The Cursed Shell

25

It was 4:46 pm. Stephenson Mal was walking towards the Victoria Street, London. He was carrying a backpack, and was wearing a black leather jacket and blue denims. Inside his backpack, he was having a black mask which could cover his whole face except eyes, a pistol, a pair of sharp lustrous blades and a stun-gun.

Dhawan and Brute were walking towards the Victoria Street too, but from the opposite direction. The cold breeze was forcing Brute to shiver. He was wearing an extra-thick blue coloured woollen jacket which looked much like a thick blanket on his thin skinny body. Dhawan was wearing a black blazer and had a backpack.

A few hours ago, when Dhawan was packing something in the bag, Brute leaned over it. Dhawan immediately zipped it close and took it away from Brute. 'Must be some secret stuffs', Brute thought.

Chief Dunkirk was commanding his team to hide behind the back walls of the bank. They had planned to bust the Baddits anyhow.

All the officers were dressed in civil dresses so that no-one could recognise them. They all were having small-sized pistols in their waist-belts.

Dunkirk took out his wallet before taking position according to plan. He took out a passport sized photo of his wife and looked it for a few seconds. After that he put it back in the wallet and pushed the wallet in his pocket and took his position as planned.

'We're gonna bust them today,' he thought. 'They've got no way to escape.'

Dhawan and Brute stood before the tall building of the Lloyd's bank. Dhawan stared at its height in horror. "It's so high!"

Brute remembered that Dhawan had Acrophobia, which means the fear of heights. "You can do it, daddy. I believe in you."

"Thanks," Dhawan turned to him. "Wait a second, daddy?"

Dhawan was just to move when Brute said, "Can I come with you?"

"No, you can't," Dhawan said, "it's dangerous."

"But I'm here to help you only!"

Dhawan thought for a moment and finally pointed towards a building and asked him to stand over there. "Trust me, it'll help me a lot."

"But how?" Brute asked.

"You'll understand, just go there", Dhawan said.

"Okay," Brute said, "don't worry. Nothing will happen to you. I'll try my best to help you." He vanished from the sight without realising that Dhawan just wanted to get rid of him for some time, that too for a reason.

Chief Dunkirk was watching everything, standing behind the back-wall of the bank. He looked at the report submitted by his team, and then he looked back at the young man standing there. He recognised him.

'It's Ritesh Dhawan,' he thought. 'Did he harass that adolescent?'

He ordered one the cops in his troop to go ask the adolescent about the gang if he knows anything after the Baddits enter the bank.

He saw three men and one lady walking towards Dhawan. One of the men had a long black beard and was wearing tattoes all over his body. He looked much like a WWE wrestler. The second man was muscular and short; he was bald. The third man was tall with a pointed nose. The only woman in the gang had long blond hair and long black–painted nails. She had blue eyes and had a woollen cap on her head.

Dunkirk crosschecked the photographs in the reported submitted by his team to his hand. He smiled when he recognised them. They were the Baddits. Their names were Henry Boston, Steve Grunt, Daniel Hank and Chloe Grey respectively.

It took a few seconds for Dhawan to recognise the people standing in front of him. They were no more than the Baddits.

Henry Boston, the man with black beard and tattoos stood in front of Dhawan and stared at him in a weird way. "You're Dhawan, right?"

Dhawan nodded fearlessly.

"Unzip your backpack", Boston commanded.

Dhawan smiled and said nothing.

"I said unzip your bag. I wanna check it", Boston snapped.

"What if I don't?" Dhawan spoke fearlessly.

"Then I'll open it", Boston outstretched his hand towards Dhawan's backpack. Dhawan positioned his hand to stop him. He gripped the bandit's hand tightly.

"Leave my hand", Boston glared at him.

Dhawan freed his hand.

Boston grinned for a second, and then without any warning he raised his hand to punch on Dhawan's face. But before he could do so, Dhawan stepped aside and whirled and punched on Boston's stomach with his elbow.

"Ow!" Boston fell down.

The other three bandits stared at him.

"How did you know that his belly is his weak point?" Chloe asked.

"He is shot on that same point several times. The crater formed by the bullets is easily visible through his thin shirt. Therefore, I was sure that it would hurt", Dhawan explained.

Boston stood up, laughing. He outstretched his hand to shake hands with Dhawan.

Dhawan shook hands with him. "I'm sorry for that."

"It's okay," Boston said. "Welcome to the Baddits."

His eyes weren't moving from Dhawan's backpack.

"Where's the guy named Stephenson Mal?" Dhawan asked. 'I'm here just for him', he thought.

"Finding me?" an English voice said behind him.

Dhawan whirled back in slow motion. He found a big man with massive shoulders in a black leather jacket and blue jeans. His face wasn't visible as it was covered with a black mask which covered his whole face excluding his eyes. As his complete noddle wasn't visible, Dhawan couldn't locate whether he was bald with brown beard or not

"So guys," the bandit named Steve Grunt said, "just like all of our other heists, we don't have any plan. We just have to get in and kill as many people as possible, gather as much money as possible, and come out as soon as possible."

All the bandits high–fived. Dhawan's backpack was still being stared by Boston. Dhawan was staring at Stephenson Mal. Mal's stare was also stuck on Dhawan. Only two of the men in the group were aware that they were being stared by cops.