by Mike Ryan
“Understood, Chief.”
“And with that, I’ll leave you ladies and gentlemen so you can have some time to devise a plan and strategy.”
“Thank you, sir.”
After Joe disappeared from the screen, Bridge immediately turned to Steve with some burning questions.
“Did you know about this bank?” Bridge asked.
“Yeah, but I had no reason to believe that’s what they were doing here.”
“What do you know about this place?”
“Pretty much what Joe said. It’s a very secretive place.”
“But you know where it is?”
“Yeah.”
“How much time we got?”
“It’s gonna be a drive,” Steve answered.
“So we’re already behind the eight ball.”
“For all we know, they’re hitting it as we speak.”
Nicole cut into the conversation. “So if this is what their plan is, what do they need Chris for?”
“My guess?” Bridge said. “They need him to take the place of his brother.”
“Why?”
Bridge shrugged. “Although this bank isn’t on the up and up, it sounds as if it still has some stringent rules in regard to using it.”
“That’s true from what we hear,” Steve said.
“So my guess is that either Gary deposited by himself, or with Dalton or Kenny, I’m not sure, but they need Chris’ face. Or a signature. Or something like that. Or maybe they cloned Gary’s fingerprint. But my guess is that they need Chris to get that money out.”
“If that’s the case, then at one point, Gary was with them,” Nicole said.
Bridge nodded. “I would say that’s likely. Now, whether he turned on them or decided he didn’t want to go through with it anymore, or they just decided to cut him out, or whatever the reason, they decided to cut bait and kill him. Now, they’re ready to take the money out, and they need Chris to do it.”
“Which also means that when they do, they won’t need Chris anymore.”
Bridge sighed. “Yeah.”
“Which means we gotta find them before they get out of that bank.”
“It’s unlikely they’ll do it right then and there. Whoever runs that bank isn’t going to look too fondly at a body being dumped on their doorstep, especially one that was just used to take money from them. They’ll most likely wait a while.”
“It ain’t gonna be too long, though,” Steve said.
“No, it won’t.”
“Sentiment’s still the same. We need to have eyes on them coming out of that bank. ‘Cause while they won’t kill him right outside of the bank, they’re not gonna wait hours either.”
“We need to gear up now,” Bridge said. “While we still have a chance.”
20
The bank, or The Brick as it was commonly called, was nestled in a remote area not too far from the border of Bulgaria. There was only one dirt road leading to it. It was a quiet area. From where the team was in Athens, it was roughly a nine-hour drive to get to it. Since trying to remain hidden was a big factor, only Bridge, Nicole, and Steve went on the trip. The rest of the team was either still in Athens, trying to monitor everything from there, and a couple were on standby notice not too far away. If something got hairy and Bridge and company needed a rescue, they would be there to lend a hand.
Without knowing exactly where guards were placed along this road, and their proximity to the bank, the team only travelled about halfway up it before deciding to get out and move amongst the trees, using them as cover. It took another half hour on foot before the building was within their sights. They got down on their stomachs, making sure they were almost completely concealed within the brush and foliage. They got out their binoculars to survey the building and the surroundings.
“That’s a bank?” Bridge asked, surprised about the appearance. “Looks more like the hunting quarters of some mountain men.”
“I think it’s supposed to look that way,” Nicole said. “That way if anyone stumbles upon it, they won’t know what’s inside.”
Bridge then looked at the armed guards stationed all around. “Yeah, ‘cause the men with guns won’t give anything away.”
“How many you make out?” Steve asked. “I count eight so far.”
Bridge scanned the compound with his binoculars. “I got twelve.”
“Well, it’s a good thing we’re not trying to breach it.”
“There’s a bunch of cars out there,” Nicole said.
“Yeah, but no telling whose they are. Could be visitors, could be the men that work there.”
Bridge continued looking at the building, trying to find a window to look through. “We just need to hope that one of those cars belongs to Kenny or Dalton.”
There were a few windows in the building, but they were darkly tinted, and seeing inside was difficult. Bridge thought he detected some movement in a couple of them, but seeing who it was was nearly impossible from his vantage point. About ten minutes went by without any movement, except the guards who wandered around from time to time.
“Wait a minute,” Nicole said. “We got movement by the front door.”
They all put their binoculars on the front door, which was now halfway open, though nobody was visible. It had to be opened from the inside.
“Here we go. People coming out.”
They all anxiously looked at the three people exiting the building. Their hopes were quickly dashed, as none of the three were anyone they recognized.
“Well, didn’t figure it’d be that easy anyway,” Steve said. “Would’ve been something if we got it on the first shot.”
“I’m just hoping they weren’t here and gone already,” Bridge said.
“If they were, it’s gonna be hell finding them. By the time we give up here, they’ll have a long head start on us.”
“They’ll be here,” Nicole said.
“What makes you so sure?” Steve asked.
“I can just feel it.”
“Oh no, not that intuition thing again,” Bridge said.
Nicole smiled. “Why not? It’s always worked for me before.”
“It has not. You just got lucky those other times.”
“Jealous again.”
“I’m not jealous.”
“You just hate it when I’m right and you’re wrong.”
“I don’t hate it. And for the record, I didn’t say you were wrong about anything, not even here.”
“Well, you’re thinking it.”
“I’m not thinking it.”
“You guys married?” Steve asked.
“No!” Bridge and Nicole both replied in unison.
Steve looked at the two of them, not sure if they were telling the truth about that one. They sure sounded married. Or at least like a couple that had been together for fifty years.
“Oh,” Steve said. “OK.”
Nicole looked at her boyfriend and shook her head.
“What was that for?” Bridge asked.
“You know.”
“No, I don’t know.”
“Can we just focus on the bank,” Steve said.
“I am focusing,” Nicole replied.
“You guys do this often?”
“Do what?” Bridge asked.
“Um, you know, like, argue?”
“We’re not arguing.”
“Not even close,” Nicole said.
“Oh,” Steve said. “Sounds like arguing.”
“We’re just expressing our feelings to each other.”
Steve looked confused. “Oh.”
“Having these kinds of discussions with each other helps to keep us loose and on our toes,” Bridge said.
“It does?”
“Yeah. If you’re really serious all the time, with the things you do, you’ll just blow yourself up after a while.”
“That wouldn’t be good.”
“No. So we like to keep things light.”
“Makes sense. Pinnacl
e One highly regards you. When he informed me you were coming, he said you were one of the best he’s ever seen.”
“Always good to know,” Bridge said.
“How come you’re not still with the agency then?”
“Just got tired. Tired of risking my life and getting shot at, stabbed, poisoned, and blown up.”
“But you’re still here doing the same thing.”
Bridge laughed, appreciating the irony. “Yeah. Funny, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“Only thing now is I get to decide what I’m gonna get shot at over instead of someone in a suit in a different country deciding that.”
“Makes sense.”
“And we get paid more,” Nicole said. “Assuming we get paid.”
“You miss it?”
“No,” Bridge said. “Like you said, I’m still in it, just in a different way. I’m like a baseball player who gets traded to a new team. I’m still in the game, just playing for a different organization. Mine.”
“Hey, guys, heads-up,” Nicole said, still monitoring the building. The others quickly took to their binoculars. “Looks like we got another car pulling up.”
“Let’s hope this one belongs to us.”
A few seconds later, one of the car doors opened, and a woman stepped out. They couldn’t yet tell if that was Dalton. Her hair was different, but in their game, hair was an easy change to make. Her back was completely to them, so they couldn’t make out her face. Another door opened up, a man getting out of the passenger seat.
“Is that Kenny?” Steve asked.
Bridge focused in on the man. “That’s not him.”
“You sure?”
“Positive. That’s not him.”
The woman turned around, finally revealing her face. “That’s not Dalton either,” Nicole said.
Steve sighed. “Thought we had something there.”
“Wonder how busy this place gets. I mean, can anyone just waltz right in here or do you need some kind of pass?”
“From what I understand, they set everything up through appointments. I think it’s half-hour intervals. So if you wanna put something in, or take it out, you schedule a half-hour time period to do your business.”
“Smart,” Bridge said. “That way you don’t have people from different groups falling all over each other. It also means there’s no mix-ups.”
“And whoever’s running it, their attention isn’t diverted between two, three, or even four groups of people at once.”
“Yeah. Whoever’s running this operation knows what they’re doing. How long’s this place been in existence?”
“I don’t know for sure. I’ve been here five years, and I heard about it when I first got here. And it was already well established at that point. As far as I can make out, it’s been around a while. Ten, fifteen, maybe even twenty years.”
“You can’t operate something like this for this long without greasing a few palms with people who are high up on the pecking order.”
“We know.”
“Well, if people can only come in at half-hour intervals, then we got some time before the next one,” Nicole said.
They waited a few more hours, with several more people coming and going.
“This place gets more action than a real bank,” Bridge said.
“Almost makes you wonder, doesn't it?” Nicole replied.
“I wonder if you can deposit other things than just money in there?”
“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 walki
ng 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.