Ink Portals

The getaway

21

Down on the street the rain was subsiding, and the people outside were starting to recover from the initial shock of the helicopter crash. Jack and Pierre pulled on their Oni masks to hide their faces.

"You think Mei got the sniper?" Arthur said, looking up at the rooftop.

"Probably," Jack said, ducking out of the van's back doors while carrying two wooden crates in his arms. "At best she'll keep him busy and buy us some time. Right now we gotta load up these crates before the cops get here. There are already people pulling out their phones and taking pictures."

Arthur flipped up the hood of his hoodie. He pulled it down low over his forehead when he saw a group of bystanders gathering a block away. People in the surrounding office blocks were pressed up to the windows, documenting the scene with their phones.

"How are we going to move it all?" Pierre said, looking at the smoking remains of the chopper with its rotors broken off against the tarmac.

"We'll improvise," Jack said. Yoshi leapt forth from his arm in a burst of black smoke. The dragon grunted eagerly as he set to work pulling more crates out of the van with its teeth.

Arthur picked up a crate, it was upside down and the lid swung open. Reams of jewellery, all packed in bubble wrap and foam padding, fell out on his sneakers. He hunched down and started scooping the valuables back into the container; then he paused to inspect a small plastic bag, it contained a pair of unbelievably large diamond earrings.

"There will be plenty of time to tally the loot later," Pierre said. "We should focus on finding a get-away vehicle."

Arthur closed up the crate and slid it over to Pierre.

"Hey, get out of here, scat!" Jack shouted at a teenager on the street who was creeping closer to film the spectacle with his smartphone.

"I say," Pierre said. "That young fellow got Yoshi on camera, Jack. What if he posts it online?"

Yoshi gave a thundering roar and Pierre watched the terrified kid scurry away.

"He can post whatever the fuck he wants," Jack said. "Think about it. Footage of a mythical dragon robbing an armored van, that's gonna get labelled a special-effects hoax the second it goes live."

Arthur was scouting the lanes of abandoned cars. He was growing anxious at the crowds now starting to form on all sides of the streets.

"This will have to do," he said, getting into a sedan with the keys still dangling in the ignition. He reached down and pulled the trunk release latch.

"Come on hurry up," Arthur shouted out the window.

Pierre's tentacles pulled the crates across the damp street, grating over bits of broken glass, and started loading the cargo into the trunk.

Arthur got out and went over to Hiroko's body.

"What are you doing, kid?" Jack said, when he noticed Arthur trying to free the body from the wreckage of the car.

"We have to take her with us," Arthur said. "We can't leave her here."

"Fine, just make it quick," Jack said, hauling out the last crate from inside the van.

Arthur managed to pull Hiroko from the car, as respectfully as he could manage given the situation, and flung her over his shoulder then walked urgently towards the get-away car.

"You hear that, Jack?" Pierre said, cocking his ears while he crammed a box into the trunk. There was the distant sound of approaching sirens.

"They're coming," Jack said. "Let's get a move on."