Criminal Mastermind

## Synopsis

A group of five individuals with a dream and nothing to lose try to rob the most protected bank in the world.

## Story

### Prologue

Antonio Ortega scopes out the Pacific Standard Bank, while unknowingly running into Daniel 'Dice' Miller. Both men have the same goal; to rob the 'most secure building in the world'. Ortega, if he would succeed, could then call himself 'the Criminal Mastermind'.

### Part 1

Marcus Griffin decides to participate in a race against his friend Orlando Weaver. The race is close, until Marcus's car breaks down and Weaver wins the race. Marcus brings his car to Freddie Jenkins, the mechanic, but as he doesn't have any money, he now owes a debt to him. The next day, when Marcus is working his retail job, he gets into an argument with a customer and he loses his job. Desperate for money, he goes to his acquaintance T-Bone for some work. The job is easy; Marcus just needs to give some product to an associate and collect the money for T-Bone. But suddenly the meeting gets interrupted by a rival organisation and Marcus flees the scene. While being chased by the organisation, he almost gets cornered, until an unknown man rescues him and takes him to his place. This man reveals himself to be 'Dice', who tells Marcus that he has been watching him, for a potential job - but only if Marcus was interested. If so, Marcus had to return the following day with someone he can trust. Meanwhile, Marcus heads back to T-Bone, who tells him that this was the last time Marcus messed up; he can't work for him anymore. Should Marcus get in T-Bone's way again, then he wouldn't live to tell the tale.

The following day, Marcus returns with Weaver, and Dice reveals his intentions; he is putting together a crew in order to take down *the* bank of California; the Pacific Standard Bank. However, before they begin working on that colossal task, Dice needs blueprints, and he assigns Marcus, now known as Zero, and Weaver, now known as Vegas, to do this job for him. The only thing they need is a getaway car; the rest Dice already got together. Dice already outsourced a car; it's a bulletproof car from a rival gang known as *The Hopeless Ones*. He thinks that that should do the job, so Zero and Vegas go to their hide-out and steal a bulletproof car. Not much later, Ortega realises one of his cars has been stolen, and orders his crew to launch an investigation.

Two days later, both men go to *BlueStorage*, where the blueprints are being kept. They arrive at the back and subdue two guards. They go in and search for the plans. Just as they grab the plans, the alarm gets triggered. Zero and Vegas run out as they see police cars swarming in. They quickly drive away and, as their car is a lot faster than the average police car, lose the cops after a small chase. Zero drops off the blueprints at Dice's place and Dice tells them to keep in touch, as he will assemble a plan.

Two weeks later, Dice invites Zero and Vegas to the base, and there they meet the rest of the crew; Paige 'Sam' Bixby and James 'Echo' Murphy. Here, Dice tells them about the plan he has been working on. However, Sam is not reassured this plan will not fail, but Dice assures her by saying he has back-up plans; he'll only share them if it comes to that. Then he tells them what they need to get; a hacker, explosives and thermal charges. Dice says he will take care of the rest.

A few weeks earlier, Ortega watches in his office how the news reports of a robbery at *BlueStorage*. The police report that some blueprints have been stolen, and that the robbers used a bulletproof car. Although they do not specify which blueprints - Ortega knows enough. He puts one and one together and tells his crew to prepare for a fight.

### Part 2

The team decides to first get the hacker; Victor Irving, an old friend of Dice. He tells them that Irving is a bit of a paranoid creep, and he has no exact location where he could be. However, Irving left one clue when he last saw Dice; if he ever needed him, he should go to the Harris Scrapyard upstate. As the crew gets there, there is a USB stick, which Echo connects to his laptop. A video plays, revealing that Irving has been captured by mercenaries of *Ashford International*, who want to hand him over to the FBI. The video had been one day old, so Irving should still be in the country. Just as Zero relays the information to Dice, the scrapyard gets raided by the same mercenaries who captured Irving. The team quickly escapes, heading to the base of *Ashford International*.

The base doesn't initially seem like much, but a lot more is kept underground. The team subdue the guards at the entrance and head downstairs. They go to the security room and find Irving. However, they realize there are explosives and thermal charges kept here as well. Zero and Vegas decide to grab the charges, while Sam and Echo will break out Irving. As they are breaking him out of his cell, the alarm goes off and mercenaries swarm in. Zero and Vegas find explosives and decide they will need it to escape from the facility. Sam and Echo fight their way out and rendezvous with Zero and Vegas. As they get out of the underground facility, the place has been swarmed with mercenaries and armored vehicles, telling them to surrender. Zero throws the bag of explosives at the cars and it explodes, killing the mercenaries and exploding the vehicles.

Back at the base, Sam gets into an argument with Zero, since he 'wasted' the explosives and now they have to look elsewhere, endangering themselves again. Dice tells them there is another way, but it won't be easy, as security will be tightened; raiding *Ashford International*'s HQ. This time however, they decide to go in using disguises. Zero and Vegas plant explosives around the base, while Sam and Echo infiltrate the base. They grab explosives and other weapons and put them into an armored truck, but as they are about to head out, they get stopped. Vegas triggers the explosives and Sam and Echo escape the base. The team gets chased down by mercenaries, even sending in helicopters. They use the weapons they've stolen to fight off the mercenaries and eventually escape them.

A few days later, as the team is discussing plans, the hideout gets hit. An explosive blows up a portion of the building - it traps Echo and nearly kills Dice. Zero, Sam and Vegas fight off the attackers. As Zero gets into a fistfight with one of the attackers, he sees a patch on their sleeve and recognizes it; it's the same logo as from *The Hopeless Ones*. Eventually, the attackers flee and Zero, Sam and Vegas chase them down, while Echo takes Dice to the hospital. Some time later, the attackers stop at their base and quickly head inside, not noticing they were being followed. Zero and Sam go in, while Vegas waits outside. Enraged, Zero shoots down anyone he comes across, massacring the crew - until they come across Ortega. Zero recognizes him from the infiltration a few weeks earlier, and he realises Ortega is trying to save his dying mother from cancer - hence why he is trying to rob the bank as well. Zero quickly regrets killing almost his entire crew, and the three of them leave Ortega as one of the few survivors.

A little over a week later, Dice gets released from the hospital. The crew meets up the next day and they go over the plan one more time, preparing for the big moment the next day. During the preparation, Zero and Sam get into an argument once more, but both decide to put their differences aside for the sake of the heist. Later, Zero and Vegas have a little chat on the roof of the hideout. The next day, just before they leave to head to the bank, they collectively put the hideout on fire, destroying any evidence.

A week earlier, Ortega watches as how his crew - his family - has been massacred and vows to destroy *Anonymous*.

### Part 3

The big day is here. The crew heads inside, boobytrapping the door and subduing any guards inside. Hostages are taken and the building is quickly in lockdown. Vegas and Echo head downstairs - Echo begins working on the vault, while Vegas plants an detonates the explosives. Back upstairs, just as the explosives go off, one of the hostages tries to grab a pistol from Vegas, to which Zero shoots him in his leg. Enraged, Zero holds a gun into his head, but Sam stops him, recalling how he felt after the incident with *The Hopeless Ones*.

Dice then tells them that, due to the explosion, SWAT has been alerted. Zero goes down and tells Vegas, Echo and Irving to hurry. The bank gets surrounded and not much later, SWAT moves into the bank. The crew decides to release the hostages and let them run toward the SWAT forces, confusing them. Meanwhile, Zero and Sam head downstairs and everyone helps loading the trucks. When they are done, Zero, Sam, Vegas and Echo all get into their own cars and drive out of the tunnel, while Irving and his men go deeper into the tunnel. The four of them split up and everyone goes their own way.

The police chase them down, so Dice enacts plan B: decoys, in the same cars as the crew, get released all over the city, while Dice scrambles the police scanner, so the police get confused. Eventually, Zero loses the heat and just as he's about to contact the others, his car gets rammed off of the road. He gets out and realises he's been hunted down by Ortega, who has a deadly look in his eyes. Zero tries to talk it out, but Ortega charges towards him and the two fight. Eventually, Zero wins, grabs his gun and aims at Ortega. However, he decides to forgive and not shoot him. Instead, he tells him that the next time he sees him, he's a dead man. Zero then knocks him out and leaves the scene.

A few weeks later, the team meets once more to discuss the future. Dice tells them what they've stolen, how much it's worth and how much everyone's getting. Basically, everyone is now a millionaire - on paper only, since it'll take some time to process so much money. They discuss each of their future plans with each other. Everyone says goodbye to each other, and *Anonymous* officially disbands.

Some time later, Marcus arrives at Freddie's to finally pay him back.

### Epilogue

Some time after the heist, Ortega receives a package with money and a note in it for the cancer treatments for Ortega's mother, presumably from Zero. Ortega then permanently leaves California, in search for a doctor who can help his mother.

## Characters

* Marcus 'Zero' Griffin: a small-time criminal and a crew member of *Anonymous*.
* Paige 'Sam' Bixby: a dishonorably discharged veteran and a crew member of *Anonymous*.
* James 'Echo' Murphy: Miller's cousin and a crew member of *Anonymous*.
* Orlando 'Vegas' Weaver: friend of Marcus and a crew member of *Anonymous.*
* Daniel 'Dice' Miller: the brain behind the Pacific Standard Heist, and leader of *Anonymous*.
* Antonio Ortega: the leader of *The Hopeless Ones*.
* Victor 'Madeye' Irving: an old friend of Dice, who helps *Anonymous*.
* T-Bone: acquaintance of Marcus who occasionally has jobs for him.
* Freddie Jenkins: the mechanic Marcus takes his car to.
* Richard Palmer: CEO of the Pacific Standard Bank.

## The Plan

* Dice hacks into the bank's security systems through a backdoor he previously installed, disabling alarms and other security measures.
* The crew goes in, secures the main door and puts a booby-trap on it.
* Sam and Vegas secure any customers and employees, taking them hostage.
* Zero secures the second floor, while Echo works on hacking the main vault downstairs.
* Underneath the bank, there is a tunnel. Vegas plants explosives on a wall to open a gateway to the tunnel.
* When the vault is opened, Madeye, Echo and Vegas load everything from the vault into the getaway cars in the tunnels.
* After everything has been looted, or if police has entered the bank, everyone heads downstairs and gets into a getaway car.
* If the police chase someone, plan B gets enacted. Otherwise, everyone splits ways and lays low.