Chapter 6

"You can't just leave me here?" Oliver asked and Jamie looked at Emma. "I could, ya know, cause a distraction here."

"You know what to do. And you know the building," Emma replied firmly. "Weren't you listening on the way over, I explained it twice for you."

Oliver grunted and Jamie shook his head. "Told ya he wasn't up for it. Bet ya he pisses himself on th' job."

"Shut up," Emma snapped. "Now, I have a way-in and out I want but if we have to take a detour out then you know the building. And anyway, I think I might need you to sort out the dogs." Oliver yelped and the female burglar glared at him. "What? You like dogs. I remember that little Jack Russell you used to dote over."

"Yeah, a Jack Russell. Not like these dogs, I've seen them. They are big ... man-eating dogs."

Jamie laughed and even Oliver smiled. "Look, there is nothing that will go wrong, I've got everything I need," Emma promised. "And anyway, I've been watching the 'ouse night 'n' day. They are only out a bit, but I can't be in two places at once. And if they are there I'll give you meat to keep them happy."

Oliver gulped. "I'm not sure about this." Emma leant in and kissed him on the check.

"It'll be easy," she promised and opened the van door. "Come on." She pulled out her backpack, and waited for Jamie and Oliver to get down. "We ain't got all night."

"Well actually love, we have," Jamie teased and Emma snorted.

"Yeah, I was hoping to have as much time to get away as possible," she told him. The road was eerily quiet and Oliver looked at her.

"This isn't the Manor," he told her. "This is, actually where is this?"

Emma chortled to herself and crossed the country lane, pushing aside the branches of a tree in darkness by the side of the road and pushed the switch on her torch. "We are in the right place," she told him firmly and pulled herself up to the branch and then onto a wall next to it, before jumping down.

"So where's she gone?" Oliver asked his brother and there was a sound of metal being prised apart and a gate swung open a few feet from where they are standing.

"I thought we'd come in the back way," Emma told him. "Best not turn up at the front asking if we can rob 'em."

"Too right," Jamie answered enthusiastically. Oliver nervously traipsed through the wrought iron gate and Emma leant over to slide his balaclava down, telling him that there was no point in him having it if it wasn't over his face.

They watched as she emptied out her cigarette butts and matches from a plastic sandwich bag onto the ground underneath the gate and she trod it slightly into the mud. "That'll throw 'em," she whispered and put the sandwich bag back into her pocket.

Oliver was scared as they walked across the grass, keeping to the shadows. Emma had turned off her torch, preferring the light of the moon and the Manor came into view. Oliver gulped.

Emma looked back at him. "Fuck, I was nervous on my first job, but just do as we said, it'll be fine. I've done this loads of times."

Oliver nodded and Jamie looked at Emma. "If this goes tits up 'cos of 'im I'll swing for ya," he muttered and Emma ignored him, running along the shadows to a small bush twenty yards from the patio and the house.

"OK. I am going to get inside and open that door there," she whispered glancing at a piece of torn paper and nodding towards a small door. "It's not protected by an alarm that one but is locked."

"OK."

"But I think there will be people in there," she said nodding towards a room opposite, so that's why we need the distractions."

Oliver's hands felt clammy and he sighed, nodding his head. He was scared; he didn't want to be in the undergrowth of his crazed employer's address, he wanted to be at home in front of the fire with a nice cup of cocoa. How did he let his brother talk him into this?

Emma looked at her watch. "I want you to do them exactly three minutes after I climb in through that window," she told them and Oliver looked at her. "I mean it three minutes. Exactly. To the second."

"But that window's not open," he told her and Emma just gave a snort and a promise that it soon would be.

Emma climbed up the drainpipe, her hands slipping as she made it to the first floor, and then the second. Jamie and Oliver watched from the bush as she got along side the window, and ran her hands along it before prising it open effortlessly.

"Fuck," Jamie cried. "She's got skills. That's insane."

"Ya just jealous," Oliver said nervously and watched as their partner disappeared through the window; he wouldn't have minded if Emma couldn't have gained access and they had to go home but glanced at his watch. "Fifteen seconds past," he whispered and watched as his watch ticked forward. The two brothers held their breaths waiting to hear alarms of the house or shouting but there was nothing.

"Scared?" Jamie asked from underneath his balaclava.

Oliver nodded. "Terrified. I know what Doszak is like. If this isn't perfect I'm going to be dead."

Jamie patted him on the back and left the silence to hang in the air for a few moments. "But dis perfect. And then we are well sorted, for life. And Emma, she is sound."

"I hope so," Oliver muttered. "Cause this is the stupidest thing I've ever done."

Jamie glanced at his watch and flicked his finger towards the gate. "Off you go bro," Jamie whispered as two minutes passed and Oliver tentatively edged his way along the undergrowth and around the house. Five seconds past; he had ten seconds and he looked up at the small gate and manicured hedge that stood in his way.

The gate creaked open, and he shuddered, listening for any movement but there was none, and the two cars were sat on the gravel drive as Emma told him they would be.

Keeping low to the ground, Oliver ran across to the first one, a BMW and pushed hard on the bonnet like he had been told to do, but there was nothing. He did it again and then had to almost jump on the car for the alarm to sound.

His felt his stomach lurch and he slid off of it, pressing down on the sports car for it to the same and dived through the gate, seconds before two voices appeared at the front door.

Oliver tore around the house and came face-to-face with Emma propping a door open at the side of the house. "Hurry," she hissed and Oliver slipped inside. Jamie was already waiting, holding a can in his hand that he put in his backpack. "Ready?"

She listened and guided them down a dimly-lit corridor opposite and then to her right down a marble staircase. They reached the bottom, and turned to see Oliver lifting his balaclava up to scratch underneath. She knocked his hand away and hissed. "Don't."

"But it itches," he moaned. "Itches really bad."

"Tough," Emma hissed and whispered to Oliver's brother. "You need to keep an eye on him."

The entrance to the vault was just in front of them and they walked towards it. Emma suddenly swore, she had tripped over something and the undignified squawk from under her feet shot towards the vault door. "It's Vlad," Oliver whispered. "Jaroslav's mistress's pussy."

Jamie sniggered and Emma looked through her balaclava at Oliver. "Vlad? As in the Impaler?" Emma asked and threw the cat a couple of squares of meat she had in a bag in her pocket as it hissed at her.

"Putin," came the response. "You know ex-KGB." Emma snickered, and went to ask why a Ukrainian businessman named his cat after a Russian president when they arrived at the vault and she muttered. "This is it here."

Jamie went to press the white door access card against the scanner, but Emma knocked his hand away. "Sssh," she silenced him when he went to object and pushed the door. It swung open, and she turned her torch off.

"Silence," she whispered and crept along the stone passageway, glancing either side at the statues that lined the path to the vault. There were two flickering lights that weakly illuminated their path although Emma kept to the right hand side in the shadows until the chamber at the end came into view.

"Why was the door unlocked?" Oliver asked and Jamie clamped his palm over his brother's mouth.

"Shut it," he hissed firmly the terrified man. "Just shut it. Or y'all get us all nicked. Or killed."

There was a terrified squawk from the unwilling robber at the last comment, but Emma glanced up at the CCTV cameras before spraying them with an aerosol; it was almost pitch black and Oliver asked what she had done.

"Tis an obscurer," Emma whispered. "Makes it look like it's through a bathroom winda and out of focus. In case lights come on."

Oliver sniffed and wiped his face. He had never been as scared as he was and looked around the almost pitch black chamber. There was a wrought iron vault in front of him and a dozen statues of naked women in marble around it. A control panel on a small plinth stood two feet away from the door and Emma glanced at it.

Emma strode forward and typed the six digit code – 418592 – into the control panel and looked at Jamie. "Get ready," she whispered and pressed the green button.

There was a whirring sound and the three of them held their breath in expectation. "Wait," she muttered and rubbed her hands together. There was a momentary pause as time stood still for them, waiting for the red light on top of the vault to glow green.

A high-pitched siren went off and the main lights flashed on. Emma looked Jamie and Oliver. "Oh shit," she called and started up towards the passage. "Hide," she called out when she heard voices shouting on the other side of the door and looked down to see Vlad staring up at her. "Get behind the statues."

The cat howled when she picked him up and then sprinted silently down the passageway back into the chamber. Oliver had already taken refuge behind a large feline statue in the very corner of the chamber and Jamie was cowering behind a naked woman. Emma dumped the tabby cat on the plinth and slid behind a statue next to Jamie, peering between the legs of the stone nymph.

The large figure of Jaroslav appeared seconds later with two large, bulky men and he laughed the moment he saw the cat looking scared on the dashboard. He clicked his fingers and a large brute of a man stepped forward and pushed the cat off the panel which made a thoroughly dissatisfied growl as it landed on its feet.

"Zhee fucking cat," he shouted. "Turn zhee alarms off," he barked and the man picked up the terrified animal and walked back down the passageway.

Jaroslav looked around the room, and then walked over to the the plinth, typing in his six digit number and walking into the vault as it swung open. A radio crackled into life and the henchman spoke to Jaroslav walking inside his giant safe. "Control say there is a problem with the camera there," he said in a professional voice. "Everything is washed out." Jaroslav looked up at it and touched it before looking back at his henchman.

"It's looks OK," he told him and looking around the room smiled at he looked at the statue Emma was hiding behind, who felt as though he was looking straight at her. "Get the security company to look tomorrow." He grabbed a briefcase from the vault and then pulled the vault door shut, spinning the wheel on the front and pressing three buttons on the panel. "These go nice in Kiev," he said, nodding towards his companions and holding up his briefcase, and then glanced around the room before striding up the passageway.

They heard a click at the end of the room and Emma peered out. The lights remained on for another twenty seconds and then dimmed; the only illumination coming from the flickering bulbs in the passageway. "See I told you it was a bad idea," Oliver blubbed.

"Oh shut up," Jamie replied and glanced at his ex-girlfriend. "Nice work with the cat."

Emma didn't respond to Jamie or to Oliver's weeping and just stared at the control panel, typing in a six digit number number. "What ya doing?" Jamie hissed and Emma turned and gave him a raffish smile as she pressed the green button.

"Didn't you watch as he typed it in? From my angle it was perfect, open enough to see him type his digits but not shielded by his body."

"So what's it then?" Jamie asked as there was a click from the door.

"123456," Emma replied with a grin. "The classics are always the best."

The light glowed green and Emma spun the wheel 180 degrees. The security door swung open when she pulled on the wheel to reveal a small box room, holding three shelves in a U-Shape.

Emma walked in, looking around the vault and then at the set of shelves bathed in muted red light. Jamie gasped and Emma strode forward picking up the three light-blue statues.

"We shouldn't be here," Oliver wailed from the doorway but Jamie just looked inside the vault. Emma picked up a small box of jewellery containing three necklaces and emptied it into her bag and then glanced over at two hold-alls on the floor.

Jamie opened them and they both gasped – the bags were stuffed full of banknotes and he slid one of them over to Emma.

"You didn't say anything about any money," Oliver told him and Jamie just shrugged. "Just the statues."

"We versatile," Emma whispered in response and they glanced around the vault before leaving it's empty steel shelves and leaving the door open. "I want a jackpot."

"We going to close it?" Oliver asked and Emma shook her head.

"He did something on the keypad when he closed it and I didn't see what it was," she replied. "I'd rather not set the alarms off again, we won't get away with a second time."

"But won't it go off?" Jamie asked and Emma shrugged.

"No fuckin' idea. But we'll be out of here in three minutes," she promised. Emma looked down the passageway and then putting her arms through her full backpack and throwing it over her shoulders jogged down towards the closed security door. Emma pushed the door access card Oliver had got them and it registered with a red light and a derisive tone.

"We are so fucked," Oliver tearfully cried and Jamie punched his brother in the top of his arm.

"Shut up," he snapped and looked at the door access panel. "Can we break it, from the inside?"

Emma shook her head and looked at Oliver. "Are you sure that this is the right sort of card?"

"Yes," Oliver replied and pulled out his wallet, sliding out his work card. "It's just like mine, look. And it is set up for 24 hour access everywhere."

"Well it bloody isn't," Jamie barked back and Oliver screwed up his face.