The rings around his eyes, the smell of coffee and cigarette butts scattered all over the room told the story of how long Jimmy had been up and working on the safe. It was some minutes past 5 a.m when he finished and took his bath. He called Max to get the crew ready and to meet him at their rendezvous spot.
Known for his ruthless aggression, nobody, even the boss, was careful with the way he spoke to Jimmy. He is known in the underworld circles as the man you sought out for the most dangerous or impossible jobs.
Jimmy looked at the mirror, brushed aside his curly black jet hair and put on his dark shades. "It's on," he said to himself, entered his navy blue Ferrari and sped off.
There were concerns raised as some of the men thought that Jimmy wouldn't make it for the job. They all turned to the sound of footsteps at the doorway. There Jimmy stood looking all cool and dangerous. "Everyone, you know your role? Let's move out."
"Hold on, guys. Can you excuse us for just a minute," said Max, the second lieutenant. The five gang members looked at Max wondering if he had a death wish, interrupting Jimmy in that condescending tone. They quietly but quickly walked out of the room.
Max looked Jimmy in the eyes but couldn't match the cold stare he received from him and quickly averted his eyes. "Don Cancelo has asked to meet with you before you undertake the job. He has something crucial to ask of you".
"Can't it wait?!" asked a now suspicious Jimmy. He knew something wasn't right. The boss doesn't just show up except if something very important came up.
"He will be here in a few. Just wait."
Jimmy unwrapped a bubble gum and threw it into his mouth. The dock was quiet so they could hear the sound of a car driving in.
The boss came out of the car smiling with three bodyguards behind him. As he drew closer, his three bodyguards pulled out their guns and pointed them at Jimmy. Max couldn't believe how things were spiralling fast.
"Don Cancelo, what's all these? You sent for me to do a job for you and then this?!"
The boss laughed. "You can drop the act now my friend. Did you honestly think I won't find out? I have my claws in every agency you can think of or how else did you think I have been able to escape their grasp this long? I got an unusual call from one of my moles in the FBI telling me she has something big for me and that's it gonna cost me. Imagine my surprise, after I had paid a few dollars, she split her guts and rolled on you."
He turned around and faced his men.
"Everyone, the man standing before you is not Jimmy. This is FBI agent Ramsey, he's undercover."
Jimmy laughed and took a few steps forward. "If I wasn't Jimmy, would I have been able to pull off the first job? And now I'm going to crack the most formidable safe in the world and after which you will give me the name of the FBI agent so that I can erase her from existence."
"Not so fast, bring in the safe," said Don Cancelo.
"I took the liberty of securing the safe myself from the bank 20 minutes ago. So you are going to open this safe here and now, and if you can't, it's gonna get messy fast."
Jimmy rolled up his sleeves as he could count almost five gun barrels staring down at him. He immediately started working on the safe. It took him 30 minutes to bypass the first lock, and three more to go. Beads of sweat trickled down his face and his palms were all sweaty. He couldn't imagine who would have ratted him out. Could it be Katty, Lucy? He shook his head to concentrate and get the job done. He hoped the FBI would arrive on time as he had already set off the beacon when he bit into the bubble gum earlier.
Just as practised he cracked all the other locks including the fourth lock and for the fifth and final lock, Don Cancelo brought out a suitcase containing carefully placed hand gloves. The hand gloves had the bank manager's fingerprints on them. He wore it and carefully placed his fingers on the scanner. It blinked green after a few trials and the safe opened.
The boss smiled and removed a flash drive from among the large precious stones in the safe. "BINGO! Take him out as soon as we are cleared off the property," Don Cancelo said to Max.
"Freeze! Drop your weapons! Everybody put your hands up!"
The FBI team rushed in with their guns trained at everyone on the dock. Agent Ramsey immediately relieved Don Cancelo of the flash drive as the other agents arrested the other men.
Ramsey smiled at Don Cancelo and Max. "You can now give up the agent who exposed me. At least I can put in a good word for you for a reduced sentence and a nice comfy cell."
Don Cancelo looked at Ramsey irritatingly, "you will not get away with this." Ramsey searched his pocket and took away his cell phone. "Boys, take him away."
On their way to the station, Ramsey was going through Don Cancelo's call logs and he saw that calls were made to an unknown number numerous times the night before. So he redialled it and the voice that answered asked, "Is it done? have you killed him?"
The voice sent shudders down his spine as it was the familiar voice of his ex-girlfriend in the Agency.
