After finishing their lunch, the three of them returned back to the office, and, once the break ended, returned to their work. They continued their tasks from the morning for a couple more hours before they all stopped as they heard a commotion downstairs.

“Fuck is going on down there?” Ahikilim asked.

“No idea,” Neriglissar replied. “Haneef, go check it out.”

“Of course, master,” Haneef replied and opened the door to leave.

A moment later, a few shots could be heard, coming from the first floor.

“Get on the ground, motherfuckers!” one of the five masked men who had entered the bank shouted. “Bring all your gold to us right here, or you will all get smoked!”

The robbers were all carrying guns and daggers and were moving in to secure the entire floor.

“Sir, we cannot simply-” one of the workers on the first floor attempted to speak before getting hit in the face.

“All your fucking sitans, get them right here, motherfucker!” the first robber repeated.

The worker complied and began moving to the safe.

“Get back in here, Haneef!” Neriglissar ordered and the slave complied, quietly closing the door behind him.

“Well, what the fuck do we do now?” Adrahasis, one of the office workers on the floor, asked.

“Get out through the window, maybe?” Ahikilim suggested.

“Jump out, if you want. It’s a long ass way down,” Merodach said as he was looking out.

“How many weapons do we have here with us?” Gulkishar, another worker, asked.

“How many do you think? It’s a damn bank office, not an armory,” Ahikilim said.

“We have one gun on this floor,” Neriglissar said as he retrieved the weapon. “But not much more, I’m afraid.”

“I have a dagger with me. Won’t help much in a gun fight, though,” Merodach said.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Adrahasis said. “Are you seriously considering fighting them? Why not just comply with what they want? They don’t have any issue with us, they just want the money. So give them the damn money and have them get out of here.”

“If they leave with that money, the bank has less money. Which means we might not get paid in that case. Or the whole branch might get shut down and we would lose our jobs. You want that?”

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

“That’s right. I will not see my family starve just because a bunch of punks decided to rob us today,” Neriglissar loaded his gun.

“This is insane,” Adrahasis pleaded. “Come on, man. Your family will be even worse off if you end up dead.”

“I’m dead anyways if I don’t get paid. You can hide and comply all you want, but I’m not standing by like some wimp.”

“Quiet! One of them is coming up here!” Ahikilim said.

“Hide! Gur, with me! Mer, give him your dagger!”

Merodach tossed his dagger to Gulkishar, the strongest man of the group, who, together with Neriglissar, sneaked up to the door. In a few moments, one of the robbers reached the door and was moving to open it.

“Now!” Neriglissar said.

Gulkishar then suddenly slammed the door into the robber, while Neriglissar stood up and shot the knocked down robber in the chest. Once the robber collapsed, Gulkishar took his gun, and the two men dragged the wounded invader into the office.

“March on in the slaves’ united front… for you are a slave too…” the robber weakly muttered before passing.

“Slaves’ united front… That means…” Neriglissar slowly said.

“It’s the work of the damn Mesopotamian Freedom Front. Look at his markings,” Ahikilim pointed to the corpse. “The fucking slave revolt is spreading.”

Everyone in the room slowly shifted their gaze to the terrified Haneef.

“Now, everyone, let’s calm down… Let’s not act rashly. We have to focus on the robbers now, so…” Neriglissar tried to stabilize the situation.

“I swear, I had nothing to do with this! I didn’t know about this! If I had known, I would definitely have informed you, masters!” Haneef cried.

“Alright, Haneef, I would like to believe you, but-”

“Fuck you, you traitorous maggot!” Gulkishar shouted and shot Haneef in the head with his gun.

Blood splattered all over the wall and Haneef’s body dropped on the floor. Hearing all this, the robbers on the first floor hurried to take what money they could get and leave the bank.

“What the fuck did you do that for?!” Neriglissar asked.

“He could have been with them,” Gulkishar replied.

“Or not! You killed our damn office slave!”

“I saved us!”

“You fucking retard! You didn’t save shit! He was unarmed. We could have judged him later, checked to see if he was innocent or not.”

“Well, I’m sorry for acting fucking cautious, alright?”

“You stupid motherfucker. You goddamn imbecile. You know how much office slaves cost, especially in this economy? This is coming out of your pocket.”

“Hey, chill out, Ner,” Ahikilim said. “Maybe the company will instead decide to do away with slaves and hire a free man to work for us here. Or, more likely, a freewoman. A hot young broad for all of us to share. That seems like quite an improvement to me, you know.”

“Shut up, Ahi.”

“I’m just saying.”

“Stop your bullshit bickering and take a look at this,” Merodach pointed outside the window.

Just outside the bank, the four remaining robbers were caught by the Babylonian police and engaged in a firefight with them. A dozen shots were fired, and while two policemen were killed and one was injured, all the robbers were killed on sight after not too long.

“So, guess that’s the end of this. The bank gets to keep the money, and we – our salaries. Good job, boys,” Merodach said.

“Yeah…” Neriglissar said as he was looking at the corpses in the office.

In the following couple hours, the police returned the stolen gold and other valuables to the bank and disposed of the corpses. The workers were let off early, but had to give statements to the officers about what happened and so left the place even later than usual. The police congratulated Neriglissar for taking matters into his own hands and disposing off the robber on the second floor, and also let the matter of Haneef’s death slide easily, marking him as one of the accomplices of the robbers and the Mesopotamian Freedom Front as a whole. After this was done and the police left, everyone was allowed to return home, and so Neriglissar packed up his belongings and went home on the same carriage line as he arrived.