“Sounds to me like he’s got it, Kenny.”

Kenny looked back, shot his long-time partner in crime a hard look. For one, Kenny didn’t like being interrupted and for two, he didn’t like his name being used during a job, even if they were in the car on the way. He said it created bad habits and he wasn’t wrong. It was especially tough for the two of them since they’d known each other for so long. They had wives who hung out with each other and kids who played together; it was weird calling him anything but Kenny, but he didn’t want to slip up inside the bank so he said, “Sounds like he’s got it, Spider.”

“It’s better to be sure,” Kenny said adding, “Cobra.”

“So, you get to be Cobra, and he’s Spider, why do I have to be just ‘New Guy’? Why can’t I be Gator or something like that?”

“Because you’re the new guy. If we do this right, we shouldn’t have to talk to each other at all anyway.”

New Guy decided that would be alright, but he did ask, “So, the guy who couldn’t make it, what name did he use?”

“Crackers,” Cobra said.

“Crackers? That’s not even an animal.”

“No one said it had to be an animal.”

Kenny looked at the driver. “How about you?”

“You don’t even need to ask. There’s a reason they call me ‘The Wheelman.’”

“But that’s not what we’re calling you today.”

“Hell, man, I ain’t getting out of the car.”

Kenny decided that was reasonable.

The three of them piled out as The Wheelman slowed. Everyone had a bandana and sunglasses covering their face and baseball caps obscuring their hair. Each one had on a long coat, much too warm for the current weather, and leather gloves over their hands. Everybody had an AR-15 with the stock cut down so they could hide it under their coat until the moment they burst into the bank. Spider had his hanging on a harness under his coat so he could have a taser in one hand and sap in the other. If the pattern held, the guard would be by the door telling people who came in to take off their hats and sunglasses. Oftentimes, he opened the door for customers. They came at the Surf Coast Credit Union—they all called it a bank job even though it was technically a credit union—from the side so the security guard wouldn’t see them until they were coming inside.

The security guard opened the door for Spider when he went to grab the handle. He got tased and smacked on the head with the sap. Spider pushed him inside and the three of them followed.

A car idling in front of the bank would draw the wrong kind of attention, so The Wheelman pulled around and backed into a parking space that would give him a straight shot at picking them up when they left the bank.

The Wheelman almost pulled right back out when the black and white cruised into the parking lot. He’d never told the others, but he was concerned that a more accurate name for Crackers might have been Rat. Instead of stopping at the bank, however, the cop pulled into a parking space. Surf Coast Credit Union was in a mini-mall next to a grocery store. The cop appeared to be stopping to go into the store. If everybody listened and no one tripped an alarm, he might be inside the store while the crew was running out. They might drive away before he even knew the credit union had been robbed. The presence of the police so close could be a problem, but it was one they could overcome as long as he kept walking.

He was halfway there when he stopped, put his ear to the radio he wore on his shoulder, and looked at the bank. He was moving back toward his car when New Guy came out of the bank.

The Wheelman had the car in gear ready to drive across the front of the credit union, cop or not, but he waited. The cop spun with his gun drawn. New Guy let out a burst of fire as the cop pulled the trigger.

Both men missed. They both also realized they were shooting at each other, so they were soon ducking and firing, more worried about getting shot than hitting their target. As a result, neither man did anything but collateral damage.

Spider and Cobra were better. They stayed calm and aimed, but the cop made himself a small target behind a parked car. They fired, keeping him ducking for cover. With the cop pinned down, The Wheelman started to drive but once more he hesitated as the security guard came out of the door. He had a gun, a smaller one than what he’d carried on his hip, which Spider had taken away after tasing and sapping him. He must have kept the thirty-eight stashed somewhere, probably on his ankle.

The security guard shot Cobra in the back twice and was turning toward the other two when Spider gave him a faceful of bullets. The cop who’d been pinned down decided this was the time to fire back, but when he rose up, the New Guy put a line of slugs across his midsection. A bullet found its way through where his bullet-proof vest connected at his side and the cop went down for good.

Once more, The Wheelman was going to drive, but a black and white he never saw coming pulled in front of him and blocked his way to the credit union. Another one came around the other side and blocked them in from that side too.

Spider unloaded his gun on the car nearest to the getaway car and then drew the pistol he’d stolen from the dead guard. He grabbed Cobra by the coat and started dragging him toward the getaway car.

New Guy tried to do the same thing to the car that blocked the other side, but the first cop out shot him through the eye. He dropped down, pulling the trigger though, and sent the cop that shot him ducking for cover.

Three more squad cars came roaring into the parking lot as well as a car from the sheriff’s department. An officer was down, so every cop on the street was descending on the Surf Coast Credit Union.

Spider fired the pistol and ran as fast as he could while dragging Cobra’s dead weight toward the getaway car. Someone fired back, and he was hit in the shoulder and spun around. He scrambled between a couple of parked cars as multiple officers returned fire. The injured Cobra tried to crawl toward cover, but he was struck multiple times and dropped face-down onto the pavement for the last time.

More police poured into the parking lot, including ones wearing full body armor and carrying assault rifles. A few stopped and blocked off the exits.

Spider rose up from between the cars with a gun in each hand, his and Cobra’s, both with a new magazine. There were a lot of police now, but none of them wanted to get shot so just about everybody was ducking for cover as Spider fired with two guns. Once everyone ducked, he ran. Not fast enough to avoid taking another couple of bullets, though, one through the side and another in the thigh.

He still reached the car, but The Wheelman locked the door. No one was getting away now and he felt his best chance was just to claim innocence. It was a long shot; if anyone had seen them getting out of the car, he’d be sunk, but it had a better chance than trying to run for it.

At least four of the ten bullets that hit Spider as he started to yell at The Wheelman to open the door were instantly fatal.