The Soldier

Logan sat in a chair in his apartment with the lights out. He was breathing heavily, as if he were running away from something or in some kind of fight. Occasionally he would grunt and double over as if he were hit.

Suddenly his head jerked the right as if he had heard something and was trying to focus in on its location. There it was again, a buzzing sound he just couldn’t quite hear it.

The buzzing slowly became louder, and more insistent. Logan finally focused, stood up and pushed the button on the intercom from the main gate.

“Logan, it’s Caitlin. Can we talk for a moment?”

“Caitlin?” Logan was confused, still somewhat in dream he was having, then everything in his mind cleared. “Of course, Ms. Anderson. Yes, do come up.”

He pushed the button for the gate to open for Caitlin, then took stock of himself, noting that his shirt was covered in sweat. He unlocked the apartment door then went into his bedroom, stripping off the shirt as he walked. He carried a towel and a shirt, wiping off the sweat from his chest before tossing the towel into the bedroom and closing the door. Just as he was buttoning up the shirt, there was a knock on the door.

“It’s open, come in,” Logan said.

Caitlin walked into the apartment and looked around. Logan quickly walked to a wall and turned on the lights. Then he walked into the kitchen.

“Sherry?”

“No, thank you,” she said as she watched him in the kitchen, taking note of sweat that had returned to his back staining the shirt.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

“Right as rain, why do you ask?”

“Because you’re sweating like a race horse at the Ascot,” she said.

Logan smiled. “I’m fine, I just finished a bit of a workout is all.”

Logan poured himself a sherry. He was pretty sure she didn’t believe him at all.

“So, what brings you here? Just passing through the neighborhood?”

“I think I can get us in to America,” She said without preamble.

Logan was just raising a glass to his lips and he paused in mid sip. Since his back was towards her, Caitlin could not see the pleased expression that crossed his face. By the time Logan turned to her, it had returned to its usual neutral expression.

“Last time we talked you seemed pretty set against helping us on our, what did you call it? Oh yes, our little adventure. What changed your mind?”

“Let’s just say that after careful consideration, I’ve changed my mind, shall we?”

“I doubt it’s as simple as that,” Logan said as he sat down in his chair and motioned for Caitlin to do the same. “My take on you is that once you make up your mind, you don’t change it very often.”

“Normally, you are correct”

“So why now?”

Caitlin smiled. “It just did -- can’t we leave it at that?”

“For now, we can. So how do we get to America? We can’t just hop on a jet at Heathrow.”

“No, we can’t”

“Then how?”

“I’ve made a contact with the firm that handles the British end of the shipping contract with America,” She said.

“What good does that do us,” Logan said. “Those cargo ships are fully automated.

Caitlin gave him a “that’s what you think” look.

“Aren’t they?”

“Mostly,” she replied. “But they do carry a skeleton crew in case of malfunction. And You, Willie and David could easily pass as ship hands.

“What about you? “Logan asked.

“Still working on that one,” Caitlin said, “But there is one slight kink in the plan.

“That is?”

“My contact is demanding a 100,000 pound ‘bonus’ in order to make sure our paperwork is approved without too much scrutiny.”

It was all Logan could do to keep from spitting his sherry all over the counter.

“100,000? Is he daft?”

“It’s a very delicate operation,” Caitlin said.

“The truth is, I don’t have 100,000 pounds. I don’t think I could even lay my hands on 100.”

Logan rubbed his face with his hands, then leaned back and looked at Caitlin, trying to decide if he truly trusted her. He sighed deeply. If this was going to work, and she was going to be on the team he would have to trust her. But it had been so long since he was able to trust anyone other than Willie and David.

“Look, if you’re going to be in on this, there is something you really need to know,” He began.

He looked at her, struggling with a life-long compulsion to keep personal issues personal.

“Go on,” Caitlin said gently.

“The fact is, I’m spending nearly every quid I’ve got on medicine to keep me on an even keel. It helps me deal with, shall we say, leftovers from my last tour of duty with the SAS.”

“Why don’t you just go to one of the health service clinics?”

“I did, but because of funding cuts they no longer PTS.”

“PTS?” Caitlin asked.

“Post-Traumatic Stress disorder. Or more specifically in my case PTS-GIII. The specific variant for veterans from the Third Gulf War.

“It’s so damn frustrating. We would have been better off if Britain had just let that damn President Bush try to fix the mess left over by his brother and father all by himself.”

Caitlin sat very still, thinking. Ideas generally occurred to her quickly, part of what made such a good programmer, but this one shocked even her.

“Well, I have just might have a solution to both problems,” she said gently.

“What? Are you going to suggest we rob a bank or something?”

“Exactly something like that,” Caitlin said.

Logan looked at her, stunned that she would suggest such a thing. Then he smiled. He was truly beginning to like this girl.

The New Bank of Scotland and Wales came into existence near the end of the 21st century when the Euro Zone collapsed under its own weight.

This particular branch was in a small town in southern Wales. It had two advantages. It was not in a large city and it also was a processing station for a large amount of cash. In the major cities, most people used digital funds – paychecks were direct deposited into accounts that were accessed with debit cards.

But in the outlying areas, cash was still the favorite trade medium. And that cash had to be counted before it was shipped to the main NBSW headquarters in Edinburgh.

On this particular fall morning, Douglas McNamara arrived precisely at 8:30 a.m. to open the bank. He knew that his tellers would show up exactly 15 minutes later and the branch would open for business at 9 a.m. On the dot.

Douglas parked his bicycle in the side alley and chained it to a ring set in the concrete side of the building. Douglas earned the perk when he was promoted to branch manager three years ago after 10 years of loyal service.

After securing his bike, he turned and walked towards the door. He barely noticed the tall man in the overcoat walking towards the bank.

The bank manager walked up to the front door and keyed his code into the panel of the security alarm. He waited for the green light on the panel to come on, indicating that the system was disarmed and it was safe for him to enter the building. Only then did he take the separate bank key chain out of his pocket and open the door.

Just as he pushed the door open, Logan moved up behind him. The bank felt Logan’s arm on his and the pressure of metal at the small of his back.

“Do us both a favor, sir, and just walk nicely into the bank and I promise you that no one will be hurt,” Logan said. “Do as we ask and we will be out of her before your tellers arrive in 15 minutes.

“You can even call the police if you like. And you will have a wonderful story to tell your grandchildren of the day your bank was robbed.”

The bank manager nodded his agreement and walked inside, with Logan right behind him. As soon as the two were completely inside, David and Willie came around the corner and followed them in.

“OK, Caitlin, we’re inside, any indication of alarms?” Logan asked as he pressed one hand to his ear so he could hear Caitlin’s reply.

“Good, monitor both the police frequencies and scan for phone calls,” He said.

He paused as he listened to Caitlin. “Yes, dear, I know you know what you’re doing.”

Logan turned to McNamara. “Now, Mr. McNamara if you would be so kind as to open the vault.”

“And if I don’t,” McNamara said cautiously, “You said you wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

“The operative word, mate, was ‘if you cooperate,’,” Willie said in a low growl.

“Ah, so it was,” McNamara said. He looked at the three men then walked to the vault and began to enter the combination under the watchful eye of David, who was carrying two Glock .45 pistols.

“There you are,” He said as the vault opened up.

He looked at Logan.

“If you don’t mind my saying, you don’t look like the typical bank robber,” McNamara said.

Logan smiled.

“No, sir, I don’t mind, and if I had time, I’d tell you why I must resort to this tactic, but I don’t,” he said.

“And I apologize for this,” Logan said as he pulled a hypospray from his coat and injected McNamara in the neck. Logan caught the bank manager as went limp and eased him gently to the floor.

“Get moving,” he said to Willie and David.

Logan tied McNamara’s hands and feet while Willie and David stuffed banknotes into canvas bags. Logan checked his watch.

“Five minutes,” he said.

Less than two minutes later, the bags were full.

“We’re done,” David said.

“Wonderful,” Logan said. He touched a control on his belt. “Caitlin were ready, bring the van around front.

“Let’s go,” he said.

The three ran to the front door, pausing only to look outside to make sure that there was no one outside except for Caitlin sitting in the van. Seeing no one, Logan waved the other two ahead.

Before he ran to join the others he looked back at the open vault.

“I truly am sorry I had to resort to this,” Logan said, knowing full well the sleeping branch manager couldn’t hear him.

“Any pursuit?” Logan asked as they drove sedately down a winding, tree-covered street.

“Nothing so far,” Caitlin said. She was sitting in the back of the van, working at a computer and listening to a scanner.

“No, wait. An alert just went out on the police computer link, a silent alarm at the bank,” Caitlin said.

“But how?” Willie asked. He had deactivated the alarm and he didn’t get anywhere close to one of the teller windows to hit the silent alarm switch.”

Caitlin considered the options.

“It may have been a failsafe in the keypad,” Caitlin said. “A special code that opens the vault normally but also triggers the alarm.”

“Then why the delay? “David asked. “If it were tripped when the bloke keyed in the code, why wasn’t the place crawlin’ with police right away?

“I don’t know,” Caitlin said. “Maybe they have a delay in it in case someone uses the wrong code. It gives them time to wave off the police in case of a mistake.”

“Whatever the reason, can you pin down their location,” Logan said as he hit the gas.

“Working on it, I have to find out the ID codes of the cars that were assigned, and then plug them into the GPS tracker,” she said.

Willie and David looked at her with puzzled expressions. Caitlin looked back and smiled.

“We figure out which cars are chasing us and track them,” she said.

“Oh,” the pair said.

“Why didn’ you just say so,” David said.

“Damn.”

“What, Caitlin?”

Logan asked.

“We’ve got one on our tail,” she said, “Someone must have seen us pull away from the bank.”

“Dandy,” Logan said. “OK, hold on, things are going to get interesting.”

“I told you we needed to use more than one vehicle,” Willie said.

Logan just smiled.

The van was careening through the back roads of Southern Wales, easily exceeding local speed limits.

“Where is he?”

“About two kilometers back,” Caitlin said. “Must you drive so fast? You might attract the attention of some local cop who isn’t looking for us.”

“I doubt such a police officer exists,” Logan said. “And we need a bit of separation for the next step.”

“Next step?” Caitlin asked.

Logan tapped his forehead with his forefinger.

“Always have a plan B,” he said as he cut sharply to the right into the parking lot of a small grocery store and and brought the van to a screeching halt. He quickly jumped out and ran over to a camouflage tarp. He pulled the tarp back to reveal two BMW interceptor motorcycles – the fastest street bikes in England.

“Willie you and Caitlin take the van,” he said. “David and I will take the bikes and about half the cash.”

He grabbed the saddlebags from the bikes and ran to the van. With David’s help they managed to stuff the saddlebags with cash in under a minute.

“If I might ask,” Willie said, “What good will this do?

“If they get the van they’ve got half the cash and half the team.”

“Yes, but if they get us, we’ll have cash on us and hopefully we can convince them we’re the entire team,” Logan said.

Willie still looked dubious.

“And it’s the best ‘Plan B’ that I could come up with,” Logan said.

Logan quickly attached the saddle bag to the bike, climbed onto hit and hit the electric starter. The bike came to life with a reassuring, deep-throated roar. He revved the bike’s engine a few times as David brought his bike to life.

“We’re going to double back and try to get the police off your tail,” He said. “With any luck we will rendezvous at my place tomorrow night.

“Right,” Willie said.

He looked at Caitlin. “Well, señorita, let’s move out.”

Wille and Caitlin ran to the van. A moment later the van roared away with the squeal of tires.

Logan watched it for a moment, then put on his helmet and nodded at David.

“Let’s go,” he said.

The two bikes roared off back down the road in the direction of the approaching police cars. Logan found himself starting to enjoy himself. The high speed bike ride was somewhat exhilarating and for a moment he forgot his mental issues, the planned trip to America and the theft of the chip.

But only for a moment as he saw the police cars. He signaled to David and the two split in opposite directions so they passed on either side of the oncoming squad car.

After they passed the police car, Logan glanced back to see if the police at taken the bait. He was disappointed to see that they hadn’t and activated the two-way radio contained in his helmet.

“Caitlin, it’s Logan, they are not, repeat NOT following us. We’ll try and convince them to,” he said.

He signaled to David to turn around, which they both did.

The two motorcycles roared back in the direction of the police car, quickly catching up with it. Again the passed it on opposite sides, this time swerving and coming to a halt in front of the police, forcing them to stop.

They stood still for a moment, the two police officers staring at the two motorcycle-helmeted men. Logan then reached down into his saddlebag and grabbed a stack of bank notes. He then gunned the motorcycle and roared up next to the police car.

He stopped and tapped on the window. The police officer rolled the window down.

“Yes sir, how can we help you,” The officer said in a cross between a Scottish and Welsh accent.

“Excuse me, officers, is this what you are looking for?” he asked genially as he held the wad of cash just out of the officers reach.

The officer looked at the cash for a moment.

“Yes it is,” The officer said as he simultaneously reached for the door handle and his weapon.

“Well you can’t have it,” Logan said as he tossed the money to David. The two gunned the bikes and roared off.

The police officers spun the car around and took off in pursuit.

Well, at least they are chasing us and not the van, Logan thought.

Willie asked. “Do we still have a tail, or not?”

“No,” Caitlin said, “It appears that Logan and David have succeeded.

“They appear to be heading in the opposite direction, so I assume the police are chasing the two of them and we are in the clear.”

“Good,” Willie said.

“Good!” Caitlin was shocked. “They might be caught and then this will all be for naught.”

“As it would if we were caught, but they stand a better chance of avoiding the coppers on those bikes then we do in this van,” Willie said.

Caitlin was forced to acknowledge Willie’s logic.

“You’re right of course,” she said as she continued to track the police on the computer. “And so far it seems it’s the only car in the vicinity for the moment.

“But I would suggest we get undercover as soon as possible, I’m sure they will be calling in more officers soon enough,” she said.

“Agreed,” Willie said. “I know a place we can hole up for the night.”

“I think we should split up,” David said in Logan’s ear.

Logan glanced back. So far, it they still had only the one police car chasing them, so splitting up did seem to be the best course of action. Logan nodded and threw a salute at his friend.

“See you back at the apartment,” he said.

The two men were approaching an intersection. David went left while Logan went straight. He slowed the bike a bit to make sure the police saw and followed him and, hopefully, didn’t follow David. They cooperatively followed Logan’s lead and roared straight up the street, totally ignoring David who roared off into the night.

That’s all three of them safe, Logan thought.

He gunned the bike and headed out of town. As he passed another intersection he saw another police vehicle skid in behind him.

The traffic is getting a bit heavier, he thought as he tried to remember this part of town and come up with an escape route that he could make use of that the police couldn’t.

With his mind occupied with two trains of thought he didn’t see the teenagers step off into the street in front of him. He braked the bike and turned hard, trying to turn in behind the young people into the parking lot of the grocery store they were walking out of.

The tires bit into the pavement and the bike started to turn. Logan aimed for the entrance into the parking lot but didn’t quite make it, with rear wheel of the motorcycle catching the edge of the curb, sending Logan and the machine skidding into the parking lot. Logan and the bike slid most of the way through the lot, which fortunately was mostly empty, coming to a rest just shy of the exit onto another street. Logan quickly jumped up and wrestled the motorcycle upright.

He got on and hit the starter, which turned the engine over with no result.

“Damn,” he said. He could hear sirens approaching in the distance.

He tried again.

He looked in the direction of sirens and saw one of the police cars come screeching to a halt at the entrance to the parking lot. He pushed the starter button and got no response at all.

“Looks like I’ll have to do this the old fashioned way.”

Logan quickly flipped out the kick starter. He stood up on the lever and forced himself down. The engine spun but did not start.

He tried again with the same results. Then he bent down and fiddled with the engine, but didn’t see any problems.

“Come on, love, third time’s the charm,” he said.

He stood up and kicked down on the starter. The engine roared to life. Without any hesitation Logan shifted the bike into gear. He spun the bike around in a circle headed towards the approaching squad car. He gunned the bike causing the front wheel to pop up just as he made contact with the car. He raced the engine and the bike rode up the squad car and leaped from the top of it. The bike landed 100 meters behind the car and he stopped for a moment and turned to watch the police car slam into several parked vehicles. The two officers leapt from the car before it burst into flames.

Logan smiled tightly as he quickly gunned the bike to its maximum speed and took off into the night.

“Caitlin, Willie, David? Anyone out there?”

“Willie here, how are you?”

“I’m fine, but a little low on petrol,” Logan said. “Where are you?”

“Over the river and through the woods,” was the reply.

“Understood,” Logan said. “See you in a bit.”

Logan arranged the stack of bank notes on the table.

“156,399 pounds. Not bad,” he said.

“That gives us enough to pay off my contact and have a bit left over for operating expenses,” Caitlin said as she looked at the three men gathered around the table.

“The question is, do we have a clue what sort of equipment we will need?”

“No,” Logan said, “The question is, how much hardware can we legitimately take with us without tipping our hand once we are on board that ship?”

Caitlin nodded.

“The answer is, frankly, not very much,” she said. “The men and women who normally work these ships are not usually permitted to bring much more on board than a few changes of clothing.”

“Wait a minute, did you say ‘men and women’?”

“Yes,” Caitlin said, “As a matter of fact I did. As it turns out women’s groups have been protesting the shipping industry and have won some concessions which include having females on the ships.

“But given the economy these days, even working as a cook on a robot freighter to America is better than no job at all,” she said. “So that’s exactly what I will be doing on our way to America.”

“Yes,” Logan replied, “But can you cook?”

“Is the pope Catholic?”

Logan laughed and the others joined in. When the laughter died down, Logan got serious and looked around the table, fixing his gaze on each member of the team.

“You all must realize that each of you has past the proverbial point of no return on this little venture,” he said. “Because the police will now be looking for all of us. It is no longer just my posterior that is on the line here.

“Of course, I have no reason to believe they would suspect what the true nature of our endeavor is, unless of course one of you has told anyone, and I mean anyone else.”

He paused and was rewarded by a series of negative head shakes.

“Excellent. So Scotland Yard will only be looking for a team of bank robbers. But they will be looking, so it is in our best interests to be gone as quickly as we can possibly arrange it.

“So Caitlin, how soon can your contact get us on our way?”

“I’ll contact him tomorrow and see what can be arranged,” she said.

“Good,” Logan replied. “Now let’s divide up the cash and head back into town.

“There are two different bikes and a Montego in the stable out back. Caitlin and I will take the cruiser. Willie and David – you two are on the bikes.”

“Right, Logan,” Willie replied.

He and David picked up saddlebags with the cash and headed out the door.