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"It was a quiet dark night on an empty street, somewhere in London City-"
"I'm gonna need you to be a bit quieter than that Jim."
I looked in disbelief at my captor as he worked the safe, wondering how much quieter he needed me to sing such a blasted song.
My hands itched to press the button on my phone in my jacket pocket, but a previous show of his efficiency with his throwing knives on the night guards dissuaded me.
"You won't be able to crack it, Slick." I say to him the twelfth time this minute.
I expected him to reply with the same snobby remark as the last eleven times, instead he stood up, patted the dust off his trousers and smiled.
"You know what? I think you're right Jim."
He then laughed and stretched his back.
"You bank employees must really pride yourselves in having a safe that Slick Fingers can't crack."
I was held up for words as I watched him lay his tools carefully on a cloth, rolled it up and tied it.
"Why the stupid expression?" He asked, laughing.
"It-It-It's nothing." I say breaking out of the shock induced trance.
"I just didn't expect you to give up that easily." He started laughing and I joined him.
I kept on talking amidst my laughter, wiping tears from my eyes.
"To think the bank was scared of you as a money grubbing criminal who didn't know when to stop-"
I opened my eyes to see him latching thin wires through the boundary between the safe and the wall.
"Wh-wh-wh-what are you doing?!!" I shouted as he brought out a thin metal saw without the frame.
He looked at me and smiled that crazy smile of his, "I'm taking the safe."
He said it so easily and without a hint of amusement that I burst out laughing.
"You're taking the safe?" I asked with skepticism oozing out of my voice.
"Hmmm" he answered in the affirmative, shaking his head up and down.
"How? It's built into the wall." I asked again, trying to persuade him from whatever crazy idea he had in his head.
"It's fairly easy." He answered while moving the thin wires inside the wall along the sides of the safe.
"I just need to find the points that are connected-" "Clink''.
A sound of metal hitting metal came off as one of the wires bent while going through a side.
He immediately removed that wire and insert the blade in and began sawing inside the wall.
It was one of the most bizarre things I've seen, he was sawing in the wall, probably at something or nothing.
Then the saw went through.
He looked at me and smiled, holding the handle, he proceeded to drag the safe out of the wall.
In all my years, it slid out.
"I can't believe you." I said in awe, almost laughing at the bizarreness of such a heist, at the newly formed hole in the war, connecting an airtight room to the outside.
I put my head outside and felt the cool night breeze blow on my cheeks.
"Hey Jim." I pull my head in and watch him dust the safe and look at the edges.
He smiled and nodded his head after noting that no place was harmed.
"How're you going to take it?" I asked noting how the safes size won't pass the extremely slim door and the difficulty in getting up from this room.
"Do you know why they always call me Slick Fingers?" He asked as he searched in his bags.
"Because you've cracked every safe you've come across?" I tried.
"Nope." He answered as he brought out some rope and a liquid in the container.
"It's because I've never ever let a loot go, no matter how impossible the circumstances." He tied an end of the rope to the handle of the safe and threw the other end out the hole.
"So what's the plan on getting your loot out of here Slick?" I asked as he wore a pair of gloves then poured some of the liquid of the container on the sides of the safe, then poured some more into the sides on the wall.
"What are you doing?" I asked as he worked merrily humming a tune.
"A bit of lubrication." He answered.
He then, with some help, put the safe back in but in reverse, now the handle at the front of the safe was outside and a rope was already connected to it.
The bank was built at a peak with the back to the ocean. The safe room was at the back of the bank, so the handle of the safe with the rope was set at the sea.
We walked outside the bank and were blinded by squad car lights..
I looked around and saw that I was alone at the door.
The police officer who spoke on the microphone, ran up to me.
"Where is Slick man?"
I looked around in confusion, "I don't know Sir, he was here a minute ago-", I began but he didn't stick around to hear more.
The police officer talked into the microphone to the other cops.
They entered their cars and zoomed away.
I went back up to the safe room and saw the hole, I looked down and saw a sleek black boat pulling the safe on the sea.
"You should go now." I shouted out to him.
He laughed, although it was half muted by the sounds of the waves I could hear it.
"Don't be silly, I know you can't see me."
He must have shouted back, although it was barely a whisper when I heard it.
I didn't want to start thinking how he is singlehandedly fishing out a safe that fell from this height out of the ocean with just a rope. Seeing what he did today, I had no doubt that it was a 'fairly easy' task for him.
"You wanna come with?" He asked me from the boat, with the safe now onboard.
"Why?" I asked him back, although the offer was a bit tempting.
He laughed and replied,"For giving me a jolly good time. You're without a doubt the best hostage I've held."
I don't know why such an odd compliment moved me the way that I did, yet I had to reply back.
"You're the best robber we've ever had." I was even tempted to say 'please come again.', but I thought against it. Not wanting to make the situation even more funnier.
"You're sure you don't want to come?", He asked again. "3 Pieces of Crystal's worth 10 million each would do a lot of good, you know?"
I looked at him in shock, although I'm sure he couldn't see me.
"Now you don't mean to say that you plan on sharing your haul with me?" I shout back at him.
"Well you did give me one thing that is pretty hard to steal, Pure joy and amusement. Least I could do is pay you for your trouble."
I laughed hard at this, and I could hear him laughing back.
"It was no trouble at all, you crazy crook." I say laughing.
We heard the sirens whine again as the search party passed the bridge to the other side of town.
A helicopter had joined them and the lights were searching the water.
I looked down to warn Slick but the boat was already gone.
"Guess the night's not so quiet anymore."
I said silently as I enjoyed the ocean breeze blowing in through the safe's hole.
