with Denver. I don't want to listen to you anymore You're a piece of shit," she tells him painfully.
"they stole our gold" palermo says. Velez calms down a bit and looks at him.
"How come our..." she can't even finish the question because she starts to cry again. As if she didn't have enough misfortune, tragedy strikes.
"Nobody must know," he tells her further. "denver spoke to me about what happened to you."
"I don't want to talk about it," but Palermo cuts her off anyway.
“He has already made it clear how things are going. I wouldn't forgive you for that. But with that stolen gold, I very much doubt we're going to get out of here. And you're the woman of my life, the one I love most in the whole world," he grabs her shoulders and she looks at him, unable to believe these words are coming out of his mouth. "And I don't want to die fighting with you, I am sure I could not rest in peace I will fight for you with you by my side." Velez drops her last tears and interrupts him, clutching his cheeks and bringing their foreheads together.
"I love you" she says and Palermo can't take it anymore. He kisses her quickly and deeply on the lips while hugging her very tightly from behind. She puts her arms around his neck and kisses him like there's no tomorrow. For indeed there may be no tomorrow. Palermo gives her a series of short kisses and bites her lip. he hungrily kisses her neck as she hugs his head, afraid someone might take it away from her again. He thought he'd never feel it again and he's squeezing her with all the strength he has. palermo kisses her on the mouth again until they have both calmed down a bit.
"Look at the mess you made for a hug with Lisbon. A hug. You're so toxic," he tells her and kisses her again on the mouth. she laughs against his lips. A few detonations in the distance make them both stop everything they're doing and separate. palermo runs to the door and hears another shot coming closer as the ground shakes beneath his feet. "They're coming in," he tells her, and Velez immediately rushes over to grab the machine gun. and right after she grabs it, the wall and window are destroyed and everything burns. both fly and fall to the ground. Velez falls, thank God, on her good arm. The great army enters through the broken windows and through the door. When Velez comes back to reality, she finds Palermo on the ground with a soldier stepping on his back. She quickly crawls over to her rifle, which is lying on the ground, and kneels to take aim at the soldiers. "kill them!" Palermo shouts at Velez. About five soldiers point at Palermo and almost eight point at her as she watches the green lasers touch every part of her body. she doesn't know what to do.
"Shoot and we'll kill him!" the soldiers yell at her. Little by little they approach her.
"kill them!" palermo yells at her again. she swallows hard and clutches the gun. for the first time she doesn't know what to do.
"Do it! Give us a reason to kill you!" one of the soldiers says in a menacing tone. Velez, in a state of crisis, surrenders. she smashes her rifle violently against the wall. "Hands up!" the soldiers yell at her. She, exhausted, crying and angry, raises her hands. They catch her and violently roll her on the ground, causing pain in her wounds and making her complain on the ground while placing her hands behind her back. all is lost. There's no turning back.