TCB Part 3: Chapter 1 (cont.)

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Here is the conclusion of Chapter 1. When we left off, Higgs had robbed the bank despite the carelessness of his safe cracker. He left all the money in the car with his team and told them to meet him at the rendezvous point.


Chapter 1: A Monday (cont.) 

Higgs ran the other way down the alley. The night was cold and dark. The sky was still overcast after an earlier rainstorm. The road glistened with the slick mix of rainwater and pollution, giving this alley the characteristic smell of the city’s underside. He spotted a manhole cover and popped it off, lowering himself into the underground rail tunnel below

He clicked his flashlight on and started running down the track. He knew these tunnels well. Some of them were modified from the original pre-war subway system. Most of the tunnels were now abandoned, but he feared that this may be one of the few modified to carry steamers. His fears were confirmed as he ran underneath one of the huge steam vents. How far was he from a station? He kept running.

He saw a light ahead and kept running toward it. After a few steps, he realized it was a headlight, not a station. He felt the low rumble in the ground as the massive train lumbered down the track toward him. He spun on his heels and ran back the way he’d come. He could hear the grinding of the steel wheels on the rails, the clicking of the behemoth rolling over the welded rail sections, getting closer and closer to him. He could never outrun this train.

He reached the steam vent again and grabbed onto the maintenance ladder. He started frantically climbing the shaft. He could hear the train moving closer to the shaft. He kept climbing while the pressure built up in the shaft as the mixture of smoke and steam began to push its way out of the tunnel into the vent. The sound was deafening.

The vent extended two stories above the street level behind the facade of a building so the city’s residents could pretend it wasn’t there. He felt the steam and smoke licking at his heels as he got close to the top. He reached a platform with a door. He threw a shoulder into the door and felt the latch give way as he stumbled into a maintenance closet. He slammed the door shut behind him and leaned against it as he felt the force of the scalding exhaust try to work its way into his sanctuary. A minute later, the steam and pressure was gone as fast as it had come.

Higgs found his way out of the maintenance building into the street. Was he in the clear? He hoped so. He was probably a mile from the bank now. He kept walking, the increasing distance providing more and more comfort with every step. He looked up and saw the half-moon just starting to shine through the thinning cloud cover. The remaining low clouds drifted between the corpses of skyscrapers abandoned decades ago with the rise of the Traditionalists. He wondered if they would all be torn down eventually. For now, they provided housing for those whom society had forgotten and others who hoped to be forgotten.

Suddenly, as he was passing an alley, he heard a voice from the shadows. “Thurmond Higgs.”

A shiver ran down Higgs’s spine. This was it. He was caught. He turned slowly to see who it was that called his name. He saw a figure in a dark hooded cape. He wore a mask over his face. It was the kind of mask the rich Vickies wore to keep them from having to breathe the smog of the filth-ridden inner city. The cape was made from rich black velvet, with a hood that sat low, hiding his face from view.

Higgs faced him, his heart racing, brow furrowed. “How do you know my name? Who are you?”

“I know a great many things about you, Thurmond Higgs. My identity is not important.”

“Great. Well, I’ll be on my way. Nice meeting you.”

Higgs turned to walk away when he heard the stranger’s voice again. “Why didn’t you get in the car with the others?”

He turned back to the stranger, “Look, buddy, I don’t know who you are, and I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I don’t care what you’ve done, Thurmond. Your secret is safe with me. I only ask because I wonder whether you actually trust your team so much.”

Higgs walked into the dark alley to get out of the view of the road. He got close enough to the stranger that he could smell his musky cologne wafting out from under the cape, no doubt intended to cover up the stench of the city. “No. I don’t trust them, which is precisely the reason I left the bag with them. They’ll never get away. And when they’re caught, if the police don’t find every last missing coin, they’ll keep looking for me.”

“Aren’t you worried they’ll give you away?”

“The police won’t care, as long as they get all the money back. Besides, those sods don’t know who I am. Which begs the question, how do you know my name anyway?”

“I have great interest in your career.”

Higgs laughed. “Ha! Some career, slinking around alleyways after a fruitless bank job.”

“I would like to ask you to do something for me.”

Higgs crossed his arms and stared at the stranger.

“There is a train.” The stranger continued. “I’d like you to rob it. Can you do that?”

“Maybe. Trains are hard, considering that they’re moving. I’d need quite a team, and the kind of people I’d need don’t come cheap.”

“You can hire any team you like. I will finance it all, money is not an object.”

“Ok... Let’s say I do this job. What’s on the train, and what’s in it for me?”

The stranger reached a gloved hand out from under the cape and handed Higgs a small pad of paper. “This is the freight manifest and timetable. There will be an armored car on this train carrying a great number of things of value. The value on this train will make your little bank job look like a pittance.”

Higgs leafed through the pamphlet in the moonlight: jewels, gold, and a lot of pre-war items that were hard to come by since the abolition of electricity. It was a huge take, if they could manage to get all this stuff off the train. It wouldn’t be easy. But surely, his share of the take would be worth it.

“You know, I never thought Vickies--sorry Traditionalists--like yourself would need to steal. But I’m not one to ask questions. So how much of this will I keep?”

“All of it.”

Higgs looked at the stranger with disbelief. “You’ve gotta be kidding, right?”

“Not at all. You are free to divide the valuables between your team however you like. I ask only that you bring me a certain book that is on the train.”

“Sounds too good to be true. What are you, a cop or something? Am I being set up?”

“This is not a setup, Thurmond. The information in that book is more valuable to me than all the money in the world. If you bring me that book, and don’t ask questions, you will have anything else you choose to take from the train. You can take or leave this offer; I will not force you to do it. But I assure you that the offer is genuine.”

“How do I get in contact with you? I’ll need some things, money mostly.”

The stranger handed him a bag of gold coins. “That will be enough to get you started. If you want to meet with me, put a red flag in your apartment window. I will find you in due time. You will not regret this, Higgs.”

The stranger turned and walked quickly down the alley, disappearing around a corner. A police whistle could be heard in the general direction of the bank. Higgs grinned and put the pouch in his pocket. During the long walk home, he couldn’t stop thinking about the perfect team he could put together. That stranger was right about one thing, this would be life changing.

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