THE WINTER EVENINGS got dark and quiet quickly in the city. Not as quiet as Tom Owens’s cabin upstate, but
New York City rarely experienced quiet like that. After living in the wilderness, even a calm neighborhood like the
one where their Airbnb was in Yonkers could make him feel like the world was closing in.
The trip the four of them took down to Manhattan from Yonkers served several purposes. Most importantly, it got
Owens out of the house for a little while. The sea of giant office buildings and towers that stretched high into the
sky didn’t exactly r eplicate the feeling of being free in the wilderness.
But it was better than listening to Pry eat stale corn chips directly from the bag.
They walked past the same building three times. First the entire group.
Then just Owens and Ellis. Then Owens and Kimmy. Pry made it clear he’d seen enough on his first walk-by and
already knew everything he needed to know about the building. He stood on the corner smoking one of his little
Swisher Sweets cigars with the white plastic tips.
Ellis looked at Owens and asked, “Tell me again what makes this a good target?”
Owens looked at Ellis. “The best part of this target is the company itself,” he explained, like he was a teacher
addressing a student who hadn’t been paying attention. “Virtual Spaces is expanding throughout the country.
They have no regard for the environment, and their method of tracking employees and people who utilize their
services of a virtual office is outrageous. It makes Facebook look like the Yellow Pages.”
Owens looked over the whole group to make sure he had everyone’s attention. “Physically, one of the best things
about this target is that
although their main office is on the tenth floor, their rec eption and public face is on the first floor. With bay
windows directly on the street. It’s a dream location.”
Ellis asked, “What about security and surveillance technology?”
“It looks like an Option Security system. The live stream from the security cameras goes to a storage drive. They
would ke ep the permanent backup drives in the building. That’s probably a selling point to bring in tenants. No one
wants to have their footage held by another company.”
“Don’t we have to worry about that backup footage stored in the building? They’ll be able to see our faces clearly.”
“Not necessarily. I’m the only one who needs to go in while the security cameras are still operating. It’s cold out, so
I’ll wear a cap and a scarf across my face. I’ll leave the briefcase with the bomb next to the interior wall of the
Virtual Spaces rec eption area.”
Pry needed to assert his intelligence as well. “How does leaving a bomb inside of an office destroy the backup for
the security footage?”
“Because I studied the schematics of this building, and the other side of that wall is exactly where I’d put the backup
for the security footage.”
Pry looked confused. “You looked at what?”
“The schematics. You know, the floor plans.”
“How’d you get them?”
“If you look through the building d epartment’s electronic files, there’s been enough work done to the first floor of
this building that I got a good view of the entire floor. The security offices are on the first floor and the narrow room
behind shares the wall with Virtual Spaces.”
Kimmy mumbled, “That’s really smart.”
Pry growled a little. Then he said, “It’s not that smart. What about the live feed? Wouldn’t someone see that?”
“Not if I give you a four-foot piece of rebar. As tall as you are, you should be able to knock their connection box off
the rear wall.”
Ellis said, “Not very high-tech.”
Owens shrugged. “That’s the problem with technology. It makes some easy tasks harder, but it’s also subject to
brute-force solutions.”
Pry complained, “I don’t even know where this box I’m supposed to knock out is.”
“I’ll point out exactly which one it is. It has Option Security’s logo
across the cover.” Owens didn’t like the way Pry cocked his head. Like a dog that didn’t understand where a noise
was coming from.
He told the others to wait and led Pry around the block and down the alley behind the building. Owens pointed at a
control box bolted into the wall about a dozen feet above the alley, with the Option Security logo painted across its
cover.
“You can reach that with a three- or four-foot stick or rod of some kind, right?”
“Easy. I’m tall.” He made a point to turn and look down on Owens, who was a good eight inches shorter.
Being alone with the big man made Owens nervous. Pry’s unpredictable nature and size were enough to scare
anyone.
“Your missing fingers won’t affect your grip, will they?” Owens asked.
Pry lifted his left hand in front of his face and flexed his thumb and two remaining fingers. “You know I blame you
for this.”
Owens swallowed hard but pushed back. “Hey, you’re the one who went poking around my workbench without
permission.”
“How was I supposed to know you had a blasting cap sitting in an old milk carton?”
“You guys came to me because you knew I had expertise with explosives. Isn’t that something you should have
assumed before you started going through my tools and supplies?”
Pry cut his eyes at Owens. “You think having a college degree makes anything you say sound smart. I don’t think
you make any sense at all. I don’t think you understand the world or people. I should probably sue you for what
happened to my hand.”
“And get what? I never really needed money for much until you guys made me move to the city.” When Pry didn’t
say anything, Owens continued: “Back to my original question. Can you grip firmly enough even with your missing
fingers?”
“I’ll knock the box into Jersey. Don’t you worry about it.”
Owens nodded, satisfied with the answer. Maybe he didn’t give this guy enough credit. Pry was spot-on when he
said Owens didn’t know much about the world. That was one of the reasons he preferred to live alone in the woods
if he could.
Owens pressed on. There were a number of doors that opened onto the
alley, so he explained his plan to Pry exactly.
“The next thing we need to worry about is timing. It looks like this alley is used quite a bit. There are a lot of ways
into it from this building or the building behind it. That means you don’t want to be hanging around. You’re going
to walk off the street, down this alley, knock that box off the wall, and walk straight on to the next block.”
“That sounds like an order.”
“No, just a plan about how to avoid being identified and arrested.”
They both looked up at the box. Owens had the feeling Pry was about to smack him.
Pry remained silent for a moment as he examined the box. Then he said, “I don’t know why everyone acts like
you’re in charge now. Being smart can only take you so far. Sometimes you need to show people how tough you
are.”
Owens thought fast. “That’s why we have you.”
That immediately had an effect on the giant man. He even nodded his head and smiled briefly.
“So you know what to do, right, Pry?” Owens said. “You can knock the box out of commission and not be seen?”
“One hundred percent.”
Owens didn’t believe that for a moment. But he hoped it would be hard to screw up this part of the job. They’d find
out soon enough.