"Oh I'll punish you for sure"- Athens
What I once considered peaceful was now a disaster.
Hostages were quivering in fear, while the gang raced around shrieking and cursing. Things had gotten ugly in a matter of seconds. Tokyo was the one to blame.
The only upside was that the police still believed that we had actually tried to leave. A little ray of hope in the dark cage. A little ray wasn't enough to feed us happiness.
From the hall, you could hear the yells from the control room above. Helsinki and Oslo were muttering to each other in Serbian.
I was as clueless as the hostages and I wanted to know what was happening.
What position we were in?
What the fuck would happen next?
We were 8 hours in the heist. And things weren't so lovely as I thought it would be.
It was 6:25 p.m. And soon clueless wives would be calling their husbands, checking if they would make it in time for dinner. And when she sat down with the kids, turning on the evening news and saw that their husband's workplace was under attack.
How would they feel?
Would they cry?
Would they scream?
I wouldn't know, I had never been put in that sort of situation, but it makes a charming thing to wonder about, late at night.
The outside was buzzing with police cars and sirens as they set up their tents. It would have been a delightful sight to see, but I was a hostage and my mask was protection - guarding my true identity.
And anyways, imagining them was exactly the same thing. In a sense, we weren't exactly fully drowned, none of the gang's identity had been leaked, but slowly - slowly the water would start to seep in.
It was just a matter of time.
In all honesty, we had a lot of time, they needed to set up their tents, send a drone to find any pictures, set up the floor plans and just organize themselves while we lounged around inside.
The police definitely needed a pay rise. They would need the money to pay for therapy.
Daydreaming and reminiscing had suddenly become a habit of mine. There was no point trying to resist or make friends. So rediscovering moments I had filed away in my head was as entertaining as it was going to get for me.
This particular memory was a favourite amongst many.
We had been given a 30-minute break to do whatever we pleased. And in my case, reading in the fields under the sun was a nice option, before walking back inside and having to learn something mind-numbing;y boring and monotone.
...
I grabbed a book from the mantlepiece, where I kept my books, and tucked it under my shoulder, laying down in the grass.
It was a wonderful, sunny day. The sun was like a burning match in the sky. I flicked open my book sucking in the words like a sponge.
Books were magical - they could transport you away in a matter of seconds and draw you out of the boring reality we lived in.
A shadow slinked around the corner like a sly fox as I felt someone peer down at me like I was an interesting artefact in a museum.
"Can I help you?" I asked sitting up and snapping the book shut. I had just gotten to chapter three where Belle finds out the person she loved was actually a prince.
"You read child storybooks," Denver chuckled sitting down beside me and grabbing the book from my hands.
"I must say you don't strike me as the sort to read princess tales, but Athens, you are a woman of many surprises" He winked as he handed the book back to me.
"If you think that's flirting, consider me dead," I said getting up and walking away.
I sulked back inside, throwing the book down on the kitchen island as Nairobi looked up at me. "Who put the princess in a bad mood," she asked as I rolled my eyes.
Why had linking me to princesses become a hobby of everyone?
I angrily grabbed the kettle pouring the boiling water into the cup watching the water splash down on my hands. I cursed under my breath, gritting my teeth and slamming the counter furiously.
Everything had to go wrong as well.
Nairobi ran over shoving my hand over the sink as cold water splurted out the tap.
"What's gotten into you" she yelled. As she rubbed my hands, red welts started to sprout over my palms.
"Nairobi it's fine," I said turning off the tap and walking away. "Just tell me where the medical kit is and I'll sort it out"
She sighed sympathetically, telling me it was in the storage room underneath the box of plastic explosives.
I nodded cradling my sore hands and kicking open the door of the room. It was dark and dusty and spiderwebs clung to each corner of the walls like a ball of yarn.
I kneeled on the ground shuffling through the boxes as a set of footsteps drew up behind me. "What are you doing in here, Athens?" A cold voice said as I turned around to Berlin an amused expression on his face.
"I'm looking for the medical kit. Nairobi said it was in here" I replied going to pushing aside boxes. "It's not in here, it's in my room," he said.
"Mentioning that earlier would have been great," I said sarcastically jumping up, watching as his eyes scanned my red hands.
"You've really outdone your self with that burn, Athens"
"Thanks, it's my best work," I rolled my eyes, following him up the stairs as he invited me into his room. It was bigger than all the rest of ours.
A magnificent king size bed was in the middle as well as a small rack of clothes, where expensive suits were hung up.
And then his paintings - big detailed works of art hidden behind the dresser.
He held out the small box as I grabbed it from his hands and nodded my head towards him. "If I may ask, just out of random thought, how are you going to dress a wound yourself?
I handed him back the box sitting on his bed and holding out my hand in front of him.
"You do it then" he grinned happily as he sat down in front of me and pulled out an cotton swab. "This might sting"
He pulled the little towel over my hands, as I bit my lips trying to muffle my pain. Berlin then dabbed a burn ointment over my hands as I continued staring around his room.
He pulled out a small length of clear film wrapping it around my hand before sticking it down with some tape. "If your done staring, then going would be your next option," he said.
I scowled, mumbling 'thank you for the help' before walking out the room and back downstairs.
The class was restarting in a couple of minutes.
And that was my first encounter with Berlin, but definitely not my last.
...
I was soon dragged back to reality as a set of footsteps were heard racing down the stairs. They were light and swift so assumingly belonged to Rio.
He was taking Alison Parker to her VIP suite, away from the others. Normally, I would argue that I deserved one, but my job was to stick around with these civil servants, and their stinky intellect rather than be baby-sitted in an office.
As he pulled Alison out of the room and dragged her up the stairs a new memory popped into my mind.
...
Tokyo popped open a beer bottle. Foam fizzed out of it.
"What if everything goes to shit, What do we do then?" Denver asked.
"Well prince charming" Nairobi chuckled "What usually happens to people like us. Thrown into the slammer, sneaking cigs in the yard, tiny little shrimps on national holidays and those family hours were nobody shows up to say hello"
A complete life of luxury, free accommodation paid by the taxes of common people. The government didn't make sense.
"It's going to be even shitter if it all goes to plan, how am I supposed to spend all the money?" Tokyo said.
"Well, I'm going to buy a Maserati, one of the most beautiful cars to exist. It's going to be the exact colour of the sky so it blends in with it. Then a martial arts studio. I want a bar with three floors and those massive speakers you find at raves that makes your ears bleed. I also want to buy a pair of lungs for this old man, You shredded yours in that mine, papa,"
"You're going to spend your money to buy lungs, that's just a stupid idea, son?" Moscow objected as he paced around the table, a beer bottle in his hand.
"And, anyways" Tokyo laughed, "Whose going to sell you lungs. It's not as if you can walk into the supermarket and find them in the meat aisle"
"Some people put their kidneys on the market, so there has to be some crazy person that is willing to sell their lungs for a good bit of cash" Denver explained.
The ideas that came into the boys head were questionable.
"Well me," Berlin cut in "I want a winery in Provence, France. A 200- acre vineyard so I can cultivate my very own wine, in oak barrels"
"Why would you go for all that trouble, when you can walk into a supermarket and get one, it's not as unusual to go in and buy wine then lungs?" Rio grinned.
"For the art"
Interesting. This guy enjoys the arts. It was fascinating that he enjoyed anything. With the way he walks around and communicates as if you were talking to a brick wall.
"Well, I want an Island" Tokyo pouted.
"I want one to" Rio yelled.
Denver added "Make it three then"
"Three's too much of a crowd," Tokyo said as Denver pretended to sob into his hands.
"No. I want a small little island with a massive house, you know the houses with those tiny balconies and the magnificent view of the sea. I'd just roll out of bed every morning and jump into the water"
"Finally, someone who has an actual good idea," Moscow said, sitting down at the table with the rest of us.
"In my case, I have a bit of shit I need to dig myself out of first, before I do any crazy things like you lot. When I've polished my slate, I'm going to buy myself a plane and I'll fly it myself"
"But you could have a hot pilot to do that for you Nairobi" I whined.
"Noo... you don't get it, I want to joke around the people who control the security towers, like move everything for the Spanish queen,"
"Guys, even if we did buy all those things, then you would have millions of euros worth of dough left. We are going into the Royal Mint of Spain, not the local bank across the road - dream big." The professor explained.
In a way he was right. How were we supposed to play off that I casually had 300 million euros and an arrest warrant pinned to head?
"I'm going to record an album singing Corridos, and my face would be on the cover - looking sexy and young as ever" Moscow chortled.
"You'd look like Bertin Osbourne, but 30 kilos heavier," Rio laughed.
"Heyy," Moscow scowled. "Bertin sings rancheras, I sing corridos. Big difference."
"Come sing for us then" Denver cried as he all got us to sing and slam our hands on the table.
He slowly got up, leaning over my chair and singing in my face. He definitely didn't have that bad of a voice.
He pulled me up from my seat as he clumsily waltzed around the room. I winced every few seconds as 150 kilograms were pressed down on my feet.
We all clapped and cheered as one by one we all waltzed around the room with each other. Finally, it was mine and Berlin's turn.
Fate always had a way of making us meet in some way.
"May I dance with you?" Berlin asked as he extended out a hand and wrapped it around my waist. "Were dancing not getting married, Berlin," I laughed as we danced around the room.
"You're a good dancer," I said as we floated gently around the room, weaving past the others who were dancing madly.
"You are to, surprisingly," he said as he smiled at me kindly
"I took classes for a charity event years ago," I said smiling bitterly. That day wasn't the best of all days.
"A criminal interacting with charity. What a deadly mix" he mocked as he spun me around.
"I had made a donation there, so I was invited to a dinner party as a special guest" I shrugged moving my feet in a simple pattern.
Many people think that the waltz is a classy complex dance, when in reality there is only a simple step pattern that you just have to repeat over and over.
...
It almost came as much of a pattern of being interrupted while daydreaming, then the daydreaming itself.
"Everyone please stand up, come on, hurry up" Berlin yelled, "I ask you all to please take off your mask. Are you all deaf, take off your masks?"
I reached over to the pull the string off from around my head before a hand slowly lowered mine down.
"I remember Miss Carillo, that I said I would have to punish you later for talking. This is your punishment, learn to fear the dark maybe then it'll respect you," he said as I stood there stupidly as I felt eyes burn into me.
How was I supposed to watch hostages when I couldn't even see them?
"Something has come up, but despite the helicopters there giving us a few hours of peace and quiet, and then you'll be able to catch up on your beauty sleep, In a bit, my companions will be handing out sleeping bags, water and a sandwich and I'm sure it won't be as delicious as the meals your wife promised you for dinner but take what you can get, Oh and before I forget I ask for a small favour. Take off your clothes."
Not a bad speech, big points for execution and effort.
"I'll give you all red jumpsuits, so your more comfortable and we can all feel like a family, who wears matching pyjamas on Christmas day" He smirked happily.
"Excuse me, sir," Arturo said nervously "Some people here are vulnerable, there are people who suffer heart disease, diabetics, pregnant woman and minors, I beg you please let the weak people go"
"Do you think your Gandhi now?" Denver cut as I snorted quietly to myself.
"Denver calm down, me and Arturtio here are pals, we share a love of movies"
I heard a gun suddenly clock as a sea of gasps suddenly appeared. This was too good not to see, so I flipped up the corner of my mask. There was Denver a gun pointed straight at Arturo's head. You wouldn't understand how much I was mentally begging for him to actually fire.
"Go on," Denver said pushing the gun into Arturo's hand. "Take it. Take the gun. I'm not asking I'm ordering take the gun and aim it at my face"
A lazy smirked appeared on my face as I understood the trick Denver was trying to pull off. The gun was a fake, an old trick in the book, but surprisingly very effective.
"No please" Arturo begged trying to push the gun lightly towards Denver. "I don't want it I'm sorry"
"Am I speaking Chinese, Arturo, point the gun at me, see you're doing great now I need you to shoot me?" Denver spoke angrily drawing the gun up to his chest.
Denver pulled out his gun aiming it Arturo's head. I felt the other hostages duck around me as I followed suit still staring up at the scene.
"Either I shoot you, or you shoot me, consider it a movie scene Arturo, I know you can do it, now you have 10 seconds," Denver said.
One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine..."
Denver slowly counted up before Arturo aggressively pulled the trigger; staring shocked at the barrel of the gun to see no bullets fly out if it. Now he hadn't only lost the argument, he lost his dignity as well. I wasn't wrong when I said he was a pitiable character.
Denver chuckled loudly as he patted Arturo's head as if he were a dog. "You did spectacular Arturo, it was a fake gun, but I'll let you keep it as a souvenir"
"As my friend, Denver recently advertised we will be giving you fake guns, In a few hours time we will need your cooperation, I've said it before and I'll say it again all you have to do is obey and you'll live if only life was as easy as that sometimes" Berlin chuckled.
"Trust us and obey. Now come on and undress," Berlin shouted.
I felt a hand wrap around my arm and drag me into an office, pulling off my mask. "Athens" Berlin smiled kissing me on the forehead. "Was my entrance romantic enough for you?"
I grinned sitting down on the table "Very, I was absolutely flattered" I laughed leaning back dramatically.
"Now when you find out the punishment you really deserve," he said smirking up at my face. I fluttered my eyelashes pretending to be absolutely clueless. "Haven't I been punished enough Sir"
He pushed a finger to my lips silencing me as he drew a small plastic bag in front of my eyes. "You want me to change in front of you?" I asked "If that's what you wanted I could have changed in front of the hostages"
"And have those dirty old men eyes all over you, that would be insulting and who said I was asking for you to simply change?" Berlin smirked lust written in his eyes.
"Ahh... I see what you're trying to do and the answer is no" I pouted pushing the bag back into his arms.
"you are being punished for disobeying, this is an order," he said as he stared into my eyes.
"I said no" I shrugged turning away to face the wall.
He grabbed my arm tightly pulling me off the desk so I fell onto the floor. "I won't ask again"
I laughed, flicking the dust off my blouse "You're going to have to keep on asking because I refuse Sir"
He closed his eyes breathing deeply before grabbing my arm and dragging me back into the hall. "Attention hostages, Miss Carillo here refuses to obey orders and this is what is going to happen to people who think they can test my patience and step in deep waters"
He turned me around roughly, slowly brushing the sleeves of my blouse down unbuttoning the buttons leisurely one by one. If this wasn't considered harsh punishment, torture seemed to be the only other option. Violating the honour of woman because I teased him and he took it the wrong way. This was sick.
The white silk blouse gradually dropped to the floor as he circled around me. I suddenly felt helpless and exposed, what a nice way to set a mood.
He unzipped my skirt as I grit my teeth angrily watching the smooth black material fall down to the floor. Berlin was right, the old civil servants were probably hornier then the young testosterone filled teenagers in the room, who had the decency to look away.
I cowered down low, trying to cover myself as Berlin made me rigidly stand up. I pulled the jumpsuit over my legs quickly as I Berlin leaned in and zipped it up for me. I tied my laces aggressively as I saw Nairobi and Tokyo stand in the corner shooting disgusted glances to Berlin.
Hostage or not, I had dignity. And he had just dunked me in a freezing ice bath.
I was pushed back in line with the others as I sunk to the floor cradling my head in my knees. Thinking about the plan was better than thinking about the present.
꧁__________꧂
"They'll think that were clueless, that all information had been kept from the medias prying eyes, but we do know, we know how valuable Alison Parker is to us and we'll use it to our advantage, and that is why they'll enter on the first night before 4:15 am because at 6:30 the sun rises, the quicker they attempt the easier it is to win our first battle" The first of many yet to come I thought.
꧁_________꧂
I felt the eyes of the others burn into my head. I had gone on about how events with the other hostages had become a source of entertainment to keep me amused, but now I felt almost sympathetic to them and understood how hurtful it felt to have your honour be stripped away from you, in my case physically.
What a nice way karma had found to bend me other and bite me in the ass.
The rhythm of Tokyo and Nairobi's pacing burned into my skull. I was practically dying of shame. I'm guessing Adriana had grown a brain magically, and left me alone since I didn't feel no arm leaning around me protectively. A small figure leaned down beside me as I shuffled away.
"What Berlin did was sick, I spoke to him about it" Nairobi whispered as I lifted my tear-stained face to look at her.
"Aw baby don't cry," she said as I wept into her arms. Normally, crying in front of others was considered a weakness to me, but stripping in front of others wasn't a thing I considered to happen. It does make it one less crazy thing I'm able to cross off my bucket list.
It also felt nice to cry sometimes, to feel all the sadness slowly wash away with my tears.
Berlin slowly burst into the room as I brushed away my tears and stood up hastily with the others. "Hostages, the time to obey has come"
They pulled on their masks as we followed suit behind them like lambs to the slaughter. I didn't feel like working with them anymore, I would rather let someone plan an escape, and if I'm feeling generous even help them. But I was loyal to the plan.
The professor had said the national guard would try and enter and that is exactly what they did. They would try to enter through the main door, the loading docks, the emergency exit and the rooftop. But they would wait, wait for the tactical team to show up to set up surveillance and do a risk assessment, no police force is willing to send their officers into a bloodbath.
And they will do that from the loading docks. What they thought was a great plan of surprise attack was marching into a mousetrap.
I licked my lips hastily, feeling Berlin glance towards me. Out of all the hostages my gun was real, for obvious purposes, and right now I was eager to shove my gun between Berlin's eyes and watch him drop to the floor. I wouldn't be wrong to say he did deserve it.
"Let's go," he said as we dropped out from behind the paper rolls and moved into the practised formation. It felt like we were getting ready for a group dance recital. I walked forward pointing my gun up defensively towards the door almost posing as if this were a photoshoot.
You could say that what was happening above could be even more exciting. Rio had tuned into a radio show making Alison read a message to the police from us signed off with hugs and kisses.
So they wouldn't enter. They would retreat. We would have won. Without force or violence but with sheer intelligence. Not many people can say they outsmarted intelligence themselves, I almost pride myself for it more than my arrest warrant. And now that we had won we could now finally do what we came here to do, to celebrate and print the money.
"Now my friends, this is where the fun begins, where we start working!" Nairobi squealed excitedly. She had been dying to reach this moment you could see it in her smile, mine was more of a watery smile towards her.
As everyone slowly walked away with their designated leader I was the only one left. A set of footsteps suddenly rang out through the hall. You could tell from the dramatic entrance it was Berlin. Someone who I despised with my heart and soul.
He leaned in to hug me as I pushed him away roughly. "Touch me again and I'll kill you" I threatened.
He laughed watching my face intrigued. "Athens, the other hostages aren't here you can drop the act"
"You think this is acting Berlin, are you deluded" I screamed as he pulled me into an office and shut the door quickly.
"I don't think you understand what you did or you might just be braindead, you violated my honour as a woman, as a companion, and as a fucking human" I yelled punching him the chest.
He looked at me quietly before grabbing my fists in his hands. "I'm sorry, I didn't know you cared so much about things like that"
"Oh, so you think I'm a whore who doesn't care who sees her body" I cried as the tears started to roll down my cheeks.
"Athens," he said wrapping his arms around my small frame. "I'm sorry, truly please forgive me, it hurts me to see you cry," he said gently wiping away my tears.
I sighed giving in to his hug leaning up to look at his face. "You do know this doesn't mean I entirely forgive you"
"Well look how the tables have turned now I'm the one getting punished"
I smirked devilishly at his face biting my lips seductively as I brushed the tears from my face. "Oh I'll punish you for sure"
Roza