To access the Pacific Standard Bank vault, you need the General Manager's keycard first.
If GM David Abbott had decided to hide the card, they would've wasted precious time tearing the place apart.
That was why, prior to the hit, Lawson used Rupert Lawrence to "have a chat" with David Abbott. That little setup was the reason for today's incredibly smooth start.
However, until they successfully extracted, it wasn't time to celebrate. Everyone suppressed their adrenaline and stayed focused on the gig.
Dennis watched the monitors. Phil guarded the hostages. Lawson and Donnie were focused on getting the vault open.
Inserting the GM's keycard into the vault terminal was step one. Step two required a PIN code.
Enter the wrong PIN three times, and the vault automatically trips a silent alarm. They needed the GM's cooperation for this part too.
Pretending not to know him, Lawson dragged David Abbott to the vault door.
"You're David Abbott? Do yourself a favor and cooperate!"
Abbott was the only hostage who wasn't zip-tied. However, the guy apparently wanted to put on a performance.
"You won't get away with this! I advise you to surrender now!"
It was obvious Abbott was playing the hero, probably trying to look brave in front of his employees.
But Lawson wasn't playing along. The crew had agreed on a 15-minute operational window, 20 minutes absolute max.
Abbott was wasting the clock. Every second burned meant less profit for everyone.
So, completely off-script, Lawson casually pistol-whipped Abbott across the head with his G18, leaving the GM dizzy and stunned.
"I'm giving you ten seconds to punch in that code, or I'm blowing your brains out."
Abbott quickly realized that while they had made a deal, the guy holding the gun was dead serious.
Trembling, he stepped up to the keypad and punched in the code. He was so nervous he actually inputted it wrong the first time.
This reaction was much more realistic. Before the strike, Abbott had been way too calm, acting like he wasn't afraid of armed gunmen at all.
If the LAPD reviewed the footage later, Abbott's initial behavior would have made him a prime suspect.
Head of Security Rupert Lawrence, on the other hand, was totally safe. All he did was "accidentally" drop a spare set of keys. The cops would have a hard time pinning that on him.
But those spare keys had saved the crew a massive amount of time and allowed them to secure the camera room instantly.
Twelve minutes in, the heavy vault door swung open.
American banks operate differently than banks in the East.
First off, since American banks rarely handle personal savings deposits, their vaults don't hold massive mountains of loose cash.
Lawson didn't mind. He swept up whatever stacks of greenbacks were sitting out and tossed them into a duffel bag.
Secondly, the safe deposit box business in America is highly developed. For small branch banks like this, renting out deposit boxes is a primary revenue stream.
And the deposit boxes were Phil and Dennis's main target.
Lawson locked eyes with Donnie, giving him the nod to get to work.
The reason Phil and Dennis—made men in the Mafia—took Donnie under their wing wasn't just because he was Italian and spoke the language. It was because he had a highly valuable skill: lockpicking.
The vault contained roughly a hundred safe deposit boxes of varying sizes. It was like opening blind boxes.
Donnie started with the largest ones. The first box yielded a stack of corporate contracts. They might be worth a fortune to the right buyer, but to Lawson's crew, they were useless paper.
But on the second box, Donnie hit paydirt. He pulled out a large velvet bag stuffed with various jewels and diamonds, letting out a sharp gasp.
Hearing the sound, Phil couldn't resist stepping toward the vault.
"Hey, you find the stash?"
Lawson immediately barked at Phil.
"Stay at your post! Rat, stop staring at it and keep working!"
After finding the jewels, Donnie had frozen for a few seconds. Lawson's shout snapped him out of it, and he went right back to picking locks.
Even though Lawson was the newest member of the crew, his undeniable professionalism had quickly earned him the commanding voice in the room.
Just like that, Lawson's single command killed Phil's curiosity and sent him back to guarding the lobby.
Donnie was averaging about ten seconds per box.
It was fast, but with over a hundred boxes, it would take at least fifteen minutes to clear them all.
Lawson checked his watch. They were at the 15-minute mark. He debated whether they should extend their window.
Time was running out. Lawson started sweeping the bank, looking for the contraband mentioned in his Bonus Objective.
It definitely wouldn't be in the main vault; Abbott would have noticed it.
Lawson thought about it for a second, then checked the security office lockers. Bingo. He found a massive brick of white powder.
"Got it."
With a haul this big, handing it over to Neal would definitely score him some major points.
"Joker, Bison. There's a guy at the front door. Looks like a delivery driver." Dennis's voice came over the radio.
'Joker' was Lawson. 'Bison' was Phil, who was wearing a bison mask.
A delivery driver?
Lawson checked the time. It was the lunch hour. One of the bank employees must have ordered food earlier, and it arrived right on schedule.
Since cell phones weren't universally owned yet, the delivery guy clearly didn't have one on him, otherwise he would have just called the customer.
"Rat, ignore everything else and keep cracking those boxes! Bison, let the driver in. We can't have him loitering outside the glass doors. We take him down together!"
'Rat' was Donnie, wearing a rat mask.
Donnie nodded quickly and focused entirely on the lock in front of him.
Lawson roughly zip-tied David Abbott's hands behind his back, then headed toward the front lobby.
Phil was already moving toward the doors.
Outside, the delivery driver looked confused, constantly checking the receipt in his hand against the address on the building. It was the only bank on the block; he couldn't be at the wrong place.
"Hey! Bruno's Pizza! I'm about to miss my delivery window! Is anybody in there?"
In this era, many pizza places offered guaranteed delivery times. If the driver was late, the pizza was free—meaning the cost came out of the driver's pocket.
(This phenomenon was well-documented in the Spider-Man franchise, where Peter Parker lost money multiple times because saving the city made his pizza deliveries late).
Suddenly, the bank doors swung open. Before the driver could react, a hand grabbed his shirt and yanked him inside.
A cold steel barrel pressed against his temple. The delivery guy instantly started trembling like a leaf.
"H-hey man, I'm just delivering pizza... you don't gotta do this, right?"
"Keep your mouth shut, and you walk out of here alive. Understand?"
"Understood! Understood!"
Lawson finished zip-tying the driver, then casually popped open the pizza box and took a bite of a slice.
"Mmm, not bad! Bison, want a piece?"
Phil was way too tense to think about eating pizza.
Just as he was about to decline, Donnie shouted from inside the vault.
"Gold bars!"