Criminals -- Fiction; DiGriz, James Bolivar (Fictitious character) -- Fiction; Police -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories
Of course I only went a few blocks in that direction then turned down
a side street. At the next corner I turned again and headed back
towards Moraio's, the scene of my recent crime. The cool air coming in
the window soon had me feeling better, I actually whistled a bit as I
threaded the big truck through the service roads.
It would have been fine to go up the highway in front of Moraio's
and see all the excitement, but that would have been only asking for
trouble. Time was still important. I had carefully laid out a route
that avoided all congested traffic and this was what I followed. It was
only a matter of minutes before I was pulling into the loading area in
the back of the big store. There was a certain amount of excitement
here but it was lost in the normal bustle of commerce. Here and there a
knot of truck drivers or shipping foremen were exchanging views on the
robbery, since robots don't gossip the normal work was going on. The
men were, of course, so excited that no attention was paid to my truck
when I pulled into the parking line next to the other vans. I killed
the engine and settled back with a satisfied sigh.
The first part was complete. The second part of the operation was just
as important though. I dug into my paunch for the kit that I always
take on the job--for just such an emergency as this. Normally, I don't
believe in stimulants, but I was still groggy from the banging around.
Two cc's of Linoten in my ante cubital cleared that up quickly enough.
The spring was back in my step when I went into the back of the van.
The driver's assistant and the guards were still out and would stay
that way for at least ten hours. I arranged them in a neat row in the
front of the truck where they wouldn't be in my way and went to work.
The armored car almost filled the body of the trailer as I knew it
would; therefore I had fastened the boxes to the walls. They were fine,
strong shipping boxes with Moraio's printed all over them. It was a
minor theft from their warehouse that should go unnoticed. I pulled the
boxes down and folded them for packing, I was soon sweating and had to
take my shirt off as I packed the money bundles into the boxes.
It took almost two hours to stuff and seal the boxes with tape. Every
ten minutes or so I would check through the peephole in the door;
only the normal activities were going on. The police undoubtedly had
the entire town sealed and were tearing it apart building by building
looking for the truck. I was fairly sure that the last place they would
think of looking was the rear of the robbed store.
The warehouse that had provided the boxes had also provided a supply
of shipping forms. I fixed one of these on each box, addressed to
different pick-up addresses and marked paid of course, and was ready
to finish the operation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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