Payback

36

Dean grabbed Karr’s arm as he reached for another of the plastic boxes. “Now, Tommy. They’re coming in.”

“I still have two more.”

“No. We’ll get them at the regional centers,” said Dean. “Come on.”

They grabbed their backpacks and hurried out of the vault room, but before they could close and reset the lock on the vault to the number where it had started, there were shouts at the far end of the lobby.

“Domir!” shouted one of the men who’d just come in. He followed this with a string of Spanish curses violent enough to boil paint off the walls. “Sleeping at your post? What in the name of the saints has gotten into you, you worthless scum?”

Dean crouched behind the security equipment at the base of the steps down to the vault. He could hear the guards being roused. One jumped to his feet and began babbling an apology.

“Silence!” said his supervisor. “Wake him up!”

“One of the guard supervisors brought an army officer in to show him the security arrangements,” Telach explained. “We switched the video signal back — it’s real time. There’s a lavatory down the hall. If you wait there, we’ll tell you when the supervisor has gone. We’ll interrupt the security feed again and you can get them with the blowpipe. No one will believe anything they say if they’re caught sleeping a second time.”

More likely, thought Dean, the guards would be replaced.

Karr had taken out the MP5 submachine gun he’d packed as a personal weapon. The weapon had a silencer on it, but silence was a relative concept for a submachine gun.

The second guard groaned, then protested that it was not time to get up. This was too much for the supervisor, who told them that they were both fired and must leave on the spot. The other guard began pleading for his job, saying that he had just dozed off for a moment. Even though the tape would have backed him up, the supervisor wanted no part of any excuses. Pleading that he needed the job, the man began to cry. But his boss wouldn’t give in. He herded the two guards toward the door.

Karr tugged Dean’s shirt and gestured toward the ladies’ room. Dean followed, easing in as Karr held the door open.

“The visitor is still there,” said Telach. “He’s looking for something — going toward the vault level.”

“Good thing we went in the ladies’ room,” whispered Karr.

Sure enough, Dean heard footsteps coming down the hall. They waited in the dark, heard the man go into the lavatory next door.

“Let’s go,” whispered Karr, starting to pull open the door. “We can get in behind the tellers’ boxes if we can’t make it all the way to the stairs.”

But as he pulled open the door Telach warned them the supervisor was coming back.

The supervisor yelled to the other man, asking where he was. The man explained gruffly that he would be right out. The supervisor walked to the lavatory door and told the man that he was very sorry, but he had to arrange for some substitutes.

“How long do you think it will take him to find new guards?” Karr whispered as the toilet flushed.

Dean shrugged.

“You think it’s worth waiting? Or should we just take this guy down and get out now?” asked Karr.

“Better to wait on the chance that we can sneak out,” said Dean. “We take him out now, they’ll realize we were here anyway.”

“Wait,” suggested Rockman.

The officer was at the sink in the next room, washing up. Suddenly he began to curse.

“No paper,” Dean whispered to Karr. “He’ll come here next. Get into the stalls.”

“Let’s just bop him and be done with it.”

“We’ve come this far. We’ll tough it out another few seconds. Into the stalls.”

Karr slipped into the one on the right; Dean took the left. A second later, the door flew open.