Chapter 4: The job

Central Park.

The four of them took a long, casual stroll into the woods, where any camera would be hard pressed to take photographs of them. They found an area where they could stand comfortably, and Collins put a briefcase down on the ground. He opened it, pressed a button on something inside it, and stepped back. “White noise,” he said. “We can talk now.”

“Okay, here’s what we have,” David said, pulling out the file and spreading things on the dirt between them all. “Single Monet painting. The painting is on a pressure sensor and a laser net. The room it’s in has motion detectors and thermal cameras. There are two guards, patrolling one at a time, with roughly six-minute intervals between their arrivals.

“Front door of the museum has a key lock, a keypad and pass card lock, and a camera at the door. Back door opens only from the inside. Again, cameras everywhere. There’s a third guard towards the front door. He sits at a security station and watches the cameras.”

“What’s the situation with the police?” Collins asked.

“What’s the job pay?” Quinn asked.

“Which painting?” McKenzie asked.

“Later,” Basheer said, holding up his hands. “Right now it’s the details we need to work on. The info I got was good, but it’s not enough for me. The timetable is tight: the painting moves in two weeks, and we’d have to start all over again. So what we need is reconnaissance. You all remember how to do that, right?”

They gave him looks. Collin looked annoyed. McKenzie looked bored. Quinn looked confident. All three looks told David to make sure he told them exactly what he wanted. “Just in case, let’s go over it. McKenzie, I want you to do on-sight. Find out whatever you can. See if you can get an in with the guards.”

“No problem.” Her smile was predatory. “How do I get in touch with you? Or should I just wait until you call me?”

“No, I’ll carry my cell phone. Here’s the number.” David handed cards out to all three of them. “It’ll be good until the day the painting disappears.” He took a breath, turned to Quinn. “Get me the floor plans for the museum. I want the most recently updated and the originals. Find out who supplies security, see how much of the system is computerized, and get ready to go in. Don’t do any heavy moves just yet.”

“No trace,” he said. “You got it.”

“Collins, we’re going to need a few things. We’ll need alarm breakers, maybe glass cutters. Some belay equipment; that means harnesses, figure eights, carabineers, and ropes; infrared or at the very least night vision goggles; wire cutters; maybe even a white noise generator. A big one.” David pointed down at the suitcase. “This one you have here won’t do.”

“No problem. Give me two days. You know how to reach me if you need anything more?”

David looked at Collins for a few seconds. “Yeah, I know.” He continued his stare, but Collins ignored it. “Okay, you all know what to do. I’m going to do a bit of research myself. If I don’t hear from you, we’ll meet up in three days. At the fountain. Three o’clock.”

“David?” Quinn asked.

“Forty million, Quinn.” David frowned at the hacker. “Now get to work.”

They split up then, each going their separate ways. Once everyone else was out of sight, David pulled out his cell phone and dialed. The line picked up, but there was no voice. “Collins? While you’re at it, look for alternate buyers for the painting.”

“I’m way ahead of you, boss.” Collins said boss with so little sincerity it almost made David laugh. “That’s why it’s going to take so long.”

David smiled to himself. Same old Collins. “I thought two days seemed like a long time.”

McKenzie met David that night when he rented a car.

“Going for a drive, love?” She asked, still wearing the persona she’d had on at the coffee shop.

“Hey,” he said, not trying to fight off the smile.

“Work or pleasure?”

“What?”

“The drive.” She gestured towards the little car he’d rented. It wasn’t all that fast, or that impressive looking. Clearly, David was not trying to pick up a girl. “Are you on the clock?”

David reached into his pocket, to the stopwatch inside. “Yeah, you could say that.”

“Can I come?”

David sighed. “Sure, why not?”

They drove through the city at a nice leisurely pace. “So what are we doing?” She asked.

David looked out the window, stopwatch in hand. “We’re looking for police stations,” he said.

She laughed. “Why?”

“Response time.”

“What?”

“Once the alarm goes off, it takes them a certain amount of time to get to the museum. I want to know what it is.” They passed a station and David hit the start button, then made a beeline for the museum.

“Isn’t the timing going to be off?”

“What do you mean?”

McKenzie reached her hand across the car, letting it rest on David’s thigh. Had it been anyone else, he would have flinched. “I mean that you’re already driving at full speed. They won’t be. So won’t your timing be off?”

David turned to her for just a second and smiled. “Yeah,” he said. “Of course it will. That gives us a nice little window of error, doesn’t it?”

She nodded. “You’re a smart one, Mr. Grinch.”

David chuckled. “Can you write down the times for me?”

“Sure thing, love.”

They weren’t quiet for very long. On the way past the museum, when David gave her the call time from that first station –seven minutes— she went right to the topic he knew had been burning in her head since he’d called her.

“What ever happened to us?” She asked.

David didn’t even try to look surprised that she’d brought it up. He just turned towards the next closest police station. He’d memorized their locations before renting the car. “Sometimes things just end, McKenzie.”

“But why did we have to end?” She moved her hand a little higher on his leg. “We were good together, weren’t we?”

They were. They’d been wonderful together. “We were decadent,” David said. “Hedonists. Living for nothing but the moment.” He’d been drinking when they were together, too.

That was an interesting point. McKenzie had never seen him at his best, had never seen him on a job sober. This whole situation may be a big surprise for her.

“What’s wrong with a little hedonism now and then?” She asked, her smile as inviting as an oasis in the desert.

David shook his head. “Now and then?” He asked. “We were full time, sweetheart.”

“No we weren’t. We worked.”

It was true. They did work. They conned people out of money one day, then blew it all on booze, hotels, and whatever else came to mind the next. They never saved a penny. “We only worked so that we could keep playing.”

She laughed. “What other reason is there?”

David shook his head again.

He looked at the street signs. He wasn’t far from the next station. “You have to do these routes over and over again,” he said, trying to change the subject. “Different conditions, different routes, different times.”

“Makes sense,” she said. “So is this your plan for the whole night?”

“Just about,” he said.

“You sure you don’t want to do a little something more?” She rubbed her hand back and forth a bit. “You know, engage in a little hedonism. For old times sake?”

David grabbed her hand and pulled it away just before she could reach his crotch. “McKenzie,” he said, tossing it away from himself. “I am working now.”

“We used to do this sort of thing while we were working all the time.”

That was true. “I’m not a hedonist anymore.” By which he meant he wasn’t drinking. He wanted to, though. McKenzie was one of the hardest women in the world to say no to. “Things are different.”