Eleanor Calder, 21 - Neon. Charged for a diamond heist in Paris and wanted for escaping from prison in the first year of her 20-year sentence. "The Gold Digger."

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Here is Part 6, Day 5 :) I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! I cannot believe that I just got a wave of inspiration 2 years after starting this, but I will definitely finish this story in about 2 months!

Happy reading and don't forget to leave a comment at the end :)

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Day 5 – 93 hours into the heist (Monday, 24th, 09:35am)

Louis is leaning against the huge wood railing in the spacious lobby by the front entrance, where the hostages are huddled up sitting down. It's his turn to watch everyone while his colleagues are getting food, and then he's free for the rest of the day after 10am.

The AK 47 is already heavy in his arms and he's kind of bored of holding it and pretending that he's going to use it if someone raises his voice at him. He knows that although the hostages fear Nick the most out of all of the heist men, they're more terrified about Louis.

He knows that they can see his tattoos peeking out and running up his neck, which probably tells them that he's a dangerous person, maybe even went to prison. The fact that he rarely interacts with the whole room when he's on guard makes him even more mysterious to the hostages.

The Irish guy, Harry's friend, who's also clearly attracted to Hailee, is currently leaning over to one of the guys next to him and silently laughing about something.

"Something funny?" Louis asks, but not in a threatening way. He's more sarcastic than threatening, he thinks.

They shut up immediately and the whole room turns silent.

Hailee comes down twenty minutes later, smiling.

"You're free now." She jokes, because she can obviously see that Louis hates standing around without anything to entertain him.

Louis takes another look at the room, everyone's eyes are on the them. "Alright."

He turns to walk up the stairs but stops after a few steps and turns around. He points to Harry's friend. "You."

The guy looks a bit scared. "Yes?"

"Come with me."

It takes him a second to register what Louis just said, before the guy stands up and walks over to him.

"Up the stairs and to the right." Louis tells him and Niall walks ahead, not even noticing that Louis isn't holding the gun up in his direction and has instead chosen to let it hang around his back.

They enter a small office. Louis closes the door behind him and places the firearm on his desk before sitting down behind it. He invites the guy to sit across from him.

"What's your name?" Louis asks.

"Niall." Then, without even breathing, "where's Harry? Is he okay? I haven't seen him in two days and I know you said he was not dead but it's been two days-"

"He's fine." Louis says, kind of impressed by how much Niall actually cares about his friend. "He's in the office with us now."

"People are whispering that he's been killed and that you guys already burned his body down in the chambers."

Louis snorts. "What are these chambers?"

"Where they print money, they also have machines that can melt gold and heat and fire... I don't know, it's what's been said."

Louis raises an eyebrow. The Chemist never told them about this way to make money faster.

"What's been said where?" he asks. "When do you have time to talk to the others?"

"Oh, you know, people talk everywhere. In the bathroom, when we're in the same break room together, before going to sleep. You hear things. I mean...there's not much to do around here so talking and gossiping and sharing opinions is the only entertainment. A movie night or some activities would be nice, you know."

Louis nods. "What other things do you talk about? Tell me."

Niall doesn't seem to feel like he's being interviewed and acts as if he were talking to a friend. Louis finds that weird, even though he really isn't intending to "question" him.

"I mean, the leader, you know? Mercury, is it? We know he's in charge, planned everything probably. Everybody's afraid of him and they think he's the one who killed Harry. You don't talk when he's the one watching you."

"What about the blonde girl?" Louis asks, referring to Gigi.

"Silver? Oh yeah, the nicest out of all of you. No offence though. She likes to joke around, is really cerebral and doesn't get angry ever. But if she feels threatened, I mean you can imagine that older guys have tried to make a pass at her or even grab her gun, but she's always pretty fast and points the gun right between their eyes. So, that stopped eventually."

Louis didn't know Gigi even had these problems.

"What about the girl you like."

Niall makes a face and leans back into his chair. He doesn't even try to bullshit Louis. Louis can appreciate his honesty and the harmless way he talks, without any worry in the world.

"Oxygen? Yeah. She doesn't like me very much."

"Why do you say that?"

Niall laughs. "I keep trying to make jokes and be funny. I called her Oxy once and she pointed her gun at me. I thought it was funny because I was going to make a dirty joke which now that I think about it would have been rude."

"I don't think she'd hold a grudge."

"Oh, no, that was the most recent fuck up. I've had many before. Doesn't want to tell me her name. I think it's something like Helen. And I told her, and she pointed the gun at me."

"Maybe she doesn't allow people to talk."

"Oh, no way. We all talk, she's fun. And I think some people think I like her because nobody has tried hitting on her like they did with Silver. I told you, she only ever wants to shoot me."

"I don't think she'd shoot you, Niall." Louis laughs, then goes back to finding out what the hostages think of the whole situation. "Does everyone know our names?"

"Yes, the chemical element code names." Niall nods.

"What do they think about Iron?"

"Silent. Scary."

"Why scary?"

"Because he's the largest. And he's tall. He looks massive. Intimidating is the word. But people aren't afraid like they are with Mercury. We respect him, he's nice to us. And he's got something going on with that other dude, Zinc."

Louis raises his eyebrows. "Oh really?"

"Shit, didn't you know? Oh, don't tell him I told you."

"How do you know?"

"I just think so. It's kind of obvious, the way they interact."

Louis cocks his head. "What's your opinion of Zinc."

"He's silent too. Doesn't really interact with us but when he talks, he has kind eyes that smile even if he doesn't."

"So poetic." Louis teases and sees Niall's shoulders suddenly relax. He continues.

"Also, he only talks if there's an interesting discussion going on, one where he can teach something. I noticed that."

"And Neon?"

"It must be the other girl who only watched us once. Is she okay?"

Louis nods. "She's just not on watching duty. Now..."

He searches through his brain for the next name but he's the only one left.

"Now you." Niall says. "We know you're Hydrogen. People are afraid because they don't know you. You don't really talk either. And people are also a bit judgy because of the tattoos. They're saying you must've been in prison before this."

Louis smiles to himself. He kind of has been in prison before this, but a psychological one.

"Have you?" Niall boldly asks.

Louis shakes his head. "No. I just like tattoos."

"Figured." Niall shoots him a big smile. "You're actually kind of chill."

"So, tell me. Are people scared?"

"Of you?"

"No. Of the situation."

Niall shrugs. "I mean, honestly, we've gotten used to it. There's nothing we can do to escape, and we know that playing along is the best option to get out of here alive. Also, we get food, we get to sleep, we get to talk to each other and shower...yeah. It's fine. The only thing we're scared of is Mercury. He really terrifies people in the actual sense of the word, not like you do."

Somehow, what Niall just told him makes sense.

"I think I'm going to get Harry to come back with you." Louis says. There's really no reason for Harry to chill in the office anymore, even though Louis wouldn't mind it.

"Really?" Niall's eyes widen. "Thank you."

Niall stands up and extends his hand and Louis does too, so he can shake his hand.

Just then, a sudden burst of gunshots are heard and people screaming.

"We have to go." Louis says and grabs his firearm before following Niall out of the room and back down the stairs to the main lobby.

Nick is there, gun raised in the air, face red. The hostages are on the floor, huddled together, trembling. Niall walks back to his usual place with people staring at him questioningly.

"What the fuck is going on here?" Louis yells. "What are you doing?"

Nick turns to him and an annoyed Hailee tries to reassure the hostages that things are in order.

"This fucker is trying to get on my nerves." Nick says and points to the head of the bank, Simon Cowell.

"What did he do?"

"Complained about the time it took to get food to everyone, like he has somewhere to be."

"You're overreacting, chill." Hailee says and Louis agrees with her.

"If you don't get your nerves under control, you're going to ruin this whole thing for everyone." Louis warns him. "Do you want that?"

Nick lets his arm fall by his side. "Now get back upstairs. I'm calling a meeting."

Just then, Zayn comes running and stops at the top of the stairs. "She's on the phone. Come now. Hydrogen and Mercury, now."

"Might as well." Louis shrugs, since he wanted everyone together anyway. He'd update Hailee later.

When he gets to the office, everyone except Eleanor and Hailee are there, and Liam is pointing the phone towards Louis. Before he takes the phone to his ear, he stops and turns to look at Harry.

"Zayn, take him back to the hostages."

Nobody protests and Louis doesn't look at Harry as he's being led out of the room.

"Hello?" Louis asks, putting the receiver to his ear.

"Hydrogen. It's me. The police negotiator called me. They want to go in."

"Shit."

"They heard shots being fired. What happened."

"Nick got angry at Cowell and shot at the ceiling." Nick throws him a look.

"I'm incredibly disappointed. He shouldn't be shooting around hostages, especially the head of the bank! Louis."

Louis' expression turns dead serious. The Chemist doesn't call them by name. Ever.

"Yes."

"The police are going to want to come in. That can't happen. I'll get a way to give them proof of life for the hostages, but I need Harry Styles to be in there as well. If they don't see him, they won't hesitate to burn the place to the ground to get in. That's their condition. I'm going to call them and negotiate. I'll let you know."

The line goes dead. Louis explains to them what happened, and just as he finishes, the phone rings again. Louis picks it up.

"They won't take the videos. The negotiator will come in an verify every single hostage we have. Then he's going to want to talk to some hostages. Under supervision, of course."

Louis places a hand on the desk. "What do you want me to do."

He knows there's no point in asking "us", because she called him by name and that hasn't happened before.

"I want you to give that man zero reasons of worry so that they won't come in and I can continue negotiations on the outside. Then, when he leaves, I want you to change things around there."

"What do you mean by that?"

"They come in at ten thirty. Don't disappoint me, Louis. I trust you can handle this."

The line goes dead. Louis hangs up. Everybody watches him intently.

"The police negotiator is going to come in at ten thirty. He's going to interview some hostages, one of them being Harry Styles. I want Zayn and Silver with me and the negotiator. Nick and Iron, you bring everyone from downstairs back up. Iron, you'll watch them with Oxygen while the guy is inside. Nick, you can stay in here and update The Chemist about what's going on."

Everyone nods, agreeing.

"Then, after he leaves, I need everyone to come back here because I still have other things to add."

Day 5 – 94 hours into the heist (Monday, 24th, 10:15am)

Harry doesn't say anything as Zayn ushers him out of the room and leads him back down the stairs with the rest of the hostages. Niall and him see each other and Harry walks over to him to give him a hug.

"I can't believe he actually did it. What a man." Niall says and pats Harry on the back before they sit down.

"What are you talking about?" Harry asks. Who did what?"

"I talked to Hydrogen and he said that he'll send you back to me."

Before Harry can ask any further questions, Simon shuffles over to them and leans his head in to whisper.

"Harry, they're going to let police in."

"What?"

"It's protocol. In case of a hostage situation, if harm is suspected, they always ask for proof of life. And they won't trust photos so a guy has to come in. You have to hide."

Harry is shocked. "What?"

"You have to hide. They'll have you on top of their list, then me. If they don't tick your name off, they will come in with tanks and a whole army, trust me. You have to hide. There's a panic vault, downstairs. You'll find it. It's the last one on the left and you can lock it from inside and it can't be opened without the combination. Memorize it. 284-"

"Wait, wait. When am I even supposed to leave this room?"

"There's a door in the back, there. It leads to stairs. I'll distract the girl."

Harry looks at Niall for advice but he isn't much help.

"2841780. Repeat it."

"2843-"

"No, fuck. 2841. 780."

"2841..780."

"Okay, get ready."

Harry nods, not even processing what he's agreeing to. Being pressured into. Why can't Simon understand that going along will save their lives?

Simon stands up and goes to distract Hailee. Doesn't even say anything, just goes for her gun and she struggles, screaming at him. Everyone gets agitated and this is Harry's que to run.

He stands up, and in the sea of people panicking, he manages to get to the door. He slips inside the staircase and just as the door closes, he sees Louis coming down the stairs, running.

He finds the vault Simon told him about and pushes the combination in, before he steps inside and pulls the door behind himself, locking it shut with an echoing thud.

Day 5 – 94 hours into the heist (Monday, 24th, 10:28am)

Louis hears the commotion because he's already leading his fellow colleagues and the people from downstairs towards the main lobby. He starts running, and as soon as he sees Simon Cowell trying to pry the gun from Hailee, he points his own at Cowell and yells for him to step back. He does so immediately and hurries to get in line with the hostages.

"Where is Harry Styles?" Louis asks.

He gets no answer.

"FUCK, where is Harry Styles?" he yells, just as the big doors make a sound and slowly start to open. He turns towards the rest of his colleagues. "Stall him!"

He makes a run up the stairs and then right to the staircase that leads downstairs. He knows exactly where to find Harry.

The vault room is eerily silent, seems disconnected from everything that is happening upstairs and outside. Louis checks every single vault before getting to the last one. He tries to open it, but it won't budge.

"Fuck. Harry, I know you're in there."

There's no sound coming from inside.

"Harry." Louis says, knocking on the door. "The police is coming in. If they don't see you alive and well they will come in and a lot more people will die. This would all be for nothing. I know you're smart enough to figure that hiding would be a stupid idea, which means that you didn't come here because you wanted to."

Nothing.

"Come on."

Then, there's a loud thud and the vault creaks open. Louis pulls it open and Harry steps out, still in his red jumpsuit. People will ask questions. Also, his slight limp.

"Yeah, it wasn't my idea." Harry says.

Louis motions for him to walk back, and as soon as they reach the top of the staircase, he can see that everyone has made a path in the middle of the room for the detective standing by the large double doors.

"Harry Styles?" the guy asks and walks over to the bottom of the stairs.

Louis keeps the gun straight as he follows Harry down the stairs.

"I'm DI Matthews, sent for proof of life." He says and extends his hand to shake Harry's. "Everyone will be glad to hear everyone is alive." Then he looks at Louis. "I assume, you're the one behind the voice on the phone?"

Louis smirks but doesn't answer. DI Matthews pushes by asking:

"What's your name?"

"Why don't we get to those interviews you wanted huh? You've checked everyone on the list, right?"

DI Matthews nods. Louis smiles. "Well then, lets go to the room we've prepared for this. Iron, have you checked him for wires?"

Liam nods. "Yeah. He had a mic in his shoes."

Louis shakes his head and then nods over to Zayn and Gigi. "Let's go."

They walk into a room on the ground floor they figured would be perfect. It only had two chair in it, where the detective and Louis would sit, while Zayn and Gigi were there for show. Harry stood in the middle of the room, awkwardly looking at Louis and then at Matthews.

The detective/negotiator (that's how he described himself, finally) opened his small notepad and looked up at Harry.

"So, Harry. How would you describe every day here? Since you've been illegally held against your will?"

Harry's eyes flicker over to Louis. Louis didn't let anything show on his face. He tried not looking at the detective too much, still fearing that he might somehow get recognized. So far, nobody has. And they've been showing it on the TV ever since midnight.

"They're fine. Routine."

"What do you mean with routine?"

"Waking up, going to the bathroom, eating."

"And then?"

"And then...sitting in the lobby. Then eating, then going to the bathroom and then going to bed."

The detective makes a face. "Has anyone ever hurt you? Or threatened you?"

Louis cocks his head and looks at Harry.

"No." Harry says.

Louis raises his brows. Harry clocks it.

"Have they threatened or hurt anyone else?"

"No." Harry repeats as Zayn and Gigi exchange looks behind him.

Louis knows that people outside will believe everything Harry Styles is saying. They'll believe it and let them be. He also didn't really expect Harry to lie, but he understands why it would be a good idea in his position.

"Okay. Your father is sending you his love and told me to inform you that he's doing everything in his power to resolve the situation. You'll be okay and the people behind it will be caught. Can you please call in...Amber Richards?" Matthews asks Louis, who looks at Gigi. She nods and tells Harry to follow her back to the lobby.

The interviews don't really last as long as Louis would've thought. He asks general questions after the interview with Harry, things like "Do you feel in distress and afraid for your life?" or "Are you being deprived of your basic human rights?". Louis is surprised to see that no one tells the whole truth and try to make the whole experience seem normal, even though Nick has been ridiculous.

Zayn and Gigi leave the two of them alone in the room. Louis stands up at the same time with the detective, before placing his gun on the chair and offering to shake his hand.

"It was a pleasure to meet you, detective."

The detective looks at him. Really looks at him. "You seem familiar. We'll get you too. We'll get all of you."

Louis shrugs and the detective places his hand in his.

"Good luck." Louis smiles and shakes his hand.

They walk Matthews up to the large doors and watch him slowly stepping out of the building. It's been snowing, and once Louis' eyes adjust to the bright natural light coming from outside, he sees the scene in front of him.

There are barriers all around the bank, hundreds of people huddled up behind them, wanting to see inside, wanting to know what's going on. Police are everywhere, cameras, journalists. And all of this on Christmas Eve day.

***

Day 5 – 96 hours into the heist (Monday, 24th, 12:18pm)

There's a loud explosion and the silent lobby is filled with screams from panicked people. It was Liam's shift now and Louis was bored so he joined him. Mainly because he was too caught up in his head trying to find a way to talk to Harry. He was sure about what, but he felt like he needed interaction with the lad to make everything seem less grave.

A few seconds later, Zayn comes rushing down. "There's a riot downstairs. They're trying to escape. I can hear sirens."

"Stay here. Keep everyone calm." He tells Zayn and then rushes up the stairs with Liam. Eleanor runs past them, scared. Louis grabs her by the arm to stop her.

"Find Mercury and send him down. You go with the hostages. Tell Zayn to get the Chemist on the phone. Explain the situation."

The scene they're met with is something Louis has never experienced before. There's debris and dust everywhere because of the explosives by the back entrance, and red laser beams that go into his eyes. He drops to the ground as bullets start flying over his head, shielded only by the heavy stacks of bricks they've build especially for this purpose.

Hailee is taking cover behind some metal bins and Gigi is crouching behind a small cement wall, closest to the door.

Liam is on the ground next to him. "What do we do? The hostages are escaping. They're going to come in, the explosives knocked down the door."

Louis shakes his head. "We can close the door by lifting it up!"

Liam shakes his head. "We'll get killed!"

Louis looks around. Then he gets an idea. "Cover me."

"Hydrogen, no! What the fuck are you doing?"

Louis stands up and without thinking runs for his life to the back of the room, throwing himself behind the small iron cart. The machine gun they found in the firearms room when they raided the security office is still standing there.

Liam understands what Louis wants to do and warns Hailee and Gigi to stand down. Just then, Nick appears and throws himself next to Liam. He's shocked when Louis wheels past him behind the machine gun.

He starts firing as soon as he's got a straight line into the winter day outside. There's a lot of noise, bullets everywhere, people yelling swear words, and then there's silence.

Nobody moves, inside or outside. Then, Hailee yells for everyone to close the door and all five of them struggle to bring the iron gate back up. Louis falls against it, sliding down on his ass with his back against it.

"Get Neon and what's left of the digging team to seal the door back into the wall. I'm going to talk to the Chemist. The rest of you go back to the hostages and take a count. This...this is bad. How did they try this? What happened?"

Gigi speaks up. "The boys in the factory got angry at one point and found tools and a gun in the police locker room. I don't know, they just threatened to kill me, and some were already here, because they knew about the explosives and thought it was their only chance."

Louis nods and stands up. He brushes himself off and throws the gun over his shoulder. "Let's go."

The Chemist answers him on the first ring.

"Something happened." Louis starts.

"Yes, I saw. They showed it on the TV and I saw on our cameras you using a machine gun to attack the national guards."

"Fuck." Louis breathes. "I didn't know what else to do."

"It's fine, I trust your judgement. If it meant keeping you alive as the last option, it's okay. I'm not mad, if that's what you're afraid of."

"Did you talk to the police?"

"Yes. They threatened to come in. Some hostages got out, I don't know how many. But while I negotiate, remember the business partner scenario and get it done. We're almost halfway through. You're doing great. I'm going to call in two hours."

Louis nods even though she can't see him, before hanging up and walking to the lobby.

The hostages have taken a stand when hearing about the ones that managed to escape and when to protest that they also want out. It was a crisis.

Louis leans over to Liam. "The associate strategy. It's the only way now."

Liam seems to agree with him because he tells the rest as well.

"Of course, another scenario would be that the hostages start to riot and they can and will eventually take you out if they become worked up. This is where the associate strategy comes in." The Chemist said one afternoon while they were in the garden having lunch.

They had moved from the classroom to a house on the outskirts of London for the last two weeks of the training, and now were getting quite acquainted with each other.

"What's this strategy then?" Louis asks, since she seems to have drifted off somewhere else.

"Right. You'll take each hostage into a room to talk. There, you'll sit them down and offer them a choice: you can have your freedom and walk out of here right now, or, you can stay as our business partners, for a salary, of course. And then you offer two hundred fifty per day."

"Pounds?" Gigi asks.

"Thousand."

Everyone exchanges looks.

"Don't worry, most of them will leave. People would rather have their old life back than stay and risk going to prison or being murdered."

"And how can we trust those who stay?" Louis asks.

They start by getting Louis, Gigi and Hailee into a room that leads into an adjacent one. Louis takes a seat behind the desk, Gigi and Hailee behind him. All three of them have some people who would be a good addition to the team. Zayn will bring people in one by one. Everyone has one hour to think it through.

"The people who want to leave are the ones most likely to start a riot. I need to protect you. So you'll take them to a room in the basement and stay there with them until I think what to do with them."

"Yes, but why should we trust those who want to stay with us?"

"Because if there's one thing you'll all have in common, that's money. Those who stay will choose to help themselves, first and foremost. And by then, IF it even happens, I expect you to be in good relations with the hostages anyway."

The first twenty people all want to be free, the next five want to stay, so Liam splits them into two groups.

"Oh, and Harry Styles has to stay with you, either way. He cannot go free. But it's best if he wants to actually stay there. For the money."

"I doubt it, his father is rich already." Nick says.

The Chemist shrugs. "You never know."

Harry comes in next, so Louis replaces Gigi in the desk chair. He only wants to talk to Harry and Niall specifically. The rest can be up to the girls, who have established better relationships with the hostages.

"I've heard what this is about already." Harry says, before Louis can even open his mouth. "People have been talking about it since it started."

"And have you made a decision?"

Harry shrugs. "No."

"Money doesn't interest you then."

Harry shakes his head. "I don't think it would solve my problems. And on the other hand, freedom is something very important to me."

"You know you-" Gigi starts to intervene, trying to remind Louis that Harry has to stay either way, but Louis stops her.

"Okay. You have one hour to think about what type of freedom you want."

Harry looks at him weird before he stands up and leaves, with Niall waiting right outside. Hailee taps Louis on the shoulder.

"I know you said you wanted to talk to Niall, but I'd like to take this one, if you don't mind."

Louis doesn't even protest. Niall walks over to the chair and waits for Hailee to sit down. So does Hailee. They stare at each other until Niall finally sits down, not knowing what else to do.

"So, Niall. Do you know what this is about?" she asks, leaning forwards and propping her chin in her palms.

"Yeah. How much money are we talking about?"

Hailee cocks her head. "Name your price."

"Two hundred. Grand." Niall adds, a bit shaky.

"Done." Hailee says and leans back.

Louis frowns. They're not supposed to tell them how much money, let alone agree to something.

"You can go now." Hailee says and Niall stands up.

When she sees Louis' disagreeing face, Hailee says "Just wait."

Then, Niall stops and turns around. "But, the others have to get that much money too. Everyone has to be treated fairly."

Hailee gives him her word and then Niall is gone, door closing behind him.

"Why did you agree to that?" Louis says.

"We can always up the sum, that'll be even better, for one. And two, I wanted to see if he would be a good person and care about his fellow men."

Louis gives her that. At the end, Eleanor asks him to let her talk with the guys who have been digging in the vault with her.

Louis stands up to go to the lobby and explain everything that was about to go down.

"Alright. On this one side, we have people who definitely want to be free, I see." Louis says and looks at the thirty people already aligned on the left. Then he looks over at the people who haven't decided.

"Your time is up." Gigi says. "So the people who want to go free instead of becoming our associates in the matter, please step onto the left side of the room.

There's a moment of silence where nobody moves. Then, one by one, they run over to the other side, playing it safe.

Louis watches Harry, who keeps staring over at Simon, who already rushed over to the other side. He hasn't moved.

"Alright." Hailee breaks the silence when Louis doesn't say anything. "The people who have chosen to go, please follow us."

Everyone watches as the mass of people go with Nick and Hailee down to the basement. When they get out of sight, Louis turns to the remaining 24. Two of them are Eleanor's diggers, seven work in the factory with Gigi. Then there are two teenage boys, who didn't participate in the escape plan, three young women who came there together, four older men and three older women, and besides one guy Louis doesn't know the name of, Harry and Niall.

"Alright. The first thing we're going to do is split up into teams. Neon, you already know who your team is, Silver too."

Eleanor and Gigi take their teams and go back down to the basement, so Louis looks at the people left in the lobby. There's Liam, Zayn, Nick, Hailee and himself left, along with fourteen other hostages. Hailee returns, which means Nick is the one who will watch the basement.

"Now, you guys can pick. There's Oxygen, who will have her own team, Zinc, who will also have his own team, and finally, Iron and I will switch. Pick your teams then."

After a moment of hesitation, all the women go over to Hailee, who smiles and pats one of the girls on the back. The girls look happy with their choice. Then, the four older men of the group go over to Zayn, who looks satisfied with their choice.

Harry, Niall, and two other teenage boys stand by Louis and Liam.

"Great. And when we meet up for lunch in the break room, I want each team leader to have chosen a right-hand man. And I'll explain later."

The group disbands, each leader taking their team to a separate room which will from now on be their office.

***

Day 5 – 99 hours into the heist (Monday, 24th, 3:30pm)

Louis picks a spacious room on the first floor, with two couches, a bathroom and two chairs by the desk.

The guys look at Louis expectantly, who takes a seat behind the desk.

"So. I know this is weird. But I wanted to thank you for choosing to stay with us. Obviously, you will get more money than Niall probably told you three months after this is over, so you have to leave the address you want the money to be sent to. Now." He looks at the guys in front of him, who have no idea what's really going on. "I want one of you to be my right-hand man. This means you'll have to carry a gun and basically do what I do."

The guys look at each other. Nobody is offering.

Finally, Harry raises his hand. "I'll do it."

Louis cocks his head. "You want to do it?"

Harry shrugs. "Might as well."

Louis smirks. "Okay then. From now on, you go everywhere Iron and I go. I know you'll have a gun, but if you try anything tricky you will get shot."

Harry smiles. Louis rolls his eyes. They both know that would never happen. Then they spend a few minutes learning each other's names. Louis already knows Harry and Niall, and the guy who seemed familiar was called Max. The two younger boys introduced themselves as Jake and Sean.

"What do you want us to do now boss?" Niall asks, standing up. Louis already knows he'll be his favorite. "The four of you find Silver downstairs and tell her to give you guns. Then ask her to take you to the basement to watch the rest of the people who will be released. Harry, you stay with me."

The guys leave the room and for a moment Louis wonders whether they'll regret getting hostages on board with them. Then, he looks at Harry, who doesn't know what to do with himself.

"Alright." Louis stands up, propping his hands on his hips. "Let's get you a gun."

----

Thank you so much for reading :)

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p.s. Next chapter will be up next week on October 9th, 5pm UK time!

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Ronnie