“Move!” I hear Craig scream. “We have like ten fucking seconds.”

“Foul mouth,” I whisper, checking my watch. “And we have 30. Calm down and cut the chords, grab the cash, and detonate the C4.”

Men. They can’t get anything done without help from a woman. That’s just a fact. He cuts the lights and the whole bank goes dark. The sirens aren’t too far away. When I glance over my shoulder, I see the red and blue reflections, darting toward the glass. “They’re coming,” I say. “Hurry it up.”

“Almost got it,” Elroy says. “Almost…”

Craig and Elroy heave the money into the bag. After a few seconds, I hear the zipper move up. “Got it!” Craig yells. “Blast this place. Fuck the police.”

“Give ‘em what they give us every single day,” Elroy whispers, pleased with himself.

The front and back sides of the bank explode and we dart into the tunnel below. We’ve got this all planned out pretty damn well. We’ve been researching for a year now and it looks like we might make it out alive. Might.

Craig and Elroy, however, are in this for the wrong reasons. Social justice, power to the people… sure. I’m all for it. But for me, it’s all about the money. I want to dip out of this place, start a new life in Bangkok, or Tokyo, and never come back to the States again. It’s not that I’m even against the place. I just have some bad history here. I’d rather not think about it ever again. I’d rather not think about him ever again.

“Move!” I scream, pushing past them. I grab two bags of cash and lurch toward the underground tunnel. “See you on the other side,” I whisper. We all split up. There’re at least 12 different routes down here, and I doubt the cops have any idea where they lead to. It’s good for us, down here. Bad for them.

Away from them, I run against the metal platform below me. I can finally have some peace of mind. If they get caught, they’re out of their own cut of the money. They won’t snitch. I know them too well. They have sealed lips.

I feel free, running like this, even with the sound of police boots echoing yards behind me. “Stop!” one of them screams. They aim their gun and sigh when they lose sight of me. I’m too fucking fast for them and much too smart. I hear one of the guys trip and fall against the metal platform and he screams a curse word I can’t quite make out. Part of me wants to slow down and tempt fate. The other part of me wants to get the hell out of here.

I get to the end of the line, where a large seal closes off the exit. I grab the metal twister near the ground and turn it as hard as I can, lefty-loosey, as they say in grade school. It unlatches. Loudly. But it doesn’t matter. I keep the metal twister at my side and go through the exit, closing the thing behind me and locking it. I see the cops duck around the corner just as it slams shut for good.

I reach into the bag and heat up the metal with one of my torches. The whole thing is elaborately genius, I have to laugh out loud, though I hope it doesn’t give me away as a woman. That’s something I never want them knowing, despite how good it would feel to see the shock on their faces. There aren’t too many women in this town who can rob a bank and I don’t think with my history, it would be that hard to find me.

I heat up the metal until it’s glowing. It’s locked shut and when one of the cops reaches out from the other side, I hear him scream in pain. “Too hot,” I whisper. “Dumbass.”

I grab my tools and my bag, and run the hell out of there. I climb the stairs up and peek my head out of the small manhole. There’s no one around. Not another human for a whole block. The government thought this street would be good for some construction and now they have to pay the price when they bail the city bank out of half a million dollars.

The construction guys leave this area every single night at around the same time. As for now, it’s only some drunk stragglers that are out. Derelicts, winos, homeless wanderers who don’t give a damn about me. As I move off the street, I duck into the forest by me, walking along the trees. Every time a car moves by me, I carefully put my back up against the bark and hold my breath. Nothing. No one knows a thing.

Cop cars zoom in the other direction, toward the bank. I’m free. Fucking free.