It’s Monday, January 27th, 9am.

James is gnawing on a piece of bacon.

“So guys, I searched the database last evening. There’s a couple black markets in Germany. Both are highly dangerous.”

“Well with everything we’ve been through, dangerous doesn’t seem all that bad haha,” Thomas says.

Michael dips his bread into the soft yellow yoke of his egg and says, “let me guess you want me to be the one to make the exchange of the painting for the money?”

“I haven’t decided yet, honestly. Maybe we should all be there at the exchange. Anyways this black market is only 1 hour away. I was thinking we should make the exchange around 1pm.”

The men finish their meal and they go back to the hotel. James carefully places the painting back into the box but doesn’t seal it.

A couple hours pass and the men take a taxi. This taxi stops in front of a coffee shop. James does this because he doesn’t want anyone to know where they are really going. A block away is where the exchange will take place.

James, Michael and Thomas approach the abandoned factory. The windows are shattered, and the glass is on the ground. There’s a huge rusted fan near the top of the building. A piece of metal is clanging against something else as the wind is blowing. But so far no one would suspect anything is going on here. It’s just an abandoned building, most people think.

Thomas knocks 3 times on the metal doorway.

“Who is it?” says a man with an adenoidal voice.

“None of your concern. We have an item of high value that we would like to sell though.”

“Not interested.”

“The password is ‘zebra, tango, blue’.”

“Okay and I believe I’ve never seen you guys before. Maybe you guys are the police. Why should I trust you?”

“How does having a painting worth 850 thousand euros sound?”

The man behind the door coughs a little.

“Well come right in. But only one person. We don’t allow 3 people in here at once.”

James hands Michael the box.

“Michael I know you can do this.”

Michael steps one foot into the door.

Stolen novel; please report.

“I will need you to put the painting on the ground. I will scan this box and then I will scan you.”

There’s 5 men off to the side. One guy has tattoos on his neck. One guy has a baseball hat on and is missing an arm. The other 3 guys seem normal. All of them are holding AK-47s except for the one armed man who has a handgun.

Michael puts the painting on the ground.

The man scans the package.

“All good. Well that’s good news.”

The man then starts scanning Michael from the bottom up very slowly until it beeps when it reaches Michaels head.

“Well this is certainly not good.”

The 5 men off to the side of which are assumed to be armed guards, raise their guns.”

“Looks like you guys are the police. So you have the I.D. Tech in you! Who sent you?”

“Actually we weren’t sent by the police. James has stolen the I.D. Tech from police headquarters back in Canada and is using me to do heists and stuff,” Michael says in a croaky voice.

“And why should I believe this. Only cops have access to this technology. It’s impossible to steal.”

“Well I didn’t want to say this but James is an ex-cop. He defected sir.”

“Don’t say sir. It makes me feel older than I really am. Anyways you said he stole the tech? We’ll make this deal if you bring the liquid and software.”

Michael walks to the door and one of the guards is holding the gun to his back.

“James, they know about the I.D. Tech. They scanned me. They’ll only make this deal if you bring them the liquid and software. Additionally they will be holding me here until you come back….”

“Damn it. I guess we have no choice… but I’m not giving away the tech….”

“You either give it to us or your friend dies,” says the man.

“Listen, there has to be something that we can negotiate other than us giving the tech to you.”

“No negotiations. You either walk in the opposite direction and work on getting us the tech or your friend dies. You have 10 seconds.”

“NO WAY IN HELL. Do you know what this tech is capable of?”

“8 seconds.”

“I’m not going to hand it over.”

“6 seconds.”

“I’ll make you a good deal.”

“4 seconds.”

“You don’t even know how to use the I.D. Tech. What good is it if I just give it to you? I can work for you.”

“I’m listening….”

“We’ll do whatever you ask us. You don’t have to spill any blood today.”

“I’ll tell you something. There’s another black market to the east that is taking chunks away from our business. We want to eliminate them. If you help us, then consider our deal done.”

“Alright we’ll do it. Just let my friend go.”

“One condition. I will let him go with you if I put an electronic tag on your leg. This way we know where you are using the gps built into it. You can’t cut the tag off once I put it on.”

“Okay I’ll do it. I know about this other black market. We’ll deal with it.”

An hour later the men make it back to the hotel. James is wearing the electronic tag on his leg.”

“Well that didn’t go to plan,” Michael says disappointingly.

“God damn. How did they even know about the tech? I should have been the one to go in there. I was going to go in there myself.”

“Well I suppose this is better than giving them the tech.”

“Yeah but now we’re forced to eliminate their competition… honestly I wanted to steal the Mona Lisa a couple weeks from now. My plan is now out the roof.”

*Tuesday, January 28th, 7am*

“Okay guys here’s the plan. It takes 2 hours to take the taxi to the second black market. Once we’re there we will be watching the building from 3 directions since there’s 3 of us. We’ll monitor who goes in and out. We all have burner phones and each of us has our contacts saved. If any of us sees anything we call each other.”

“Alright sounds good. Also you have a different syringe this time. You are going to use the needled one?” says Michael.

“Yes I will. Instead of spiking drinks I will inject the person directly. Preferably I inject a person who works in the black market.”

“Well that’s a bit different….”