Resistance Is Useless

“I love you,” I said to Alex for the umpteenth time all morning. I pressed my lips against his passionately, entwining our fingers together, like it’d be our last kiss for good.
“Love you, too, Kari,” He muttered, like he wasn’t fully into it. I knew it was stressful on him to send me in the bank first. But I would do it if it meant him and the guys could make this their last “job” and walk away from it forever.
“Yo, are we ready to go?” Zack called from downstairs. “We have to get down there before ten!”
“Ready?” Alex asked me.
“I guess,” I shrugged even though I had a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Alex and I walked downstairs together, hand in hand. The guys had already packed their black bags with supplies and weapons for the robbery. Jack and Zack were talking and going over things while Rian paced in the foyer.
“Come on,” Alex said, picking up a black bag and going out to the SUV we were using.
I ran out after him, throwing my jacket over my body. The guys followed after us and we all piled into the truck. I sat in the back with Alex while Rian drove. I bounced my knee up and down and picked at my nails.

“Can you stop?” Jack said, aggravated by my fidgeting. He held my knee in place. “Makes me feel like I’m gonna die or something.”
“Sorry,” I muttered, looking up at Alex.
“It’s going to be fine,” Alex tried to reassure me, squeezing my hand. “Stick with the plan, okay?”
I nodded and took a deep breath as we approached the bank’s parking lot. Rian pulled into a random parking spot and shut the car off.
“Okay, go in, and there should be a hallway on your right. Ask if they have a bathroom or something, it’s most likely back there. Call us from the bathroom and then see if you can find the security room,” Rian re-explained everything.
“I trust you, Kari,” Alex said. I nodded nervously. I didn’t want to fuck this up for them and get them caught. “If anything happens, say something and I swear I’ll run in there, alright?”
“Okay,” I leaned over and pecked his lips. “I love you.” I opened the door and got out, looking at Alex one last time before walking across the lot.

I took another deep breath before grabbing the cool metal handle of the glass door and pulling it open. I glanced around for a minute and found the hallway Rian was talking about.
“Excuse me,” I stopped a man in a suit on his way to a desk.
“Can I help you with something?” He asked, turning around.
“Do you guys happen to have a bathroom here? Or do you know of a place around here that might have one?” I asked innocently.
“Uh…” I could feel his eyes roaming my body but ignored it.
“I’m not really from around this area,” I lied.
“It’s um, back down that hallway, second door on the left,” He said.
“Thank you so much,” I smiled and walked away. I still felt his eyes on me as I walked down the hallway. I pushed open the door of the bathroom, feeling relieved when it was empty. It was only one individual bathroom, instead of stalls. I locked the door behind me and found my phone in my bag.
“Kari,” Alex picked up on the first ring.
“I’m in the bathroom,” I whispered. I realized my heart was pounding in my chest. “Wait.” I flushed the toilet and twisted the knobs on the sink faucet so no one could hear me.
“Go check and see if anyone’s in the hallway,” He said. “Then open every door in that hall until you get to a security room.”

I waited until it was quiet and then pulled the door open, sticking my head out slightly. All the workers were distracted either answering phones or with a client. “It’s clear.” I walked out of the bathroom calmly and continued down the corridor.
“Tell me when you find it,” Alex said as I held the phone to my ear. “Give us the ok to go in.”
I jiggled the handles of doors that were locked. I opened the door to a lounge/break room with light green walls. I exhaled when I saw that none of the employees were in there.
“Most of the doors are locked,” I whispered. “I still have like, two more doors left.”
The second to last door was an unopened closet, and finally, the last door was just what I was looking for. I thanked God that the security room was empty, too. I slipped through the door and locked it behind me. I looked around the room with small televisions covering the whole building in black and white.
“I fucking found it,” I told Alex, feeling an adrenaline rush.
“Good, now cut some wires and get rid of the tapes,” Alex said. “You have seven minutes, Kari. Do it.”
“Alright, hold on,” I said, placing my phone on the desk so I’d have two hands to work with. I dug through my bag for the pairs of scissors and pliers Alex made me carry for this. “You’re on speaker.”
I reached under the desk that the televisions and technical-looking stuff was on and then realized I had no idea what to cut first.

“Does it matter which wire I cut first?” I asked. “I’m not really a technician, you know.”
“It doesn’t matter, just try to cut anything to shut off the cameras. Make sure you take the tapes, too,” He said. “Don’t hurt yourself.”
“Tell her to stop talking and fucking do it,” I overheard Jack.
“Five minutes until that truck comes,” Alex reminded me. “Hurry.”
I ducked back under the desk and started to cut any and every wire I could. I made sure not to electrocute myself or anything. I sat up and realized I’d disabled almost every camera except for two.
“Shit,” I muttered to myself.
“Three minutes,” Alex counted down.
I moved as fast as I could, climbing onto the desk and reaching behind some kind of monitor. I snipped two wires at once with the pliers. One camera was still on, and I realized it was the one that showed everyone coming and going through the front doors.
I didn’t have time to worry about one camera. I quickly banged on some things and snatched the security tapes out of the televisions, not knowing how to take them out properly. I threw the tapes into my purse to destroy later.
“Sixty seconds,” Alex said.
“I’m done,” I breathed heavily. “One camera’s still not off but you can take care of it when you get in here. Just go.”
“Alright, we’ll be in, in thirty seconds then,” Alex said, hanging up.

I put my phone into my pocket and hoped everything would go as planned. I threw my bag over my shoulder and unlocked the door, stepping out into the hall again. I got to the end of the hall in time to see the four of them run through the door.