Authors: Elisa Ludwig
Twenty-Seven
ALICE
He'd figured it
out. I don't know how. I don't know when. But he'd figured it out, and here he was standing right in front of us.
Dakota covered her mouth like she was holding in a scream. That was more than I could do.
Rankin was all spruced up, but he still had his usual glasses on and he was holding his keys, like he'd rushed up here so fast he hadn't taken the time to put them in his pocket. “Okay, stop whatever you're doing. Stop right now.”
“What are you doing here?” I whispered. I felt like I was going to pass out. This was worse than anything else we could have imagined. Our teacher? Was here? We were doomed.
“I followed you bozos. I was at the prom with these two”âhe gestured toward Dakota and Jasonâ“and I saw them freaking out, whispering in the corner before they dashed out. I knew there must have been some reason you guys have been hanging out all the time.”
Then he held up a phone.
Dakota slapped at the pockets of her jacket, a look of horror on her face, and we understood. Oh man.
“The last text from Benny was all I needed. Thanks for leaving that door open, by the way.”
“Slick,” Jason said, because it was. We had to give him props.
Rankin ignored him. “I came to keep you from doing something you'll regret, something that could ruin your lives forever.”
“Just hold on a minute,” Benny said, and we looked at him in shock.
He
was going to talk back to Rankin? “Mr. Rankin, thanks for looking out for us. But we're already into this, way too deep. The thing you didn't CSI out here is that we're actually trying to
stop
this thing from happening.”
“How's that?” he asked, his eyebrows joining together in one big confused line.
“We were originally gonna take the coins and sell them, try and save HF, but then we decided not to go ahead with it. But we realized that we had made a mistake.” He shot a tiny glance in my direction. Saying “we” was generous, and I was grateful he had my back. “There was no stopping it, so we had to come back in here tonight and fix the problem, sneak the coins out so that no one would find out. Lecture us about right and wrong all you want, but the bottom line is we've got thousands of coins in these cases and we have to get out of here. Like
now
. The guards will be coming through any minute. And if they catch us, they won't exactly care that we were trying to call it off. We'd go to jail anyway.”
“Are you going to bust us?” Dakota asked, pulling nervously at the neckline of her shiny blue dress.
“He can't,” Benny said, breaking it down. “See, now, if something went wrong and we got in trouble, you could be placed at the scene of the crime, Mr. Rankin. An accessory.”
Rankin's eyes darted from one of us to the other, and I could see him thinking it all through. “I'll just tell them the truth.”
“But you knew about this for how long and you didn't call the police? They're going to think you were in on it, or shaking us down. A teacher who teaches a bunch of rich kids? They'll think you were jealous of us.”
“Benny, are you threatening me?” His face was red.
“No! I'm not. For real, I'm not. But you've kind of put us in a position here. And we don't have time to debate. They're coming! Come on, Mr. Rankin. You have to help us get this stuff out. We have a good coverâwe have ID cardsâwe can do this if we move
right now
.”
“Goddamn it,” Rankin said, clenching his fists as he realized Benny was right. “Understand I'm not letting you guys off the hook. There will be consequences for you. I need the access card you've used. I need to leave with that.”
“Here,” I said, shoving it into his hand. “Now what's the plan? We have seven and a half minutes.”
Rankin took it and slipped it into his suit pocket. “We take the cases, and we all go back to prom like nothing happened, okay? And then we're going to deal with this, all of it.”
“Okay,” I said. The others nodded, too.
Rankin pointed to Jason and Dakota. “You two better get back there with the band before anyone else gets suspicious. Take the fire stairs out, get into your limo, and we'll meet you there when we can.”
“Are you sure?” Jason asked. That was a joke. All of a sudden he was a new person, caring about the rest of us? I doubted it.
“You guys should go,” Benny said. “The three of us can handle it.”
Jason looked at me. My stomach fluttered. Maybe he actually did care. I softened and gave him a quick nod. Still, there was a question in his eyes.
“Go,” I said, finally, looking at Dakota now.
Her face broke into a slow smile. Not the usual forced Dakota smile, but more surprised, off-guard and genuine.
Jason tried to slap his palm against Rankin's in a handshake. “Thanks, man. We really appreciate it.”
Rankin left him hanging. “I'm not doing you a favor, Hodges. I'm not doing any of you a favor, you got that? You take advantage of me here, and I'm taking you straight to the police.”
Jason and Dakota made for the door, leaving the way they had come in. Two down.
Rankin pushed the amp case again. “I can't fit both of you and this stuff in my Honda, though.”
“That's okay,” I said. “We have our own means of transport.”
“You planned this pretty well, huh?” Rankin asked.
“Not well enough,” I said.
I checked my phone.
17:39: Still in the frigging Mint.
With the others gone, the three of us worked in silence. We got down on the floor and scooped up the last few dozen coins, dropping them into the second case, them slamming the lid closed.
The cases were unmarked, so there was a chance we could pass them off as HVAC equipment if anyone asked. I prayed no one would. But with their built-in wheels, we could easily move them out, a weight that would have been way too heavy to carry on our own. All we had to do was wheel them downstairs.
The only problem? Stairs.
“Is there a ramp somewhere?” Rankin asked.
“There must be,” I said. “It's a federal building, so they have to be handicapped-accessible by law.”
Benny sighed. “It's on the other end of the building, the Arch Street side. I had that on the model.”
Which meant we had to wheel the cases all the way across the production floor, through the medal-making area, basically the entire length of the building, which was going to take a lot longer. Then when we got down to the boiler level, we'd have to wheel them all the way back to the Race side elevator to get down to the garage. I estimated the whole operation would take at least five minutes.
“Guards are coming through in two minutes,” I reminded them. “Also, my security feeds are going to start looping.” If anyone was watching closely, they might start to notice that “Benny and I” had barely moved. As soon as we got ready to leave, I'd shut them down and switch back to the live feed, but if I didn't switch it over soon, the guards would probably get suspicious.
“Go time,” Rankin said.
We decided that Rankin would take the fire exit out and we'd meet him back at the prom. We exchanged phone numbers just in case we got separated.
We had no time to debate the merits of this plan. We just had to go. No questions asked.
“See you,” Rankin whispered. “This is the last time I'm letting you out of my sight tonight. Don't even think of not showing up there, because then I
will
call the cops.”
17:44: Get the hell out!
Benny and I took off with the loot, moving as quickly as we could. We'd just about gotten past the medal area to the ramp when I felt Benny's hand close tightly around my arm. We paused and I could hear a ding behind us, followed by the worst sound I've ever heard: an elevator door sliding open.
A guard! We must have been slower than I thought. He was heading out of the elevator, straight for Rankin. Rankin would be intercepted on the way to the fire stairs.
Ohgod ohgod ohgod ohgod.
We were dead.
We paused at the end of the hallway, partially hidden in shadow, no idea what to do next. We were done. Totally screwed. Then I remembered the “refuge” area Dakota had pointed out next to the elevator, a dark little room. Benny and I inched our way into it, rolling the cases ever so slowly, not even daring to breathe.
By now, Rankin had to be face-to-face with the guy. Not that it mattered who the guard saw first, because even if Rankin had somehow found a way to hide, the guard would see us eventually. We waited, transfixed, because there was no way we could move. Not a muscle. I felt everything inside me knotting up.
“Oh my goodness!” I heard Rankin exclaim. “No need for a gun!”
Holy crap. The guard had pulled a gun? My heart was thundering, louder than the coin presses. All of the adrenaline my body could produce was spinning through my circulatory system. I finally understood what an actual heart attack might feel like.
“What are you doing here?” the guardâwas it Tony? Glen? Had to be Glen if he was following the scheduleâbarked. “Are you authorized to be in the building, sir?” This was it. He was caught. And he was obviously going to sell us out. We were done. Through. Finished.
“Oh no. Oh no. This is very embarrassing. Oh, please don't shoot me,” Rankin said.
“What are you doing here?” Glen the guard repeated, nastier this time.
Rankin started talking very quickly. “Do you know Brad, the production manager? He's my cousin. His wife just went into labor six weeks early and he realized he didn't have his wallet. He thought he must have left it here at work, and it has his insurance card and everything else. He gave me his ID to come pick it up, and I said I would do it right away, because at a time like this, you really don't want to be worried about anything.”
None of these guys knew Garcia. They were only here on the weekend. Shit, what if he didn't believe Rankin's story?
“He did, huh?” The guard asked, taking a look at the card Rankin handed him. “And he thought you could get in on a Saturday night? How'd you get in here, anyway?”
“He said it might be tough but to try the staff entrance.”
Where was he pulling this story from? I couldn't believe what a great liar he was. He was even selling me with it.
“Let me see this ID,” the guard said.
My heart stopped again. Benny had made a solid reproductionâhe hadn't lied, he was good at this stuff. But still, if you looked closely, you would know it wasn't perfect.
Please don't look closely . . . please don't look closely . . .
A staticky voice came through on the guard's radio, and I heard him murmur something into it, like
Be there in a minute
. “You do realize this building is tightly controlled for a reason.”
Heart. Exploding.
“Yes. Oh my gosh. I never meant to get anyone into trouble. He said I should just tell the guards Garcia said it was okay. Is this okay?”
Glen the guard sighed, staring at Rankin. I guess he had an honest face, because Glen said, “Not really, but where do you need to go?”
“His office. If you could show me the way, I'd be grateful.”
“It's right this way,” the guard said. “You're not allowed to walk around unescorted. Your cousin should know that. I'll show you.”
“Excellent,” I heard Rankin say, and his voice disappeared.
We had no idea what was happening. But we had to move.
When we heard a door click, Benny and I leapt to our feet and rolled the cases out of the refuge and a few feet farther down the hall to where the ramp wasâjust as Benny said it would be. As we went down, I could feel the case gaining momentum, all that weight. I felt the burden of this job, of everything we'd gone through to get here, literally pulling me down, and I had to move faster and faster to keep up with it. Soon I was practically running, and so was Benny.
Please let us get out of here okay
! I was flying now, my feet barely touching the ground, and the air rushed around me and I felt dizzy and nauseous with fear. I cursed Jason as I went. Why had I let it come to this? Why had I gone along with him in the first place? Stupid stupid hormones. And now he was using me againâone cute smile and I was doing his dirty work while he was at the freaking prom. I couldn't wait for this all to be over so I never had to talk to him again.
And then I felt the cart steady and slow down. Benny's hands reaching out to steady me.
“We made it,” he whispered.
I looked up, startled, my vision slowly clearing. We were on the garage level. But where the hell was Rankin?
We rolled the cases back down the hallway. The guard who'd checked us in nodded in our direction. “Done for the night?”
Oh yeah
. I let Benny do the talking, as he gave the guy our Hansen ID. “We're taking some of these parts with us for repair in the shop.”
I prayed he wouldn't remember that we hadn't brought these cases in when we had first arrived. The guy nodded nonchalantly and turned back to his computer screen.
And then? We were through the door and standing in front of our van. We opened the doors in the back, pulled down the loading ramp, and slid the amp cases up and in. We scrambled into the front seat, and Benny drove up and out of the garage.
“Thanks,” Benny said into the voicebox. “See you next week.”
17:52: Leave the Mint premises.
The security gate lifted and we were out of there. We were free. We'd done it.
We drove around the block. No sign of Rankin. I looked at Benny. He raised his eyebrows. “We have to keep moving, Alice.”
“What if he's stuck?”
“He said to meet at the prom.”
“I'm going to text him.” I got out my phone.