Worm (Parahumans #1)

Chapter 20: Agitation 3.3

"No," Brian intoned, "Such a bad idea."

Lisa still had the phone in her hand. Bitch had arrived just behind her, and stood in stark contrast to Lisa's jeans, sweater and tight ponytail, with an army jacket, and virtually no attention paid to her hair. The littlest of the dogs, the one-eyed, one eared terrier, trailed after her.

"Come on," Lisa wheedled, "It's a rite of passage for dastardly criminals like us."

"Robbing a bank is moronic. We've been over this," Brian closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, "You know what the average haul is for hitting a bank?"

Lisa paused, "Twenty thou?"

"Exactly. It's not millions like you see people getting away with in the movies. Banks don't keep a lot of loose cash on hand, so we'd be pulling in less than we would for most other jobs. Account for cost and the fact that this is Brockton fucking Bay, where banks have a little more reason to keep the amount of cash in their vaults to a minimum, and we'd be bringing in twelve to sixteen thou. Divide five ways and it's what, two or three thousand bucks each?"

"I could do with an extra three thousand dollars to spend," Alec said, putting down his game controller and shifting his position on the couch to follow the conversation better.

"On what?" Brian asked. When Alec shrugged, Brian sighed and explained, "It's a horrible payoff for the amount of risk involved. There's three big superhero teams in this city. Figure there's another dozen heroes that fly solo, and we're almost guaranteed to get into a fight."

"So?" Bitch spoke for the first time, "We win fights. We won before we had her." She raised her chin in my direction as she said that last word.

"We won because we picked our battles. We wouldn't have that option if we were cooped up in the bank and waiting for them to come to us, letting them decide how and where the fight happened."

Lisa nodded and smiled as he spoke. I thought for a second that she was going to say something, but she didn't.

Brian continued, getting pretty passionate as he ranted, "We won't be able to slip away like we have when things got a little out of control in the past. Can't avoid the fight if we want to get away with anything worth taking. The bank is going to have layers of protection. Iron bars, vault doors, whatever. Even with your power, Lise, there's a limit to how fast we can get through those. Add the time we have to spend managing hostages and making a safe exit, and I pretty much guarantee that there will be time for a cape to get wind of the robbery and slow us down even more."

Alec said, "I kind of want to do it anyways. Hitting a bank gets you on the front page. It's huge for our rep."

"The runt is right," Bitch said.

Brian grumbled, "Not fucking up is better for our reputation in the long run." His deeper voice was really good for grumbling.

Alec looked at me, "What do you think?"

I'd almost forgotten I was a part of the discussion. The last thing I wanted was to rob a bank. Hostages could get hurt. The fact that it would potentially put me on the front page of the paper wasn't a high point, either, if I ever wanted to drop the supervillain ruse and become a hero in good standing. I ventured, "I think Brian makes a good case. It seems reckless."

Bitch snorted. I think I saw Alec roll his eyes.

Lisa leaned forward, "He does make good points, but I have better ones. Hear me out?" The rest of us turned our attention to her, though Brian had a frown that made it seem like it would take a lot to convince him.

"Ok, so Brian said similar stuff before, before we hit that casino a few weeks ago. So I was kind of expecting this. But it's not as bad as it sounds. The boss wants us to do a job at a very specific time. I got the sense he was willing to offer a fair bit if we went the extra mile, and I negotiated a pretty good deal.