Free Fightback by Steve Voake Page A

finished her shift, walk across the road and turn left towards the bank.
    â€˜Oh no,’ whispered Kier under his breath. ‘Don’t do that. Just keep walking.’
    The waitress stopped outside the bank. Then she opened the door and went in.
    Kier stood up and saw one of the men peer through the bank window, shielding his face against the sun. As the other one walked back to join him, Kier reminded himself that he didn’t even know the girl. Don’t get involved , he told himself. But thenthe two men ran into the bank and suddenly Kier was dodging through traffic, standing outside and scanning the street for signs of police activity.
    He breathed deeply, not because he was nervous, but because that was the way he had been taught. Get the oxygen to the muscles, keep the heart rate steady and don’t let the adrenalin fire until the last moment.
    Three minutes tops , he thought. Three minutes and I’m out of there .
    He opened the door a fraction and slipped through, pressing himself against the wall and letting the information wash over him. The men had already squirted the security cameras with shaving foam, which was good news. They were both holding shotguns, one wearing a black balaclava and the other with a pair of tights pulled over his head. The waitress lay on the floor with six other people and a woman who was screaming. The smell of cordite filled the air and chunks of plaster lay on the carpet where one of the men had already fired his shotgun into the ceiling.
    Nervous , thought Kier. Probably their first time .
    â€˜Give me the money!’ Balaclava was yelling. ‘Give me the money now!’
    Tights turned and pointed his shotgun at the people on the floor.
    â€˜Stay down!’ he screamed at a man in a grey suit who had made the mistake of looking up. ‘Kiss the carpet or I’ll blow your head off!’
    Kier concentrated on keeping perfectly still while he considered his next move. The men were so fired up they hadn’t even noticed him yet, but he knew that any sudden movement could spook them into shooting up the place. Probably easier to deal with them than to try and move the girl. He thought back to the nights when Chiang had made him stand motionless, hour after hour, waiting for the hungry mosquitoes to settle.
    It is the strength of their desire that makes them steal from you. So the strength of your desire to stop them must be stronger .
    It had taken six weeks. Six weeks of enduring bites and Chiang saying, No , listen with your skin. But then, finally, he had understood. He had felt every touch, every cool whisper against the heat of his skin, and his hands moved lightning-fast, fingers plucking the insects away at the moment of landing, sometimes even before. After three hours he didn’t have a single bite.
    The strength of your desire to stop them must be stronger …
    â€˜I said give me the money!’
    Kier looked at the white-faced woman behind thecounter and saw that she was brave, because brave meant being scared and still doing what you had to do. He saw how her left shoulder dipped just a couple of millimetres, hardly noticeable unless you were looking for it, but enough to let her press the silent alarm beneath the counter.
    The man placed the shotgun barrel against the glass.
    â€˜I won’t tell you again,’ he said.
    â€˜This glass is bulletproof,’ she said. She tried to speak calmly, but her voice was shaking. ‘You do know that, don’t you?’
    The man moved the barrel of his gun around until it was pointing at the man in the grey suit.
    â€˜How about him?’ he asked. ‘Is he bulletproof too?’
    As the man covered his face, the cashier’s lower lip trembled.
    â€˜I’ll get it for you,’ she said. ‘But don’t hurt him, OK? Just don’t hurt him.’
    â€˜You!’ Balaclava shouted at the other cashier. ‘Go and help her! Now!’
    As both cashiers made