Crime Train

PROLOGUE

Another day, another brilliantly planned job by yours truly. I was sitting in the back seat of the van with the crew, heading toward the Museum of Natural History. After they announced the new Egyptian Mummies exhibit, we knew right then that plenty of high-valued objects would be up for the taking soon enough. That was almost exactly a year before, when the planning began. As the planner of the group, it was my job to create a perfect plan to get us in and out without anyone even knowing we had been inside. That was my role in the group. The brains. Every crew I had ever heard of had the same five members, to perfectly execute any heist.

The five roles were Planner, Driver, Engineer, Safe Expert and Hacker. The rules for our group was that our role was our identity. No names were ever exchanged for one big reason: no giving anyone else up if someone was caught by the feds. We also only exchanged information via carrier pigeon and the notes were always destroyed upon being read. The least amount of a trace we left, the better. And that is why we were the best. Nobody knew who we were BECAUSE we didn’t even know who everyone was. All we knew was we were all skilled, which made us all rich.

The downside of that, was I never had anyone close to me. From a young age I was drawn to a life of crime. I became a genius when it came to planning heists. It started off as just figuring out a way to get more food in my foster home and then before I knew it, I was planning ways to steal from my foster parents as well as some of the older kids. One day when I was 14, I tried stealing from my foster father when he was asleep on the couch. He woke up, realized what I was doing, and leapt to his feet. Knowing what was coming, I kicked him in the shin and ran to my cubicle of a bedroom. My wardrobe consisted of what I was currently wearing and one other outfit that was dirty, so I grabbed any food and money I had in my room, shoved it into my backpack and left that home, never looking back. Using my skills helped me find ways to eat and sleep under a roof for a few weeks, but I didn’t want to just survive. I wanted to live. So, I started planning my first real crime. When it came to the execution, that is where I realized I had a problem. There was no way for me to pull off a big score on my own; I needed to find a team to help me out.

I travelled the city looking for people just like myself. One day I was starving and struggling, so I pulled a quick liquor store scam I had used plenty of times. Again, it went off without a hitch and I walked out of that liquor store with the cash from the register and enough food in my backpack to last me about two days. I fled the store through the front door and quickly turned down the alleyway. To my surprise, there were two people standing in the alley, blocking my exit route. The taller one stepped forward and spoke in a deep, smooth voice, “Hello there, little one. You are just what we have been looking for.”

“I…I’m sorry sir. You must have me mistaken for someone else. I made a wrong turn,” I responded.

When I turned to leave, two more goons were already behind me. They grabbed me by my backpack and pushed me forward, so that I was only about a foot away from the man who spoke. “Do not try to run, little one. We saw what you did in that liquor store. I have never in my life seen a 14-year-old pull off something like that with no effort.”

He was smiling, as were the rest of the giant humans standing around me. “Oh. You saw that? I am so sorry. I will give it all back. Just don’t let anyone take me back to my foster home! Please” I begged them. The man actually laughed at my pleading.

“Don’t you worry. You don’t have to give any of it back. And you absolutely will not have to go back to a foster home. I stopped you to give you an offer. Come with us. Work with us. You can have anything you want in life. And we will even train you to do things you could never have dreamed of.” His offer confused me.

“Who are you people? Why do you want me? What is going on here?” I had so many questions running through my mind, I couldn’t ask them fast enough.

“We are a crew of people who, take things from those that are less deserving than us. And we want you because we need a new planner. Our last one got pinched by the Feds. What do you say? Join us, or would you rather we leave you here alone?”

I didn’t know these people. This whole situation confused me. But I knew one thing: anywhere was better than having to sleep on the street. I hesitantly nodded, “Lead the way.” The woman that was originally standing right next to the man walked over and got down on her knees. She gave me a hug and said, “Don’t worry. You will be safe with us. I will make sure of it.” Then she winked and got back to her feet. She offered me her hand, so I took it and we walked down the alley.

***

That’s how I ended up with the crew. The man I later found out was Driver. The woman who comforted me was Hacker. And the other two men that walked up behind me were Engineer and Safe Expert. I spent the last of my childhood years with them. Learning new ways to do things, working with them and planning small jobs here and there. Five years went by after that day before they gave me the opportunity to plan something big. Driver finally told me that it was time for me to plan a big heist on my own. I stressed my brain for weeks, trying to figure out exactly what we should hit. Then we all read the article about the new museum exhibit and I knew.

After a year of planning, we were ready to go. The plan was to break in, steal a medallion that some big time Egyptian King was originally buried with, and get out; all without being undetected completely. I wanted my first job to be the perfect crime. So, there we were, on our way to the museum. Driver in the front, peering through the thick, three a.m. fog. Hacker was in the passenger seat, messing with one of her favorite hacking toys. In the middle row sat Engineer and Safe Expert, both just looking out the window. And I was in the trunk. Once we arrived, the plan was simple.

We would pull up to the loading area by the warehouse for the museum. It was empty at this time, with just one security guard on foot, patrolling the perimeter. I calculated that as soon as the guard passed by the warehouse and around the corner, we would have exactly four minutes and 25 seconds before he came around the far corner and would see us. I gave everyone an exact four-minute timeframe in which to get in, grab the medallion, and get out. When we arrived, everyone would get out but me. Engineer would build a very small explosive, just big enough to blow the lock off the door. Meanwhile, Hacker would access the control panel and deactivate the alarm. Once the door was blown open, Safe Expert would go in and crack the safe open. Driver went in with them. As the leader, he always wanted to be the first one to touch whatever item it was that we were stealing. That left me, keeping guard from inside the van. If I saw any movement outside before the job was done, I would start the van and drive away, getting whoever was there to follow me. This would give the rest of the crew the chance to escape. And in the end, we would all meet up and celebrate the score of a lifetime.

We pulled up to the warehouse just as the guard walked around the corner. “Four minutes starts now. GO!” I told everyone. They all barreled out of the van and began working on the plan. It took Engineer less than 45 seconds to blow the lock on the door. But Hacker was faster; it only took her about 30 seconds to deactivate the alarm. Everyone pushed into the warehouse and I looked down at my watch. Three minutes remaining. Safe Expert needed to work fast. Just as I had that thought, I caught a bit of movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned to investigate, but before I could, something opened the door of the van. Then everything went black.

Chapter 1

The first sensation I felt upon waking up was the throbbing and stabbing pain in my head. The second was the handcuffs. Metal rings locked my wrists together and bound me to the seat I was sitting on. This promptly snapped me out of the fog I was in and I struggled against the handcuffs, looking for some way to escape. After nearly 10 minutes of tugging and pulling against them, I decided there was no easy way to break out of these handcuffs. These were designed unlike any handcuffs I had ever escaped from in my long past. As a master criminal, I had been handcuffed plenty of times. Each of those times, the handcuffs were easier to pick than the last. This pair however, did not even have a keyhole to pick. That was my first clue that something super weird was going on.

I glanced around the room to try to get my bearings. The room I was sitting in was long and narrow, almost like a hallway with seating on both sides. It was then, as I examined my surroundings that I figured out where I was. A train. And it was moving. That was my second clue.

This car of the train was full of bench style seating, from front to back. There were three rows of seats in front of me, but no way for me to tell how many rows were behind me. The walls, from ceiling to floor, were blacked out with plywood. Various paintings and portraits were bolted into that plywood all the way along the car at two-foot intervals; each piece was vastly different than the last. Just next to me was a portrait of Thomas Edison. As I was scanning the room, looking for something that might help me out of the handcuffs, I saw a leg sticking out of one of the other benches ahead of me. I began yelling at them, but with no response, all I could do was assume they were still unconscious. That’s when another voice came from behind me.

“Hey you! Where are we? What is going on? Why am I handcuffed to this seat? How did I end up on a moving train? What is happening? How are we…”

“HEY!” I yelled to cut her off. The last thing I needed was to have to care for someone else. My brain needed full focus to find a way out of the cuffs and off of this train. “I can’t answer any of your questions. I just woke up 10 minutes ago myself. We need to try to stay calm. What is your name?”

“Sarah” she replied. “Sarah Silver. What is your name?”

“Pauline Parker. Nice to meet you Sarah. I can’t turn around very far so I can’t see you. How far back are you?”

“About nine rows behind you. My back is against the back wall of this train car.”

“Okay good. That is helpful. You can see everything I can’t see then. Are you able to see anything that might be helpful to us? Maybe a way out of these handcuffs? Or some indication of where this train is heading?”

“Nothing. Wait. I see someone else. Just their leg though. Six rows behind you. Oh, and there is a fourth person with us. Three rows behind you.”

“So, we are sitting in every third row. Which means there must be somebody up against the front wall. We need to wake everybody up. The more minds on this, the better.”

“I agree.” Sarah reluctantly replied. “Let’s shout on three. To wake them up. One, two…” but before Sarah could say three, a high-pitched noise rang throughout the entire train car. The man from the front row sprang awake and I can only assume the people behind me did too. And then, just as suddenly as it began, the siren stopped. It was followed by a sinister voice. The low, rough, gravelly voice of a man. From my observation, most likely a smoker in his late 40s or early 50s. But the voice wasn’t what gave everyone on this train a chill down their spine, it was the speech that he made.

“Good morning passengers. Glad to see everyone is finally awake. Now the game can begin. Before I explain the rules however, a little bit of backstory. After all, what fun would this game be if you spent the entire time wondering why it was happening to you all? Each of you is a thief. None of you know each other because you each work for different crews. But you are all special. Because you are all the best at what you do. And that is why you are here. I wanted to gather the best of the best and submit you all to the most difficult heist of your careers. I will let you all introduce yourselves and get familiar very soon, but first, you must know what the game is.

“The rules are simple. Survive or die. There are different ways to do either. This train is traveling at exactly 60 miles per hour. In approximately 200 miles, there is an unfinished bridge that this train will inevitably drive over. Anyone still on the train at the time will be killed by the fall. With that being said, there are a few different ways to get off this train safely and live to see another day. I will not give you any details on those specifics, but I will give you a couple of necessary clues to start the thinking process. This train has five cars in total. The engine car in the front, followed by the bar car, then the passenger car where you are all currently located. Behind your car is the cargo car. And finally, bringing up the rear is the office car. There are four keys hidden among this train, each of which will open something important.

“The last piece of information I will give is short. There are a couple of different ways that one person can escape by themselves. However, there is only one way that all of you will survive this game, and it is by far the most difficult option. What decisions you all make are ultimately up to you. Work as a team or work as an individual. The choice is yours.”

As soon as the message ended, the cuffs released their metal bite from my arm. From the sound of it, all five pairs of handcuffs unlocked at the same time. I stood up and ran toward the door in the front, planning on running straight to the engine room. When I got there, the man sitting in the front row was already standing and pushing on the door. “It’s locked shut!” he said. I examined the door quickly and learned that just like the handcuffs, there was no picking this lock. I resolved that every lock on this train would be the same.

“We should all take a minute to get to know each other. He did say we all have a different skill set after all. Maybe learning about each other will help us all survive.” I took a seat at the front of the train car and gestured for everyone else to join. As they sat down, I spoke quickly, “Let’s keep this brief since we don’t have endless time. My name is Pauline Parker. In my crew, I am in charge of all planning. Essentially, I am the brains of most of our operations. The last thing I remember before waking up on this train, I was standing guard and watching the exit route of a museum heist I was working. Next thing I knew, I was on this train. Sarah, will you go next?”

This was my first time getting a good look at Sarah Silver. Beautiful. That is the only way to describe the girl I saw standing in front of me. Long brown hair, with just a little bit of a waviness to it. Although she wasn’t wearing any right now, I could tell that she often wore glasses because of the little indentation marks on the bridge of her nose. She was wearing a bright red t-shirt with some sort of computer lingo printed on it and a pair of jeans. Her shoes were the kicker for me. White converse. The same pair I had in my closet back home. Yes, most people own that exact pair of shoes, but I had never met anyone in my life who also doodled on them! Little cartoon drawings, filled with color and detail decorated her white converse. I glanced down and remembered that I had just changed my shoes before getting out of the car what felt like ages ago. I knew if we split up at all, she was my first choice of a partner.

Sarah nodded. “My name is Sarah Silver. I am the computer guru for my team. I specialize in hacking government systems. I was hacking into an encoded police frequency for my unit to monitor communications. We were planning to break into a government building. Then I woke up here. Pauline and I were about to wake the rest of you up when that alarm went off.”

“Thank you, Sarah. Who wants to go next?”

The other three were all men. And each of them had a look of equivocation on their faces, but one finally leaned forward. It was the same guy who had been sitting in the front row. He was wearing a plain, white t-shirt and a pair of black jeans. His hair clearly had a whole handful of product in it because even after a kidnapping, it was standing up and styled perfectly. He also reeked of some sort of body spray. This guy seemed like the typical guy one would see at the gym. Muscular, but mainly just for show. Shoulders, chest and arms all worked on daily but his legs were very clearly ignored. “My name is Karter Vice. I am the driver for my crew. I was sitting outside a bank in our getaway vehicle and then next thing I know, I am being woken up by the loudest alarm I have ever heard. Is nobody going to mention the obvious fact that we are probably all going to die on this train?”

“Thinking about that is only going to stress us out and put us off our game. I have seen this same strategy numerous times on television before. My name is Ned Rallec.” Ned was a scrawny guy. Couldn’t weigh more than 150 pounds. He was wearing a shirt that I could tell wasn’t out of his closet by the way it hung off his body. And his pants seemed like they might be a little too tight. It felt as if he were trying to wear clothes to fit in with a specific crowd, but it wasn’t working at all. “I am the safe cracker for my crew. As of yet, I haven’t met a safe I couldn’t break into. Matter of fact, that’s the last thing I remember doing before I woke up here. I had just finished cracking a safe in a mansion that my crew and I were robbing.”

“I guess that just leaves me then,” said the last of the group. This guy was the most unique out of all of us. He had long hair, braided from root to tip in what most people would describe as dreads. He was wearing a tie-dye sweater and a matching pair of tie-dye sweats that from the looks of it he probably did himself. And he was completely barefoot. “My name is Barton Blast. I am the demolitions expert for my crew. I can craft a bomb out of just about anything I have on hand. The last thing I recall was prepping a few smaller explosives for a job my crew was about to pull. I wasn’t told the specifics of where or when it would go down, just what kind of explosives would be needed. I am not the type to ask a lot of questions. Then I woke up here. What’s the plan, Mrs. Planner?” He looked directly at me when he said that, as did the rest of the group. Everyone had a bit of fear in their eyes and I could tell that they were relying on me.

“Here’s what I think we should do.”