Chapter 27

It took Pete 3 days to come up with the plan. Honestly it only took him two hours but if there was one thing he had learnt in the cunning profession it was that the longer you kept your opponent waiting the more desperate they became and the more they would bend to your will. With this in mind Pete agreed to meet up with the Brownson's on a Saturday, having discovered there was a trade fair at the amusement park just south of the city.
He knew it was the perfect crowd and the perfect day to get lost in the crowd if need be. He didn't trust anyone or anything, no, only his wits and guts and that evening, as he sat, plotting the intricacies of the whole operation, he had plans for an exit just in case the Senator and his wife didn't quite value the baby as they had projected.
That night, they had made their demand of $40,000,000 and Martha had agreed without as much as a pause in her speech, no doubt without batting her eyelids too. Pete had picked the location and date to correlate with the day of the fair and had then plotted out the whole plan from start to finish.
Firstly, he decided they would arrive the fair as traders. He had taken the job vacancy advertised a night ago for a doorman at the fair, it required him to he fitted into a stuffed bear costume and to hand out flyers just by the entrance of the amusement park. The job suited him just fine as he already needed a disguise seeing as he wasn't so good at the human disguise and pretence thing. He left that bit for Nick and Valeria who arrived the fair grounds as a couple, Valeria heavily pregnant and Nick a jewelry vendor.
The second thing Pete did was to be in the know of all the exits in the fair grounds.m, this wasn't as easy as he had to spend more money than he needed in bribing the security guard at the entrance, the underground exit and the side of the amusement which led out to an abandoned games reserve. He did this anonymously and in the last 24hours, all his accomplices had been ready and alerted him so.
Seeing as Nick had to be part of the whole scheme, they needed a getaway driver that would at least keep the engine ready to take off at his signal, Nick, as good as he was with the wheel wouldn't be quick enough time leave the fairgrounds and get into the vehicle all at least once, what if he couldn't get to the car in time? Or he was injured? Pete didn't want the take that risk, so he employed the services of a Brazilian lady who was rumoured to be a goddess on the wheels too. He wasn't sure she was half as good as Nick but he was sure she could at least drive until either Valeria or Nick took over the steering wheel. Pete wasn't a good driver and he knew this. He drove carelessly and always ended up stuck in the curb or off the side of the road. He could drive decently when he was going for lunch but not when he had armed men on his tail and bullets raining on the windscreen of the cat.
Nick however, always managed to maintain his speed and wits at the same time without as much as a glance back no matter how much the bullets flew and were it hit. One time, Pete could still remember a bullet had been lodged in his shoulder blade for one and a half hour and he had driven his 120 miles before passing out on the side of the road, after properly parking the car and lifting the handbrake. He was that meticulous with driving.
The third thing Pete readied was a yacht. He wasn't an optimist like Nick who saw the good in every situation and always worked out positive solutions, sometimes to the point where he wondered what put him in the criminal profession in the first place. Pete was why many would call a pessimist. He always had plan A down to plan X, this was because he always knew there was a 15-20% possibility that plan A may not work. And as negligible as that percentage was on a scale of 100%, Pete couldn't leave it to chance. He planned everything that the latter and prided himself on how good his schemes always turned out, 95% of the time exactly like he planned them out. And the other 5% either ending on lots of blood and dead bodies and him fleeing. If one could look at it closely, he had been successful since he began the life of crime and that luck had kept him in the life and given him the confidence to take on any gig.
The yacht was by the harbour of east of the city, ready with a captain and wall they needed. It was simple really, get the money, leave the baby and take off to the yacht, leave the city and hide out in one of their safe houses. At least, the money would grant them protection for a few weeks until it all blew over and they were free to begin pulling whatever strings they could and clean out their stack.
The gig upset Pete because it wasn't what he had signed up for. It was the authorization Senator Tommy would give them that he wanted. He promised him merchants and clean papers for all his stolen vehicles and ammunition such that he could easily sell them anywhere in the world without looking over his shoulders first, that had been a good offer and he regretted letting the man con them into this very gig. Now, Senator Tommy was as dead as a piece of bacon and so was whatever promises he made. Pete was however positive he would make the best out of everything. He had plan A up to X anyways and he was certain there was no chance in hell all of them would fail.
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The day of the fair came and the trio had set their plan in motion. They left their home as usual, Nick dutifully leading his 'pregnant wife's out for a day at the amusement park and Pete tagging along. They arrived with the Brazilian woman who parked behind the yellow and black tape where restriction was made on vehicular movements.
It was already midday when they arrived, bought three tickets and entered the amusement park. Pete was stationed at the entrance as planned, having quickly changed into his Pooh the Bear costume, his ear piece and transitter stuffed in the costume. His eyes were fixated Nick and Valeria, from his vantage, he had a good sweep of the park, already positioned at the entrance meant he knew who got in and out of the amusement park whilst his hired assistants had a monitor stationed to observe the corners of the park even before it was officially opened for the trade fair. All movement were reported that him at once and with this, Pete knew exactly when Mrs. Brownson arrived the venue.
Nick and Valeria arrived the fairground as a couple. Valeria heavily pregnant with a basket of 'woolen blankets' and embroidered towels, Moses tucked in between her wares. Nick was side by side with her, a jewelry vendor with whatever loot Valeria could gather. She loved her jewelry and had made Nick swear that not one piece would be missing no matter what.
The crowd kept trickling in after the tickets had been sold out, no doubt the black market college kids had decided to buy the tickets and then resell them for double or sometimes triple the price. Aside from the conventional trading, the amusement park promised a children night for all parents that bought more than 3 tickets and so half of the fairground was flowing with teenagers and toddlers alike.
It was precisely 01:33PM when Mrs. Martha Brownson entered, flanked by four men who tried their best to be casually dressed in jeans and tight t-shirts that looked two sizes too small. Try as much as they could, their bulging arms, rock hard triceps and stiff jaws showed whoever had trained eyes that they were not only armed but harmful in every sense of the word.
Pete moved from the entrance, handed a sweet from his pouch to a kid and waved at the children who kept pointing at him. He tried hi damnest to blend in despite the wool that was stuffed in his face and the sticky substance on his arms and legs to keep the outfit on place, he had an earphone wired into the costume.
"You may want to let some of those thugs go" he said, his voice muffled through the beat costume, but he was sure she heard him loud and clear because she slightly lowered her phones from her ears and her eyes were slowly scanning the crowd, no doubt expecting a man with his phone glued to his own ears too.
"My husband could let me go without a litt__"
"Do you want your son or not?" Pete asked flatly.
Martha exhaled and signaled the men to step back a few steps
"Out the gate ma'am" Pete insisted.
"How do I know yiure not some serial killer?" Martha asked sharply, her tone offended.
"You don't. You'll just have to take the risk" Pete replied without a second thought.
Martha hissed and whispered to the guards who stepped away from her and both exited the large gate, still glancing upwards and sideways, hoping to spot him no doubt.
"I need you to take off your earrings, bracelet and necklace" Pete commanded.
"This is absurd! What is this? A strip tease?" She asked incredulously and stepped around, glaring in all directions.
"Tick tock, time is fast passing" he whispered in a sing sing voice.
Martha took off her earrings and her necklace, her bangles and even her wrist watch.
"Now I want you to dump that phone right where you are" he ordered.
"What?" She asked, confused.
"Dump that cell phone, I know it's synced with your guys outside and I'm not ready for a group call right now" he replied.
Martha sighed dejectedly and dumped the phone.
"Step on it ma'am" he said.
"That is unnecessary" she snapped.
"Step on the phone ma'am, you're wasting my time" he insisted. "Step on the phone and move to the swing before you, you'll see another phone on the ground just at the base, pick it up and let's continue this conversation" he ordered.
"I don't see how any of this is impor__"
"Your child is in danger every second you spend" he reminded her.
Martha turned around again in frustration and then stepped on the cell phone with her louboutin heels, the screen crunched and she frowned, almost stomping her feet in anger.
He could see when the connection was disrupted because the bulky men outside and a single female just few feet to his left swore, turned around and started communicating heatedly amongst themselves.
Martha didn't waste time of going to the swing area and retrieving the phone he'd dropped there for her. She flipped the old phone open and listened to him.
"I need you to move to the rollercoaster, now" he instructed.
Martha went to the rollercoaster that was crammed with men, women, children and even the older generation, some kissing away and others discussing and laughing loudly.
"Now I need you to listen very very carefully"
Martha nodded.
"Your child's life depends on how smart or foolish you try to be in the next couple of seconds, I need you to think hard before you try anything stupid ma'am" he warned.
The fear on Martha's face was palpable and she nodded, squaring her shoulder despite her fears.
Pete looked about, one man had his eyes trained on her, the two by their side had their eyes above the rollercoaster, several feet away and upwards, on a scaffold, a man paced, talking animatedly on the phone and gesticulating wildly. Pete smiled in his costume, from the looks on their faces, they thought that was him.
"There's a woman beside you, don't look back, just listen to her" he ordered her.
Martha did look back, in a split second and she was let with a small boy beside her, sucking on a cotton candy.
"That was foolish ma'am, that's the sort of foolishness that gets your boy killed"
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to"
"I'll try that again. There's a woman behind you, don't look, listen to what she has to say, you have ten seconds to do just that" he ordered.
"Open the case" Nick said just behind her, his breathe virtually on her earlobe.
Martha startled and moved forward, caught her step and steadied herself by holding onto the rollercoaster that was rotating and gradually picking up speed.
Martha held her hands to her chest to steady her thumping heart and then inhaled deeply before exhaling. She put the phone down and sighed again.
"There's a lot of money in here, I can't just open it here, there are people everywhere" she replied.
"No one cares about that, trust me. Open it" Nick ordered.
Martha clicked open the case, flipped it and showed the crisp dollar bills to him, stacked neatly in a row of five and four columns.
"Take out the first note to your right" Nick instructed and she did with shaky hands.
"Pass it to me" he said and she did as instructed.
"Fourth note on the last row" he ordered again and she did as told, handing to him.
"Now I want the last note to the left, in the bottom, not from the top"
"What is this?" She asked, her tone confused.
"We can't have you giving us fake notes now, can we?" He asked.
"I wouldn't play with my son's life" she replied, offended by the very statement.
"Let's hope so" Nick replied and touched the last note, it was original and there was a 97% possiblity that so was the rest.
"It's authentic" Nick said to Pete who was at the other end of the phone he had connected to his wireless earpods
"Okay" Nick replied as he got an order from Pete.
"Can you see the pregnant lady over there?" Nick asked her.
Martha searched with her eyes and saw her, Valeria was robed in a maternity gown, ankle length and a full brown, her for fair tucked under a large sunhat, a scarf over her neck.
She nodded.
"Good. I want you to take twelve steps towards her, not more, not less. Twelve steps, drop the money on your twelfth step and then get to her without the money, your child is in the basket on the stone, pick it up and wait for further instructions" he said.
Martha nodded and almost stumbled over her own feet as she moved again.
"Careful woman, and use your phone" Nick said as he stepped back into the crowd. By the time Martha made it out of the rollercoaster, almost falling flat on her face, Nick was part of the noisy people on board. She looked around and seeing no one of suspicion, she moved, fumbled and turned in circles then began to count her steps. At the twelfth step, she dropped the suitcase which was quickly picked up by a boy no older than 14 years, he took the suitcase without as much as a glance her way and sprinted off to the horror tunnel in the park which was brimming with children eager to get into the tunnel.
Martha moved to the basket on the stone where Valeria stood.
When Pete realized that the men outside were onto them, it was late. He looked up and saw that the man they'd thought was him was now actually smoking his cigarette without a worry in the world.
The men outside were talking heatedly communicating between themselves when a gunshot erupted in the amusement park. Pete flinched but kept his disguise on, ran with the crowd to the exit just east of the park and avoided the entrance where the men stood.
"Valeria, Nick!" He called out through his earphones.
Valeria could feel the hot meal scrap through her tummy before she heard the shot even. She swiveled, grabbed the basket and flee. Her first thought was taking Moses to safety. The park was now a mess of crying children and screaming women and gunshots here and there.
"Nick?" She called out.
"The underground exit" he said, breathless as he thought of was headed right there. "Are you alright?"
"I don't know" she replied and shed her hat first, then her bump which she simply unclasped and let it fall, making the lady in front of her gasp loudly and scream. Having shed the excess weight, Valeria clutched Moses and the basket and descended into the exit tunnel.
There was a security waiting for them below and he locked the gate immediately they passed through, Nick hot on her heels, the suitcase in hand.
"Are you okay? Are you badly hurt?" He asked.