October (10 page)
Authors: Gabrielle Lord
‘You’ll be operating the two-way,’ explained Boges, as we went over the technical side of our bank bust plan. ‘I’ll wear this connector—a little earbud on an almost invisible cable that’ll tuck under my collar. You’ll be in radio contact with us
throughout
the bust, so if anything happens and we have to get out of there fast, you’ll know about it.’
Winter caught my eye. She was twirling her hair into a bun on top of her head, preparing to pull on an incredible red wig she’d picked up at a market stall.
‘This is the radio,’ Boges explained, handing me the larger of the two devices he was holding. ‘You can contact me and I can talk back to you, using this.’ He patted the radio connector that was now hidden inside his jacket pocket. ‘Switch it on, dude. Let’s test it.’
I walked outside, hurrying over to the furthest end of the flat roof. Above me the sky was blue and the city lay spread around, a faint haze above it. A crow squawked from a nearby television antenna. ‘Can you hear me, Boges?’
His voice came through the radio receiver in my hand. ‘Affirmative.’
‘And I have you, loud and clear, Boges.’
‘Let’s hope it works as well in the bank,’ said Boges, as I walked back inside the flat. ‘I’m just not sure what sort of interference we might get.’
We recited Oriana’s personal identification number over and over again until we all knew it off by heart, and we went over the layout of the bank, so that Boges and Winter could sweep in confidently, just like the people they were
impersonating
.
Next, we studied the footage I’d taken. Sumo had a way of holding his arms stiffly out by his sides, and Oriana’s unique lean-back style of
walking
in her stilettos wasn’t difficult for Winter to mimic, once she’d mastered the art of the heels.
‘How’s this?’ asked Boges, lumbering back and forth across the small flat, with his shirt stuffed and his arms held out in Sumo’s odd way.
Winter loped along beside him, her hips
leading
her.
‘Well!’ she screeched, again doing her best to
impersonate Oriana. ‘You heard him! Tell us what you think! Don’t just stand there like a stunned mullet! Answer me!’
‘That’s creepily convincing!’ I admitted, squirming in my seat. She’d pinned the red hair up perfectly, just like Oriana, and had that
ferocious
, unrelenting look in her eyes.
‘What about me?’ Boges suddenly demanded, in his best Sumo impersonation. ‘I’m talking to you, buster!’
I grinned at my two deceptive friends. ‘You’ve both nailed it!’ I said proudly. I was starting to feel pretty good about our chances. ‘OK guys,’ I said, as Boges prepared to leave. ‘Let’s do it. Tomorrow.’
I didn’t sleep very well on Winter’s couch. I woke up every couple of hours, tormenting myself with the ‘what ifs’. What if the radio failed? What if the fake fingerprint didn’t work? What if my friends were sprung?
Boges arrived, just as nervous and excited as me. Winter disappeared to get ready.
‘Wow!’ I said, when Winter emerged in full costume. She wore a tight purple suit, red
patent-leather
high heels, a huge pair of sunglasses with leopard-print frames, and a silver handbag. A
delicate
scarf was wrapped around her elaborately styled red hair.
‘Spitting image,’ added Boges, as he bulked up his own outfit. With his crew cut, mirrored sunglasses hiding his eyes, and his suit jacket bulging, he seemed to have grown taller as well.
‘I borrowed Uncle Vladi’s boots,’ he explained, showing them off.
‘The heels are almost as high as mine!’ scoffed Winter.
Boges dug into his school bag and pulled out the two-way radio. He popped the earpiece into his ear, pulled the transparent cable down under his collar, and slipped the small radio connector into the inside pocket of his suit coat.
Very carefully, with tweezers, he drew out a small object from a little plastic box. ‘And here’s the fingerprint,’ he announced.
Winter looked mesmerised. ‘It fits perfectly,’ she said, slipping it over her forefinger. It was almost invisible and covered her own fingertip completely.
‘Looks like all systems are go,’ I said.
I stood outside, near the road, watching my friends—‘Oriana’ and ‘Cyril’—approach the steps of the bank. Winter walked with an odd gait, exactly like Oriana, and Boges lumbered beside her as Sumo, suitably hulking and menacing.
They charged through the automatic doors, striding in as if they owned the bank. They walked straight past reception and the teller counter, heading towards the biometric scanner.
I was tense and edgy, leaning on a bus stop bench, trying to look inconspicuous. I was
constantly
scanning the street for unexpected dangers.
Boges’s voice in my ear made me jump.
‘So far, so good, dude,’ he whispered, his voice crackling just slightly. ‘We’re coming up to the first big hurdle.’
From what I could see, nobody in the bank had given them a second look. They swept towards the furthest corner where the biometric scanner was.
This was the moment. I could just make them out, pausing as they approached the scanner. Blood pumped in my temples.
Right now, Winter would be steadily pressing her finger—with its tiny transparency over it—down onto the sensitive reader.
I held my breath.
I heard a dull beep and hoped it wasn’t an error reading.
Boges swore in my ear.
‘Try again,’ I hissed, keeping my head down, pretending to talk on my mobile phone.
The dull beep sounded again.
‘It’s not working!’ he said. I could hear the distress and despair in his voice. ‘I don’t know why, but it’s not working!’
I turned away, closing my eyes in disbelief. We
couldn’t let all our hard work go to waste. ‘Get out of there,’ I hissed. ‘All is not lost. You just have to make another fingerprint. We can do it again. Just get out of there before you blow your cover.’
There was no answer. I looked back into the bank and blinked. I couldn’t see them. Had they been stopped? Were they being arrested?
I ran up to the bank’s double doors, which parted as I approached.
They were on the other side of the scanner! Quickly I retreated to the bus stop.
‘We’re through!’ came Boges’s voice, finally. ‘Took us three attempts—wow, that was intense! I thought the machine was going to swallow her finger or something! Like the ATM does to your bank card if you get the PIN wrong too many times!’
On my portable radio I could hear their
footsteps
echoing on the hard surface of the floor. I pictured my friends on their way to the security boxes.
‘We’re walking along a wide, marble hallway,’ whispered Boges. ‘It’s incredible. On each side there are hundreds—maybe thousands—of safety deposit boxes. Big ones at floor level, smaller ones as you go up the wall to the ceiling. The first two numbers of the PIN—29—seem to refer to boxes—
they’re all numbered. We’re trying to find box 29. We’re not game to ask anyone for—’
Suddenly there was silence and my heart froze.
What was happening?
I could hear the sudden scuff of feet coming to a stop. I strained to listen harder.
Winter’s voice screeched into my ear: ‘Watch where you’re going!’ she yelled at someone who must have bumped into her in the hallway.
‘Terribly sorry, Ma’am,’ came an unknown voice.
I slumped with relief. That was exactly the sort of thing Oriana would have said to someone stepping in her way. Winter had nailed it, again.
‘Sorry about the interruption, dude,’ whispered Boges. ‘We’re still trying to find the box. There are guards patrolling up and down this corridor, but they don’t seem to be taking much notice of us. We’re approaching the lower numbers now. Box 29 shouldn’t be far away.’
I could hear Boges, but his voice was
breaking
up. ‘We’ve … SDB … 29. She’s … key … numbers … now.’
‘Boges,’ I said, ‘there’s some kind of interference. I can’t hear you properly.’
As I looked around, wondering what the
interference
might be, I got the shock of my life. The dark blue Mercedes screeched to a halt outside of the bank.
It couldn’t be! But it was! The worst possible thing that could happen was actually happening! I scuttled out of sight.
The real Oriana de la Force appeared,
swinging
her legs in their purple heels out of the car and onto the footpath. Cyril the Sumo,
unapologetically
parking in the No Standing zone in front of the bank, lurched out of his door, straightened his jacket, ran his fingers over his crew cut, and slammed the door of the car.
Immediately, I turned away. I couldn’t run the risk of being recognised.
‘It’s working!’ I heard Winter’s excited voice come through my earpiece. ‘It’s working!’
‘It’s opening!’ I heard Boges say. ‘We have the box open!’
‘Guys!’ I hissed. ‘Get out of there! Grab the contents and get out of there!’
‘There’s a packet in here!’ Boges said, too
distracted
to hear my warning.
I raised my voice, speaking between gritted teeth. ‘Listen to me! You’ve gotta get out right now!’ I commanded, desperation rising as I saw Oriana and Sumo scaling the bank stairs. ‘Grab the stuff and get out! Oriana and Sumo are outside! Any second now they’ll be walking into you!’
‘
What?
’
‘You heard me!’ I stared through the glass.
The real Oriana and Sumo sauntered towards the scanner.
I grasped the radio with clammy hands. If Winter and Boges walked out now, wearing their Oriana and Sumo outfits, they would practically collide with their real-life counterparts and all hell would break loose!
Oriana and Sumo had stopped short of the door. They seemed to be deep in a massive
argument
. She turned to Sumo with one hand on her hip, and jabbed an accusing finger at him with the other. He was visibly upset, puffing up his chest and shouting back at her.
I looked past them, through the glass windows, and saw Winter and Boges, still wearing their fake outfits, hurrying towards the entrance foyer. Any second now and they would walk straight into the two criminals they were impersonating!
I snatched up the radio connector but didn’t have time to warn them again—they were already walking out.
A few metres ahead of them, Oriana and Sumo were still arguing fiercely.
Don’t turn around
, I willed the feuding pair.
Don’t look behind you!
Rigid with tension I watched the scene unfold.
Boges and Winter only hesitated a second before walking through the automatic doors. They looked horrified when they saw the two familiar
figures just ahead of them, but they quickly veered to their right, out the doors, and scuttled away unseen.
At that moment, Oriana and Sumo turned and walked into the bank.
Winter ripped the red wig off as soon as she’d reached the side of the building. I took a deep breath of relief. Winter’s long, dark hair tumbled all over her shoulders, as she ran—barefoot now—down the street, with Boges close by her side.
Suddenly the earpiece spluttered into life once more. ‘We’re out,’ said Boges, as he ran. ‘Any minute now the alarm is going to go off—once they realise that the safety deposit box is empty!’
Almost as he said the words, the alarm from the bank started clanging. I ran after my friends. Within seconds, police cars were converging on the street.
