Charlie's Plan ,Cut the Power
"There is absolutely only one shot at this, Charlie. Are you completely sure you want to go in there alone?"
"Let me come with you! We can aggressively cover each other."
Handsome Rob's tense voice cracked through the secure earpiece, heavily questioning Charlie Croker's desperate strategy. Sitting in the dark, trailing vehicle, Rob's hands gripped his weapon tightly, his athletic frame coiled with raw, protective anxiety.
"No," Charlie replied, his voice a low, unwavering rumble in the quiet cabin of his idling car. "If Steve can't physically see you and the rest of the crew, he will logically show some tactical restraint. He'll want to know exactly where you are."
"I will seamlessly pretend to trade the massive load of gold directly for Stella, getting as physically close to him as humanly possible."
Charlie glanced down at the bulky, wired vest hidden securely beneath his heavy coat. "Left Ear strapped highly volatile explosives directly to me. The absolute second I am near him, Steve's paranoid, self-preserving nature will force him to think twice before pulling a trigger."
"It is the absolute only viable plan I've got right now," Charlie concluded, his dark eyes fixed on the illuminated, heavily fortified gates of the luxury villa in the distance.
Handsome Rob's rugged face darkened in the trailing car, a heavy scowl creasing his forehead. "Charlie, exactly what if you absolutely cannot control Steve?"
"Have you seriously thought about that lethal possibility?"
Charlie was an undisputed, world-class international thief; he naturally possessed some highly capable physical moves and sharp instincts.
But he still fell drastically short in a raw, violent confrontation against a cold-blooded killer like Steve. After all, Steve had aggressively served in the military for years and had done a brutal, bloody stint as an armed mercenary.
Let's face the grim reality ,Charlie simply wasn't his equal in lethal combat skill. In sheer, unadulterated ruthlessness, Rob genuinely didn't think Charlie stood a single, microscopic chance.
"I know perfectly well exactly who he is," Charlie answered calmly, his voice betraying none of the suffocating fear gnawing at his stomach.
"That is exactly why Steve will arrogantly come out to meet me in person, and his heavily armed security absolutely won't give me too hard a time at the gate."
"He will logically figure I might be carrying a weapon, but he is supremely confident he can aggressively put me down easily if I try anything ,that massive arrogance is my absolute only opening."
"You are rolling the lethal dice, Charlie," Lyle's nervous, trembling voice suddenly cut into the encrypted comms channel from his secure van at the bottom of the hill.
"Lyle is absolutely right. If you lose this desperate gamble, you could violently lose your life," Left Ear made one last, heavy plea, his stoic voice tight with genuine concern for his leader.
Charlie smiled a sad, bitter smile, gazing intently at the brightly lit, sprawling villa ahead.
"I owe John Bridger my life, and now his beautiful daughter Stella is in lethal danger entirely because of my massive failure."
"So if I can successfully get her back alive," Charlie whispered, his hands gripping the leather steering wheel until his knuckles turned pure white, "giving my own life in exchange for hers is absolutely nothing."
The secure comms channel fell into a heavy, suffocating silence.
After a long, agonizing moment, Handsome Rob finally spoke, his tone thick with unwavering loyalty. "Left Ear and I will be perfectly ready to aggressively pull you out the second things go sideways. Do not lose your earpiece."
"Got it."
Charlie ended the brief, heavy call. His calloused hands on the steering wheel trembled slightly under the crushing, lethal pressure.
But the agonizing thought of Stella, violently captured and held hostage inside that fortress completely because of his own sloppy oversight, steeled his absolute resolve.
He firmly turned the key and started the heavy engine.
After rolling slowly forward a short, agonizing distance, he aggressively flicked on the bright headlights and drove his unremarkable Volkswagen sedan straight toward the villa's fortified main gate.
"Here we go."
High up in the thick, swaying canopy of a massive oak tree overlooking the estate, Arthur Sterling held his breath.
His dark, predatory eyes were locked perfectly on the compound. He gripped the heavy, military-grade Sniper Laika crossbow, his calloused finger resting lightly on the cold trigger, absolutely ready to loose a lethal, armor-piercing bolt at any given second.
"Halt!"
The heavily armed Security Personnel actively patrolling the outer perimeter of Steve's sprawling villa instantly spotted the approaching vehicle cutting through the darkness.
One burly guard aggressively rested a heavy hand on his holstered pistol and waved his other arm sharply, moving cautiously toward Charlie's idling car.
Charlie smoothly slowed the sedan to a halt, rolled down the glass window, and called out in a steady, commanding voice, "Tell Steve I've brought exactly what he desperately wants."
As the suspicious guard stepped aggressively closer to inspect the cabin, Charlie coldly rolled the window right back up, completely ignoring the man's intense glare.
In the nearby, bulletproof guard booth, another highly trained security officer immediately drew his heavy pistol. They frantically grabbed their tactical radios and alerted the main villa of the sudden arrival.
After more than two grueling, agonizing hours of paranoid waiting, the deeply impatient Steve brightened violently when the radio call finally came through.
His handsome, chiseled face twisted into a highly vicious, triumphant grin.
"Charlie, you finally showed your pathetic face."
He violently snatched the heavy radio from the table, switched to the encrypted tactical channel, and barked to his heavily armed mercenary men, "The target is officially here. Get completely ready."
Then, Steve turned his cold, mocking gaze toward the deeply anxious, tense Stella, who was still bound tightly to her chair.
Giving her a cruel, sadistic smile, he casually clapped his manicured hands together.
Two burly henchmen, heavily armed with lethal assault rifles, immediately stepped into the opulent dining room.
"Watch her closely," Steve ordered, his voice dripping with deadly intent. "If absolutely anyone tries to aggressively bust in here and take her, violently kill them both."
Steve's recruited mercenary help were absolutely no angels; they were hardened killers. Upon hearing this lethal command, the two ruthless men nodded without a single moment of hesitation and walked methodically into the room, each choosing a dark, strategic corner to flawlessly hide in and set up a crossfire.
Steve smiled with profound, arrogant satisfaction. He then casually picked up a heavy, fully loaded AK-47 and a tactical walkie-talkie from the polished dining table and headed confidently outside into the sweltering night.
From the fortified main gate of his massive villa to the luxurious front doors of the villa itself, there was an open distance of about thirty to forty meters of paved driveway.
On the wide, open ground directly in front of the villa, several heavily modified, bulletproof SUVs were securely parked in a defensive formation.
Steve aggressively got into the passenger side of one heavy vehicle, while several other heavily armed mercenaries boarded another. The two massive vehicles, safely carrying six or seven ruthless people, charged aggressively toward the main gate, their massive tires crunching loudly on the gravel.
Hidden flawlessly in the dark canopy above, Arthur saw absolutely all of this perfectly through the advanced infrared scope of his Sniper Laika crossbow.
His calculating heart filled with cold, predatory joy, knowing perfectly well that the chaotic opportunity he had been patiently waiting for was finally about to arrive.
The two armored, bulletproof SUVs quickly arrived at the fortified main gate, their bright headlights cutting through the gloom.
Steve confidently got out of the heavy car while remaining strictly inside the villa grounds. He looked through the thick steel bars at the unassuming vehicle being aggressively blocked outside by his two Security Personnel.
It was an ordinary, unremarkable Volkswagen sedan, clearly entirely too small to physically hold two massive, multi-ton Worthington safes.
However, Steve's sharp, paranoid gaze instinctively flicked downward toward the car's rubber tires.
Upon discovering that the heavy chassis of the small car had sunk significantly toward the asphalt, indicating it was undeniably carrying at least a full metric ton of dead weight in the rear, a massive, greedy smile finally appeared on his face.
"Charlie, you have genuinely impressed me once again," Steve muttered to himself through the thick, stainless steel bars of the main gate.
He absolutely didn't step a single foot outside of the fortified villa perimeter because, safely within the legal boundaries of his own private property, he could ruthlessly shoot Charlie dead under the Castle Doctrine without having to take a single ounce of legal responsibility.
He then confidently picked up the tactical walkie-talkie and barked to the tense Security Personnel, "Open the heavy gate and let him drive in."
"Yes, sir!"
The two highly trained Security Personnel slightly lowered their drawn guns but remained on absolute high alert, keeping a cold, close eye on Charlie's slow-moving car.
The massive, mechanized villa gate soon buzzed loudly and rolled open, and Charlie was flawlessly driving the heavy car slowly inside the lion's den.
Steve stood arrogantly beside the armored SUV. Most of his body was strategically protected by the vehicle's heavy steel paneling.
If he miraculously encountered any sudden danger or sniper fire, he could immediately, flawlessly dive behind the bulletproof car for absolute cover.
Charlie drove the struggling, heavy car forward and, under the aggressive, hostile shouts of several of Steve's heavily armed men, stopped it securely about seven or eight meters away from the mercenary line.
"Get out of the damn car!"
Two of Steve's ruthless men approached the driver's side with their lethal guns raised, constantly, aggressively urging Charlie inside the dark cabin to step out into the blinding headlights.
After Charlie smoothly shifted the car into park and killed the engine, he obediently pushed the heavy door open.
Just as his boots hit the pavement and he stepped fully out, two of Steve's men immediately rushed forward to forcibly and violently frisk him for concealed weapons.
At the exact same time, another armed subordinate flanked the vehicle and went to actively inspect the sagging trunk of the car.
"Long time no see, Steve," Charlie called out, his voice incredibly steady despite the lethal adrenaline coursing through his veins.
"As you know perfectly well, I absolutely never use firearms." Charlie took slow, highly leisurely steps forward, attempting to organically get physically closer to Steve's protected position.
Unfortunately, his desperate, tactical intention was entirely too incredibly obvious to a seasoned killer.
Steve immediately realized something was fundamentally wrong with the bold approach and remained standing exactly where he was, his paranoid instincts flaring.
"Search him thoroughly!" Steve shouted aggressively to his two subordinates, while looking at Charlie with a triumphant, mocking smirk.
"You indeed used to be entirely non-violent, Charlie. But the freezing night before last, Handsome Rob violently killed two of my best guard dogs during his pathetic little break-in."
It was undeniably clear that until right now, Steve still completely, arrogantly believed that the highly capable phantom who broke into his villa the night before last and successfully escaped with his safes, was absolutely none other than Handsome Rob from Charlie's team, a man widely known for his elite [Driving] and raw combat skills, possessing a fiercely strong heart.
Charlie's brow furrowed in genuine, profound confusion; he absolutely didn't know exactly why Steve had such a bizarre, specific suspicion about Rob, considering none of them had stepped foot near the property that night.
But there was no time to argue. By this tense moment, Steve's two aggressive men had already thoroughly reached Charlie's upper body with their rough hands.
And they instantly discovered that he had something massive and incredibly bulky strapped directly beneath his heavy coat.
The cold expressions of the two armed men changed violently in an instant. They immediately grabbed aggressively at Charlie's clothing, intending to violently pull the hidden object out into the open.
Riiip!
Charlie suddenly, violently tore off his heavy coat and shouted at the absolute top of his lungs, "Nobody move a single muscle! I have a massive bomb strapped directly to me, powerful enough to violently turn absolutely everything within a dozen meters into burning ashes!"
Steve snapped his gaze over and indeed saw a thick, lethal ring of exactly what looked like highly volatile explosives strapped securely to Charlie's chest, wired directly to a dead-man's switch in his hand.
Steve's arrogant face changed instantly, turning a shade of pale white, and he quickly, cowardly ducked completely behind the heavy bulletproof SUV for cover.
His heavily armed subordinates were also violently startled in that terrifying instant, lowering their weapons and rapidly retreating several frantic steps away from the walking bomb.
Seeing the sheer, unadulterated terror he had caused, Charlie continued loudly, his voice echoing across the dark compound, "Steve, these are highly unstable explosives meticulously configured by Left Ear. You know his terrifying skills with a blast perfectly well."
"I have brought absolutely all of your massive Gold Bricks back to you."
"They are sitting right there in the trunk of the car. Release Stella immediately."
"Let me take her safely away from this place, and our massive, bloody grievances will be settled once and for all!"
"Otherwise, if I aggressively detonate this massive bomb, it will definitely, undeniably attract the immediate attention of the LAPD and even the federal FBI. When they inevitably sift through the burning wreckage, things absolutely won't end well for your fake identity either!"
The arrogant, triumphant smile on Steve's handsome face had completely, utterly vanished into thin air.
When he had initially seen Charlie bravely come in completely alone, he had actually made some highly calculated, tactical guesses about his desperation.
He just absolutely hadn't expected the usually non-violent Charlie to be so incredibly, terrifyingly ruthless. To actually dare to securely strap a highly volatile bomb directly to his own body and then calmly walk into a heavily armed compound to threaten him.
Steve hesitated for only a microscopic moment before his greedy, self-preserving mind rapidly decided to pretend to agree first, safely get his massive property back, and then relentlessly look for a lethal opportunity for violent revenge later.
But just as he was about to slowly stand up and shout his deceptive reply to Charlie,
Suddenly, a faint, deadly whistling sound violently cut through the heavy night air.
In the absolute next, terrifying moment, everyone in the compound clearly saw a massive flash of blue electricity sparking violently from the side of the villa, followed instantly by a sudden, suffocating darkness.
The power was completely cut!