Takeover - Lisa Black [35]
The radio sprang to life with Lucas’s voice. “Here’s a thought: Why don’t the programmers just pick up the damn money and throw it into the elevator themselves? Bypass the robots.”
“Only the robots enter those rooms. It’s designed that way.”
“Are we standing on procedure now?”
“The rooms are made to keep people out. If any body of matter other than a robot enters, the alarm system trips and all hell breaks loose.”
“I don’t mind if the alarm rings. My ears are tough.”
“It also closes the doors and locks them for twelve hours. It’s a fail-safe thing. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing anyone can do about this. We are all at the mercy of modern technology, my friend.”
Then Lucas said, “I am not your friend,” so that the words coursed through Theresa like a river of ice. We’re not going to make it through this. Paul is going to die.
Then Lucas added, “More than that, Chris, I’m beginning to doubt your commitment to this endeavor.”
“Don’t doubt me yet, Lucas. I might have a solution. There’s a shipment of cash scheduled to arrive this morning. It’s only three million, but at least we mere human beings can touch it without triggering a mechanical lockdown.”
“You trying to haggle with me, Chris? This is priceless. Someone over there decided that these people aren’t worth four million, only three? Or that you only want three-quarters of them back, is that it? Then I might as well kill the last quarter of the group, if I’m not going to get paid for them anyway.”
“Come on,” Theresa said to Jason. “Let’s get that car down there so at least that will be in place.”
“But the tow—”
“We don’t need a tow. I’ll just drive the damn thing.”
“But—”
She stopped as Cavanaugh spoke, dying to move but afraid to miss a word.
“It’s not the money, Lucas. You can empty every last cent out of that building as long as you don’t hurt anybody. We don’t care. If you want four million instead of three, I’m sure we can scrape together the last million for you—that’s not a problem. The problem is, the three million on the truck isn’t going to arrive until two. It’s on 80, just passing State College.”
Another pause. “Clever. Very clever. Hang on a sec, Chris. I just need to talk this over with Bobby.”
Jason scratched his chin with the radio antenna, staring at nothing. “That’s not good.”
“Why? What’s wrong?”
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you—it’s just that we had Bobby pegged as a follower, not an equal. Negotiations are more complicated when you have more than one person on the other side, because you have to get a consensus. When you go to buy a car, the salesman wants you to come in by yourself, but he’ll have the floor manager and the finance guy on his side. It means he has an excuse to slow down, whereas you don’t. What we need,” he went on as the radio remained silent, “is for the hostage taker to make decisions. If these two have to discuss everything first, it will drag on that much longer. That’s why sometimes a lone gunman is easier than a takeover.”
She stared at him.
“A single robber instead of a group of two or more,” he clarified.
“He sounds so calm,” Don said.
“They usually do. That’s something I’ve never been able to figure out either. Even the psychotic ones are often calm. They’re focused, I guess.”
“Let’s go—” Theresa began to say, but then she stopped once more, arrested by voices from the small device in Jason’s hand.
“Bobby doesn’t want to wait until two o’clock,” Lucas said. “He’s not the patient type.”
Cavanaugh didn’t miss a beat. “Then I don’t know what to do, Lucas. Those money rooms can’t be bypassed.”
“Tell you what, Chris. You just get that car here and let me worry about the money. I have an idea.”
“Good, let’s talk about that. What’s your idea?”
“Never mind, just get the car here. Oh, and one more thing—we won’t be leaving alone. In case you get any ideas about installing a remote kill switch in the engine or a GPS tracker, you should know that we’ve made some friends