"What took you so long?" she frowned, having chased away the old woman and now smoking her third cigarette. "I had to fend off aggressive old crones here."

"It's your fault, don't litter your cigarette butts," I calmly noted. "Let's go."

"Bossing around," she snorted, got into the car, and started smoking inside. At least I could open the windows to let out all this stench. Although the window handles creaked so much that sometimes it seemed like I wouldn't be able to close the window.

We drove slowly through the autumn gray city, which, even with its neon signs, couldn't recreate the atmosphere of life. Autumn is considered the season of death for a reason. Everything is born in spring, lives in summer, sleeps in winter, and autumn... It's gray, damp, and melancholy.

"Why are we being summoned?"

"You'll find out when you get there," she snapped.

"Rude."

"Shut up, softie. You're annoying."

"I won't hug you anymore, Syringa. You're mean."

"Like I need it," she flicked her hair demonstratively. But after five minutes... "But we're friends, aren't we?"

"Oh God, you're such a big child..." I sighed.

"I'm older than you, actually!" she objected.

"That's what's strange..."

My patience for Syringa ran out very quickly. I reserved the rest of it for Malu and Alex. Both could literally make my nerves taut. One with his instability, the other with his eternally good mood. Not to mention the other people I have to meet because of my job. Some try to pressure and drag me through the mud, while others attempt to provoke and catch me off guard. But so far, I'm hanging on and not giving in.

When we entered the city center, Syringa began circling the area until she reached the right building and stopped. There was a whole row of cafes on the first and even the second floor here. And one of the names was already familiar to me, even though I had never been there before.

"Candle" was more of a democratically priced restaurant than a cafe. A perfect place for a couple in love who wants not only to eat but also to snuggle. When we stepped inside, we found ourselves in a quite pleasant dark and warm room, more suited for romance than business. Knowing Malu, I'm not surprised he chose this place.

We found the seventh booth quite quickly. Such a small room separated from the rest by thin walls, with a doorway curtain.

"Good day," I shook hands with Alex and Malu. In response, I heard "Howdy" and "Hi." "So, to business?"

"Don't rush, Box, seriously," Malu grimaced. "They'll bring the order now. I hope you eat sushi."

"I eat everything," I shrugged indifferently.

"It shows," Syringa added her two cents, but I simply ignored her.

We sat in complete silence for another five minutes. I could only assume that everyone was anxiously waiting for news about what the job would be. There was no other way I could describe the tense faces of everyone except Malu. But if he wasn't worried, it meant there couldn't be anything terrible. Otherwise, he would have gone off on a tirade of curses by now.

But then our food was brought to us; the waitress smiled warmly, snapped her fingers, and the candles above our heads lit up in unison. Wow, a girl with an impulse.

"Will you be ordering anything else?"

"They won't. Thank you," Malu interrupted her rudely, causing the waitress's smile to falter momentarily. But she merely nodded politely and left. "So, here's the situation..."

"Hold on, aren't we going to eat first?" Syringa protested.

"All you think about is eating," Malu grimaced. "We'll discuss business while we eat. So, we have something coming up in a few days..."

"We've got that part already," Alex interjected.

"For fuck's sake, will you all just shut up! Let me finish, then you can talk about whatever you want. Annoying..." he muttered the last part under his breath before continuing, "In short, Arrow asked us to do something for the clan, to screw someone over. So we're pitching in, and in return, we get money."

"How much exactly?" Syringa immediately asked, voicing our collective unspoken question.

"As much as we can find."

"And Arrow, as usual, will take thirty percent, right?" Syringa frowned. "We do HIS dirty work, and he still takes a share."

"He gives us the tip for the heist. A good tip. Tips aren't free."

"But we're the ones doing the work!" she objected. "Is he fucking nuts?"

"Shut up, Syringa. All you do is whine. If you're unhappy, go tell him about it! Why the hell are you getting on my nerves?" Malu glared at her.

"You know what? I will go and tell him," she retorted.

"Yeah, and don't forget to bring your toothpaste," Alex smirked.

"You just shut your pie hole!" she growled, her hair standing on end. Honestly, I'd never seen a person react like that. People get red in the face, they huff and puff, but they don't growl, and their hair doesn't stand on end. It made me wonder, what was up with her? "Fucking bastard!"

"I know," Alex winked at her.

"Ali, please shut your mouth, at least for now, okay?" Malu asked in a low voice, already on the brink of losing his temper. Knowing him, if Alex continued, he'd flip the tray, tell everyone to fuck off, and storm out of here, breaking something on his way out and cursing the entire diner.

But Alex kept quiet. He straightened up, raising his hands as if to say he was guilty and would be silent, and leaned back in his chair.

"So, here's the deal. There's a territory run by a certain gang. The clan doesn't like this gang and wants to put them in their place. And there's this one building. It's got eight floors, kind of like a dorm. On the fifth floor, there's a flat where they push drugs. The gang makes money off that. No drugs, no gang."

"What stuff exactly?" Alex perked up.

"Oh, the junkie crawls out," Syringa muttered very quietly, and I was the only one who heard her.

"Cocaine, LSD, amphetamine, just small stuff..." he waved his hand dismissively.

"What's the big stuff then?" I asked curiously.

"Who the hell knows? Here's the lay of the land. We take the money and the drugs, and then we get out. We give the drugs to Arrow, and we keep all the money. That's basically it."

"We'd get more for drugs, you know," Syringa noted with slight annoyance. "And why can't they do it themselves?"

"Start a bloody massacre, a full-on street war? We just need to steal the stuff and maybe shoot a bit. Regarding the drugs, are you going to sell them, dummy? Or do you want to get caught in Hassa's crossfire? They control almost all the drug trade here," Alex reminded her. "What they don't control is controlled by the Lakeside clan."

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The entire drug topic was quite convoluted and complex. To start, not all clans were willing to engage in drugs because there were penalties for it. Not execution, but the punishment would still be severe, painful, and intense, intended to deter repeat offenses.

The clans who dared to dabble, like the Hassa clan, controlled the drug distribution themselves within their territories without intermediaries. And where clans kept their hands clean from it, drug lords appeared.

So, in some cities, there was a mafia clan who managed rackets, illegal businesses, and so on, and a drug lord who also kind of ruled, but only over drug distribution. They practically never interacted unless the drug lord paid rent for the sale points in the clan's areas. Like two predators in the same habitat but too different and never crossing paths.

Additionally, besides selling in the city where the drug lord was settled, they were engaged in both drug supply further inland and purchasing from abroad. Hence, nearly all drug lords had connections with those on the other side of the border. Some clans, wanting to deal with drugs but lacking connections, found such people, resulting in a drug lord working exclusively for such a clan. However, this varied case by case, place by place; it was different everywhere.

In Silverside, there were even two drug lords - they purchased from the same supplier, but one sold drugs only in the Lower City, and the other only in the Upper. And there was no clan above them.

Then, who were we planning to rob?

Besides the clans, there were always gangs on the streets. Just gangs of thugs, killers, and so on. Sometimes, they formed into really large and dangerous groups, although without having a supreme commander, and imposed their own sense of order. The gangs engaged in everything - from racketeering to robberies and drug trafficking. They often shared territory with clans that couldn't fend them off. Or they were operating in the same territory and periodically received beatings from a clan if there were reasons for it."

Of course, they also sold drugs, and quite briskly at that, much like the clan, buying them from drug lords or their minions. In other words, they were competitors.

We were targeting such a gang, as far as I understood, because no one would surely think of robbing their own.

"Ali's right, Syringa, don't be witless. At least we’ll get all the money that will be there."

"And what if there's nothing?"

"Then we'll get paid with the revenue from the drugs. It's all been discussed."

"We're being played like suckers," she muttered and crunched on her sushi.

But we probably can't do much about it. It is better to be content with what we have rather than rock the boat. I don't need much, so I certainly wouldn't dive into this; I don't need the hassle.

Malu remained silent at her words. I don't know how much effort it took him to keep calm and not react. Quite a feat for him.

"So, Box. Alex says you're a very smart guy, so maybe we can figure something out."

"About the plan?"

"Well, shit, what else? Of course. Here's what we deal with."

He pushed all the plates aside and placed a small building plan before me. More precisely, a plan of one floor, which was probably the same on all others. Just a regular flophouse, as they call it. Elevators, one large corridor, and direct passages to the rooms. There was also a shared kitchen, which I had little interest in.

"Only two entrances?" I looked at him in surprise.

"What's there?" Syringa tried to peek, but I gently pushed her aside.

"I promise, I'll look now and give it to you," I tried to calm her down. "So the choice is between the elevator and the stairs, but it doesn't look good for us regardless. Plus, four floors down and three up. The staircase goes down something like a shaft, but they can corner us there in a jiffy. There's also a balcony at the end of the corridor leading to nowhere."

"Are you from a special ops team?" Malu smirked. "You describe it all so well."

"To see the obvious, you don't need to serve in special ops. It's called logic and strategy. Most people are capable of it, and most people would see the same thing I do. You wouldn't understand," I shot a barb at him. "So, what was your plan?"

"Smuggle in our asses small single-shot pistols and shoot them. Take their guns and fight our way down," he shrugged.

"Sniff-sniff… Smells like suicide to me," Alex noted.

"The rare moment when I agree with the idiot. I'll wait for you in the car, okay?" she asked hopefully.

"You used to complain about always sitting in the car. So you're coming with us. And you can carry in you two pistols."

"Hey! Are you out of your mind?!"

"But I do have another escape plan," Malu continued. "We smuggle in ropes and rappel down from the fifth floor."

"Judging by the location of windows and doors..." I was already searching the internet for what this building looked like from the outside. I wanted to understand where we were going to climb, as the building plan brought by Malu didn't give me a clear idea of the place, "There's an awning on that side. So we have to descend four floors."

"Is that better? Or not?" Alex glanced at us.

"Anyone could just shoot us from the street," I mumbled. "Yes, most likely, that's what will happen."

"The guns won't accidentally fire inside me, will they?" Syringa asked.

"Are you already thinking of trying them on?" Alex smirked. "Though, all three could fit in you."

"What are you implying, jerk?!" She bristled again, quite literally. Her hair stood on end.

I didn't even pay attention to them. Why should I? I was tired after the last two months.

"Going up with hidden weapons is a good idea, but not all of us can fit in the guns. Maybe none of us. Unless it's something like switchblade knives instead, but I really don't want to carry those inside me, to be honest. As for getting back... we need to do it quickly."

"The elevator shaft?" Alex suggested.

"Are you an idiot? Where are you going to go in an elevator shaft? Anyone can open any door on any floor and blow your empty head off," Syringa immediately attacked him. "And in general, Malu, this is suicide. Going in is okay, we can even do it without guns, we can take out the guards with our bare hands if necessary. Box just needs a running start. But we won't be able to get out of there."

"Arrow probably won't be thrilled about that."

She clicked her tongue softly, scratched her forehead and brushed her hair back. She seemed lost in thought, then sighed and turned back to Malu.

"Let me talk to him."

"Syringa, what are you doing?" Alex frowned, surprisingly. "Stop talking nonsense. Nothing has been decided yet. Look, the brain is thinking," he nodded at me. But I didn't know what to come up with. I really didn't, because there were only two exits there.

"I'm not talking nonsense. What's it to you anyway?" She glanced at him disdainfully.

"You'll tire yourself out… ‘talking’," Malu replied. "He wants this cargo. Or did you decide to become his personal sucker?"

"I didn't..."

"So think about what you're saying, idiot," he looked at her with a cold and slightly crazy gaze. "You won't be talking to him. Not yet."

"But this is suicide! How do we get out of there? The building is probably full of them! Unless we jump out of a window!" Syringa exclaimed. "On a rope, it's already been said, there's no chance. And jumping from the fifth floor... I might survive, but not you. Unless you lay out a trampoline there."

And at that moment, her words pushed my thoughts.

"No, jumping is actually a good idea," I said thoughtfully.

Silence fell, and all eyes were on me.

"Are you kidding?" Syringa squinted at me suspiciously.

"No. If we jump from the fifth floor, we'll get down very quickly."

"Genius..." Alex muttered, but I wasn't listening. I was too busy with my own thoughts.

"And using a trampoline is a good idea, but no one will let us lay it out; in addition, we still need to get out quickly. So we need a trampoline on wheels..." I looked at everyone with an attentive gaze and smiled faintly. A thought had come to me. "We'll go in, kill the guards, take everything and jump into the back of a truck loaded with something soft. Styrofoam, bubble wrap, and so on."

"Are we going to end up killing ourselves?" Alex asked.

"I've seen people jump from the fifth and even ninth floors. It depends on what's down there. The key is for it to cushion well and absorb the fall's energy."

"So, you're not sure?" Malu clarified.

"No, I’m sure. The main thing is not to miss," I shrugged.

"There's an awning," Syringa reminded.

"We'll drive a truck to the side where that balcony is at the end of the corridor. The buildings are close together, but there seems to be a passage according to photos and maps. The truck will stand between the buildings. As far as I can see from the layout... the apartment we need is right at the end of the passage, just a couple of steps from the balcony, right? The balcony itself is quite wide, so we can still fire back if necessary. We just need to go in and check everything out."

"So essentially, we need a truck filled with something soft?" Malu asked again.

"Yes."

"The question is, how much security will there be," Alex noted.

"I can go check," I volunteered.

"No, you're definitely with us. If there's a safe, we need someone who can crack it. And it's better not to expose the same person twice. We'll send one of these two for a test dose or something," he nodded at Syringa and Alex.

"This is still dicey," Syringa grimaced. "Risking our lives like this..."

"As if we haven't risked before," I shrugged. "When we took the cargo last time, Alex nearly smashed his own head with a crowbar. Our job is to take risks."

"There will be shooting..." Alex sighed.

"Yeah..." Malu drawled, but it didn't sound like he was scared. More like he was looking forward to it. "We'll probably have a good shootout."

After that, we just hashed out various details, which could change a hundred times over. Naturally, Syringa would steal a truck. She's a master at it. She'll take one with a wide body, so it's not too risky to jump. Malu will deal with the soft materials - foam, soft box fillers, cardboard boxes, bubble wrap, and everything similar used in construction.

As for Alex and me, we'll just walk by, check out the place, how and where to pull over and stop, and what everything looks like. It's always better to know the location where the shit's going to hit the fan.

I couldn't say I was ready for this. Not at all. Yes, I've been to the shooting range a few times, and yes, I've been involved in the clan's business. But those were robberies, a few muggings, courier work, and laying out stashes. And since the time Malu offed the guard, I hadn't seen anyone get killed again. And I certainly hadn't shot myself. I can't even imagine what it's all going to look like and how I'm going to shoot.

But everything happens for the first time, right?

I felt calm while we were discussing everything and eating sushi. However, when the time comes, I'll be having a lot of fun. Maybe I should start taking sedatives right away?