I was going to hold up Moraio's, the largest retail store in the
city. Every evening at exactly the same time, an armored car took
the day's receipts to the bank. It was a tempting prize--a gigantic
sum in untraceable small bills. The only real problem as far as I was
concerned was how one man could handle the sheer bulk and weight of all
that money. When I had an answer to that the entire operation was ready.
All the preparations were of course, made only in my mind until the
personality of James diGriz was again ready. The day I slipped that
weighted belly back on, I felt I was back in uniform. I lit my first
cigarette almost with satisfaction, then went to work. A day or two for
some purchases and a few simple thefts and I was ready. I scheduled the
following afternoon for the job.
A large tractor-truck that I had bought was the key to the
operation--along with some necessary alterations I had made to the
interior. I parked the truck in an "L" shaped alley about a half mile
from Moraio's. The truck almost completely blocked the alley but that
wasn't important since it was used only in the early morning. It was a
leisurely stroll back to the department store, I reached it at almost
the same moment that the armored truck pulled up. I leaned against the
wall of the gigantic building while the guards carried out the money.
My money.
To someone of little imagination I suppose it would have been an
awe-inspiring sight. At least five armed guards standing around the
entrance, two more inside the truck as well as the driver and his
assistant. As an added precaution there were three monocycles purring
next to the curb. They would go with the truck as protection on the
road. Oh, very impressive. I had to stifle a grin behind my cigarette
when I thought about what was going to happen to those elaborate
precautions.
I had been counting the handtrucks of money as they rolled out of the
door. There were always fifteen, no more, no less; this practice made
it easy for me to know the exact time to begin. Just as fourteen was
being loaded into the armored truck, load number fifteen appeared in
the store entrance. The truck driver had been counting the way I had,
he stepped down from the cab and moved to the door in the rear in order
to lock it when loading was finished.
* * * * *
We synchronized perfectly as we strolled by each other. At the moment
he reached the rear door I reached the cab. Quietly and smoothly I
climbed up into it and slammed the door behind me. The assistant had
just enough time to open his mouth and pop his eyes when I placed an
anesthetic bomb on his lap; he slumped in an instant. I was, of course,
wearing the correct filter plugs in my nostrils. As I started the motor
with my left hand, I threw a larger bomb through the connecting window
to the rear with my right. There were some reassuring thumps as the
guards there dropped over the bags of change.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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