open, you’ll need to pick the lock of the metal door.”
Lisa had seen the lock before, but she looked at it again on Harper’s computer screen.
“Two minutes.” Lisa said.
“To the important bit; getting the cube out. Remember it has an alarm on it, so the first thing you need to do is to disable the alarm.” Harper said.
“I’ll use the EMP pulse to disable the alarm and then take the cube and put it in the metal box.”
“Remember to lock the box properly; we don’t want to activate the tracker if it slides out.” Harper said.
“I’ve secured the metal box, next is my exit.” Lisa said.
This was the part that worried her the most. She had practiced walking over the laser beams with the box in her hands. They ached and hurt but worst of all, was the imbalance they caused. Though she had jumped over the beam successfully, she wasn’t 100% sure. She only had to go over the beams and Harper would be waiting to take the box from her.
“Alan, you’ll be waiting at the parking with the engine running after two hours.” Harper said.
“Sure boss.” Alan said.
“How does everybody feel about the plan?” Harper asked.
Alan was fine with it and he said so.
“I’m also OK with it but I could do with more practice for carrying that box over the beams. It’s not really heavy, just awkward because of the size. If I go over it a few more times, my hands will get used to it.” Lisa said.
“OK we can do that tomorrow.” Harper said. “Guys what we’ve done is based on a perfect plan, which rarely happens. Something is likely to go wrong, it always does. There’s nothing like a perfect plan. The feds could be hovering around here. Alan, you keep watch when Lisa and I enter the deli. If there are suspicious people, let us know. We don’t want to be caught off guard.”
They left, dropping Lisa off first. She had removed her ski mask and worn her t-shirt and tights over her suits. There were unlikely to be people on the street but it did not hurt to be careful. She felt beat. The actual job didn’t exhaust her as much as the practice. She supposed it was the worrying and trying to think of what could go wrong. In the actual job, there was no time to think, her concentration was usually in the present.
Lisa entered her apartment and stripped off her work clothes. She wore a lose nightie and went to the living room. She was too wound up to sleep. She made a peanut butter sandwich and a glass of warm milk. She flipped over TV channels but nothing held her attention for long and she decided to go to bed.
Dreams of police sirens plagued her sleep, but again, that came with the job. The nearer the day came, the worse her nerves got. She woke up thrice in the night, her night gown wrapped tightly around her body, sweat holding it to her skin like glue. Her breath came out in short, quick gasps and it took her a while to realize that she was on her own bed and there’s no police chasing after her. Staring into the darkness, Lisa was glad that she had made up her mind.
This job was not for her anymore. Age was catching up. Her nerves were worse than the last time. But to be fair, this would be her biggest job yet. Her other jobs were child play compared to this one. If caught, she’d probably spend the rest of her life in jail.
Lisa yanked her mind from such thoughts and resolutely closed her eyes, determined to catch a few more hours of sleep.
The following morning, Lisa jogged all the way to Harper’ apartment. They carried their coffee to the back room. Lisa practiced jumping over the beams with the blue metal box. It strained one hand until harper came up with the idea of hoisting it at the top of her head. That seemed to work better.
She only stopped when she felt confident of jumping over the beams without setting them off with the box or worse, dropping it.
“Can I buy you lunch.” Harper told her at midday.
They walked down the street like any normal couple on a warm day. Lisa felt