talking gas bombs, Molotovs, and Christ knows what.
'By 1800, it's over. But it's not until Monday morning they discover that sometime during the weekend, a gang hit the bank and got away with all the dollar bills, mostly old, all unmarked. Streuth! That caused a major investigation.
'And the upshot of that was as follows.' Ramshawe read from handwritten notes:
1. The gang got in through the roof, blowing off the lock to the fire stairs.
2. They knew where the alarm system was located, and they silenced it with a burst from an MP5 submachine gun. Put the bastard right out of action.
3. They knew where to find the strong room, which houses the vault. They located the security system, which was not timed, dismantled it, then blew the vault open and took all the bread. Conclusion: an inside job.
4. They got away off the roof, because none of the doors or windows anywhere in the building had been opened.
5. A large military-type helicopter, probably a Sikorsky, and probably unmarked, was seen by several onlookers, taking off from the roof in the middle of the bloody riot, and everyone assumed it was to do with the bloody riot. But it wasn't. And it was five days before anyone realized that.
'I think anyone would agree, there's distinct overtones of a brilliantly planned heist. Military in its nature. Almost.'
'Where'd you get all this stuff, Lieutenant?' asked George Morris.
'Well, some of it was reported in the Israeli press. But I filled in a lot of details from a guy at Shin Bet. We got a pretty good quid pro quo with them.
'But you know, Admiral, it was never a big story, and I think the reason for that was because the bank never let on how much cash was stolen. They played it all down, because, of course, the bills were going to be destroyed anyway. You could argue that technically the bank lost no money. But bloody oath! The cash would be real handy for a bloke who wanted to do some heavy spending.'
'Sure would,' mused the Admiral. 'Any take on how much cash was actually removed?'
'Not accurately. The police announced the sum stolen may have been six figures. Which sounds like not much for a bank robbery. But our guy in Shin Bet thinks it could have been $50 million, in used dollar bills.'
'Jesus,' said Scotty.
'Anyway, that story appeared in the Jerusalem Post on Tuesday morning, 28 December; small, inside page, six paragraphs, no photograph of the bank. No mention of $50 million, or of the helicopter. I also thought it was significant that the pro-Palestinian Jerusalem Times never did carry the story… and that brings us to robbery number two, which took place in Tel Aviv, thirty-eight miles away along the Sorek Valley.'
Lieutenant Ramshawe changed over the map in front of the Admiral, and pointed up an area of the urban sprawl of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, specifically around King Saul and Weizmann streets, where the most dazzling modern edifices stand.
'Right here, sir, is another New York and Beirut bank, in a high-rise. It's the main branch on the coast, bigger than the one in Jerusalem, and again a place where the dollars on the West Coast end up, before being transported to Jaffa Road.
'Now, sir, according to the police, this place was robbed on Saturday night, 26 December — just a few hours after the bank in Jerusalem. This robbery was discovered by the cleaning staff on Sunday, because they did not work on Christmas night. This story was also played down, and appeared in Monday morning's Jerusalem Post, the day before news of the Jerusalem robbery was printed… I've put together some more notes which I'll read because they're just handwritten, and then I'll get 'em printed up:
1. This operation took a long time. The thieves had rented a much smaller building next door, four months previously, and then tunneled their way through into the unused lower basement of the bank. They actually cut through a couple of steel pillars.
2. They used ladders and scaffold to reach the ceiling and battered their way through a cement floor, the police say using drills and sledgehammers.
3. Once inside, they went straight to the electronic surveillance and alarm system and hit it with just one bullet from an MP5, right in the side so you could hardly notice it. That gave them one hour, because this place had a timed security system override, and it would be that long before an alarm was raised. And that bloody hour was all they needed.
4. They reached the Tel Aviv vault, identical in every way to the one in Jerusalem, and blew open the gate and the safe, with the minimum of explosive, much less than they had used in Jerusalem.
5. Then they closed the vault, and the gate, dropped all the bags of dollar bills through the floor into the basement, placed a thin piece of plywood, around four-foot by four-foot, over the hole under the carpet, somehow flipped the carpet back into place, and dropped through the hole to safety.
6. When the bank security guys answered the call to come in to see why the alarm system was down, they never even noticed the break-in, just called in electricians to come and fix the system. Wasn't until some poor bastard with a bucket and mop stood on the bloody carpet that Sunday afternoon they realized what the bloody hell was going on.
'Anyway, here we have two highly professional break-ins, into very secure modern buildings. There was plainly inside information for both the layout and locations of security systems and the vaults.
'In my opinion, there were a lot of guys involved, but they were the same guys, same caliber of bullet, same kind of explosive, same objective — used U.S. dollars — same banking corporation. Same holiday weekend.'
Admiral Morris looked up from his sketch pad. 'One question, Lieutenant,' he said. 'I can see the heavy vault door was just swung back shut in Tel Aviv. But how come the security guys did not notice the gate to the vault was blown?'
'Sir, according to the police, they used a high-powered electric drill, probably portable, to penetrate the cold steel locking bar. They inserted the charge and blew that bar to pieces, but hardly damaged the wrought-iron framework to the gate. After the grab, they just shoved it closed and left it, looking locked, but not locked. The police reckon that door was blown by a real expert.'
'Damn smart,' said the Admiral. 'And perhaps even smarter to work out the New York and Beirut bank would never want to announce precisely how many used bills were stolen.'
'And that means one thing,' said Jimmy Ramshawe, pushing his thick dark hair off his forehead. 'Right here we're looking at a pair of the great robberies in history. Maybe $100 million. Snatched with unbelievable precision. And the bastards pulled it off damn nearly in secret. And no one's got a clue who did it.'
Admiral Morris stood up, and walked over to the Lieutenant. 'Thanks, Jimmy,' he said. 'That's brilliantly done. And it's time I went home to bed.'
He showed the Lieutenant to the door and then turned back to Captain Wade.
'Well, Scotty,' he said. 'I think we may just have located a career change for Major Raymond Kerman, don't you?'
'It sure looks like it. These robberies have some classic signs of Special Forces about them. You know, sir… weeks and weeks of planning… total secrecy before and after… faultless execution… no mistakes… no surprises. Even a diversionary uproar, right in the middle of Jaffa Road.'
'Absolutely. This wasn't pulled off by some Arab rabble. These robberies were masterminded and carried out by a real professional.
'For the moment I think we will say nothing. Meanwhile, try to locate some detail on Major Kerman's military career, will you? We'll have a chat in the morning. For the time being, this better be a need-to-know operation. And that means just us.'
'Okay, sir. I'll start some inquiries right now. It's almost 0800 in London.'
The Following Morning Director's Office, Fort Meade
Captain Wade stood before the Admiral, bearing a sheaf of papers and two maps. The first showed the Republic of Sierra Leone, which sits on the Atlantic coast of Africa's top half. To the north and east lies Guinea, to the southeast is Liberia.
