Money Knows No Bounds

Chapter Four

January 1st, 2020
0738 hours Central
Mexico City, Mexico
John reorganizes the materials in his heavy-duty military backpack. Somehow after getting it setup two nights ago before the op, and pulling out two items from its contents, the damn thing refuses to fit everything he had to take out in order to get the stuff he needed for his ride to the plane.
"Damnit," he sighs shoving his fist deep into the belly of his bloated pack. Finally, he manages to push down the rain parka down enough to zip up the cover. Feeling successful at his accomplishment as well as drained of the energy his mug's worth of coffee gave him, he gazes up looking at the men packing up their own gear.
Bill rises from the pull out mattress with a soft yawn and stretch of his arms. "What time is it?" He ponders as he looks at his watch.
"A little after half past seven, get your gear and grab some coffee. We are moving out in ten." John replies as he stands moving his bag to his left shoulder.
"Why didn't you wake me? I should have been up an hour ago." Bill asks, alarmed and anxious to make sure he gets ready before they leave. He jumps up to his feet and runs into the small kitchen for the coffee.
"It's not our job to set YOUR alarm sleeping beauty. Besides, you passed out minutes after we showed up here. I doubt you grab anything from your pack in your sleep, so it would take you five minutes to get up and ready anyways." Luke remarks as he shoves his knives into their holsters upon his belt and picks up his backpack.
George walks into the home holding a small brown paper bag, "got us all some of those little donut things for the road." He closes the door and walks over to the small dining room table where Steve is putting away the maps and various papers once shuffled around the space. "We about ready?"
John nods and looks at Bill who sprints back to the bed and grabs his bag. Holding his mug of coffee he chugs down the lukewarm subsistence in under a few seconds.
"Ok, everything is put away," Steve announces as he holds up his navy blue folder. "Got the route written out."
"Ok, let's move quickly. I wouldn't want to stay in this area for too much longer. Where is the car?" John asked looking curiously at Luke.
"It's on the other side of the street." Luke replies.
John glares at Luke, asking with his eyes why he did such a thing.
"Don't worry boss. The car is clean and won't be reported missing for at least another hour," Luke says with a growing smirk.
John groans, "what the hell did you do?"
Luke shrugs, "just...got a wonderful compliance from this nice family. They insisted I take their car John. And they even told me 'hey, just to be safe, duct tape our mouths and ties us up in a bedroom so we don't get second thoughts.'"
"LUKE why would y-, John sighs rubbing his forehead. "Forget it. The damage is done. Are they at least secure enough so we can leave without having the damn cops come after us?"
Luke nods and John shakes his head, "fine. Let's go." He opens the door and waits, annoyed, until everyone clears out of the home. He shuts the door and follows the men out of the alley and across the street.
Everyone, except John, is holding the duffle bags full of cash and weapons. Luke pops open the trunk of the car and everyone begins to toss all of their bags inside.
John looks around the area. The street has strands of confetti and glass bottles, both broken and whole. He glances at the spot that just a few hours ago sat a Crown Victoria looked suspicious to him. Figuring it was safe to leave, he moves to sit in the passenger seat of the small maroon Sedan that Luke swiped from a family earlier.
The seats were slightly torn, the floors stained with residue of kids punch and other various things none of the men wanted to even think about. As Steve starts the car, Luke closes the trunk and squeezes in the backseat next to Bill who, as the rookie, gets to be in the middle portion of the back. Honestly, he should be lucky he didn't get picked for the trunk.
While driving away from the safehouse, the man in the green shirt, now wearing a nice brown suit with his police badge tucked visibly into his front jacket pocket, walks out of the convenience store. He watches as the car turns around and drives toward the center of the city. Sipping his coffee, he pulls out his cell phone and calls his partner. In his native language, he informs him that the man they saw leaving the safe house last night had more people with him, and that they all had large bags and drove away in the stolen car near his location. He then gives the make and model of the car and how many are inside. His partner tells him he got authorization to tail the car to their destination and afterwards to call for backup. The man in that was once in the green shirt acknowledges this and hangs up walking to the door of the safehouse. He enters the home and begins to investigate.