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Chapter 16
- LANGAA RPCIG
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109 C Chapter 16 heir background the beautiful gardens of Burgers Park, three days after their drunken altercation, Regis and Aluwani sat on the edge of the pavement watching the branch of Binomial Bank of South Africa across Andries St. In beggarly clothing, the two sat quietly. Regis was focussed despite constant distractions from the belt of traffic on the road, and a drooling Aluwani who frequently pointed at whorish women. After watching the bank for about half an hour since ten o’clock that morning, Regis finally turned and looked at his companion, only to find him staring at a swaggering slender woman in leggings and stilettos. “You find women irresistible?” Regis said, partially sarcastically and partially pitying him. “Live by the sword, die by the sword.” “A man on the lowest ebb cannot fall. We die once. We’re in goddamned limbo.” “We’re trying to work our way out of Hell and you allow yourself to lose focus. Look at the bank and concentrate. Think of ways to out manoeuvre its security systems.” “I dropped out of school because I couldn’t damn concentrate. I’m not a NASA scientist. Stop criticising my damn ways and tell me how we rob the bank. How do we rob the bank?” “That’s the question,” Regis said with genuine mirth. “How do we rob the bank?” Aluwani frowned. “Gutter rat, you’re asking me? A gutter rat asking a gutter rat how to rob a bank? You forced me to be an accomplice, now you want me to tell you how we’re going to rob BBSA. You’re a joke, skunk.” “We’re in this together. Our roles in this project are equal, so shall be our shares or prison sentences if we’re caught.” “I’ll tell the damn judge I robbed the bank under duress. You threatened my life.” T 110 “We won’t end up in the rut if we plan it properly. Think like a brain surgeon before an operation.” Regis sighed in anger. “See the robbery as a natural presentiment to launch us to a new realm. I see nothing vague in the result if we allow ourselves to think at this stage.” “If there’s one person who can’t think, that’s me. I don’t want to think. I don’t want loads of money. I don’t desire a pompous life. You can call me Gandhi or a dunderhead. My parents feared I had hydrocephalus from the size of my head.” He held his head with both hands. “Look at it; I wasn’t designed to think.” “I want you to concentrate or there’s no deal, which means you’re a dead man talking, Alu. I’m not an intellectual, yet I’m trying to think like Pythagoras.” “That’s dead impressive. When I imagine us in the bank and armed policemen surrounding it, I see that many robbers think like Pythagoras, but die like Muammar Gaddafi.” Aluwani grinned and scratched his head. “The damn bank is a 2010 thing and fairly new. They can’t afford a complicated security system. Maybe the bank manager sits on a goatskin in his office.” “You’re now thinking, dunderhead.” “We walk in pretending to be brandishing pistols under our clothes. We order everyone down. We walk out with millions and split them unless you want to kill me after the damn robbery.” “There’s an armed security guard and cameras inside the bank. If a staff member triggers an alarm the police will condone the area with rifles within minutes. They’ll either arrest us or shoot us dead if we don’t surrender.” “What’s your problem? We shoot the damn guard and the damn cameras. We shoot our way out of the bank and the police condone.” From the breast pocket of his shirt he took out a piece of newspaper and a sachet of tobacco, and began rolling a cigar. He improvised a pistol with his fingers. “We’ll shoot, shoot, shoot.” He mimed blowing smoke from the muzzle of his improvisation. “Have you ever killed before, Alu?” “No, skunk. I thought I was a damn saint. We need guns.” [44.210.103.233] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 15:24 GMT) 111 “Do you know anyone who can lend us some for an hour or two?” “If I knew such people I wouldn’t have been a vagabond. A person armed with a gun has the...