City Spies by James Ponti

Author:James Ponti
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin
Published: 2020-03-10T00:00:00+00:00

17. Goldfinger Avenue

THE BANK ROBBERY TAKING PLACE twenty miles west of central London was nothing like the cyberattacks committed by Brooklyn and Charlotte. This was an old-fashioned heist, complete with bad guys who carried guns and wore ski masks to hide their faces.

The fact that Brooklyn and the rest of the team witnessed it in person was just a case of being in the wrong place at the right time. They were on their way to training but the street had been blocked off, so all they could do was stand a safe distance away and watch the drama unfold from behind a line of wooden barricades.

“I can’t believe we’re actually seeing this,” Brooklyn said to Monty. “How’s it even possible?”

Before them four police cars were fanned out in a semicircle in front of the bank entrance. The officers had taken cover behind their vehicles, and everything was at a standstill until one of the robbers leaned out the front door holding a hostage.

He shouted something at the cops, but Brooklyn couldn’t make it out. She noticed a police sniper crawling into position on a rooftop across the street and pointed it out to Sydney and Kat who nodded silently, as if speaking aloud might alert the criminals.

“Give up now! Before somebody gets hurt!” an officer called over a bullhorn.

The robbers responded to this demand with a hail of bullets, and soon shots were fired from both sides. Even at this distance, Brooklyn reflexively stepped back to avoid getting hit by any stray gunfire.

Suddenly the shooting stopped as a silver Jaguar convertible came racing down the street. The driver slammed on the brakes, and the rear of the sports car fishtailed all the way around until it slid to a screeching halt against the curb.

Out stepped the driver, dressed in a slick black suit and tie. He deftly pulled a pistol from his shoulder holster, pointed it right at the door to the bank, and … froze. He just stood there for what seemed like an eternity until he finally put his gun back in the holster, turned in the opposite direction, and asked, “What’s my line again?”

“Cut!” yelled the director as an entire film crew let out a groan of exasperation. This was their third try, and there was no reason to think he’d get it right on the fourth.

“ ‘I’m here for queen and country, and I’ve come to make a withdrawal!’ ” the director said into his bullhorn.

“That’s it, that’s it!” said the actor. “I’ll get it this time. I promise.”

“We’ll pick it up on the reverse angle when we come back,” the director said, seething with frustration. “That’s lunch!”

A bell sounded, and crewmembers suddenly materialized from everywhere. Brooklyn was amazed at how many people were involved in shooting a movie. It was jarring in a humorous way to watch the men who moments before were playing bank robbers take off their masks and make small talk with the cops who’d just been pointing guns at them.

The woman showing the team around the film studio turned to Mother and shook her head.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.