"All the World's a Stage," Part V: "The Plan"

It was the evening of the day that Jaredicus received a call from Santiago, Leon had given Jaredicus a call to have him and Johnny meet at Leon’s house. They have made it there and now wait patiently at the dining room table while Leon sets up his study to become a planning room. The two young men are trying to look and act as respectable as possible and wait patiently for the next few minutes.

Not too long after they’ve seated themselves at the table, Leon comes into the dining room and signals for Johnny and Jaredicus to follow him into his study. When they enter they see a giant rotatable board filled with pinned pictures of a bank and notes of all kinds. There are lists, there are images, there are documents, and all of it is hard copy so they can easily be burned once the job is done. Most notably is a shopping list of tools that Leon needs for the job to be a success.

Johnny and Jaredicus take a seat at the foldable table that Leon has set up, then Leon clears his throat, “So…, where do I begin?” He clears his throat again and makes eye contact with Johnny and Jaredicus, “You will each be part of a crew of four, and each of the members will have a role to fulfill. I want to address the crew as a whole so I thank you boys for coming here this evening but I’m going to offer that you spend the night due to the other two members being late to the party.” Leon explains.

“Where will we sleep then?” Johnny asks.

“Wherever you want I don’t give a shit, anywhere except for my bedroom. There’s a guest room down the hall, you can crash on the couch, or if you want you could sleep in the bathroom for all I care. Though I will warn you that I take violent shits at four in the morning.”

The two make their way to the living room where Leon tosses them a couple blankets and pillows he grabbed from the linen closet. Johnny and Jaredicus make their individual sleeping areas on the unexpectedly massive couch. Due to exhaustion, the two young men are quick to fall asleep wearing the same casual clothes that they entered the house in.

The two peacefully slept away until a violent knock was heard on the door. Almost immediately Leon is seen wielding a revolver and carefully making his way to the door, “If that is the goddamn feds.” He says under his breath.

Looking through the peephole, Leon angrily opens the front door to reveal two men, turning on the hallway light reveals those two men were Aaron and Travis. Travis was a skinny but younger looking man who was wearing a tank top and some loose jeans.

Aaron was the first to open up the conversation, “Leon! My main man! Morning.” Aaron says playfully.

“Do you have any fucking idea what time it is?” Leon furiously asks.

“You did tell us to come as soon as we could, so we came as soon as we could.” Travis explains quite satirically. Leon gives them both a disappointing sigh and allows them in. Johnny and Jaredicus soon fully wake up to observe the situation.

As they are walking Aaron takes a look around, “I haven’t been here in a while.” Aaron nudges Leon.

“I heard what happened to Lavernius.” Leon sharply remarks.

“I told you Aaron,” Travis adds in, “everyone has heard about what happened to Lavernius yesterday.

“It’s because Nero doesn’t know how to shut up.” Aaron says jokingly but then wears a guilty face.

Leon cuts the conversation, “Well, anyway, come meet the rest of the crew,” Leon directs them to the living room, “you already know Jaredicus, and that one over there is the new guy.” Leon points toward Johnny.

“Hey.” Johnny introduces himself sounding somewhat tired.

Leon then directs the group into his study where they all take a seat at the foldable table. Leon begins to pull out a file and throws numerous pictures onto the table and starts his discussion, “Alright, there are two teams for this job, and this crew will be split in half. Team one watches the crowd, we are doing this in daylight, team two takes the employees to the vault. We are doing this on a weekday morning, specifically we are doing this-” Leon interrupts himself to look at a clock which says two-thirty six in the morning, “We are doing this on Wednesday.” The other members look at Leon in shock with how soon this is going to occur, “That’s the day after tomorrow. Now, we can’t beat the security system, you will deal with the police, but I have a plan for that. However, timing is key. You must get to the vault and out the door within fifteen minutes maximum. After you have made sure there are no dye packs, and you have secured a couple bags of cash, you need to get out of there before the police arrive. The response time is quite slow, and the alarm systems are quite outdated. You have fifteen minutes to complete this run. Once you exit the building, I want you boys to casually walk to this street.” Leon grabs a street map and points toward it, “This is where an unlocked car will be waiting for you, Johnny will drive you boys to a warehouse. The directions will be in the glove compartment of the car.” Leon looks up at the group, “Do you all understand?”

“Yeah sure, but who’s on what team?” Travis asks.

“Johnny and Aaron will be watching the crowd, while you and Jaredicus will be managing the employees and getting to the vault.” Travis nods in agreement and places his hands behind his head, “I have masks for all of you boys, I don’t want you to show much skin, you’ll be wearing gloves, carrying unregistered weapons, and driving a car with a fake license number.”

“Sounds like a good plan Leon.” Aaron says with enthusiasm, he then looks to Johnny, “I look forward to working with you.”

“Yeah, same.” Johnny responds with levels of tepidness.