SWAT stormed into the lobby, pushing their way through the remains of the front door with their guns raised, their combat boots crushing fragments of glass as they ran in. It had been approximately four minutes since the explosion and Agent Lee couldn’t deny the gut feeling he had that the explosion was nothing but a distraction for something else.

“Where are they?” Agent Jin shouted out at the group of hostages while they were still recovering from the blast. A layer of dust and debris covered the hostages and their hearing was still shot, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t comprehend the apprehension and stress written on the man’s face. The last remaining bank teller pointed toward the stairs and Alex glared furiously at her for giving up the men so easily. The move was done subconsciously but the young waitress herself had to admit that although their intentions were to rob the bank, the men never meant to hurt any of them. Had they did, they would have shot them long time ago, or not even bother to move them away from the explosion.

Agent Lee led the SWAT team as they quickly ran over to the back staircase, walking carefully down the closed off stairs and looked straight ahead. A layer of dust and smoke had yet to settle clouding the men’s eyes and worrying the team more as there should be no real explanation as to why the smoke would reach all the way into the antechamber. The first thing that met their eyes as the smoke settled was the opened vault that held the stacks of cash, which seemed to be untouched. But it was the feel of dirt and the sound of debris crunching under his boots when he took the first step onto the antechamber that made Agent Lee groan. Shining a flashlight on the ground below him, the SWAT team leader cursed when he saw clumps of concrete littering the ground. Darting his head and flashlight up and to the left, Agent Lee’s eyes widened when he realized he was staring straight into a gaping hole in the wall.

“!”  The team leader shouted out, as Agent Kim, Agent Jin, and a few other SWAT members ran past him jumping through the hole in efforts to catch the culprits. “I need you to block off the perimeter now! They are in the building next door!” He shouted into the walkie-talkie hoping the police officers on the street could work quickly enough to catch them. Walking further into the small room, he turned to the left and saw the three-ton steel door to the vault, which CEO Yang adamantly said was impenetrable, open. Almost everything in the vault was untouched, with the exception being the small door to box 113 left open. They were really after only one thing.

---

The bank and the adjacent building had taken up the entire block, each building’s entrance at the corner of their respective intersections.  And although the police had blocked off access to the roads surrounding the bank, they didn’t evacuate all the people in nearby buildings. Therefore, when the three men gave each other one last glance as they reached the sidewalk outside and separated ways, the three friends easily camouflaged into the streams of people rushing away from the epicenter of the explosion while the police tried to get a handle on the situation. Danny turned the corner and walked North; Baek Kyoung headed East while Jinhwan continued to walk across the street and headed South never once looking back.

Danny smiled smugly, overly pleased with himself that he managed to grab $100,000 from the cash vault at the last minute and stuffed it into his bag before leaving the bank. Quickening his steps, the male began to half run, mimicking the concern and hysteria of those around him who tried to escape harm. Baek Kyoung was emotionally torn. He was proud of himself for being able to successfully pull off the simultaneous explosions but at the same time pained that Teddy wasn’t there to see it happen. As much as the young male was looking forward to reading articles in the newspapers or watch news segments devoted to their ingenious plan he wished his best friend were alive. Gripping tightly onto the strap of the messenger bag that held the contents of box 113, Baek Kyoung continued to walk down the street.

Jinhwan’s pace slowed, his mind not the least bit relieved that they managed to get out unnoticed while he wondered if all the hostages had made it out of the bank safely. He tried to go over the blueprint of the bank in his head reasoning that the wall he had pushed them against was in fact the safest point for them. Instead of continuing to head South as planned, Jinhwan turned right at the next intersection and walked the short block only to turn right again, essentially walking around in a square to position himself where a crowd of press and curious onlookers now stood.

Police officers were running around frantically as they squared off a perimeter around the intersection demanding identification from each person before they were cleared.  Jinhwan fumbled with his visitors pass and told the frenetic officer he was supposed to have a meeting at the law firm in the building over. Quickly pushing past him after giving him a quick nod the police officer flagged down another man next to him demanding his identification. Jinhwan grimaced when he realized that the cops had already learned that they escaped and could only be grateful for their lack of proper response. With concern drowning his face, Jinhwan’s eyes surveyed the area trying to find any hints at the wellbeing of the hostages, while he held onto the shoulder strap of his laptop bag securing it in place.

“Did the hostages get out safely?” Jinhwan asked out into the crowd.

A near-by photographer had heard him and turned around to face Jinhwan. “Yeah, but I think the robbers escaped. We haven’t seen SWAT come out of the bank yet. I wonder how much money they took.”

“But the hostages are safe, right?” Jinhwan asked again for clarification. “Like no one was hurt from the blast, right?”

The photographer looked back at him slightly annoyed that Jinhwan wasn’t the least bit interested in the fact that the actual criminals had yet to be caught. “Yeah, well except that one security guard the robbers shot earlier. A buddy of mine actually followed the ambulance to the hospital and told me that he’s fine, just lost a -load of blood.”

Jinhwan nodded his head, taking one last glance at the chaos that still ensued as the police tried in vain to find them, his eyes moving over the scene before stopping at the ambulance parked next to the SWAT van. A tiny smile stretched across his face before he walked away, his back disappearing amidst the crowd that continued to gather and watch the scene unfold in front of their eyes.

---

“Miss, I need you to look this way.” The emergency medical technician said for the third time as he tried to get Alex’s attention so he could tend to her wound. But the young woman couldn’t look away. She could have sworn she saw him in the crowd looking at her - smiling at her. Granted the man was wearing a suit, but she was certain it was him; Spike. Alex let the corners of curl up into a smile naturally before turning her attention back toward the annoyed EMT.

“You okay?” The youth pastor asked, limping slightly as he walked over to sit next to her in the back of the ambulance.  He had just finished his first round of interrogation by the police and wanted to check on Alex.

“Yeah.” Alex replied, flinching slightly when she touched the gauze-covered gash on her forehead she had acquired during the explosion. “Everyone’s safe.” She whispered out looking down at her feet dangling over the edge of the van, unable to hide the odd sense of happiness she felt after seeing Spike safe and out of the police’s grasp.

---

Standing in the middle of the bank lobby with his hands on his waist, Agent Lee bellowed out. “You want me to believe that they didn’t even leave one in’ usable print behind? I’ve got guns, shoe prints everything and you still can’t give me a name?”

“It’s not that they didn’t leave anything behind, Sir, we just can’t trace it or link it to any one person we have in any of our databases.” Agent Kim responded, unable to discern whether he was frustrated or merely amazed by the robbers.

“That doesn’t make sense. We have their prints, why can’t you just tell me names?” The team leader demanded.

Agent Kim shook his head, staring at the screen of his laptop that he placed on one of the desks in the lobby.  “Even Mr. Teddy is in’ elusive. He’s got over five registered names, birth certificates from three different countries, don’t even get me started on how many different passports I can link him to. I don’t even think his real name is Teddy, but the other hostages keep saying it is.”

To say Agent Lee felt frustrated would be an understatement. “How about facial recognition? At least tell me it’s the same face in all of those ID’s?”

“Well yea, for the most part, they are all the same face, but I can’t tell you who the other three are, at least not right now. It’s going to take me time to track all of this guy’s movements and see if there’s similarities with anyone else in the entire world. But I can tell you one thing for sure, this guy doesn’t have a criminal record.” Agent Kim looked up at his superior hoping he had an idea in mind as to what to do next.

“I doubt anyone is going to claim the body either.” Agent Jin added as he walked into the bank lobby, the bank’s manager trailing closely behind him. “But I’ve got something better. This guy is Jungho, the bank manager. He says that one of the guys took their mask off right before the blast and he remembers seeing him in the bank before.”

The look on Agent Lee’s face was indescribable as he walked over to the bank manager. “Is that so? Who is he?”

It was clear to see that the nearly eight-hour long hostage situation had taken a toll on the manager, as he weakly nodded his head. “I don’t remember his name, but he’s been to the bank a few times. He even came to access a box in the vault downstairs.”

“Names won’t give us anything. I’m sure he’s just like Teddy. We need a face, when was his last visit?” Agent Kim quickly asked, typing away at his computer trying to gain access to the bank’s surveillance footage for the third time that day.

‘Yesterday.” The manager replied, a small smile crossing his face when he saw the delight on the other three men’s faces as they thought they finally got the break they needed.

Agent Kim continued to tap away on the keys, a frown permanently stuck on his face. “ing man. I still can’t get through. You’d think they would remove the block after they got out.”

“There’s a video room.” Jungho quietly chimed in much to the pleasure of the police. With the manager leading the way, the four men walked down into the antechamber and entered the video room.

Staring up at the ten screens that spanned across one wall, Agent Kim smiled and rushed over to the control panel. “Jackpot. What’s the turnover rate, uh, how much footage does it save before starting to record over it?”

“None.” The manager replied. “It constantly records the footage, the memory doesn’t max out.”

SWAT’s resident computer nerd nodded his head in satisfaction as he looked up at the white noise on each of the ten screens, figuring the cameras must have been blown out during the explosion. His smile slowly dissipated as no matter which button his pressed, or knob he twisted on the control panel nothing changed on the screen. “What the-?”

Rushing over to the other end of the video room, he opened a door that he knew would most likely lead to the computer server room. There has to be a backup somewhere. Connecting his laptop to the main server, Agent Kim began typing away trying to access the hard drive’s main memory. “It can’t be. Where are the backup drives kept?”

“Everything is gone.” A statuesque woman spoke while gracefully walking into the server room, her three-inch heels crushing fragments of concrete on the floor as she passed the other SWAT agents and the bank manager on her way in. “Don’t believe me, here.”

“This is Park Jiyeon.” The bank manager spoke up. “She’s the IT Security Manager. Basically she’s in charge of all the footage.” Agent Kim stared down at the external hard drive Jiyeon was handing him and arched an eyebrow.

“Mr. Yang called me over the moment we found out there was a burglary going on. The cops let me in a little while ago. Try it for yourself. That’s the external with yesterday’s footage.” Turning around to face Agent Lee, she began to explain how the security system worked. “Every night, the entire day’s footage gets copied over into an external hard drive as a backup. It’s programmed and happens automatically, no one has to be here physically for the data to transfer over. Every Sunday I come in and switch out the drives, putting the old one in storage and hooking up a new one.”

While Agent Kim checked the contents of the external drive, Agent Lee decided to ask the security manager a few questions. “Can you try and access the data remotely? Our guy seems to be having difficulty with that.”

Jiyeon shook her head. “The moment I found out there was a robbery in progress I tried, but I can’t break through the firewall they created. That’s why the hard drives were so important. But it seems like-”

“Like what?” Agent Jin questioned her immediately when her voice trailed off watching her intently as she turned to look over at Agent Kim.

“It’s been wiped.” Agent Kim said quietly, staring back at his computer screen suddenly feeling useless.

Agent Lee was quickly becoming impatient. The police upstairs seemed to be having no luck finding the remaining men even after creating a perimeter around the bank and the team leader needed to get a lead fast. “Where are the others? Jungho here said one of the robbers has been here more than once. Where are the other back-up drives?”

Jiyeon led the men to the far corner of the server room where all the other back up hard drives were kept. Punching in a five number code into the small keypad next to the metal cabinet, she pulled a key out and unlocked the cabinet stepping aside when she opened the door. “The top shelf is from last year. That middle shelf right there is from the last three months.”

“Is all access to this recorded?” Agent Jin asked, taking note of how she had to punch in a code to even open the door.

Jiyeon merely nodded her head, already knowing what the agent was trying to allude to. “I haven’t tampered with anything, if that’s what you’re trying to ask. But check for yourself. The last time I opened the cabinet was a few days ago, when I had to switch the hard drives.”

Agent Kim, unaware of the conversation occurring between Jiyeon and his fellow colleague, kept his attention on the task at hand. Picking a random hard drive from the middle shelf, he plugged a USB cord into the port connecting the external drive to his laptop and tried to access the stored data. Instantly the screen when black and an all too familiar block lettered font showed up.

“Nice try Mr. Police Officer.”

“This is my bank, I can go wherever the hell I like!” The voice of Mr. Yang could be heard as he pushed passed the cops that blocked access to the antechamber and rushed directly into the vault that held all the private boxes. He stood in the small vault shell-shocked, his eyes staring straight at the tiny door to box number 113. Jiyeon walked up behind him and let out an audible sigh when she stared at the now empty box, knowing exactly what the CEO was thinking. “Call them, tell them they have the package.” Mr. Yank croaked out, as he stared back at the empty box completely mystified.

“And what exactly is in this package?” Agent Lee asked walking up to the two in the middle of the vault. It was about time he had his questions answered.

---

The rush of people celebrating happy hour only added to intensity of noises within the small dive bar, while people continued to enter the already crowded bar. The three friends had strolled in a little after 6pm at different times smiling wearily at each other as they slid into a booth. It had been a long and trying eight hours for the hold-up but their day was even longer considering how early they had been up in the morning just to prepare. Needless to say they were both tired and famished. The cute blonde waitress walked up to them, handing each man their previously ordered beers and smiled. “Here you go boys. You guys look like you had a long day at work.”

“You have no idea.” Danny winked at the waitress before she walked away, their orders written down on the small white notepad in her hands.

“To Teddy!” Baek Kyoung said, lifting his bottle of beer in the air. “I miss you already buddy.” The other two followed suit, raising their bottles in homage to their lost friend. The clink of their glass bottles blended into the normal bustle of the bar as people continued to stream into the overcrowded bar.

“So, where is this dip?” Danny inquired, trying to change the somber mood Baek Kyoung had created when he mentioned Teddy, as he took another swig from his bottle. He knew well enough that he had yet to come to terms with his friend’s death, but he chose to suppress that small incident, unable to face reality just yet.

“He just walked in.” Jinhwan replied, his eyes staring directly at the entrance to the bar waiting till their handler had made eye contact with him before he waved him down.

“Do you have it?” The man asked point blank when he reached the booth.

“Take a seat, join us.” Jinhwan said, his hand motioning for the empty seat next across from him and Baek Kyoung, next to Danny. “We’ve got some questions of our own for you. Like for starters, what the were you doing inside the bank, Taehyun or was it Father Hyunshik? I can’t remember.”

The salt and pepper-haired male rolled his eyes. “I had strict orders to watch you and make sure you actually went through with it. Now, the package.”

“There’s no need to rush. No one knows who we are.” Danny bit back, glaring at the handler. “So, was all that psychology babble back there in the bank all part of the plan too?”

“I had to act the part, didn’t I?” He retorted. “Besides, you were problem free until this jackass decided to show his in’ face to the whole world.”

Baek Kyoung rushed to his friend’s aid and finally entered the conversation. “He erased everything! There’s no need to worry.”

The handler scoffed. “Yeah, but I’m sure the three hostages remember his face clearly, especially diner girl. I’m sure they got tons of sketches of his face already. Now, hand it over.” Taehyun was right, and the validity of his comment rattled the three men, especially Jinhwan.

“Not so fast.” Jinhwan sneered. “If you guys are so amazing and powerful, why not intervene when SWAT showed up. that, why not just do it yourself? Why use us?”

“Hey don’t make it seem like we left you hanging.” The man growled back, veering his body over the table as he spoke his voice a harsh whisper. “Who gave you the foot-long key you needed to get into the vault? And besides, if Teddy held off a little longer they would have intervened, but then he had to go and get a in’ conscience and make things complicated for you guys.”

“Don’t you ing talk about him like that!” Baek Kyoung yelled out, leaping out from the booth in efforts to deck the handler. Had their meeting place been held at any other venue, they would have surely attracted unwanted attention with Baek Kyoung’s sudden outburst but with the growing number of inebriated customers, his act seemed to have merely blended the men in with the rest of the belligerent drunks.

Flinching away from the young male, Taehyun, the handler, let out a frustrated groan. “Look, just give me the damn package.”

“Not if you show me yours first.” Danny smirked, his eyebrows wriggling up and down as he waited for the handler to hand over all of the evidence his superiors had against them. “What’s the big deal with this box anyways?”

“That’s none of your concern.” He sternly replied, handing over the thumb drive containing all the evidence. “Now, hand it over.”

As Danny held onto the small drive that held their fate, Baek Kyoung asked the question he knew was on everyone’s mind. “What about everything we left behind? Our gym bags, Eleanor, I mean I’m sure they won’t be able to do anything with our prints, Jinhwan did a good job with that, but what if, you know? Plus you’re right about them seeing his face.”

The middle-aged man eyed the package in his hands his lips curving up into a sideways smile. “Like they told you over the phone countless of times. You don’t have to worry about the cops. Everything has been taken care of. Even the sketches of your boy’s face; consider that a parting gift.” Gripping the small box in his hands, his smile widened while he pulled out his phone and dialed a few numbers. “Your accounts have been unfrozen. It was a pleasure working with you boys. You have made the people I work for very happy. Maybe, if the need calls for it we could request your services again-”

“Never.” Jinhwan cut him off.

---

It had been two years since the infamous burglary at HKG Bank. Controversy had surrounded the crime when the police came forth and admitted that all the evidence they had acquired had somehow been compromised, and since then the only reports about the burglary were from people blogging about conspiracy theories behind it all. Even Jinhwan had trouble finding anything regarding the crime on the internet, as each time someone would blog about it, their article would be taken down in a matter of minutes. It seemed as though even the government was trying hard to forget, as they quickly tried to push past the event shelving the case file away using any means necessary to prevent nosey investigators.

For Agent Lee and the rest of his SWAT team, as much as they wanted to catch the remaining three criminals, they were no longer under jurisdiction to do so. Their main job was to handle the hostage situation and the burglary while in progress and once the hostages were secure their services were no longer warranted. The actual feat of capturing the other three men was handed over to local authorities, much to the SWAT team leader’s displeasure. And even though they moved on to other cases, the three Agents always kept the burglars in the back of their mind referring to them as the three that got away.

The eight hostages had moved on, with the help of endless hours of counseling, therapy and monetary support all provided for by CEO Yang himself. Most of them continued to carry on with their lives as normally as they possibly could, but things were different with Alex. The young woman moved clear across the country in efforts to get away. She couldn’t see herself working at Maggie’s Diner anymore, as she found her mind constantly being flooded with images from that day, and particularly of that man.

Walking around the small coffee shop on the University’s campus, Alex smiled at the young couple that sat opposing each other in the booth, their hands reaching out over the table to hold onto each other. She had to admit she preferred the young student clientele compared to the rush of nine-to-five employees back at Maggie’s Diner. They were less impatient, and in her mind, less dangerous. Spinning around at the sound of the bell attached to the front door rattling, the coffee sloshing around in the small pot in her hand, Alex warmly called out. “Welcome to the-”

The man walked through the door keeping his head down, the brim of his baseball cap pulled low as he slid into the first booth he saw. Alex rubbed off his lack of reply as a student either too engrossed with the thoughts in his mind or simply someone who needed their caffeine fix in the middle of finals week. “Here you go.” She offered sweetly, handing the male a menu. Most customers would walk up to the front counter if they wanted something to order off the to-go menu, but if someone sat in the booth she knew they were here for a meal. “Care for a cup of coffee?”

“A water will be fine, thank you.”

Alex froze. That voice. She was certain she had heard that voice before. “I-I’m sorry. What was that?”

“A water would be great, Alex,” the man said as he looked up at her. Although the bill of the cap hid most of his face, the tiny hint of a smile touching the corners of his mouth was all too familiar and Alex instantly realized why she recognized his voice.

The young woman looked back at Jinhwan unsure how to feel or what to do. Sure the man’s face had remained ingrained in her mind, but she wouldn’t quite say it was haunting her or anything like that. In fact, she couldn’t really explain how she felt when she saw him in her mind. “Sure thing, Spike.”

“Jinhwan.” The man promptly corrected her, cringing at the memory the code name had sparked.

Nodding her head slowly she timidly replied. “Right, Jinhwan.” Giving into the smile that tugged at her lips she added, “one water coming right up.”

Jinhwan watched her retreating figure momentarily before reaching into his back pocket and pulling out a creased envelope. Placing it on the table before him, the man used his palms to try and rid the envelope of the creases and smiled at the familiar chicken scratch writing. It was a letter from Baek Kyoung. Through a series of encrypted e-mails, Jinhwan managed to send his friend an address to a post office box that he had opened the moment he finally decided that this was where he wanted to settle down. Figuring it was probably safer to stick with written letters as opposed to electronic mail, the three men had decided that they would only call or e-mail each other in dire situations after splitting ways. Gently unfolding the paper, Jinhwan’s eyes moved gradually over the words, taking in each and every of the blue ballpoint pen his friend had used.

Baek Kyoung’s letter reflected the young man to the tee. It was unorganized, jumping from talking about one topic to another instantly and then back to the previously discussed topic. Instead of being confused or annoyed, Jinhwan found it reassuring seeing how it seemed like the young man was back to his old self again, the child-like innocence he once had before they ever started robbing banks flowing through him. Baek Kyoung had finally finished backpacking across Europe and decided to settle down in a small town in Italy and recently started working at an auto shop. Jinhwan found himself re-reading the sentence with a smile on his face, relieved that at least one of them had successfully fulfilled their dreams.

Clutching tightly onto the letter in his hands, Jinhwan’s mind drifted off to the memory of Danny and his slight hesitation to say bye to the two friends when it was time to split ways. He should have known better, Jinhwan kept telling himself. He should have kept a closer eye on Danny, especially considering he was the only one out of the four of them that didn’t want to stop robbing banks. For the first six months after the incident at HKG Bank the three men were good about keeping in touch, relaying experiences during their travels or paranoia about getting caught, but after those initial months contact from Danny died down to the point where he would no longer respond. The two other men figured he was busy getting his life straight or traveling around like Baek Kyoung but the moment Jinhwan first read about the robbery-turned big-budget film he began to doubt his original reasoning.

Sitting back in the booth, Jinhwan recalled reading the article about a guy who tried to rob a bank about a year ago. The entire process of the burglary was so intricate and impressive that there were even rumors going around that it was being turned into a Hollywood high-budget film.  However, the turnout for the robber wasn’t as spectacular, considering he was shot and killed when SWAT snuck in through an AC vent that led into one of the many rooms of the bank. Jinhwan remembered how his stomach tied up into a knot all the while praying that it wasn’t Danny. He had followed the story for a while, trying to dig up any information he could find about the robbery and who the thief was but all his superficial efforts seemed to have gone in vain. After a more thorough investigation, Jinhwan learned why the police had tried so hard to cover up the man’s identity. It was because they themselves didn’t know who he was. The criminal was found to have over eight different aliases and the police had yet to discern which one was the real one. But one name was all Jinhwan needed to confirm his suspicions, and the moment his eyes landed on it he felt a part of him die. The robber had been Danny.

The male shook his head, as if trying to physically shake the thoughts out of his mind while he neatly folded the letter back, slipping it into the envelope and sliding it back into his jean’s pocket. He had to think positive and focus on the future. At least Baek Kyoung is okay, he kept telling himself.

“Here’s your water.” Alex said, placing the glass on the table, a small gasp escaping her lips when she felt his fingers graze against hers as he immediately reached for the glass before she pulled her hand away. “Um, are you a student here or just passing by?” The waitress timidly asked.

Pulling his hat up so Alex could see his face clearly, Jinhwan turned to look up at her his eyes full of hope. “How about you tell me what answer you want to hear.”

word count: 5300

THANK YOU FOR READING!!!

Final word count: 24,347

I don't think I can thank you enough for reading this story and hopefully getting absorbed into the little world I tried to create. When it came to writing this story, I really wanted to try harder. I wanted to push my limits and see how far my imagination would take me with something that wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns or gangs and guns (at least for the most part).

I'm sure you are angry/annoyed/baffled that I kept questions like what was in the box or who the blackmailers were unanswered, but the main focus of this story wasn't the what, or the why - but rather how. (Hint: reread the last sentence of my description.) To quote the first line of one of my favorite movies that also served as my inspiration to write this story:

My name is Dalton Russell. Pay strict attention to what I say because I choose my words carefully and I never repeat myself. I've told you my name: that's the Who. The Where could most readily be described as a prison cell. But there's a vast difference between being stuck in a tiny cell and being in prison. The What is easy: recently I planned and set in motion events to execute the perfect bank robbery. That's also the When. As for the Why: beyond the obvious financial motivation, it's exceedingly simple... because I can. Which leaves us only with the How; and therein, as the Bard would tell us, lies the rub.

Inside Man (2006)

Regardless of your standpoint on how you view this story, I hope you were able to fall in love with each of the four men that took on the risk of robbing a bank to secure their future. Maybe you empathized with them or are furious that they somewhat got away, but either way, it means that for even a few minutes this story held your attention - and for that, I am beyond grateful.

Thank you

-sights-