The Ghostbird Job

24 - The Bank Shot Job Part 1

Sang was sweating. The heat was so unforgivable that air conditioning inside the bank couldn't keep up. She walked across the lobby crossing in front of Nate and their target Judge Roy. Ignoring the feeling of the corrupted judge's eyes on her, she made her way to where Sophie sat at her desk. They had both gotten positions at the bank for this particular job. Over the comms, Sang was able to hear as the bank manager, Frank, approached them.

"Can I help you, your honor?" Frank asked.

"Yes, Fred," Judge Roy said. "Her phone number?" He motioned to another young girl that worked at the bank.

"It's Frank, and she's 19, sir," Frank replied looking as disgusted as Sang felt.

"That's too bad," Judge Roy replied. "She got a younger sister?" Sang gagged internally at that. This man couldn't get more despicable.

"Go get'em, Tiger," Sophie muttered into the comms. They were so close. It was all down to Nate finishing the deal now. They watched as Frank handed the Judge a briefcase. They knew it would be full of money.

"If there's anything else you need-," Frank started but the Judge cut him off.

"We'll call your boss. Now get the hell out of my face," Judge Roy snapped. Once Frank walked away, he turned to Nate. "Trick to a one-horse town? Being the horse." The walked over to a table in the lobby of the bank. Nate opened the briefcase whistling lowly.

"That's a little more than we discussed," Nate told him.

"I trust it won't be a problem."

"No, it's no problem," Nate assured him his fake southern accent thick. "Just more money, more risk for me. I'm going to have to adjust my fee. I'm thinkin' 20%."

"15, and I won't have you arrested for extortion."

"Ah, well, you know what they say. Launderin's a dirty business," Nate replied. While Sang tried to pay attention to the Judge and Nate, another conversation was also going on over the comms.

"No, no more. We gotta talk to Nate. No more rip deals," Hardison complained over the comms. "They take too damn long."

"That's why they're called 'Rip Deals'. You have to convince them they're getting a deal," Parker replied. They were stationed in a van across the street from the bank.

"Two weeks, two weeks sleeping in crappy hotels. Two weeks eating in crappy diners. Two weeks of having my soul sucked dry. It's 107 degrees. Who lives where it's 107 degreees?" Sang had to agree with him partially. The heat wasn't her favorite but everything else she liked. It's been two weeks of just them hanging out together, spending time together without the normal distractions.

Over the past few weeks, since they wrapped up the Genogrow job and moved onto this one, Sang had received several messages from Corey, Brandon, and surprisingly Raven. He didn't like to message. He mentioned something about the buttons being to small for his fingers. It made it an even nicer gesture that he would do it to talk to her. She had enjoyed messaging the others frequently though. They talked about various things, hobbies, the current jobs they were on, pretty much anything and everything. Sang actually felt like she had friends which was new and exciting.

"It's not so bad. I kinda like this town," Parker told him.

"You know, I had to retask two satellites just to get a lousy internet connection," Hardison kept on complaining. "Took more than an hour to torrent the last episode of Doctor Who." Sang had to hold back the laugh that wanted to escape.

"Hey!" Parker exclaimed. "Illegal downloading is wrong." That didn't help Sang with her laughter problem. Parker had some odd boundaries. It was also nearly impossible to tell when she was joking or not.