The man stood there, next to his car. He had a suit and briefcase, with his phone up to his ear. He approached the office building across the street quite briskly. Danny Stenn was just thirty paces away, eyeing every detail about the man and his BMW. Once the man was out of sight, Danny pulled out a briefcase from underneath a bush and stood next to the car pretending to talk on the phone.

When his “call” ended, he casually turned around and faced the car. At the moment, there was no apparent way to enter the BMW, but Danny had experience. Since the car was brand new, it was equipped with many security features that prevented one from forcing their way into the car. Its greatest weakness, however, was that it was connected to the internet.

From the briefcase, Danny hastily took out a laptop and started typing away at his command shell. He pinged the vehicle once, then twice, and on his third try, it roared to life with its headlights turning on. Another click, and the car door unlocked, so in one fluid motion, Danny pulled the handle and sat in the driver’s seat.

Danny didn’t know it, but the car had a tracker attached to it. He slowly pushed the gas pedal, and as soon as he did, the businessman received a notification. The man calmly contacted the authorities and provided them with essential information. Soon, the police had reached the street Danny was on. Danny glanced behind his shoulder, and felt a knot tie itself in his stomach. Pure dread swallowed up his insides like smoke willowing from a campfire. He took a deep breath, hoping the police were not here for him.

“To the driver of the BMW M760i, pull over immediately, and vacate the vehicle with your hands in sight.”

Danny decided that he was not a getaway driver, and pulled over. He stepped out with his hands in the air and slowly got on his knees. The officer was skeptical, perhaps the lack of resistance had surprised him.

Eventually, through a lot of apologies, and perhaps a few lies, Danny had received a hefty fine, but no imprisonment. At the local library, he checked his balance on his bank account, which was running very low, and it read one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. He logged off, and sighed, for he was very lucky he still had his parent’s money. Which reminded him again of his parent’s death. Danny hailed a taxi, and soon, arrived at his humble abode, which, though was very thrifty, fit him quite nicely. He stretched out in his bed, and slept comfortably, despite his troubles.

The next morning, Danny poured over job openings near him and had formulated a list of potential places to apply to. However, his criminal record stood out like a neon sign. He quickly grew very frustrated. He had a problem with anger, like he always had. Finally, he gave up and sat on his couch, face buried in his hands.

The uneventful day passed slowly, which gave Danny time to regain his confidence. But it took just one message to wreck it all.

“I had one hundred and twenty grand, and now I have none?” Danny asked quite sternly on the phone.

“Sir, the transfer was authorized with your voice, fingerprint, photo and your signature. Unusual, really. But that level of authorization cannot be recovered. The only bit of foreign information we have is that it was transferred to someone with the surname “Ning.” I’m sorry, but without a lawyer, there is nothing you can do,” the operator replied.

Danny hung up, and stood there. His face was blank and pale. He could feel warm tears falling down his face. He was filled with anger and rage, partially at himself, for not finishing high school, but his hatred felt tangible, as if the very air around him was screaming everything he wanted to scream.

Though he was shaking with anguish, he eventually fell into an uneasy sleep on his couch. In the middle of the night, Danny’s phone started ringing. He drowsily got up and picked it up. It had no number, name or any information at all really. To his surprise, he chose to pick it up. There was a moment’s silence, then a voice came on.

“This Danny?” the man asked.

“Who are you? And how do you know my name?”

“So it is you. Well, I mean, I have to take your word for it, but hey.”

“What do you need that is so urgent that you called me at this time of the night? Come on man it’s one in the morning.”

“Okay, everything gon make sense pretty soon. We got a possible job for you. But I can’t tell you until you accept it. It’ll pay a lot though. Trust me on that.”

Danny felt a realization that hit his mind hard.

“You hacked my bank account, didn’t you? How did you know I needed a job? And this call was only,” Danny checked the clock, “four hours from when I lost all of it…”

“Well, that seems to make sense, but that really wasn’t me. Honest.”

“So what job you got?”

“Are you gonna take it? Cause ain’t nothing gonna happen unless you take it first. And there ain’t no backing out on this one, Ray.”

***

There wasn’t a lot of things that Danny had done in his life without a proper think-through. But there he was, named “Ray” amidst a motley ensemble of hand picked members of a gang.

“So,” the man on the phone said, “You all are here, cause you want riches. So what are we gonna do? For starters, my name is Frank Billings, but you can call me Frankie. And we’re gonna steal some wheels. Don’t get too attached to your baby, cause we’ll get more money tearing it apart and selling the parts.”

After a thorough introduction of all the members, Danny was still trying to pair the names exactly. Lloyd Ning, was their tech expert, who was a former software engineer, Steve Royal, their humble underpaid mechanic, who had an unusually deep voice, and a woman who refused to reveal her name, but went by “Rims.” The only other piece of information was that she could fight. Well enough to get her arrested, so naturally, she was here.

That evening, Steve had walked Danny through his workshop

“Wow, Steve, this workshop is amazing. I’ve always loved cars, and it looks like you have everything here.”

“Yeah, a lot of saving this took. You can work here anytime, just don’t break anything, or you buy it.”

Danny and Steve talked for a few more hours, and as their few days passed, they became very close friends. Soon the day before their heist came.

“The heist is gonna start tomorrow night, so here’s our plan…” Frankie announced. After hours of thinking and planning, they started to prepare. In the end, Danny had slept about two hours; he was lucky to have slept at all, because the rest of the gang had to sort out their light weaponry, a field that Danny had absolutely no experience in.

***

They each started in a different location, so they could each steal a car. New York’s biggest drift and speed festival was taking place, so they had a lot of vehicles to choose from. Danny chose to grab the McLaren P1 GTR, worth millions, and fast enough to escape anything.

Meanwhile, Steve had his eyes on a Bugatti Chiron. He eyed his surroundings, and carefully got as close as possible. He looked in the sky and gently whispered a few prayers.

“Hopefully, I’ll see you soon. Just sit tight,” he said to the stars, “just sit tight.”

Then, he advanced toward the car, knocked over two men, jumped through the door gap, and sped away, with one door still open. He was the first to get his car. Cops started flying in at every angle, but Steve was very elusive. He drove this way and that, but a traffic light just turned red, and a large mail truck had gotten in his way. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. His hand slipped, and the car flew straight into the side of the truck. The grinding of metal against metal resonated through Steve’s ears, and soon he fell away from the world.

Rims had just taken her prize, and had driven away with uncanny precision with her seemingly artificial reflexes. Police interceptors were contacted, where they set roadblocks that Rims had avoided easily. Minutes felt like hours, but eventually, she met up with the rest of her gang at a convenience store in the outskirts of the city.

Frankie climbed out of his car, pulled out a handgun and walked into the store. Danny followed.

“Alright Ray. Here we go.”

Frankie aimed at the cashier, who had just noticed Frankie’s handgun, and screamed in terror. Danny felt something click in his mind.

“Georgia? Is that…?” Danny said, in a wavering voice. The cashier was Danny’s little sister.

“Danny, what’s happening? Why does he have a-.” her voice was cut off by Frankie’s gunshots. Two bullets hit her in the chest, one ricocheted off the wall.

“NO! Frankie!” Danny exclaimed while the police started to arrive. Danny watched helplessly as Georgia fell gracefully to the ground. The only member of the Stenn family that was still alive, crumpled on the floor.

“She called the cops, Ray, she called the cops!”

Danny looked outside, and Rims shouted at them to get moving. Lloyd was just arriving, but his car was a wreck. Rims aimed her rifle at the police, but they had already opened fire. Rims flew backwards into the wall, which gave Frankie enough time to take aim with his assault rifle. Before he pulled the trigger, Danny grabbed Frankie’s arm and kicked him in the stomach. The rifle bullet hit the ground. Frankie doubled over and the police advanced towards them. Frankie tried to shoot again, but Danny kicked the gun out of his hands. Lloyd was already being shoved into the police car, bruised and barely conscious. The officer grabbed Frankie by the arms and cuffed him. With unexpected aggressiveness, the cop twisted Danny’s arms behind his back and threw his head onto the interceptor's hood.

Danny ducked into the back of a police car and sat there. He could not tell what he was feeling, but knew that his sister was dead again. The moment of hope he had when he saw her had been ripped away by Frankie. Danny sighed, and thought to himself.

Ray isn’t a bad name, he thought.