Free Barracuda 945 by Patrick Robinson Page B

Road.
    “At around 1530, would you believe, a bloody riot breaks out over a car accident. It quickly escalates and before anyone knows it there are twenty police cars and the IDF moving in to try and stop it. Right now we’re talking gas bombs, Molotovs, and Christ knows what.
    “By 1800, it’s over. But it’s not until Monday morning they discover that sometime during the weekend, a gang hit the bank and got away with all the dollar bills, mostly old, all unmarked. Streuth! That caused a major investigation.
    “And the upshot of that was as follows.” Ramshawe read from handwritten notes:
The gang got in through the roof, blowing off the lock to the fire stairs.
They knew where the alarm system was located, and they silenced it with a burst from an MP5 submachine gun. Put the bastard right out of action.
They knew where to find the strong room, which houses the vault. They located the security system, which was not timed, dismantled it, then blew the vault open and took all the bread. Conclusion: an inside job.
They got away off the roof, because none of the doors or windows anywhere in the building had been opened.
A large military-type helicopter, probably a Sikorsky, and probably unmarked, was seen by several onlookers, taking off from the roof in the middle of the bloody riot, and everyone assumed it was to do with the bloody riot. But it wasn’t. And it was five days before anyone realized that.
    “I think anyone would agree, there’s distinct overtones of a brilliantly planned heist. Military in its nature. Almost.”
    “Where’d you get all this stuff, Lieutenant?” asked George Morris.
    “Well, some of it was reported in the Israeli press. But I filled in a lot of details from a guy at Shin Bet. We got a pretty good quid pro quo with them.
    “But you know, Admiral, it was never a big story, and I think the reason for that was because the bank never let on how much cash was stolen. They played it all down, because, of course, the bills were going to be destroyed anyway. You could argue that technically the bank lost no money. But bloody oath! The cash would be real handy for a bloke who wanted to do some heavy spending.”
    “Sure would,” mused the Admiral. “Any take on how much cash was actually removed?”
    “Not accurately. The police announced the sum stolen may have been six figures. Which sounds like not much for a bank robbery. But our guy in Shin Bet thinks it could have been $50 million, in used dollar bills.”
    “Jesus,” said Scotty.
    “Anyway, that story appeared in the Jerusalem Post on Tuesday morning, 28 December; small, inside page, six paragraphs, no photograph of the bank. No mention of $50 million, or of the helicopter. I also thought it was significant that the pro-Palestinian Jerusalem Times never did carry the story…and that brings us to robbery number two, which took place in Tel Aviv, thirty-eight miles away along the Sorek Valley.”
    Lieutenant Ramshawe changed over the map in front of the Admiral, and pointed up an area of the urban sprawl of Tel Aviv–Jaffa, specifically around King Saul and Weizmann streets, where the most dazzling modern edifices stand.
    “Right here, sir, is another New York and Beirut bank, in a high-rise. It’s the main branch on the coast, bigger than the one in Jerusalem, and again a place where the dollars on the West Coast end up, before being transported to Jaffa Road.
    “Now, sir, according to the police, this place was robbed on Saturday night, 26 December—just a few hours after the bank in Jerusalem. This robbery was discovered by the cleaning staff on Sunday, because they did not work on Christmas night. This story was also played down, and appeared in Monday morning’s Jerusalem Post, the day before news of the Jerusalem robbery was printed…. I’ve put together some more notes which I’ll read because they’re just handwritten, and then I’ll get ’em printed up:
This operation took a long time. The thieves had rented a