Life couldn’t be better. Phil and Rick were close friends and worked hard in high school and college to get fantastic grades, but they were not like most people when they spent time together. Normal topics of conversation spanned from the creation of the universe, to pondering the sub-atomic particle theory. They were both at the top of their class in college. Phil was a top software engineer and Rick was a respected hardware engineer at Yale University. Both of their parents worked in investments and banking, which provided the young men with fabulously wealthy lifestyles. Back in high school, Phil and Rick often came up with “get rich schemes” that were perfectly mapped out to the tee, but they were never executed. The most memorable of these was “The Mexico Plan”, which was later refined into the “The Brazil Plan”, due to extradition reasons. The idea was simple in comparison to many of their ideas, yet the execution of the idea was to be quite complex and intricate. They were to steal from five different major banks and then flee to Brazil, where there the American government could not pursue them. As their high school years went along and they went deep into their studies at Yale, Rick and Phil had long since forgotten about their bank heist plans and focused solely on their studies.

Phil and Rick were relaxing after a long finals week when their parents called them with tragic news. Their parent’s employers had bet big with their parent’s money by heavily leveraging their deposits and lost. The market had crashed and the many millions their parents once had were gone.

Phil and Rick were dumbfounded. Things looked fiscally grim. They could have had their parent’s lawyers emancipate them so they could continue college, but they wanted a way to get back at the banks for taking away everything they had. They sat at Phil’s dining table, eating, talking, running through scenarios, and discussing the possible outcomes. They went through many old plans that they had come up with in high school, but most of these plans either wouldn’t work or were no longer relevant. As they neared the end of the pile, Phil and Rick pulled out a set plans which read in big block letters, “The Mexico Plan The Brazil Plan”. A smile swept across their faces. They knew what they had to do.

The original plan was to physically steal as much money as they could carry from five different banks and take a giant road trip to Brazil where there was no extradition and the American government couldn’t follow them. The basic idea was solid, but many things needed to be changed to actually make the plan possible. First of all, they were never to set foot into a bank. That would have been too risky. Phil was the top software engineer in his class at Yale and had hacked into multiple organizations “just for the fun of it” in his free time; banks would be challenging, but not impossible. The idea of stealing cash would also never work. Trying to get all of the cash across the border without risky help would be a huge pain and unlikely to succeed. Instead, they would open up a bank account in the Cayman Islands, which the United States government would not have any access to. When they gained access to the banks, they would directly deposit the funds into the Cayman account. This would allow access to their account wherever they were in the world without actually carrying a single bill with them. They also needed a large window in which to escape from the country. They would take a dollar from every bank account in the intuitions they gained access into. This way their activities might go unnoticed and they knew when it was discovered the banks would cover the losses.

Because their parents could no longer pay for their education, Phil and Rick dropped out of college and started to implement their plan. Phil started working his way into five major national banks. Rick set up the Cayman Islands bank account, went into contract on a private beach house in Brazil, pretending to be a multimillionaire looking for a place to retire, while actually working just to pay rent. Phil’s experience with programming at Yale helped prepare him to gain access into the bank’s files, but he had never done something to this extent and needed time to work his way through the challenge.

Once all the bank’s account information had been mapped, with a push of a button, they stole one dollar from every account across the five banks, stealing a grand total of $230 million dollars. Rick called his banker in the Caymans to check the wire transfer, which showed it had been completed. Phil and Rick were exited, but still had much to do if they were to execute this properly. They were a bit paranoid that the government would find out and wanted to cover their trail the best they could.

Phil and Rick bought a total of fifty airline tickets from Delta, United, Alaska, and American Airlines; national and international destinations, all of which were under their real names. They then proceeded to disregard any of the plane tickets. Instead, they purchased a large offshore racing boat in Florida for all cash. They stripped out the interior of the boat and filled it with auxiliary fuel tanks so they would not have to stop for gas. The seller was astonished when Phil handed him a check for three million dollars for the boat. The broker was in fact a slimy character. He always wore sunglasses and his breath heavily smelled of alcohol. He asked Phil and Rick why they were stripping out the interior of the boat, but Phil and Rick tried to ignore his questions, saying that they were going to Brazil on a research project. Disbelieving, the broker of the boat walked away and Phil and Rick never saw of him again.

When Phil and Rick were ready to go, they took off south, not looking back. They tried to hug the coast as long as possible as they drove their boat further and further south. Their objective was to not go into international waters for any extended periods of time. Rick and Phil were smart. They knew the FBI would be looking for them in the air and not on the water. They believed that they had successfully thrown the authorities off their trail.

Phil and Rick made it all the way to Brazil by hugging the shore, and were only twenty miles out from Rio de Janeiro when they noticed three rigid black inflatable boats coming towards them at a high rate of speed. At first they thought it was the Navy, but as the boats got closer they noticed all of the men on the boats were wearing masks and each boat was equipped with a large caliber rifle. Phil and Rick didn’t know it, but after they had paid in cash for the boat, the broker thought they were modifying the boat for their trip to Brazil for a drug run. He had tipped off a friend in the Brazilian Mafia for some extra side money, which he could keep from his wife to support his all consuming gambling habit. The head of the mafia had his men board the three rigid inflatable boats and intercept Phil and Rick as they approached Rio.

Phil and Rick looked at each other. They had been so busy trying to throw off the government that they were thrown off by the experience of the pirates driving directly towards them. Phil took the wheel and pointed the bow of the boat directly towards the shore. They heard gunshots behind them and saw the bullets hitting the boat as well as the water surrounding them. Phil and Rick ducked down and were a quarter mile from shore. Their boat was fast, but the mafia followed quickly behind them to shore. As the boat neared the beach, Phil and Rick braced for impact. The boat hit hard in the shallow water and flipped twice across the sand. Phil and Rick were flung from the boat and landed hard in the sand near each other. They were banged up, but with all the adrenaline in their bodies they got up and started making a break for the jungle while bullets filled the air around them. Phil and Rick had about twenty meters before they reached the jungle. Rick sprinted in front and was directly followed by Phil. As they neared the jungle, Phil felt an excruciating pain as three bullets struck him in the back. He fell to the ground, but picked himself back up and limped into the jungle where Rick was waiting for him.

Rick and Phil had a small window for escape while the mafia de-boarded their boats at shore and searched Rick and Phil’s boat for the drugs, which were supposed to be on board. Rick helped Phil as they ran through the forest. They could hear that the mafia was coming after them and Phil saw the trail of blood he was leaving.

“Ahhh man, put, me … down,” Phil said faintly while panting, “They are… they are following... blood trail.”

“We can make it out of this jungle, man. I got you bro,” replied Rick flatly, “We made this plan so many years ago, I won’t leave you behind.”

“I… I can distract. Hmm. Leave me,” pleaded Phil weakly. Phil mustered all the strength he could and said, “If you don’t leave me, neither of us will… will make it. Rick, you… have the chance t…to fulfill our dream. For my own sake... please go.”

“I have known you since you were five and I am so sorry that our friendship has to die here. You are like a brother to me,” said Rick hesitantly setting Phil down and bidding him goodbye.

Phil got up with the three bullets in his back and took off into the trees. He was limping and powered by the shear will to save Rick. Rick watched Phil’s departure for a few seconds and a single solitary tear ran down his cheek. Immediately following, Rick took off in the opposite direction. Rick ran through the forest blindly. He hit branches and giant leaves that clouded his vision. After two minutes, he heard gunshots off in the distance to his left. He was sure that Phil was no more.

After fifteen more minutes, Rick stumbled into a small village. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at him. He walked to the first truck he saw and paid the man the last of his cash for it. Still in shock of losing his best friend, he asked for directions to Rio and drove away from his precious life into another.

After arriving in Rio and setting into his new lavish lifestyle, Rick found himself alone and with many regrets. The regrets were especially potent when he saw the throngs of homeless orphans in the city he now called home. It dawned on Rick that life in the states, even after the collapse of the economy was not so bad. He had his friend Phil, he had his family, and he had his freedom. So what if he could not afford to finish college? These orphan children were living in squalor, yet most had a smile on their face. How could they be happy with so little? Slowly the realization came to Rick. Life is not about counting your coffers, it is about having your friends and giving what you have to those who need it the most. For the homeless children, it was giving a smile or a helping hand. For Rick, it could be about giving what he had. Rick had been blessed by monetary riches, but had been empty inside. That would change. Rick would make a difference to the children of Brazil and that difference would start today.