“Like what?”
“I dunno. Anything. Money, jewelry, drugs, guns, I mean, is there a limit to what you can do?”
“From what I understand, it’s limited to money and jewelry,” Steve said.
“Why’s that?”
“Beats me. Maybe because it’s smaller and easier to store?”
“I’ll buy that.”
After a few more people came and went, Nicole brought up the question nobody really wanted to talk about. “So how much longer are we gonna stay here?”
“Why?” Steve asked. “In a rush?”
“If Dalton and her friends were here yesterday, then yeah, I’m in a rush.”
Bridge looked at the time. “We can’t break it off yet. If they’ve already come and gone, then we’re probably not gonna catch up to them, anyway. At least not for a while. But if we leave too soon, and we miss them because we got antsy, well, we’re better than that.”
“So we’ll wait.”
Bridge looked at his girlfriend and nodded. “So we’ll wait. Saying a prayer might not hurt either.”
“How long?” Steve asked.
“Until we’re convinced that they’re not showing up.”
“That might take a while.”
“It might. But I think we’ll know. We’ll get the feeling that this is a waste of time. And I don’t have it yet.”
As they stared at the building for a few more minutes, another idea popped into Bridge’s head. It was somewhat preposterous, even for them, but it might just work. That was, if he didn’t get shot before he reached the building.
“You know what I’m thinking?” Bridge asked.
“Stop that,” Nicole replied.
“What?”
“Thinking. You know it only gets us in trouble.”
“Ha ha. Very funny.”
“It’s true.”
“It’s not true.”
“OK.” She turned to look at Steve. “It really is true.”
“Stop it. OK, what if one of us goes down to that building and explains what’s going on here?”
Nicole and Steve looked at each other. They each had sort of a dumbfounded look on their face. Then they turned their heads back to Bridge.
“You can’t be serious,” Steve said.
“Why not?”
“Because that’s suicide,” Nicole answered. “None of us are going to get anywhere near that building.”
“Well, what if I just walk up there, say I have business, then I meet the manager and tell him what’s going on?”
“Dude, you’ve lost your mind,” Steve said. “There is no way they’re going to let you in that building.”
“Why not?”
Steve looked at Nicole again as if he was missing something. Nicole then took over. “Because you can’t just walk in there like you know the place. They’re gonna open up on you before you even get halfway there.”
“Why?” Bridge said. “Doesn’t seem like there’s an issue pulling up.”
“How do you know there’s not some type of checkpoint that allows you to proceed somewhere up the road after we jumped off it?”
“Oh. Didn’t think about that.”
“And even if by some miracle they did allow you to get to the building, what do you think they’re going to do to you?”
Bridge shrugged. “Let me go.”
“No!” Nicole replied. “They’ll kill you and dump your body.”
“Not if I make a deal.”
“What kind of deal could you possibly make?”
“Just that I want Dalton and company,” Bridge answered. “And since I’m not a government agent, I have no interest in bringing any heat down on the building. I won’t say a word about them.”
“And you really think they’ll buy that?”
“Why not?”
“Because they could just kill you and then be sure you’ll never say a word about it.”
Bridge just looked down at the grass, apparently still thinking about it.
“Are you sure you were an elite agent?” Nicole asked.
“Yeah, why?”
“Because this is dumb. You really can’t be serious. I mean, you just can’t be.”
Bridge cleared his throat. “Uh, well, it was just an idea.”
“Forget about it. OK? You’re not getting into that building unless we have a couple of tanks behind us, which we don’t, so just sit your ass down.”
“It is down,” Bridge said.
“Good. Keep it there. ‘Cause if you start walking toward that building, I’ll shoot you myself before they get the chance to.”
Steve and Bridge looked at each other. “She wouldn’t.”
Bridge raised an eyebrow. “She wouldn’t?”
“She would?”
Bridge gave sort of a shrug as he tilted his head. “Eh. I wouldn’t put it past her.”
“Oh.”
“She’s feisty like that.”
“So I notice.”
“Will you two stop jabbering like a bunch of girls and get back to business?” Nicole said.
“See?” Bridge said. “Anything happening?”
“No. I’m just tired of listening to you ladies yap in my ear.”
“She prefers the action.”
“I can tell,” Steve said
“Yeah, and if I don’t get it soon, I might accidentally shoot one of you two by mistake,” she said.
Bridge rubbed his eyes and looked up at the sky. “C’mon, Dalton, hurry up and get here.”
21
Six more hours passed and plenty of people came and went. Unfortunately, none of them were who Bridge was looking for. It was starting to get dark.
“We gonna wrap this up soon?” Nicole asked.
“I dunno,” Bridge replied. “Does this bank close or are they open all night?”
“I believe it’s guarded twenty-four hours,” Steve answered.
“But can you only visit at certain times? Do they not allow anyone in after a certain point?”
Steve could only shake his head. He didn’t have those answers. “I couldn’t tell you.”
“Keep watching and we’ll find out,” Nicole said.
Two more cars came and went. But finally, as darkness swept through the area, a van rolled to a stop just in front of the building.
“Who’s this?” Bridge asked.
“It’s not their car,” Steve replied.
“How do you know they didn’t change it?”
“Maybe that’s the value that Kanelos brings,” Nicole answered. “He’s the wheelman.”
“Could be.”
After a minute or two, there still was no movement from the van. Nobody got out. Not even a door opened.
“What’s the holdup?” Nicole asked.
Finally, after a solid minute or two, the front doors to the van opened. Bridge couldn’t believe his eyes. Getting out of the passenger seat was Greg Kenny.
“That’s him.”
“Who?” Steve asked.
“Kenny. Passenger side.”
“Well, I’ll be. We did get here in time.”
“That’s Kanelos on the driver’s side,” Bridge said.
“Where’s the rest?” Nicole asked.
Just as soon as the words left her lips, the back door to the van opened up.
