Takeover - Lisa Black [19]
Frank interrupted. “But you’re still a bank, right? You have cash in the drawers of those teller windows?”
“Some, yes. Savings-bond transactions are still conducted on the west side of the public lobby. The cages on the east side were left there for show.”
“Is the vault in the lobby?” Theresa asked.
The Fed’s vice president yanked at his tie once more, distorting the cords in his wrinkled neck. “The money vault is underground. It’s also three stories high, and they’d never be able to get into it anyway…. This isn’t the neighborhood savings and loan—that’s what I’m trying to explain.”
“You asked about terrorists,” Cavanaugh reminded him. “So before I talk to them, has the Fed received any threats lately?”
“Every day. From the people who simply aren’t happy with the interest rate to the ones who think the Federal Reserve is a privately owned bank and/or a method for oppressing the American people and/or responsible for JFK’s assassination. I’m not kidding. Supposedly we murdered him over Executive Order 11110—”
“Recently,” Cavanaugh said. “Have there been any recent, specific threats? Any that mentioned today’s date or referenced the secretary of state’s visit?”
Kessler quieted a moment to think. “No. And I insist that PR make me aware of each and every one.”
“Okay. If there’s a political agenda, they’ll mention it as soon as they pick up the phone. Those types are never shy. In the meantime we’ll assume they came to rob the place.”
“But that’s ridiculous! We have tighter security than the White House. We have metal detectors, armed guards, and dogs protecting that lobby.” The level of Kessler’s voice rose with each word. “How could this happen?”
“They ran in and put a gun to someone’s head,” Frank told him. “All the security in the world can’t fix that.”
“But why?” the man wailed. “Why us?”
“Because these guys figured a bank was a bank. And your lobby opens earlier than the other downtown banks’.”
Kessler rubbed his eyes with one palm and admitted, as if it pained him to do so, that they opened at eight for savings-bond transactions and school groups.
Frank continued, “Maybe they thought rush hour would slow up our response. They could come in, have the tellers empty their drawers into their bag, and leave. That’s how most bank robberies go. That’s what would have happened, too, if that security guard hadn’t grabbed their car.”
Jason cleared his throat. “He acted according to protocol. Containment is the number-one priority with armed attackers.”
“Except that if he hadn’t contained them, they might have just taken the money and left. Instead we have a hostage situation,” Frank said. Just as Theresa began to tremble with rage at this error, he added, “But then they might have taken a few people with them, too. You never know.”
Cavanaugh theorized, “They go in thinking it’s the neighborhood First National, get surprised by the level of security present, and on top of that they lose their wheels. They take hostages until they can figure out what to do next.”
“Unless they did kill Ludlow,” Theresa pointed out. “Then they should know exactly what kind of bank it is.”
Kessler started, his lanky body twitching as if she’d applied a shock. “Mark Ludlow? Is he dead? I thought you said no one’s been hurt.”
Frank outlined the morning’s murder investigation for Kessler and Cavanaugh. The vice president had only met the man twice, so he could not positively identify the Polaroid photo of the victim. Frank put in a call to Ludlow’s fifth-floor office, where a secretary, waiting to be evacuated by the Fed security force, told him that Mr. Ludlow had not arrived for work. “Unless you’ve got two Mark Ludlows,” he said to Kessler and the rest of the group huddled around the reading table, “I’m guessing he’s dead, and I’m guessing he got that way because of something to do with those two guys in the lobby