TOM OWENS PURPOSELY sat at the far end of the couch, hoping the only person to sit next to him would be
Kimmy. Ellis Warrenton had called this meeting. Owens knew it had to do with their argument the night before
about what sort of target they were going to hit next.
Ellis stood in the area between the kitchen and the living room. It didn’t look like he intended to sit down. It would
be bad for his image. He had to lead. At least that was Owens’s impression. Ellis was dressed in a cotton
button-down shirt and a pair of jeans. He always looked put together but comfortable, no matter the situation.
Kimmy grabbed a small bottle of orange juice and shuffled into the living room, flopping down on the couch next to
Owens, which made him sigh with relief.
Then the front door opened and Pry’s familiar, heavy footfalls came down the entryway. When he appeared around
the corner, Owens had to do a double take. Pry looked terrible. His hair was a shambles. His eyes were bloodshot
and bleary. His jacket had a giant stain that looked fresh. He stank of cigar smoke. And he wore the leather gloves
Owens had noticed he tended to favor, especially on his hand with the missing fingers. Pry walked immediately to
the couch and sat down next to Kimmy, casually throwing an arm across her shoulders.
Ellis looked at Pry and said, “Rough night, brother?”
Pry’s voice was hoarse. “Usual. Little colder than I expected. The space heater worked overtime in my storage
unit.”
“Why didn’t you sle ep here?”
Pry cut his eyes to Kimmy and then Owens. “I wasn’t sure how welcome I was here. Besides, after partying in the
city, it’s easier just to go
to my apartment.” He’d made finger quotes when he’d said “apartment.”
Ellis paced from one side of the room to the other in front of the couch, making sure he had everyone’s attention.
Then he looked at Owens and said, “I apologize if I got heated last night. I’ve been in this fight a long time. I get
very passionate.”
Owens didn’t say anything. He had started to notice little details about their presumptive leader he’d overlooked
before. Had he fallen for an illusion? The fact that Ellis’s hands looked like they’d never held a tool made Owens
realize how little this guy had actually done in life. His hair may have been perfect, but Owens wondered about the
time it took to make it look so good. Was Ellis smart enough to have tricked Owens into joining their group?
As he was mulling this over, Owens heard Ellis say, “Tom has an excellent target for us to focus on: the Con Edison
plant that supplies power to Manhattan as well as other parts of the city.”
Owens was shocked. Ellis had come over to his side of their argument?
Maybe communication wasn’t such a bad thing. He’d have to try it more often.
But Ellis wasn’t finished. “Before we can tackle a target that big, we need some cash. We’ve got this house for a
little while longer, thanks to Tom’s magic on the computer. But we might need to actually rent a place soon.”
Pry said, “I can get behind the idea of some cash. You can’t party in Manhattan unless you’ve got spending money.
A lot of it. Do you have something in mind?”
Ellis’s smile said he’d been planning this for a while. “I do. It’s a little community bank up in Westchester, in a nice
plaza next to a dry cleaner’s.
Learning from what Tom did with the backup security videos at Virtual Spaces, I was thinking we could blow
through the wall of the dry cleaner’s and possibly end up in the bank’s vault.” Ellis looked very satisfied with
himself. He turned to Owens and said, “What do you think of that plan, Tom?”
Owens did some quick calculations. “It could work, d epending on the vault. In all likelihood, the vault is
self-contained and against one of the interior walls. The right device could easily break down the wall but may not
penetrate the vault itself. I’d need to—”
Ellis held up his hand. “We’ll take this one st ep at a time. Can you make a device that we can detonate remotely? If
we could use it for this job, we could move toward your Con Edison job that much faster.”
Owens said, “I still don’t understand how hitting a bank draws attention or makes a statement.”
“I just said that the reason we’d be doing it would be in order to fund future projects.”
Pry added, “And gives us a few party nights out.” Then he fell into a coughing fit that sounded like it could be fatal.
At least Owens hoped so.
Kimmy slapped Pry on the back as he leaned down and coughed into his hands.
Owens said, “I don’t know.”
Pry recovered quickly. He turned to glare at Owens. “All you need to know is how to build a goddamn bomb. You
don’t need everyone’s motivation. You feel me, little man?”
Owens was used to insults from this big blowhard. What he didn’t like was the way Ellis smiled at Pry’s threat.
Now he really started to worry that he’d made a mistake by joining these guys. When Kimmy rubbed his arm
reassuringly, he realized why he stayed. But the frustration he felt was getting worse every day.
Almost every time Ellis and Pry opened their mouths.