Carlow said, “The money’s easy. Throw it overboard, in plastic. You got a boat trailing. That’s me. I do boats as good as I do cars.”
Doubtful, Wycza said, “They light up that boat pretty good.”
“A distraction at the front end,” Parker suggested. “Maybe a fire. Nobody likes fire on a boat.”
Wycza said, “Idon’t like fire on a boat. And I also don’t jump in a river in the dark and wait for Mike to come by and pick me up. Nothing against you, Mike.”
“I don’t want people,” Carlow told him. “Not with a boat. Plastic packages I can hook aboard and take off the other way.”
“We don’t have this money yet,” Parker reminded him. “To get it, we need a way to get guns aboard. We need a way to get into the room where they keep the money.”
Wycza said, “This source of yours. Can he give us blueprints?”
“When I told him I’d think about it,” Parker said, “he gave me a whole package of stuff. Blueprints, schedules, staffing, I got it all.”
Carlow said, “What does it say about guards? I’m wondering, are weguards, is that how we get the guns on board?”
“You mean, hijack some guards,” Wycza said, “take their place. That’s possible, it’s been done sometimes.”
“I don’t think so,” Parker said. “You’ve got two security teams. Those rent-a-cops you saw when you were on the boat, they’re hired by the private company owns the boat. They’re regulars, they know each other. Down in the money room, the guards and the money counters are hired by the state government, they’re a different bunch entirely. The way it’s gonna work, a state bus picks them up, on a regular route, takes them to the boat all in a bunch, takes them home again the same way. They bring food from home, they don’t get food on the boat. They’re locked in at the start of their tour, unlocked again at the end when the money on their shift comes off the boat, surrounded by the money room crew plus armored car company guards.”
Carlow said, “Maybe it isn’t a boat job, maybe it’s an armored car job.”
“My inside man can only help me with the boat,” Parker said. “In Albany, that’s where the money comes off, it’s like a three-block run from the dock to the bank, all city streets, heavily guarded.”
“Forget I said anything,” Carlow said. “Anybody else want another?”
They did. Carlow distributed more ice and more bourbon, sat back down and said, “We can’t do a switch with the guards, the outer guards, the rent-a-cops. It wouldn’t help us. Anyway, the big thing is, how do we get into the money room.”
“Parker’s fire,” Wycza said. “Set the fucking boat on fire, they’ll open that door in a hurry.”
“I don’t want to be on a burning boat,” Parker said. “That wasn’t the idea, about the fire, I just meant something small, to keep everybody looking forward when we do something at the back.”
“Three questions we got,” Carlow said. “How do we get on, with the guns? How do we get into the money room? How do we get off again?”
Wycza said, “Who can carry a gun onto the boat? Legit, I mean. The guards. Anybody else?”
“A cop,” Parker said. “An off-duty cop, he could be carrying, they’d probably leave him alone.”
“Maybe,” Wycza said. “Or maybe they’d be very polite, thank you, sir, if you don’t mind, sir, we’ll just check this weapon for you until you leave the boat, sir. They’re not gonna let people carry guns unless there’s a reason.”
“Bodyguards,” Carlow suggested, and turned to Wycza to say, “Does this boat have entertainment? Shows? Would celebrities come aboard?”
“They got shows,” Wycza said, “but not what you’d call headliners. Not people you been reading about in the National Enquirer.”
“Bodyguards,” Parker said. “There might be something there. Wait, let me think.” He turned his head to look out the window at tan Denver.
Wycza said to Carlow, “You been racin much?”
“I totaled a Lotus at a track in Tennessee,” Carlow told him. “Broke my goddam leg again, too. I need a stake to build a new car.”
“I gotta quit wrestlin for a while,” Wycza said. “I get tired of bein beat up by blonds. In capes, a lot of them.”
Parker turned back. “Either of you know a guy named Lou Sternberg?”
Wycza frowned, then shook his head. Carlow said, “Maybe. One of us?”
“Yes.”
“Lives some funny place.”
“London.”
“That’s it.”
Wycza said, “An Englishman?”
Parker told him, “American, but he lives over there. Only he never works there, he always comes to the States when he needs a bankroll.”
“He was on a bank thing I drove,” Carlow said. “In Iowa. Jeez, seven, eight years ago. I came in late, the guy they had first got grabbed on a parole violation, so I didn’t get to know the rest of the string very much. Just the guy, Mackey, that brought me in.”
