Chapter 5: The floorplan

She smiled, moved in her seat so that her arms were available to snake their way all over his body. She brought her lips to his ear, gave it a little kiss and a lick that sent jolts through David’s entire body. “They don’t have to be,” she said.

David slammed on the brakes and pulled the car over. McKenzie jolted forward, almost hitting her head on the windshield. Had David slammed the brakes any harder, she would have.

“Get out,” David said. “I’m working.”

She shook her head. “You’re no fun anymore,” she said.

David looked at her for a few seconds.

“Fine,” she said. “I’m leaving.” She opened the door and stepped out. “You’re in a bad mood, I can tell.” She smiled, leaning over just so, making sure her cleavage would be nice and visible. “We’ll try this again when you’re feeling better.”

She closed the door. David had no doubt she’d be able to get wherever she wanted to go. He drove off.

By the end of the night, he had his routes mapped out. One precinct averaged twelve minutes away. Another was seven. The third was only six and a half. So that was it. That was the time frame. Six and a half minutes. From the instant the alarm went off, they would have six and a half minutes. With all the cushioning he was allowing for, six minutes and thirty seconds was probably closer to eight minutes.

Time is something you should always underestimate.

There might coincidentally be a squad car nearby. They might get there in two minutes, possibly even less. That would depend on the speed of dispatch and the patrolman’s current location. But there were ways to deal with those eventualities. What was important to worry about was the time it would take them to bring in enough police to have even a little hope of catching David. And that meant six minutes and thirty seconds.

Six and a half minutes was plenty of time. They could slip in between when the guards walked through, get the painting, and get out. And if they were already in, they’d be able to do most of it before setting off the alarm. It was possible to commit the crime and be out of the museum within a single minute. That would take care of any local cars on its own.

Not that there wasn’t a different, better, more important plan for that eventuality.

David sat in a parking lot near one of the police stations, turned off the motor and lights. He closed his eyes and imagined the floor plan, the one he hadn’t shown the others. In his head, he constructed the museum. There was a skylight, but it was two hallways away from the painting. It would take a minute, once inside, to get to the painting, even running. He would then need another minute to defeat the alarms; two to get the painting down and stowed, one minute to get back out. That left a minute and a half for the actual entrance and exit, once the alarm was set off. A minute and a half to first repel down, then unhook from the equipment, and later re-hook and climb up.

“I need more time.” He ran his fingers through his hair as he pondered possibilities. Maybe it would be better to go in a different way. Maybe he had to come up with a whole different plan.

Maybe he needed to do some on-sight investigation himself.

The next morning, David examined the buildings near the museum. Most of it was unimportant to him, but around ten o’clock, he found just what he wanted. Nearby to the museum, between it and the police station closest to the museum, was a bank. It was a small bank, probably holding no more than a few hundred thousand dollars. That was enough to bring the police there if something happened, though. It would delay things. It would take care of a local squad car. It would delay the cops. That might give him some more time.

“Collins, there’s more that I need.” David said as he walked through the park, away from the normal paths.

“Go ahead, chief.” As always, Collins was ready to get anything David would need. If he hadn’t already done it himself.

“I need a diversion. There’s a bank three blocks away, and I need to blow out the front. Can you get me some C-4 and detonators?”

“Professional or home-made?”

“Whatever, so long as it can’t be traced to me.”

“Not a problem, David. I’ll have it when we meet.”

“Keep it private, Collins,” David said. “Just between you and me.”

“I understand.” A pause. Collins was used to the second tier of dealings when he worked with David. “By the way, I’ve lined up a fifty two million dollar buyer.”

“Who?” David asked.

“The Russians.” How Collins had contacts with the Russian mafia, David did not know. Nor, honestly, did he want to. Like so much about Collins, it was better just not to know.

He rubbed his face. “Excellent. Keep working. We’ll split the difference.”

“Just what we need.” Collins chuckled. “More money.” The line went dead. David thought back to when he and Collins had first met, when Collins told him that it wasn’t the money; it never was and it never would be. Not that he’d do it without the money, just that the price wasn’t what interested him. Collins insisted on being paid, but more on principle than anything else. What he really needed, and what he always had, was a reason, a risk.

David called McKenzie.

“McKenzie? It’s Basheer.”

“David!” He could barely tell it was her on the other end. She had dropped the British accent, picking up a soft Long Island. “How have you been, darling? It’s been years!”

He rubbed his forehead. “You’re not alone, are you?”

“No, honey, I can’t, I’m working.” The words stung, though he couldn’t tell any kind of tone in them. He knew she’d chosen those words for a reason.

He kept his voice low so it wouldn’t carry away from her cell. “With one of the guards?”

“Uh-huh.”

“See if you can get some pictures of the museum so we can construct a model.”

“Yeah, sure, Saturday sounds fine. How about lunch?”

He groaned. “Go be sexy.”

“Will do!” She said. “See you then!”

David hung up and made his third call. “Quinn, do you have what I asked for?”

“Sure, no problem.” Quinn sounded like he was eating something. Probably cold pizza, or whatever it was computer geeks eat.

“So how much of the security system can you get?”

“I can get the cameras, no problem, man. Did you expect any less?” Quinn was cocky. All computer geeks were cocky. At least Quinn could back it up. And at least he wasn’t as bad as some of them.

“What else?” David asked.

“I could probably get the codes to the front door.” David heard typing on Quinn’s end of the phone. “You want an ID badge?”

“Yes.” He had no real need for it. But if bad turned to worst, maybe he could pretend to be an off duty security guard just looking at things, take a small rap for trespassing. “And I have something else for you Quinn. There’s a bank three blocks away. I’m gonna need a bad hacking job into the security there.”

“A bad job? I don’t know if I can do a bad job, man. It isn’t my style.”

As good as he was with computers, Quinn wasn’t that bright. David took a breath to calm himself. “That’s the point.” He spoke very slowly. “I’m going to need you to set off an alarm over there. Put up a few flags. So that the police look there instead of at the museum. Understand?”

“Sure.” Quinn didn’t sound happy. “I guess this is what I do for my ten million.”

“Nine. Ten percent of it goes to our mutual friend.” David didn’t even want to talk about laundering or anything like that. “And that’s just the initial, not the take home.”

“You expect me to pay taxes?”

Maybe he should talk about laundering. “I expect you to make sure the money’s clean,” he said.

“Right, whatever.” Even less happy. “I’ll chat at you later, big guy.”

“Goodbye Quinn.” David hung up, wondering if he would have to take care of Quinn after things were said and done.