“Breach! Breach!”

SWAT units moved into Grand Central Bank. Several troopers rappelled down the lines and smashed through windows of the second stairs. Another two squad broke in through the side doors with some charges, breaking open the employee entrance. They all rushed in as a swarm, scattering all over in groups.

“Give me two! Give me two!”

“Check your corners!”

Screams could be heard as people duck under tables, hiding behind bank tills, and counters. SWAT scanned the air, weapons up front, laser sighting on. Some areas with missing lights were filled with tactical glow as the troopers looked around.

“Right sight clear!”

“Left side clear!”

Just in case, half of the ground team bolted up the steps to take a look. After regrouping with the team breaching through the upper windows, they returned down the steps together with several more hostages.

“20-Echo to Captain Ford, all clear!”

SWAT troopers ran over to the bank’s shutters that sealed the front entrance. Thick steel panels that cut off the bank from the city-world outside. It took them a minute to deactivate the locking mechanism, and throw the shutters with a lift.

Not waiting, Lt. Wong and Captain Ford ducked under the metal shutters with pistols drawn and bullet proof vests on their body. They scanned around. All the hostages were scattered around at different hiding places. No zip ties on their hands, no injuries or scratches, just scared. Other than the broken windows where the SWAT came in, the interior of the bank looked...spotless. Like it was just waxed not too long ago then opened for business as usual.

Ford tried to ask a ‘what’ out of his lips, but his brain had trouble processing. He and Lt. Wong holstered their guns to try and get a better grasp of the situation. Ford then spotted someone and pointed. “You. Manager right? What happened?”

The bank manager crawled out of his hiding place, dabbing the sweat off his forehead with a kerchief. “N-no clue! The-the shutters came down and just locked us in. Right out of the blue!”

“Another lock in?” Ford swiped a hand over his face to suppress a groan. “Are you sure you’re not being robbed? Your silent alarms triggered.”

“N-no! W-we didn’t even know until you told me right now!”

Captain Ford shook his head and walked to the side. He vented his frustrations by kicking at a potted plant, making it hobble aside...and regretted it.

“Oh sh—Lieutenant! Lieutenant! We got another one!”

Lt. Wong paused in his examining the silent alarms under the bank tillers and rushed over. Captain Ford pointed at a space between a column and the potted plant he kicked aside.

A small black box, with coloured wires, a phone sitting on top.

“Quick! Do the thing! Turn it off!” Captain Ford stuttered as he backed away.

Lt. Wong stared at it. One step closer to get a better look...then he walked away with a tired sigh.

“...W...” Ford lunged at the box. He crunched it under his bare hands and shoved it into a garbage can. The face of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes peeking out from the trash bin, hollowed out. Ford stomped on the phone until it was nothing but smashed plastic and rubber keypads and kicked it aside. “AGAIN!?”

After gritting his teeth, he picked up his radio to contact other units. “Constable Turbo, status?”

[Northwind is a dud, but we got some staff and visitors locked inside of their automatic vaults! I’m still trying to crack the code to get them out. Give me 10 minutes! Ah ffff, make it 15. Max!]

“Constable Snow?”

[Snow here! I just checked Starfire Credit Union and the jewellery shops. All their electronic doors and shutters just locked in without warning. No one is hurt, but we’re sending a couple of people to the hospital for heart attacks and claustrophobic break downs. I’ll take care of it on my end.]

As soon as Snow finished his report on the radio. Sergeant King and Constable J.J. ran through the open shutters of Grand Central Bank, gasping for air.

“Cap.” King gasped as he tried to steady his lungs. “All false alarms. Nothing.”

J.J. wiped the sweat off her face with the stomach of her shirt, drenched. “Pawn shop, quick cash, watch shops – no bandits.”

Ford smacked the back of his head with a fist. The headache in his head was too much! “Decoys. All the notes we found at their apartment. Beanie Brain, god da—OOOF!” In his frustration he bumped into a small table, spilling fliers and pamphlets all over. Out of pure instincts he picked them up and just slapped them onto a counter in whatever order her clumped them in. “King. J.J. take some men and look around places and banks that don’t have an alarm going off. The bandits could be throwing us around for a loop so they can hit those locations without notice. And.........BANK MANAGER!”

“YES! YES! PRESENT!” The bank manager finally dashed out of his hiding spot and rushed over. Just as he reached Ford, the captain gripped his shoulder with a clench to make him squeak. “WHAT!? WHAT DID I DO!?”

Ford held up some fancy pamphlets in his fist. “What is this?”

“...Fliers...sir.”

Ford jabbed a finger at the CONTENT! “Why wasn’t this made public!?”

“I-it’s a reserved event! Limited guests only.” The bank manager gulped as he glanced at the captain and the fliers. “M-most of the invitations have been sent to-to the who’s who and celebrities. I-it’s even being live streamed, a-as we speak.”

“YOUTUBE, NOW!”

“YES SIR!”