The Three Thieves

The three thieves, Laurel, Ismail and Richard were seated in their room. They had been called by someone who called himself 'The Lord'.

"I... I....think this will be good money making for us... “Ismail said in despair. “We have been robbing a lot, but still couldn't have our hands on something big...!"

"Oh common, silly man...." Richard screamed at Ismail, "You always create problems...! When you were told not to..."

"Enough guys..!" Inspector Bob shouted, breaking them up, " As per instructed by ‘The Lord’, the target was to get you 3 here. You have robbed many times till now & always escaped the Police. Now, a person called ‘The Lord’ will be assigning some work to you. Keep checking your email for any incoming message.”

Major Christian 'Chris' lived three blocks ahead of the police station. Having worked in the army in the wireless department, he had lost his leg when a shell exploded right in front of him. Now, he spent his time writing fictional war stories for the weekly magazine. He also passed his time as a computer geek, taking software classes & hacking websites.

Today as he was working on his computer, preparing codings, suddenly he saw a strange incoming message. The codes were not matching with the usual messages that the server from the network service provider was creating. He cross checked it with the past codes that the server had created & also other codes for other users. Nothing.

Suspecting something, he got up and walking with his Prosthetic Leg, he came out and checked the network cables. All of them were intact. As he opened the chamber, suddenly he saw that one of the wires was crossing his network modem. That wire belonged to some other network provider. As he checked the source he found that it was connected to the police station, about two blocks from his home. Probably this was the reason he was getting these unknown codes. As he was about to type a complaint to the service provider, he got a ping. The screen displayed a new incoming code. Chris found it strange, as it was encrypted. The binary code was simple. Just for information, he encoded it. As he read it, he was shocked. The message read : "Get the Boyz ready. I'll be sending the equipment. Start digging from the toilet. The detailed map is mailed to you with the direction. Everything is explained in the map. Take care of the deadline. Good luck."

“The Lord’ had called…” Bob explained to them the second day, “There is an Artifact shop exactly 4 blocks East of the Old Barracks.” He pointed in that direction. “It contains some very rare artifacts which are priceless. Amongst them is the Gold Statue of Gautam Buddha, just about 1’ in size.” He showed the photo. “The main thing is: it’s made of gold, one of the oldest & rarest forms which has now become extinct. It’s price is more than 100 million $ in black market…” Hearing this all three of them drop their jaws.

“So this is the idea…” Laurel said as he observed the map, sent to him directly by ‘The Lord’. “ He wants us to dig a tunnel from down towards the shop, almost 100 feet , enter the shop from below, grab the Buddha, then go further west, give it to his men & then come back here…” he thought for a moment observing the path. “The tunnel will be quite long. It won’t be possible for us to…..”

“The Lords men will be digging in from the opposite side.” He pointed to the opposite point, “They’ll meet you exactly at this point. They will start digging from East side, where there is an Old Workshop no longer functional.” he pointed at the location of the Workshop on the map. “So basically, you’ll have to dig about 60 feet towards East Direction, where the Artifact shop is, about 50 feet from here.” He marked the starting point. “You have to take the Buddha, enter the tunnel, go further west till the workshop, give the Buddha to the Lord’s men & then come back to the Barracks.”

“But the starting point of this tunnel is in….”he observed closely, “The back Barracks on the West side. How are we supposed to start from there as those Barracks are in the vicinity of an Old Church?

Bob smiled at them. “I’ve made arrangements for that…”

3 blocks away, Major Chris was observing the Map. It was a drawing of the entire Sector showing all the Blocks, with roads, Electric wires, Drain channels marked in different colours. It showed an opening marked 1. in one of the rear barracks of the Police Station. Then a tunnel going below something that looked like a room named “SN433”. Another opening marked 2. in the map about half a mile away, in an Old Workshop. The tunnel was turning as per locations of Drain & water supply pipes. At first Chris thought that they are planning an escape by boring a tunnel below ground. But what was SN433?

He opened his laptop and searched for the name SN433. As he read through the search results, suddenly everything became crystal clear. So they are planning a robbery..!

The next day, Inspector Bob complained to the Police Authorities that the Toilet drainage was not working. He told them that he had hired certain Plumbers to take care of the Pipes underground, for which massive digging was required below the Old Church, now left vacant. The Authorities immediately approved it, & the three thieves disguised as plumbers started their work of digging. No one in the town paid attention, as the church was quite old & no one was interested in interfering with the work of Police.

“You’re a genius…absolute genius…!” Ismail said as he was digging. “Never expected this would be so easy…! Now... we should execute this…”

“Shut up & be quick…!” Inspector Bob ordered them. “We need to finish this fast…! Remember, if someone from the authorities come for a check, so we are screwed..! So keep working in silence…! And remember; keep mailing the progress to ‘The Lord’…!”

Chris was getting all information through emails. The 2 network modem wires crossing each other were doing a good job. He was getting all the info that the thieves & ‘The Lord’ were exchanging with each other. The codes were easily breakable. At first, he neglected the scenario. However, he being from an army background, somehow decided to stop this theft.

The next day, he visited the Artifact shop. The owner welcomed him. The shop was quite huge with various paintings & many rare things kept on shelves. Chris asked him to show his most valuable collections.

“So this is the Golden Buddha…This Buddha is made up of gold which is very extinct. It was made in the ancient…” Chris couldn’t hear his words. He exactly knew what the thieves were planning to do. The Buddha was placed in the centre, on a wired pedestal attached to security alarms. All CCTV’s were focused on it. Any movement of the statue would alert the alarms. Chris observed all of this carefully.

As he came home, he now decided to stop the robbery. Planning something, he checked all the drawings again. The tunnel direction, the drain channels, the water supply lines, everything. And then suddenly an idea striked him.

The three thieves were digging day & night. The soil was not rocky, it was quite easy to dig horizontally. They were using proper direction as planned. Within the 1st day itself, they dug out almost 15 feet below the church.

The next day, as they were about to start digging again, Inspector Bob came in.

“We need to change the direction,” he said as he spread out the drawings. “A water supply line has ruptured here, creating lot of water & repair work, exactly where we are digging the tunnel...” he showed them on the map. “So now instead of going straight, we need towards here,” he indicated another spot, “and then move upwards towards the Artifact shop.”

“There’s a house here. Who lives on this spot?” Richard asked, indicating the point where they will turn 90 degrees upwards towards Artifact shop.

“A soldier, retired from the Army.” Bob said.

Chris was quite happy. He had executed the plan perfectly. He purposely dumped waste in his water supply line, which in turn created pressure to the main line, causing leakages & punctures. The Local Authorities were informed, & a plumbing team was sent to rectify it. He presumed the thieves had no direction but to come straight below his house & then turn towards the Artifact shop, as digging anywhere nearby the ruptured line would alert the authorities.

Today as Chris was checking the email communication between the thieves & ‘The Lord’, he heard the doorbell ring.

Inspector Bob was standing at the door. Chris was taken aback when he saw the Inspector.

The tunnel boring work was going fast. Exactly on the decided date, the 3 thieves completed the boring work below the shop. They then planted a small explosive, enough to cave a hole in the floor, exactly below the shop. Their plan was simple: on Sunday Night, they’ll detonate the floor, creating a hole. Entering inside, they’ll rob the statue & escape down the tunnel in the opposite direction towards the Church, give the Buddha to ‘The Lord’s’ men & escape out in the city. Inspector Bob will disrupt the electric supply, disengaging the alarms & CCTV inside the shop, making it easy for them to rob.

Today, as he was decoding the mails that were sent by ‘The Lord’ to the thieves , Chris understood the planning clearly. Then,as per his idea, he then started his own work. Getting a iron rod, he started digging his own floor in the house. He removed four floor tiles and kept digging further. Being the ground floor, there was no cement slab below, only earth and stone filling. After digging for about an hour, he felt loose ground. Using his spade, he hit hard and the ground sunk in.

The tunnel was exactly below him.

He could now see that it was almost 3' wide and almost 4' in depth. He first created an artificial lid for covering the hole. Using his arms, he slowly pushed himself inside. It was dark and warm all around. He had exactly studied which direction he should move. He then crotched flat down on ground and using his elbows, started moving ahead. He was using elbow caps to avoid bruises from the ground. Moving straight up, he nudged ahead towards the direction of the Artifact shop. As per his calculations, the shop was exactly 50 feet from his drop point. After moving for a while, he came at a place that was a bit wider than the whole tunnel. Guessing where he may be, he looked up. He guessed it right.

He was exactly below the Artifact shop. The thieves had planted 2 explosives directly below the floor. As per their conversations, they were planning to storm inside at Sunday night by disrupting the power supply. Using his torch, Chris found two marks dug out on the floor, exactly 20' before the explosives were placed.

He had good enough knowledge of handling explosives. The explosives were battery powered, detonated using a wired remote. Chris then removed his paper where he had worked out the entire plan. Using his torch and equipments, Chris started his work. Using a network of Red colored wires, he worked in the tunnel for about an hour, carefully arranging the wires.

Finally, after an hour, fully drenched in sweat, he finished his work and slowly slid back towards his house.

Laurel, Ismail and Richard had used a lid to cover the opening in the church. Carefully they had covered all the equipments, through which nobody knew what was happening. On Sunday, till afternoon, they slept. Being Sunday, most of the market was closed. They waited till nightfall. After 10 pm, they removed the lid and slowly pulled themselves in. Inspector Bob did the electric job; he went to the local substation and burned the wires supplying power to the transformer from the High Tension panels. Therefore, the power in the entire Sector was off, which meant all the CCTV were closed. All three had torches with them, with Laurel leading the way. They entered the tunnel and slowly started crouching ahead, in the direction of the shop.

Chris knew the work had started the moment lights went out. He had carefully calculated his distance and knew that the thieves will take exactly 24 minutes to reach the bottom of the shop. He had done his arrangements rightly. He was just waiting for the right time.

After reaching exactly the point below Chris's house, the thieves turned 90 degree upwards towards the Artifact shop. Slowly, using his hands, laurel kept going ahead. Ismail and Richard followed. They reached about half a distance when Laurel saw a network of red colored wires going somewhere. Who installed these? He wondered.

"You see these red wires...?” he pointed his torch upwards and asked Richard.

"Stop judging and move ahead dude.... We need to finish fast...!" Richard grunted from behind. Feeling uneasy, Laurel moved ahead. They finally reached the marked spot.

"Finally, we are here." Laurel halted and checked the markings done. "The bottom of the shop is exactly 25' from here. We are at the safe distance." Removing his walkie-talkie, he called up to Bob who was waiting in the Barracks. "We are here... Ignite it..." as he switched off his walkie-talkie, all three of them closed their ears.

Suddenly there was a huge sound, followed by a crashing of ground. Two more explosions followed, again with a crashing sound. It was absolutely dark and all dust had blown in the entire tunnel because of explosions. The three thieves, now coughing and breathing hard, waited till the dust settled down. However, Laurel sensed that something was not right. What were those other two explosions that were heard?

With the dust still settling, all three of them got on their feet and moved about 25' ahead, below the bottom of the Artifact shop. They strode up inside and went exactly at the location of the Buddha. Bob had explained them the direction and the exact location. With the CCTVs off, they went to the pedestal where the statue was placed and as they were about to pick it up, suddenly the lights turned on.

While the thieves were working in the Artifact shop, Chris was working his plan. Using his knowledge, he had attached extra power supply to the electric transformer. Bob had shorted the wires at the exact junctions, which meant the power supply was only disconnected from the high tension panels to the transformer. Re attaching them would restart the supply again. Chris had exactly done the same thing. Earlier, he had tracked their movements and he exactly knew how much time they'll require to reach the Golden Buddha. Now, with the currents switched on, he started working on his other plan.

"How did the lights turn on...?" almost crying, Ismail said.

"We don't have time to think...!" Richard screamed. “Let’s take that model and run before we get caught...!" All three of them ran at once to the model. Laurel grabbed it. Suddenly without warning, the security alarms started blaring loudly. With the power on, all the electric equipments were working, with the security alarms attached to the pedestal and CCTV’s.

"Run.... Get in the hole before we get caught...!" Richard shouted. All three of them dived inside the hole.

"Let's keep the statue with us... We won't give it to the Lord’s men...!" Laurel shouted as they entered inside. "We'll get caught... Let's move back to the Church ...!" They entered inside and started back. Moving fast, they crotched in military position towards the barrack. Richard was ahead with torch in his mouth. As they moved ahead, suddenly he saw crashed rubble ahead. It looked as if the ground ahead had collapsed, closing the tunnel.

All three of them were shocked.

"Let's move back the way we came...!! We'll escape away from behind...! There’s an opening behind dug out by the Lord’s men..!" All three of them then went over each other and started the way back. As they crossed the opening in the Artifact shop, they still heard alarms. Moving fast, with their elbows, they strode towards the other end. As per their calculations, the opening was about 30' away from the Artifact shop. As they crossed 12' after the shop, they stopped abruptly.

The ground ahead had collapsed.

Now things made sense to Laurel. Someone had allegedly installed two other explosives at two ends in the tunnel, which went off with the one below the Artifact shop, collapsing the ground above. This clearly meant one thing: they were now trapped in the tunnel.

Richard hastily had forgotten the Walkie-Talkie in the shop itself. Back at the barracks Bob kept screaming on his radio for any communication. After hearing 3 explosions, he thought the thieves were double crossing him. He tried connecting back to them, but when nothing came out, he got in his car and started towards the Artifact shop.

With the alarms still wailing, Laurel came out of the tunnel in the shop and tried the doors, but they were bolted from outside.

Suddenly, the police blasted the door and within a second stormed inside the shop from all entry points. They used laser pointers to tag the thieves. As the three tried to escape back in the opening, the police caught them. All three were again taken into custody. Bob came outside and saw the three being taken into custody.

Chris was quite happy for his success. Using his presence of mind, he not only stopped the robbery, but also helped the authorities nab the thieves. With proper knowledge, he had observed the explosives were supplied with battery power. He then planted two more explosives, one on each side of the Artifact shop, such that if they explode, they'll blast the ground above and close the tunnel. He then connected the red wires to the detonator, operated from the Church by the inspector. When the inspector detonated the explosives, all three of them went off at once, causing the thieves to be locked inside.

Chris exactly knew where the thieves will reach in the stipulated time. As soon as he knew they were inside, he started the electric supply and subsequently the security alarms. The police reached at once and nabbed them.

The next morning, Inspector Bob came to meet Major Chris.

"Good job man....." Bob clapped his hands with Chris.

"But why you wanted them to be caught?" Chris questioned him.

"They had robbed many important things. They were most wanted in the nation's list. I plotted all of this... To get them caught. And to be honest..." Bob smiled as he said, "There were no men digging from the other side. It was all a trap to grab them. And Thanks for the idea you gave of diverting the tunnel from your house." Bob said as he pointed to the opening in his house. "It was easier for you to manipulate the connections,"

"But what if they take your name during interrogation?"

"What evidence do they have? How can they prove I helped them in this...? I had a program installed in my server which will autodelete the data" Bob came and shook hands with Chris. "Thanks once again.... I somehow knew you could be of some help..!"

"Most welcome... 'The Lord'" Chris smiled as it was Bob himself who was calling himself the lord.

THE END