Its a sunny Saturday morning, you are sitted on the staircase to your home sipping coffee and mulling over the day's newspaper after your routine morning run. Its a your rest day and you plan on tucking in the whole day having had 2 long weeks. Its been 2 years since you left the military and joined the Anti-Terrorism Unit having earned a medal of honor for saving your team from what would have been an overwhelming annihilation from enemy forces in Syria.


Non-military life had its perks-relaxed time frames, more family time, no foreboding barking of commands and best of all a near-predictable life routine. Your walkie-talkie is rested on the floor next to you, just in case there were any alerts on the events frequency. 


Just then it chuckles to life as you turn a page on the newspaper.

You pick up walkie-talkie

You pick up the walkie-talkie and reply "Copy dog patch 6"


"New events have come up that need your immediate presence" replied the voice with an acute touch of urgency


"Errr, I am........."


"Its a level 1 situation, gather your team and get to M&T bank at Queensferry and Seagate immediately over" cut in the voice 


You jump onto your feet and run into the house. You dress quickly and run out. As you run out of your bed room remember you have not told your wife that you are leaving.

You talk to your wife

You run to the kitchen where your wife is cooking. She smiles as she sees you. You quickly peck her on the cheek and you tell her that you have an urgent work situation. She understands and bids you goodbye.


You rush out and jump onto your SUV and pull away from the parking lot in a hurry. 15 minutes later you get to your designated location and notice a number of police vehicles with their hazard lights on. Your team is already on site and awaiting further orders. You alight half running and your assistant Special agent in charge hands you your protective gear and gun. He briefs you on the situation on site and waits for your command. You assess the situation including all exit routes from the building.


The terrorists have held hostage a total of 27 customers and 12 employees of the bank.They demand that a well known terrorist be released or hostages will be executed by the hour. You learn that the terrorists had planned their stay with enough food supplies for 3 days and were not planning to leave anytime. Delaying tactics would not work.


You look at your watch and you only have 4 minutes until the 1st hostage is executed. Your assistants holds the line for the Director National Security Branch, just in case you decide to negotiate.


"We are running out of time sir" He urges 


Snipers were in position and the team had also taken the front  and back entrances

You call Director to release prisoners

You decide that its not worth losing hostages over a single prisoner. Furthermore, it would be easier to trace a group of escaping terrorists running across the country with all the inter-agency resources at your disposal.


You call the Director and he shares your views after assurance of the mission's success. You promise him that you would not let the terrorists escape. He barks vehemently on the phone and lets you know that if they escape you would be answerable.


You immediately call back the terrorists and inform them of the decision to comply with their demands. The terrorists demand that their prisoner be put on a plane to a destination that would be disclosed once the plane was airbound. You make the arrangements and go back to looking at the floor plans.


You notice an underlying old waterway below the building's blue print.

You inquire about the old waterway

The building was renovated a decade ago and the old waterways were sealed with waterproof cement. It had remained unused for the period of time. The drainage had a diameter of about a meter and led to an abandoned septic tank 3 blocks away.

You follow up on the waterway

You call your assistant and assign him an assault team of 10 strong. You send them to the septic tank and brief them. The team leaves and lays ambush at the location.


As the second  team drives away enroute to their location they catch a glimpse of a bomb set near the second floor window manned by one of the terrorists and let you know about it. You call your bomb expert and brief him. He examines the location and confirms that it was indeed a bomb. He tells you  the good news  that the bomb had to be manually set off to go off after a 5 minute timed delay.


You wonder whether it is better to shoot the 2nd floor terrorist first and send the bomb expert to dispose it but risk a panic by the terrorist who may shoot the hostages or


Take out the 2nd floor terrorist during the surprise attack and takeover the building without risking the hostage deaths by shooting

You shoot 2nd floor terrorist first

You decide to first shoot the 2nd floor terrorist and send the bomb disposal expert. A sniper takes out the 2nd floor terrorist. The rest of the terrorists seem not to notice. You send in the bomb disposal expert through a fire escape collumn at the side of the building. He gets to the location and as he attempts to tinker with it another terrorist gets into the room and shoots your expert. Immediately he rushes to arm the bomb and is shot too by your sniper as he runs away. Hostages begin running out of the building but as they run out, an explosion tears the yard around the buidling throwing away debris .


You are thrown away by the force and find yourself in a nearby ditch after a while. You stand up and look around, your ears ringing from the explosion.


Your entire team is wiped out.


You limp towards the entrance of the building to inspect the building. Debris is scattered all over the floor and the hall is obscured by a plume of smoke and dust settling from the explosion. you manage to reach the open vault. It has been plundered with cash bundles strewn on the floor. Its seems the robbers stole what they could carry.


You limp back to the banking hall and notice a hole on the ground but before you approach it you notice your leg is bleeding profusely and tear off a piece of cloth from the debris to bandage the wound. Just then an ambulance parks at the front entrance with its sirens blaring. A paramedic runs into the bank and looks around the bank for survivors that might need help.


He runs back towards you. "You don't look good," he proclaims as he proceeds to examine your leg."You need to go to hospital.'' You barely hear his voice.


Out of confusion you don't say a word. Your ears are still ringing from the explosion. Just then you remember that your second team was laying an ambush at the end of the tunnels. The medic holds your hand towards the exit and you see a police vehicle idling with its doors open. You could easily jump into the vehicle and drive to the ambush site but your leg hurts

You go to the ambush

You decide that there is unfinished business to attend to. You call a police officer who has just arrived , introduce yourself and inform him that the robbers might have escaped through the tunnel. He immediately gathers a team of 10 officers and plans to enter the tunnel. You get into the police vehicle and drive away towards the old septic tank.


You get there and find a fire fight taking place. The robbers seem to be heavily armed and pin down your officers. Your team is annihilated and taken down. You pick an M16 rifle and join the fight. You tactically try to  delay the robbers from leaving until the police officers in the water tunnels arrive.


You run out of ammunition  and you find yourself surrounded by the 5 masked men. They get to your position but hesitate once they see your face. the leader of the team raises his arm and clenches a fist to command the men to hold fire - special forces style. As you wonder why you are being spared a 5th man emerges from the tunnel and shouts "tunnels are boobytrapped." He screeches to a stop when he notices you lying on the floor like a deer amidst a pack of wolves.


Your eyes meet and for a moment your faces show bewilderment. "Jack? Is that you?" He looks down. The rest of the men peel off their masks.

You unlikely reunion

"Rohn, Lewis, Sean, Larry and Beck" you muse  as you stand up to regard them.


They were all part of another team of your  special forces unit that had been regarded Killed in Action during a search and rescue mission two years ago in a Siberian bank heist. The discovery finally solved a mystery in which both the team, the robbers and the money were never found.


You remain speechless as the revelation hits you piece by piece. No wonder the heist was executed with pin point precision.


"We don't have time." muttered Jack. He picks a box full of cash and places it at your feet and signals the team to pack off.


You are still in a dilemma as the team leaves you standing and walks away towards a parking lot guns in hand.

You take the cash and walk away

You decide its too dangerous to pursue the team of  elite ex-military men. In addition you have alot of cash to spend, retire and make  your family comfortable. You pick up the box of cash and walk away towards a taxi at the corner of the block. You get in and travel back home. You count the money and find amounts in excess of 20 million dollars.


You hide your find and head back to hospital for treatment. Your boss later visits you in  hospital and lets you know that a team of policemen spotted the robbers splitting the stolen money near a parking lot. They managed to dispose an explosive devise planted at the scene  and were reviewing nearby CCTV surveillance cameras to identify the culprits.


Your heart beats palpitatingly as you listen to the Special Agent in Charge. The boss is a close friend who always respected you for your professional records. You wonder whether you should confess that you took some money from the team and split the spoils or let the investigation take its course since there was a chance the video surveillance might not reveal his identity at the parking lot

You confess to the Special agent in charge

You trust your boss and call him aside where you narrate to him the story. He keeps quiet the whole time and asks where the money was.


You lie to him that it was hidden at your office drawer, just in case he did not comply with your suggestion. He immediately summons 2 agents accompanying him to the hospital.


"Place special agent Jasper under arrest until you hear from me" he commands and leaves you handcuffed to the hospital bed.


You ask the two agents to allow you to make a call to your wife and since they know you they agree. You call your wife and you let her know the situation. Fortunately you had told her about the days events and she understands your predicament and stashes the loot elsewhere. The CCTV surveillance reports come out and fails to reveal your identities. The heist team was clever enough to cover their tracks and destroyed the camera a day before the heist.


You are let free for lack of evidence and your boss is fired for implicating a decorated member of the National Security Division.Your retire from the force with full honors

You 3 months later

You are sitted on your porch sipping coffee and reading your newspaper. Your phone rests on the small coffee table. you pick up the call from a strange number.


"Hi Jasper, its Jack Zulu," ready for the next mission?"