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 had been
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.
It was almost dark by this time, however I knew that the shipping
department would be busy most of the night. The engine caught on the
first revolution and I pulled out of the parking rank and backed
slowly up to the platform. There was a relatively quiet area where the
shipping dock met the receiving dock, I stopped the trailer as close
to the dividing line as I could. I didn't open the rear door until all
the workmen were faced in a different direction. Even the stupidest of
them would have been interested in why a truck was unloading the firm's
own boxes. As I piled them up on the platform I threw a tarp over them,
it only took a few minutes. Only when the truck gates were closed and
locked did I pull off the tarp and sit down on the boxes for a smoke.
It wasn't a long wait. Before the cigarette was finished a robot from
the shipping department passed close enough for me to call him.
"Over there. The M-19 that was loading these burned out a brakeband,
you better see that they're taken care of."
His eyes glowed with the light of duty. Some of these higher M types
take their job very seriously. I had to step back quickly as the fork
lifts and M-trucks appeared out of the doors behind me. There was a
scurry of loading and sorting and my haul vanished down the platform.
I lighted another cigarette and watched for a while as the boxes were
coded and stamped and loaded on the outgoing trucks and local belts.
All that was left for me now was the disposing of the truck on some
side street and changing personalities.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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