Page 12 of Raider Unleashed

Another bad sign. “Okay,” he started toward the van. “What do I call you?”

“Denlo.”

Raider climbed into the vehicle’s cargo space. The van rocked as Denlo hoisted himself into the front passenger seat. Piper put it in gear and they rolled out of the parking lot. The entire drive was spent in silence. They didn’t go far, only about three miles but it took a while. The roads were still lousy with people leavingand more and more avenues of retreat were being closed off because of the lava flow.

Piper pulled into the parking lot of a no-tell motel and parked outside of a room on the back side of the sleazy place. She and Denlo got out. Raider followed suit.

“Follow her,” Denlo growled. Raider said nothing as he followed Piper into a room. Two other men came out of a room two doors down and joined them. Piper closed the door and took a seat on the bed. The two men sat in the chairs at a small table.

Denlo turned to Raider and said, “Put your hands on the wall.”

“What?”

“On the wall,” Denlo demanded.

Raider turned and did what he was told but swore as Denlo body searched him. “Take it easy, buddy. I’m not carrying.”

Denlo pulled out the cell from his pocket but didn’t bother with the boots. Raider made a mental note; Denlo hadn’t been formally trained. In some ways that was good, but it also meant that he might do something really fucking dumbass at the wrong moment. Always a happy thought.

Denlo plopped down at the table. Raider turned and leaned on the wall. “So tell me details. What’s the set up?”

Denlo nodded so the one called Baker started talking. “We’re going in through the floor of the bank. There’s an empty store beside it. They used to be one space so the storage beneath the store extends under the bank. We want to come up through the floor close to the front. The vault is in the back corner.”

Raider nodded. “What’s the floor made out of?”

“The usual. Concrete and then a subfloor and then padding and carpet.”

“You sure it’s not reinforced?” Raider asked. It would be really unusual for the floor of a bank not to be reinforced with steel.

“It’s not,” Denlo supplied. “We know the guy who redid the space when the bank moved in. He did the walls but not the floor. Deemed too expensive. It’s just a small local bank.”

Raider nodded but he was trying to sort through what he’d just heard. Why the hell would they rip off a small local bank in a strip mall? There wouldn’t be much money in that. Not with it being closed from the volcano.

He refocused and dropped into the role of an explosives specialist. “What kind of equipment do you have?”

Denlo gave him the rundown. C4 and blasting caps with all the wiring he’d need.

Raider asked, “Where are the plans?”

Baker looked at Denlo but didn’t say anything.

Raider’s shoulders tightened. “You have plans, right? Blueprints? You’ve gotta have blueprints for a job like this.”

Baker cleared his throat. “Ah, the blueprints we have don’t seem to match what’s going on.”

“What?” Raider’s stomach dropped. “You can’t pull a job like this if you don’t have the right blueprints. Jesus, what is this? Amateur hour?” He glared at Piper. “What the fuck did you get me into, girl?” He had to play it right. If he didn’t Denlo would get suspicious. Piper didn’t meet his gaze. Another bad sign. This whole thing was a cluster fuck and he’d let her drag him into it.

Denlo pulled his gun out. “You need to fucking calm down. You said you can do the job so you’re gonna do the job.”

Raider looked at Baker and Wells. They were both staring at the table.What a shit show. “How do you know the blueprints don’t match up?” Maybe he could figure something out.”

“I’ve tried checking the walls but things aren’t where they should be. The power isn’t where it should be and neither is the plumbing. I should be able to detect the piping and the wiring when I run a Walabot over the walls and it’s not there.”

The advanced tool for seeing what was behind walls was great, but not nearly as good as some of the military’s top-secret tech. Raider grunted. “Let me see.”

Everyone remained silent as Baker left the room. He was back in under a minute with a messily folded set of blueprints. He laid them out on the bed. Raider leaned over to study them. “Show me what you’re talking about.”

Baker pointed out the shared wall with the store and talked about what he should be able to find there. “But none of it is there.”

---