* J *

Part Four: Chapter 15: Proceed

Jack's POV

I needed men. I needed men who would disregard the law. I needed a crew to help me pull off my foolproof plan. But I didn't know any guys except for Falcone's, and they were in Gotham. I didn't know anyone in Metropolis, not a single soul. But surely Metropolis had its fair share of criminals. What city didn't? But that's a good thing that they aren't from Gotham. That way they won't know what they're getting themselves into, and Falcone and Maroni won't know them, therefore they wouldn't be able to see them coming.

I knew that finding a crew would take a while probably. I needed numbers, at least two dozen for starters. The more hands I could get for fire power, the better. But I wouldn't get them without giving them enough cash to make it worth their while. I didn't have that kind of cash. But I had to find a way to come up with it. It wouldn't be easy, but I had an idea of how I could get my hands on a lot of quick cash. Of course, it wasn't legal, but what's it matter, I'm already a criminal.

So every day after work I passed by Metropolis First National Bank. I cased the place. I cased it on my days off as well. I knew that the bank manager, the only one with the combination to the safe, arrived for work at 9:00 am sharp. He opens the vault at precisely at 9:08 each day. The vault was on a timer. There were two security gaurds, Chester and Stan. They were only armed with tazers. They arrived each morning at 8:00 am when the banks doors opened for business. There were eight bank tellers, Sally, Joe, Linda, Katrina, Shelia, Adam, Donna, and Hope. They alternated between them for the half business day on Saturdays. Behind the counter is a number of silent alarm buttons.

Every afternoon after Jeannie and I eat I work on my plans. I plan an entire bank heist with one lone assailant. Me. The first thing I had to do was cut the silent alarm. That was the hardest part of the entire robbery. I study an entire month on how silent alarms worked. But I got the information from the library. I'm not stupid enough to do an internet search, that's a sure fire way to get yourself convicted of the crime.

After I figured out how to hopefully disarm the alarm I had to find where the wires were. I posed as a maintenance man one day because I overheard the bank manager calling for a leak in the roof. Of course I had to call the company back to cancel the appointment the bank manager had made. So I fixed the leak, temporarily anyway, and managed to find the wiring needed. The easiest access to the wires was on the roof.

The second task was crowd control. How could I keep my eye on that many people and storm a vault? The money in the registers would have one of those explosive dye packs in it. If one of those go off the money becomes completely useless. I couldn't have that. So the only way to avoid that is to handle the money myself and not do like you see on tv where the tellers are told to put the money in the bag. But what the hell was I going to do with the people in the bank? I needed them together, and away from those damn panic buttons.

Third, I needed weaponry. Enough to show everyone in the bank that I can easily take them all out. A big machine gun is too hard to conceal walking around outdoors. Two handguns means only a certain number of bullets, and everyone knows you're vulnerable if you have to stop to reload. Explosives would instill more fear, not to mention do a hell of a lot more damage than bullets. So I made a grenade bomb in our dining room.

And lastly, how do I get away with all that cash on foot? The best idea that I could come up with was changing the look of my appearance as soon as I leave the bank. I'd have to ditch my gun too. And the money in a duffel bag wouldn't do. I feel as though a backpack would blend into the city streets much easier.

After months of planning I decided to hit the bank on a Tuesday. Why Tuesday? Because a Saturday is no good because the bank manager doesn't work weekends. Therefore, the vault isn't opened on Saturdays. On a Monday there's far too many people in the bank conducting their banking needs. Wednesday's are no good because that's the day each week that an armored van takes the bulk of the cash to the main bank branch. Obviously, on a Thursday there isn't as much cash in the vault. Friday's are no good because that's payday for most, a lot of money is handed out and far less taken in. So that just leaves Tuesday's.