“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.
Granowski and Ross sat at the ends of the table, the same one they had been at earlier, with the plans for the building laid out in the middle. The fluorescent lighting buzzed in the ceiling above them.
“We’ll catch you up.” Jack leaned forward against the edge of the table. “Our suspect has been robbing banks, but it appears he has a bigger target than the bank and its money. He’s tried to harm both Ross and myself.” He pointed at the plan on the table. “The Fed seems to be what he has his sights set on. We found these at his apartment.”
“So you know who he is?” Sure Thing asked.
“We do now. And he’s not stupid. We would have caught him by now if he was, so we need to figure out what he’s really up to. Or we need to find him.”
“Maybe I can help there,” Sure Thing said.
“Maybe you can. In a little while we’ll show you a room that’s got all sorts of techno stuff that will get you drooling.” Jack sat back and looked at Ross to give him a chance to speak.
“Are there any shipments of money in or out of the bank scheduled?” Ross asked.
“Not for a couple of weeks,” Mark answered. “Maybe you’re early?”
“Maybe we’re not,” Jack said.
“Right, maybe you’re not.”
“And the Fed Wire is secure?” Ross asked.
“One, it’s secure,” Granowski said.
“Nothing’s secure,” Squeaky said.
Mark looked at Squeaky. “It’s not,” she said.
“It’s secure.” Granowski looked back at Ross and continued. “Lots of monitoring, redundancy, and security controls.”
“So you know when you’ve been robbed.”
“Let him finish, Squeaky,” Ross said.
“And two, it’s not even operating right now. We’re down for the holiday. We come back online at one o’clock.”
“Well, then you’re secure until one o’clock.”
Granowski looked at Squeaky and then at Jack. “We’ve never been robbed.”
“What time is it now?” Jack asked, wiping his hands over his face.
Jerome walked back into the room and handed Squeaky a plastic bottle of Coke. “Eleven o’clock.”
“Squeaky said it. We’re secure at least until one o’clock.” Jack looked around the room. “If he’s after the Fed. Let’s split into groups and figure out what’s up.”
Ross brought a Styrofoam cup of coffee to Jack and set it on the table. “How many times do we need to look through these plans?”
The blue prints were turned to the page depicting the drawings for the vault. Jack supported his head with both hands, his elbows resting on the table. “Nobody’s breaking in here. Look at this. The vault’s what, thirty or more feet underground and the concrete walls are at least two feet thick, filled with steel bars.”
“Jack, look.” Ross pointed to the cup of coffee sitting on the table in front of them. Small circles radiated out from the center as if something had been dropped in the center of the cup.
“Something’s vibrating.” Jack picked up the cup and took a drink. “They have all kind of big equipment in here to count the money. It could be that.” He set the cup back down and put his palms flat on the table to see if he could feel anything.
Alarms started blaring and strobe lights in the ceiling blinked. Jack stood up, put his hands over his ears, and thought, not again.
Granowski stuck his head in the door. “Stay here, don’t go anywhere!” he yelled over the alarms.
Jack leaned towards Ross until his mouth was near Ross’ ear. “Or it could be something else. Let’s go see what’s going on.” He looked at Sure Thing and yelled, “you two get to the control room and see what’s going on there!”
Emergency lights were blinking in the hallway. The alarm continued to sound. It grew fainter as Ross and Jack walked down a hallway, away from a speaker, only to grow loud again when they rounded a corner to face a different alarm blaring from the ceiling. Men and women hustled through the halls. Jack and Ross went with the flow, following the people who had donned helmets and protective vests, the people exuding a strange calmness who seemed to have a destination in mind.
They followed the jump-suited group of six dressed in black down the narrow, fluorescent-lit stairwell one flight and out into another hallway. The hallway was quiet except for the murmur of voices as twelve uniformed, heavily armed Federal Reserve guards stood in a group.
“OK, listen up.” Granowski stood on a chair at the end of the hall. Jack waved from the back of the group. When Granowski saw him, he squeezed his eyes shut before he continued. “There’s been an explosion underground in quadrant E4. We don’t know what it was, but it wasn’t fireworks. This was big. It’s not a drill. The vault’s secure, but we need to find out what this was.” Mark pointed at the group on his left. “Team one, you’re going underground from down here.” The group of four nodded as one. “Team two, get outside and come in underground from the east side.” Mark looked to his right. “Team three, you’re above ground patrolling the grounds.” He pointed to the back of the groups. “Back there we have two visitors from the FBI. Don’t shoot them unless I tell you to.” He paused one beat, then another. “Go.”
The teams dispersed as ordered. “Agents Miller and Fruen,” Granowski yelled out. “Please wait.”
Jack spoke out of the side of his mouth as they waited for Granowski to make his way back to them. “Looks serious to me, Junior.”
“What do you think is going on in our office?” Ross asked.
“We’re probably the only ones with the FBI that know anything is going on.” Jack turned to Ross. “Let’s listen more than we talk and see what we can learn.”
Granowski approached them and walked on past. “Didn’t I ask you to stay put?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “Follow me, gentlemen.”