Jack closed his eyes and breathed through his nose as he walked through the revolving door into the Federal Reserve. Ross and two guards were waiting for him in the lobby when he exited the revolving closet. An older man with grey hair and a bit of a paunch stood to Ross’ left. His hands were on his hips. He had a hint of a smile on his lips. A younger man with a shaved head stood to Ross’ right. His feet were set slightly wider than his shoulders, hands clasped behind his back. His spine was straight and his chest thrust out. Ex-marine, Jack thought.
Ross looked over Jack’s shoulder, through the glass doors at his truck that Jack had parked on the sidewalk.
“Did you lock it?” Ross asked.
“I think so. Does it matter?”
“Did you at least take the keys?”
Jack held them up in the air to show him and then stuffed them in the pocket of his shorts.
“Don’t lose them.”
“Don’t worry, Junior.”
“Gentlemen, this is Special Agent Jack Miller. One of our best,” Ross said.
Jack smiled in surprise. The younger guard barely nodded. The older man stepped forward and shook Jack’s hand. He had a catcher’s mitt of a hand. Jack’s fingers barely wrapped around the palm.
“Welcome to the Federal Reserve. I’m Mark Granowski. My loud partner here is Jerome Stone.” Mark hung on to Jack’s hand and lowered his voice. “Don’t like our doors, huh?”
“Not a fan.”
“They don’t bother most people, but there are a few that would rather just skip ‘em if you let them.”
“Well, I’m in. Let’s get to it.”
Granowski set two cups of coffee on the table. “Black?”
Ross nodded. He and Jack sat on one side of the rectangular table.
“As long as it’s hot,” Jack said. “Catch me up?”
Mark slid a chair out across from Jack and lowered himself to a point and then let himself plop into it. He clasped his hands and rested them on his belly. “So, somebody wants to rob us.”
“You don’t seem too worried.”
“We’re the Fed. Any dreamer thinks about robbing us, but it’s not like we’re a bank. You can’t walk in, show a teller a note, and expect to get some money.” Mark pushed his chair back further and crossed his ankle over his knee. Most of our focus is inside the walls to make sure employees don’t take anything. I’d send you on your way, but you’re with the FBI so you must have something worth listening to or you wouldn’t be here.”
Jack blew on the coffee and took a sip. “Not bad.”
“The coffee’s OK, but the food sucks.”
“This is about the Governor. You’ve seen the news?”
“I thought he was robbing banks.”
Jack looked at Ross, raised his eyebrows, and nodded for him to answer.
“Go ahead, Jack. You’re on a roll.”
“All right,” Jack said. He looked at Granowski. “He was robbing banks, but we don’t think it was the money he 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.”