Stunting for vehicle acquisition.
These children were almost making this too easy.
They were trying to be subtle, but they were so obvious about it that they would have been better off not doing anything.
One pick-up truck, two people in the front seats, and half a dozen in the truck bed. One could almost believe it was a group of workers sharing a ride between jobs.
Except none of them played the part. They didn't dress for manual labor, they didn't carry the tools of their trade. They wore fancy imitation leather jackets. They chatted animatedly with anticipation in the air as they stopped at a light, pumping each other up for what was to come.
At least they weren't quite that unprofessional. But Pierre had identified seven guns between the eight of them already. They hadn't even been well concealed.
Normally this would mean nothing. Just another group of punks. An affront to his sensibilities, certainly, but hardly anything more.
Except when they turned down an alley. An alley Pierre knew to be a dead end, save for a door. And if his suspicions were correct....
He signaled Claude to keep a lookout and slid into the alleyway. As he expected, the boys were already off the truck. Only one remained, sitting in the truck with the engine running. He watched them break down the door and charge in guns blazing, shouting like fools.
They didn't even close the door behind them True, he'd have left it open if he were of a mind to have the getaway driver provide covering fire from the vehicle, but this was just sloppy.
Their incompetence would be his game. A pack of bottom feeders like this? They would not be missed.
Which is why he crept up along the truck, slow enough to not be heard by the driver. Which was still the better part of his jogging speed. This boy just didn't look very bright, tittering to himself and tapping the wheel to the cadence of gunfire. Badly at that.
It gave Pierre no small amount of satisfaction to open the unlocked door, punch the fool in the face, and shove his useless body off to the side. He put the vehicle in reverse and backed out of the alley, whereupon Claude opened up the side door and hopped inside.
Just in time too. He could hear the soon to be departed children screaming vulgarities louder than gunfire. And by the sound of said gunfire, much higher quality firearms than those the punks carried. They would be deceased soon enough then, and any friends with bigger concerns than a stolen vehicle.
This getaway driver though, now he may still have value. He may know something useful, or he may be traded away to someone interested in his head. Or left dead in an alley somewhere, the just reward of a deserter.
As far as spur of the moment operations go, this one had gone quite nicely.
And stopping here, since I don't have a handle on Claude.
But basically yeah, Pierre sees a bunch of obviously stupid punks go to shoot someone up. He goes to take a look and sees an opportunity ripe for the taking. So he steals their vehicle, plus their driver. This could have turned out less than ideal, particularly if the punks beat whoever they were gunning down here, but I wrote it as them getting punked by a much bigger fish.
So now Pierre has a vehicle, one even suitable for hauling freight. Keys and papers and everything, plus a prisoner.
Life is good. For Pierre and Claude.
How's that for a stunt?
EDIT: As for why these punks waled right into this, Cav can spin it whoever he wants, but I imagine a bigger fish sending a bunch of plausibly deniable cannon fodder into the belly of the beast with bad intel. Possibly to see what happens, possibly to send a message along of the lines of I-know-you-know-I-know about your hole in the wall, and pumped up a bunch of stupid punks with false promises.
