Things were going quite well, if Dixie said so herself. This was the first time she had applied to be lead on a job. It earned one a ten percent bonus for taking the responsibility of seeing that the score was delivered to the local Syndicate depot. The rest of her crew were out front sweeping loose diamonds off tables and displays and into duffel bags. The diamonds were small and of mediocre quality, but the sheer quantity of them would net a decent profit. Because things were going so well, Dixie was in the back office, cracking their wall safe. She didn’t expect to find anything worthwhile, but she had the time and cracking safes was what she did.
At the last tumbler falling into place, she turned the handle and yanked open the door. A stack of bills sat on top of some official looking papers. She snatched the bills out and put them in her jacket pocket: a tip on top of her lead bonus! This job was turning out real well.
Until the gunshots sounded out front.
It was not common to fire one’s gun during a Syndicate job after the initial civilian scare. Even if the police showed up, they usually did not interfere directly as it could endanger civilians. The occasional hero cop might try to thin a crew’s ranks with an opportunistic shot sometimes, but for the most part the agreement the Syndicate had with law enforcement kept gunplay to a minimum.
The shots fired out on the sales floor were therefore cause for concern. Dixie drew her revolver from its holster and peeked around the door frame.
Two of her crewmates, Selznick and Mallard, had with their weapons fixed on two other people in Guy Fawkes masks who were pointing their own guns at them. Her third crewmate, Fontaine, was curled up in a ball in the middle of this stand-off, whimpering, gasping for breath, and bleeding all over the floor. The three civilians lying in a neat row on the floor along the back wall shook in fear and hid their heads under their arms.
Dixie crept out of the office, staying low to sneak behind the display cases. Joining her crew out there would tip the scales in their favor over… whoever these guys were, but if she could manage to sneak up on the one who was standing closest…
What Dixie lacked in height and might, she made up for by carrying a massive firearm. The Ursa Striking Bear revolver was five pounds and ten inches of intimidation, a fact this V for Vendetta cosplayer realized when Dixie jammed its barrel into his back.
“Why don’t you set that gun down, sweetie?” Dixie said, prodding him with her own. “Nice and easy, don’t want it to go off.” He bent down slowly and set his assault rifle at his feet.
“Mallard, come get this,” Dixie said. Mallard came over to collect the weapon, never once taking his eyes or his own weapon off the other guy.
Once Mallard and her hostage’s weapon were out of reach and the odds were significantly back in the Syndicate agents’ favor, Dixie shoved her hostage. He stumbled and fell. She kept her gun pointed at him. When he turned over, she asked, “Are y’all… protesting the robbery?” She gestured around at the scene with her free hand. “The fuck is this?”
“These guys just burst in here and shot Fontaine,” Selznick said.
“Why’dya do that?” Dixie asked her hostage.
“We were gonna steal your take. Billy says it’s easy to steal from Syndicate crews ’cause they’re not real robbers.”
Dixie rolled her eyes. She figured that much.
“No, honey, why did you shoot Fontaine,” she clarified.
He seemed reluctant to answer so she pulled the hammer back on her revolver to convey her impatience.
“Billy always shoots a civilian first off,” he spat out. “So they know he’ll shoot any of them if they act up.”
“Shut up, Charlie!” Billy said, shifting his aim off Selznick and on to Dixie. Selznick jumped on the opportunity and fired his shotgun at Billy, hitting him in the gut. Billy reflexively fired his rifle as he fell, and the bullet clipped Dixie’s ear. Dixie’s hand darted up to hold her stinging ear and she swore loudly. Charlie saw the opening and made a motion to get up, but Dixie trained her gun back on him to get him to stay down.
Selznick darted forward and snatched up Billy’s rifle from where it lay next to him.
“Okay, good hustle, Selz-y, but one inch over and I would be dead,” Dixie pointed out.
“Sorry, ma’am,” Selznick said.
Dixie gingerly prodded her ear and hissed.
“God, there’s, like, a chunk missing. That’s gonna heal up pretty.” But no matter. “All right, you two,” she directed Selznick and Mallard, “Get Fontaine into the van. You,” she said, pointing at Charlie. “You are now in my crew.” She waved her gun at him in a pope-like blessing. “So start loading these bags in the van.”
“Or what?” Charlie said defiantly. It surprised Dixie, as Charlie had come off pretty passive this whole time. It was annoying, given the obviousness of Or What.
“Or I will shoot you,” she ground out, “and your buddy Billy there, and I won’t miss like Selznick did,” she said. “Chop chop, motherfucker.”
Charlie begrudgingly got up and picked up a pair of duffel bags. He followed behind the rest of the crew as they carried Fontaine as gently as they could.
Dixie huffed at the ceiling and reached up to poke at the missing chunk of her ear again.
This story was part of my 2019 TRL event.
Me again, this time seeing how one of the ladies handles without the other. Specifically, Dixie is hitting a diamond exchange with a crew of Syndicate randoms. But as they’re about to start, a non-Syndicate crew, starts their own robbery, and they’re definitely more vicious than Syndicate. You don’t have to make this before Dixie met Cleo, but definitely have her as MVP. Maybe getting shit on for credit in pulling the job through, but still.
– Paupers Run
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