I woke up on my bed where Wonder Woman had been considerate enough to dump me. Twenty-fours hours had passed since I last saw day light. I just enjoyed being in love with Wonder Woman. Then the drugs wore off and I was Max Eisenhiem again, a professional thief trying to get away with millions in loot, evading the Feds, sending two of my partners to jail and convincing the third that she should cohabit with me and my crime fighter girlfriend, who wants to put us all behind bars.
I had a headache.
We convened at Sylvia’s place later that day. Chikara and Koi had successfully compromised the rail road’s operational and security programs, creating a fictional employee with access to the entire system. According to Sylvia’s boyfriend in the Treasury Department, the money train will pass through town on the way to the incinerator station in two days. Our plans were set.
“You seem worried?” Koi asked me as we lay in bed that night.
“Nah…I always get a little tense before a really big heist,” I replied.
“Really? Criminal activity makes me horny,” Koi confided. “I love this expectation and the rush that follows.”
Koi was right about that, we were spending even more time in bed. “Have you thought about a new career after this score, Koi?”
“Why? Chikara and I have a great business,” Koi smiled. “She’s the only family I have left…except you, Max!” Koi gave me a warm kiss.
“Koi, sweetheart, things can change,” I whispered in her ear. “You should be flexible about where life takes you.”
“I am!”
“That’s good to hear,” I said. “By the way, where did Sylvia get the containers we’re going to put the cash boxes in to move them off the train?”
“The number’s on my cell phone.”
“Good.” I said.
The next day Monica texted me, asking me to come over. I told Koi and the others I needed time alone before a big job. I was worried about Monica’s attitude. Wonder Woman may have convinced her to work with me to close the case, but she might hate me. I ran a few errands and then went to Monica, hoping for the best.
“I had a talk with Diana, Max,” Monica told me. She seemed distant, sitting with her arms folded, her face largely expressionless. “She sees a lot of merit in you…somehow!”
“Yeah, imagine that,” I answered, trying to lighten things. The effort failed. “Look, I’m going to level with you Monica, I’m in love with you and I’m in love with Koi. I’m sorry, that’s how I feel. I think that if she joined in our crime fighting efforts, she’d be a great help.”
Monica still looked at me blankly. “She’d join the two people responsible for putting her big sister in jail?”
“She doesn’t know the extant of her sister’s activities, the people Chikara has worked for and what they do. If we can turn her around now, we, the both of us, could save Koi from a life of crime!”
If I could sell Monica on Koi, that line of crap was my best approach. For a moment, Monica looked at me blankly. “Diana seems to be of the same opinion.”
Holy shit!!! Jackpot!! “She thinks all three of us would work well as a team and that we could save Koi from a ruined life.”
“And what do you think, Monica sweetheart?”
“When your heist goes down, Max, I’m going to be there!”
“Yeah… that’s vague, Monica, maybe you could clari….”
Monica lurched across the table and grabbed my shirt collar. “Max, I’ve been fucking in love with you since our first encounter! But I’m not going to partner with a little tramp you’re soft on just because you like you’re women in the variety pack!”
Monica had the same fire in her eyes as she did that time at the restaurant. Enough was enough, I figured. I got in Monica’s face. “Listen to me, Monica or Avenger Girl or whoever you are, foiling this heist, which I’m handing you, is going to make you major league! Maybe the price of a third partner is worth paying or maybe this job might suddenly get called off!”
Monica’s face pinched angrily and she slugged me. I landed on my back seeing stars but still conscious. As I staggered to my feet, shaking my head to clear it, Monica had her fists raised in fight stance. Swiftly, I grabbed her right arm and yanked Monica toward me. I shoved away her left as it came toward me, stepped in and kissed her. Monica fought me, stomping on my feet and punching my shoulders with her fists.
Then Monica inhaled loudly and I felt her sag into my arms. I began pressing her backwards, our feet dancing toward her bedroom. My hands reached up her blouse. Monica was undoing my jeans.
I was gone before Monica woke to get ready for her teaching job. I left a detailed version of our heist plans, with all the times of each phase of the plan ahead ten minutes. Looking at Monica serenely asleep, I wondered why I couldn’t have two women. Then I asked myself for the first time since I executed my first shop lifting if a thief’s life was worth it.
The four car train came to a sudden halt directly in front of us. Three hundred yards behind us in a truck, in the dark field, Chikara’s manipulation of the railroad’s electric power system was working smoothly. Through my night vision glasses, I saw Sylvia and Koi perched just ahead of me on the crest next to the train. Sylvia raised her right arm and brought it down in a sudden slashing motion. Seconds later, the last two cars of the train uncoupled and rapidly rolled away from the engine and the main car, which held the old bills. Sylvia’s hand went up a second time and the three of us darted for the train.
Sylvia disappeared around the engine, while Koi and I scaled the money car.
“How many inside?” I whispered into my bluetooth.
“Intel said five guards, all armed,” Koi’s voiced buzzed clearly in my ear.
“Ready?” I asked.
“Ready!” Koi replied.
I quickly rigged the wires of lock scrambler to the car’s cargo door lock and hit the button for the energy pulse. Koi and I had made it to the top of the car as a small explosion shorted the lock mechanism and the door rolled open. A few seconds of silence were followed by muted shouts from inside the money car. “I counted four voices!” I said.
“Ditto!” Koi responded in my ear. I attached the lock scrambler to the hatch on top of the car and quickly opened the lock. Drawing our tranq guns, Koi and I flung up the lid. Inside the car, one security guard was sprawled on the floor, flattened by the explosion. The other four were leveling their weapons at the open cargo entrance, waiting for an assault. Rapidly, we took out the guards, hitting them with darts from above. One of them got off a shot before falling unconscious with the others. Koi and I jumped inside.
Removing the keys from the sleeping guards’ belts, Koi and I identified the keys for the money box storage locks. T he stacks of strong boxes were behind bars secured by two sets of three locks, that had to be opened by guards standing on both sides of the bars. In unison, Koi and I opened the locks and the bars rolled away.
“Pull it up, Chikara,” I said into my bluetooth.
“On my way!”
As Chikara drove toward the rail car, Koi and I removed the guards from the car and left them a few yards away from the cars, bound and gagged. We were joined seconds later by Sylvia, bearing the equally sedated engineer.
Back inside the car, the three of us began unloading the cash boxes in a human chain as Chikara backed the truck to the entrance. Koi flipped off the lid of the first large barrel labeled “TOXIC” in bold black letters and began filling it with the strong boxes. “How’s the masking holding up on the train?” I asked Chikara.
“Fine!” buzzed eagerly in my ear. “Security monitors still think the train is headed for its destination.”
“How long before it’s supposed to arrive?”
“Ten minu….ohhhh!!”
Then the line was dead. I signaled Koi and Sylvia to stop and pointed to the truck. I drew my pistol and silently darted out, moving along the driver’s side of the vehicle. The door was standing open and Chikara was slumped against the wheel, out cold. Blinking on the screen of the laptop was “Program aborted.”
“Fuck!!” I growled and ran to the money car.
Koi was lying on the ground dazed. Avenger Girl and Sylvia were brawling and Sylvia looked like she was losing. I got Koi to her feet. “Keep unloading the money!” I ordered and then I grabbed Avenger Girl off of Sylvia, who dropped exhausted to the floor.
“Hi Max!” Avenger Girl laughed and her fist exploded against my jaw. “Come here, shorty, we have unfinished business!” I heard Avenger Girl sneer as I lay on the floor.
“When you’re ready, ikeike!” Koi hissed in response. I saw her swing a cash box at Avenger Girl’s head.
BAP!!!
Avenger Girl staggered backward, nearly tripping over me.
Then a gunshot froze the room.
Looking up, I saw the bruised Chikara standing in the truck bed, her automatic still leveled at the spot where Avenger Girl was standing. Monica was spread eagle on the floor, unconscious, blood oozing from her shoulder. Chikara bounded forward, aiming the gun to finish Avenger Girl.
I caught Chikara hard with my elbow, sending her down effortlessly. “Are we nearly finished?” I demanded.
Sylvia and Koi loaded up the last of the strong boxes as I looked over Avenger Girl. Her pulse was strong, but the bullet had gone out her back. Blood was covering the floor.
“How did that bitch know your name, Max?” Sylvia demanded.
“Why didn’t you let Chikara finish her?” Koi added, loading in the last strong box.
“I don’t know how!” I yelled. “And we do this without killing; I thought we all agreed on this! Let’s go, the feds will be here in seconds!”
With the heel of my foot, I triggered the emergency transponder on Avenger Girl’s utility belt.
I leapt in the back of the truck with Koi as Chikara and Sylvia climbed in front. We speed off.
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