was after.” Jack unrolled the plans on the table. The stack of plans was about an inch thick. The off-white sheets were three feet by four feet and covered a majority of the table. “We found these in his condo and can’t think of a reason why he would have them.”
“Unless he was planning to rob the Fed,” Granowski answered.
“Right.”
Granowski got up and pulled his chair around to sit on the same side of the table as Jack and Ross.
“Here’s what I was showing Agent Fruen before you got here,” Granowski said. He paged through the first few pages which included the cover sheet and the index pages and ruffled through the plans, examining page numbers.
“Looks like he has an entire set of building blue prints. HVAC and electrical schematics, plan and elevation drawings and plans for the vault.”
“Would these do him any good?” Ross asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t think so. It’s not like he’s coming in the door, going to the vaults, and hauling money out. And he’s not digging his way in. The vault’s forty feet underground with walls a couple of feet thick made of reinforced concrete. We have sensors underground around the perimeter of the vault also.”
“All the money’s in one vault?”
Mark looked at Ross. “One vault, inaccessible.”
“So how would you rob it?” Jack asked.
“We’re running scenarios and simulations all of the time.” Mark looked up at the ceiling and closed his eyes. “The money’s most exposed when we’re moving it in and out of the building. But, we’ve got that covered; random schedules, unmarked trucks, multiple trucks with some being empty, some not, decoys. We were at the most risk when we were moving the money from the old Fed building to this one when this one was built in ninety-four. Fifteen million dollars moved five blocks. Nothing happened.”
Jack got up and refilled his coffee cup. “There has to be something to this. He’s got the plans. Why was he robbing the banks?”
“We move a lot of money electronically between our partners, clear checks, stuff like that. But, we have our own arsenal of people and tools to keep that secure. Passwords, tokens, dedicated networks, monitoring of networks. Stuff I don’t know much about. We find people snooping around, but nobody’s ever been successful.”
“That’s what my daughter told me,” Jack said.
Mark looked at Jack questioningly.
“We were on the trolley tour today over on Nicollet Island. Part of the Fourth of July celebration. My daughter heard the driver say that the Federal Reserve has never been robbed.”
Mark sat forward and nodded. “Well, she’s right. Never has been and never will be. I can’t imagine the havoc that would be caused world-wide in the markets if it ever was.”
The Governor had scraped and squeezed his way through the tunnels to find his crew. They had been so close before and hadn’t been discovered yet. The time was approaching for the grand finale of his plan.
“Look who’s here, guys!” Steve yelled over the sound of the jets of water which were cutting their way through the limestone like beavers on a tree. He shut down the sprayer so the team could talk. “We’re right on schedule, boss. No surprises.”
The Governor’s headlamp speared through the mist that clouded the cave. A layer of water covered everything.
“You guys are doing great.” He clapped them each on the shoulder, his enthusiasm showing. A toothy grin on his face. “Dreams gentlemen. They will soon come true.” He stepped forward to see the current work.
“This is just like cutting through butter with a hot knife. The rock just disappears. It’s amazing. You want to try it?”
The Governor stepped back. “No, I’ll leave it to the professionals. You guys have done an amazing job.” He used his thumb to wipe the grime and water off the face of his watch. “By midnight you need to be in position by the vault door. I’ll let you get back to work.”
Chapter 48
“This is it, gentlemen, command central. From here we watch the grounds, the vault, and the people running the machines counting the money.” Granowski put a hand on each of their shoulders and guided Jack and Ross across the room. “And over here we have the crew watching the FedWire.” A dozen people sat in front of computer screens. On the wall in front of them were larger screens and an electronic depiction of the United States with lines and numbers between cities.
“And FedWire is?” Ross asked.
“It’s the electronic network used to wire funds between Federal Reserves and the member banks. There’s real money out there, but now it’s all just numbers, record keeping.” Mark looked up at the screen. “The instantaneous movement of money.”
Ross looked up at the screens. “And nobody can hack this?”
“Nope. Not that they haven’t tried. I’ve been doing this a long time and I’ve seen lots of different schemes.” Mark started walking across the room. “Greed is a strong motivator. People on the outside want to get in here at the money. But, we have lots of people already inside. I spend most of my time watching those already inside the doors.” He stopped in front of a bank of monitors. “We have a lot of safeguards, lots of smart people, lots of redundancy. We’re just the network and center point or clearing house. If you want money, rob a bank.”
“Which brings us back to why we’re here.” Jack stood with his hands in the pockets of his shorts, looking at the screens, talking to the air. “Junior, who does this room remind you of?”
“Who does it remind me of?”
“Look around. Who would feel at home here?”
Ross looked around the room and smiled at Jack. “Sure Thing would love this room.”
“Exactly.” Jack pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. “Mark, could I invite another person from our office to join us here? He’s a little more technical than we are.”
“A little?” Ross asked.
“OK, a lot. But, he’d be a good addition while we’re here. He’s seen what the Governor and his friends can do with technology.”
Granowski pointed at the phone in Jack’s hand. “You can call him, but not with that. You probably couldn’t get a signal in this room, and just to make sure, we’ve got jammers in place. No calls out of this room unless they’re on a land line.”
“OK, get me to a phone. We’ll get him over here and we’ll see if we can figure out what’s going on.”
Jerome Stone walked into the room and looked at Granowski, showing the first emotion Jack had seen him exhibit. He rolled his eyes up, closed them, quickly shook his head, and frowned. Sure Thing and Squeaky followed Jerome into the room.
“Sorry we had to drag you in on a holiday.” Jack handed Sure Thing a large bottle of Mountain Dew. “Maybe this will make it up to you.”
Sure Thing sat across the table from Jack. His jacket was soaked and he was using some napkins to wipe the water from his shaved head. “Can somebody get a Coke for my friend?”
“Regular, not Diet,” Squeaky added.
Granowski and Jerome looked at each other at the sound of her voice. Granowski nodded, giving Jerome permission to fulfill her request.
Sure Thing opened the bottle and took a long drink. “Damn, that’s good. I had a couple of beers at a barbeque this afternoon, before the rain started.” He struggled out of his wet jacket and draped it over the back of a chair. “I need something to get me going.” He stood by the table wearing flip flops, cargo shorts, and a Hawaiian shirt.
