Corrupt

"Good work today officers," Captain Morton said as he patted one of the police officers on the back, "you really handled that situation well."

"Wasn't nothin'. Easy as pie." Officer Kimball scoffed as she took off the gun belt she had fastened securely around her narrow waist. "Just another crazy old man thinking he can scare us by brandishing a gun at us. As if!" Kimball let down her long, curly auburn hair flow naturally around her shoulders.

"I know what you mean Minnie," another officer, Officer Aaron Lawson, sighed as he took off his bullet-proof vest. Minnie Kimball scowled at the use of her despised first name. Lawson took no notice. "I really feel like we haven't been challenged enough. I don't actually think we even need these!" Lawson snickered at the last bit as he gestured towards his vest.

The rest of the officers rolled their eyes. No one really paid much heed to Lawson. He was one of the younger officers, and annoyingly over eager with big electric blue puppy-dog eyes, and quite long black hair which resulted in a very annoying habit of fringe-flicking.

Another male officer sniggered in the corner and Lawson turned to look at him. "Well if it's action you want, Lawson I suggest you move to another precinct!" The officer walked right up to Lawson and sized up to him. Lawson shrank a little in the presence of such a giant. If there was one thing he had learned in his six months in the precinct, it was that it was never a smart move to piss off Officer Josh Hunter. He could probably kill someone with a single glance in Lawson's opinion. And although Lawson would never admit it, the smirk Hunter was giving him right now, terrified him completely.

"Josh, stop scaring the newbie and let’s go, Lara's waiting down at the bar." Lawson sighed with relief as Hunter walked away from him, but felt a little disappointed that he wasn't being invited to join them. He didn't think much of Officers Minnie Kimball and Josh Hunter, but he had had a colossal crush on Officer Lara Fuller since his first day on the force.

xxx

“Kimball! Hunter! Over here!” Lara was sitting in a small booth in the corner of a crumby bar joined by two low-life criminals, and had never been happier to see her colleagues in her life.

“Croft, long time no see!” Lara rolled her chocolate brown eyes before murmuring “Fuller,” to herself. She honestly didn’t know what she saw in Josh Hunter. He was cocky, belittling, completely frightening and of course, going out with Kimball. But he was also tall, with beautiful hazel eyes and soft golden curls. It begged the question, how can someone look so handsome and yet be so feared at the same time?

“So,” Kimball whispered as she took a quick glance to be sure no one was listening, “are we all up to speed with the plan? Jasper? You know what you have to do? And you Horace?” The two criminals nodded. “Good. Then I guess we’re all set to pull it off... Monday?”

“Monday? That’s not long!” Jasper whinged.

“I thought you knew what you had to do?” Hunter challenged. Jasper was silenced. “I agree with Kimball, Monday’s good.”

“Well I have some info you may appreciate...” Lara teased.

“What kind of info?” Kimball demanded.

“Well...” Lara paused and leant in, just for dramatic effect. “Does the name, Dylan Layne mean anything to you?” The others looked at each other in confusion and shook their heads. “Heard Captain Morton talking bout him the other day. Guys, there is a new officer joining the precinct - Monday.”

“God sake you’d think Morton would tell us these kinds of things!” Minnie groaned as she banged her head off the table (a move she immediately regretted). The other three starting muttering to themselves.

“Guys!” Josh’s tone and voice always commanded authority. “Look we’ve been planning this heist for a long time, and there’s no way this Layne guy can take us, he’s no match! Now... are we all still in for Monday?”

xxx

Monday arrived before any of the gang realised. To Hunter’s dismay, an Officer Dylan Layne had arrived. To his delight however, Layne was female, and now the youngest member of the force. Lawson had taken her under his wing, so that killed two birds with one stone.

To Hunter's annoyance, the heist had been postponed for the last few months. Fuller and Kimball had preferred to get time to observe Layne to pick up on any weaknesses they would have to expose if necessary. Kimball had commanded that Fuller befriend Layne in a bid to do this. Fuller had discovered Layne's Achilles' heel after a night out together which resulted in them completely confiding in each other...

"So Lara?" Dylan asked as she collapsed onto her couch and Lara sank down next to her.

"Mmmm?" Lara half-replied as she took a sip of hot chocolate.

"You're a good looking chick, got any guys I don't know about?"

Lara laughed in response. "Now what makes you say a thing like that?

"Hmmm... beautiful big brown eyes, gorgeous silky black hair, and overall exotic looks? Nothing much..."

Lara laughed again, "Well you aren't too bad yourself. Blue eyes, dead-straight chestnut brown hair. Oh and of course freakishly pale skin!"

Dylan chuckled, and then sighed. "So no guy at all? Not even... Hunter?" Lara gave herself away by freezing at the last comment. Dylan smiled. "Knew it."

"Don't tell ANYONE." Lara urged.

"And what about..." Dylan hesitated this time.

Lara took a deep breath. "Go on. You know you want to ask."

"You and... Morton?" Lara squeezed her eyes shut. Dylan chuckled, "Well that explains how you always know the goings-on in the station." Lara looked at her quickly.

"Dyl, you can never tell ANYONE this. And hey, now it's you turn in the firing line. Why were you late to dinner tonight? You were really weird about that." Dylan immediately stiffened, and Lara knew she'd hit a nerve. Dylan closed her eyes and exhaled deeply before answering.

"If I tell you... will you promise you won't tell anyone? Leave that up to me," Dylan opened her blue eyes waited for a nod from Lara before carrying on, "I was at... the pharmacy."

Lara looked at Dylan in confusion. "Why?" Dylan sighed, rummaged in her bag and handed Lara the rectangular box that was within it. Lara felt her jaw drop. Dylan bit her lip before speaking again.

"Will you stay with me... while I take it?" Lara, having temporarily lost her voice, merely nodded.

xxx

Monday was quite a slow day in the precinct, so the cops tried to relax while they could. But they just couldn’t. Kimball kept her eye on the clock, Fuller nibbled at her nails, Hunter tapped his fingers impatiently, all the while Lawson and Layne chatted animatedly.

“Officers!” All five cops jumped in response to Captain Morton’s unexpected entrance. Morton continued on, appearing not to have noticed. “There’s quite a situation down at the bank. Get down there immediately!”

“What now?” Lawson sighed. “An old lady with a knife?”

"Actually, Officer Lawson, two men have the place wired and are stealing as much cash as they can carry. I need you guys to get there as quickly as you can!”

“What? All of us?!” Kimball demanded.

Morton scowled at Kimball before replying, "If 'all of us' consists of Officer Hunter, Officer Fuller, Officer Lawson, Officer Layne and yourself, Officer Kimball, than yes, all of you."

"But, but..." Kimball thought quickly of an excuse. Lawson and Layne were not involved in their plans. "We, we can't have Lawson and Layne!" Lawson and Layne looked extremely offended at this and Morton looked thunderous.

"Just because YOU think you're the expert, and THEY are just the rookies, does not mean under any circumstances that Aaron and Dylan should miss out on invaluable experience like this! The five of you WILL go down there immediately and take care of this! People will get hurt!”

As the officers rushed out the door quickly and as they did Lara swore she heard Hunter mutter, “Damn straight they will...”

xxx

Kimball and Hunter seemed to take control of the situation as soon as the cops walked into the bank.

"Fuller, Lawson, Layne you guys keep guard here - we're going to go after the big guys!" Kimball commanded as she dashed around the corner.

Hunter simply walked up to Lara and whispered to her, "If either of them start to catch on, you know what to do," as he gestured towards his gun belt. Lara reluctantly nodded.

xxx

"Grab all you can guys!" Kimball instructed as she and Hunter snuck into the vault room. She looked around and paused. "Hang on hang on!" she cried. "Where's Jasper?"

At these words, both Hunter and Horace glanced around to see that Japer had indeed vanished. Hunter grunted, "Check the CCTV." No sooner were the words out of his mouth, then Kimball was checking on the security cameras in the next room. Both men heard her mutter 'shit' as soon as she sat down on the seat. She came storming out two seconds later clutching a large knife.

xxx

"He went this way, I'm sure of it!" Both Lara and Dylan were extremely reluctant to follow Aaron. He had seen a very suspicious looking man run past, who Lara knew as Jasper. Lara was unsure as to whether it was a part of the plan that she was unaware of. None the less, Aaron was leading them, Lara tailing him and Dylan trailing behind.

"You know Kimball told us to stay put!" Lara attempted, but knew it wouldn't sway Lawson. He scoffed at the words.

“Meh, she hates me anyway. Most of the precinct does.” he sighed.

“Layne doesn’t.” Lara input. Lawson smiled at these words.

“I know,” he said simply. Then he turned around and did a quick double take. He took a deep breath before uttering, ”Lara... she’s gone.” Lara span around and sure enough, there was no one where Dylan had been previously. Lara felt her heart sink as she heard a familiar voice speak.

“Looking for this?” Kimball sneered as she came slowly around the corner. But she wasn’t alone. Lawson gasped in horror when he saw the size of the knife that was pressed against Layne’s throat. “I swear,” Kimball growled, “one wrong move and I’ll slit her throat!”

Aaron narrowed his eyes at her in disgust. “Why are you doing this Minnie?” Kimball gave him an evil look before responding.

“First of; do NOT call me that again. Not unless you want her dead! Secondly - cash, but of course. We’ve been planning this heist for years, but, obstacles, kept getting in our way.”

“What kind of ‘obstacles’?” Lawson grunted.

“Well, first off, Ray Morton, out of all people, got promoted to Captain. He’s younger than I am! Do you know how annoying that was?”

Lawson wasn’t sure if this was a rhetorical question and so chose not to answer. For a moment all was silent and the only noise that was heard was Dylan whimpering. Kimball continued her tale.

“Hunter and I were hoping that either of us would be promoted to Captain so we could call the shots. But we soon got over it. The next three hurdles were of a similar nature.”

Lawson paused. “What were they?”

Kimball smirked. “Can’t you guess?”

Lawson shook his head.

“Not even if I told you that they were all in this room?” It was then that it sank in for Lawson. “There you go Aaron, you clever boy. Yes Fuller here, was our next hurdle. Once she gained our trust, we decided to let her in our plans.”

Both Aaron and Dylan turned to Lara in horror. Surprisingly, Dylan, spoke first. “You’re working for her?”

Kimball grinned. “Yes, she’s been telling me a lot about you both...” Dylan’s eyes widened in horror. Lara quickly shook her head signalling not to say anything. Kimball didn't seem to notice and carried on with her story.

"Yes Lara told me you too are most definitely an item! Though anyone with eyes could have seen that... damn now I've lost my train of though..."

"You were about to tell us why you're doing this?" A new, yet recognisable voice spoke. Aaron and Lara turned to become face to face with Captain Morton - with a pistol in hand. He gave a hard look to Kimball before he spoke again. “Minnie, take that knife down from Dylan’s throat. You dare slit her neck you know I won’t hesitate to shoot you.” Surprisingly, the hand Kimball was holding the knife dropped to her side, but she didn’t release the hold she had on Dylan.

“Let her go.” Lawson stated simply. Kimball swore she could see a few tears drop. Kimball shook her head.

“Layne here is what you may call... my insurance policy,” Kimball sneered, “Fuller you ready to head?” Morton looked at Lara in disgust.

“Lara are YOU in on this?” he demanded. Lara had her head hanging in shame.

“Well Fuller we will have a few minutes to make our escape - you coming or not? Morton I assume back-up’s on its way as we speak?”

Morton nodded. “But you’ll never escape before that. I won’t let you out of my sight.”

“Oh but you will Morton, I have a diversion already in mind for my getaway!”

Morton scoffed. “And how will you manage something like that? I’m not falling for the old, ‘Look behind you!’, you know.”

Kimball grinned sadistically before answering, “Insurance policy.” With one swift arm movement, Kimball used her concealed knife as the diversion - she and Fuller rushed around the corner as Dylan Layne dropped to the ground screaming in agony, with the knife sticking out from under her bullet proof vest.