Crab Town (7 page)

“Now if you can fill this for me we’ll be on our way.”

The bank manager looks up at him. Jack smiles behind his mask.

With the duffel bag in his hands, the bank manager shakes his head. “I know you think this is helping your people, but you have to know you’re only making things worse.”

The bank manager stands up. His wife grabs him by the wrist, trying to keep him by her side, but he gently removes her fingers and with his eyes tells her he’ll be just fine.

“Every time one of you revolutionaries steals money from the bank, it only makes it more difficult for our society to get back on its feet. The reason the living condition in Crab Town remains atrocious is because the government doesn’t have the funds to give you the aid you need. But the more money you steal from the bank, the more money the government has to give to compensate, and the less money they have to spend on social reform.”

“Social reform isn’t what we’re after. If we were just given the chance to work and make a living we wouldn’t need a free handout from the government.”

“But taking criminal action only turns the rest of society against Crab Town. You appear to be violent, dangerous thugs that should be locked away from civilization. Next thing they’re going to do will be to build a wall around Crab Town and shut you all out for good.”

“There’s a much easier way for them to solve the Crab Town problem,” Jack says. “All they need to do is listen.”

Jack sends Nine into the back with the bank manager to fill the bags. When she returns her bags are very light, not even half full.

“That’s it?” Sailboat asks, glaring at the sagging duffel bags.

“It’s everything.” Nine shrugs her shoulders.

“Bullshit,” Sailboat says. “They’re hiding it back there, somewhere. Let me go see.”

Jack holds him back.

“Don’t worry about it,” Jack says. “We need to get out of here.”

“But we went through all of this just for pocket change?”

“The cash wasn’t the point of robbing the bank,” Jack says. “Our real objective is all that matters.”

The day before, all five of Jack’s team were gathered in a burnt out pizza shack in Crab Town, sharing a cold can of beans and going over the plan. They used paint buckets as chairs and a piece of an old billboard as a table.

“So the point of robbing the bank isn’t to get money?” Nine asked.

“The money is just an added bonus,” Jack said.

“So what’s the real plan then?”

“Can’t tell you yet,” he said. “I’ll let you know when the time comes.”

Little Sister had her bike on the table, the sail lying on the floor next to them. Her tiny hands were greasy from tightening bolts and screws. She was short and bony, but her flesh was knotty with muscle. When she looked up at Jack, her face lit up.

“Does the plan involve my bikes?” asked Little Sister. “Is that why you had me fix up these bikes for you?”

Jack’s squad usually made their getaways on foot, but this time Jack had requested they do it on bikes. And when it comes to bicycles, Little Sister is the authority.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Jack said. “We’ll need to be able to move quickly after we hit the bank.”

“What’s with the secrets?” Sailboat asked. “You’ve never needed to keep anything from us before.”

“This time’s different. If you knew what I had planned beforehand you would never want to go through with it.”

Sailboat groans at him. “Great…”

“Trust me, if we want the world to hear us out then this is the best shot we’ve got. They’re not going to be able to ignore us anymore after this.”

“Can’t you tell us anything?” Nine asked.

“All I can say is Miss Doomsday is the key.”

Doomsday choked on her beans. “Me?”

“We can’t do this without you.”

The Italian girl didn’t like the sound of that.

“It’s a bad idea not letting us in on the plan,” Sailboat said. “What if something happens to you? What then?”

Jack leaned back on his paint bucket. “Then I guess you’ll just have to make sure nothing happens to me.”

Jack of Spades opens one of the duffel bags.

“How much do they owe you?” he asks Johnny Balloon.

The balloon says, “Almost sixteen hundred, but fifteen hundred would be fine.”

Jack tosses him some stacks of bills. “Take two thousand. Thanks for helping us out.”

“You’re giving him two thousand?” Sailboat goes for the balloon, but Jack gets between them. “That’s probably half of the take.”

“Forget about it, let’s go.” Jack pushes him away. Nine and Miss Doomsday go for the door.

Sailboat shakes his head, and goes back for Johnny Balloon. “I can’t just give the money to a fucking balloon.”

Johnny backs away.

Jack catches up to Sailboat and gets in front of him again. “What’s gotten into you, man? This isn’t the same Sailboat I used to know. This isn’t the Sailboat who spent half his time in the melt zone, trying to exterminate sewer crabs for the sake of getting our people off of the shit.”

“I’m still the same Sailboat. I just don’t think we should waste money on a goddamn balloon when we’ve got real people back home in need of food and medicine.”

“He’s a living person, too.”

“But he doesn’t need food or medicine. He doesn’t need money like we do.”

“He gets what is owed to him and that’s final,” Jack says. “Now let’s go.”

The two men go for the door, but when they get halfway across the room Sailboat turns and runs for the balloon man. When Johnny sees him coming, he raises his revolver.

A gun shot rings through the room.

Jack looks down at the stream of red draining from the hole his chest. Sailboat turns around. The Jack of Spades opens his mouth to speak, to tell Sailboat something he really needs to know, but only blood spills through his lips.

Sam watches as the leader of the bank robbers tosses the balloon man some stacks of bills.

“You’re giving him two thousand?” the large robber says, going for the balloon. “That’s probably half of the take.” Then the leader gets between them.

As they argue amongst themselves, Sam decides it’s time to make his move. The two female robbers have their weapons down, distracted by their friends’ argument. If he’s going to stop these people it’s now or never.

He looks over at the bloody guard on the floor, who winks at him with his one open eye. The guard has been playing possum ever since the big guy clubbed him in the back of the head. Sam makes eye contact with the other undercover guard and he gives him a nod. It’s lucky the criminals didn’t know the bank upped its security a little. The new policy is to have two plain-clothed guards in the bank during banking hours.

Sam can’t afford to let these scumbags get away with the cash. At this job, the security guards are held responsible for every dollar that is stolen from the bank. If the thieves get away with money that amount comes out of the guards’ paychecks.

With all the robberies happening these days, Sam can’t allow another criminal to get away. The bank was taking so much money out of his pay, due to all the successful robberies, that he could no longer afford rent and was kicked out on the streets. He now has to sleep on his ex-wife’s couch, living with her new husband, Ron. He has to listen to them have sex in the next room every night, and has to bear watching his two-year-old daughter treat Ron like her real dad. His daughter thinks of Sam as some kind of stranger invading their home. She’s even scared of him.

Sam only has one month until he pays off the bank for the last robbery. The only reason his ex-wife still lets him stay with her is because she knows she only has to endure it for one more month. If he fucks up here today he won’t be getting paid for another six months, then she’s going to kick him out on the streets. In a week he’ll be living in Crab Town robbing banks himself.

When he looks over at the other guards, he can see it in their eyes. They can’t afford to let these House of Cards assholes get away with the cash either. If they don’t stop them they’ll lose everything they have.