Page 38 of The Company We Keep

8

June 2014 • AIIB Mission Month 1

The day before the heist always moved quickly, and nothing about that changed just because they had someone new in their midst.

The penthouse seemed to thrum with energy as they all made their final preparations. The elevator stayed in constant motion between Herron moving equipment down and Dust carefully loading up explosives.

No one worked on the same schedule on the day of a heist, so there were no shared mealtimes. The Company grabbed sandwiches or leftovers or, in Vashvi’s case, not much other than energy drinks.

At eight, Dust had a question for Carrow and realized he had no idea where the man was or when the last time was that he’d seen him. He checked the office, the other labs, and even chanced knocking on his bedroom door.

“Looking for Carrow?” Leta asked, noticing his pacing.

“Yeah.”

“Try the roof.”

So he did. And there the man was.

Carrow was propped against a railing on the far side of the roof, facing west. He’d already changed into his clothes for the job — abandoning the suit he’d been wearing earlier and donning black from head to toe. The sun had disappeared over the horizon, but its rays were still painting the underside of the clouds brilliant colors.

He heard Dust approach.

“Leta told me you’d be up here,” Dust said, as if that meant anything.

Carrow looked serious when he finally turned to Dust, but he didn’t look mad at having been interrupted. He held the stub of a cigar between two knuckles.

“Hm. She knows my pre-job ritual.”

“And what’s that?”

Dust leaned against the railing beside him, their arms brushing together.

“A nice cigar and a beautiful sunset,” Carrow said. “I’d offer you a cigar, but I only brought the one. And you’ve already missed the sunset.”

Dust smiled.

“That’s alright.”

“Do you do anything before you see action, Dust?”

“No,” he admitted. “I’d never thought about it. I guess I’m just too eager to get things done.”

Carrow nodded and continued looking out over the Las Abras skyline. Lights were coming on around the city.

“I’ve lost a lot of things in this business,” Carrow said. “More people than I’d care to think about. Sometimes it’s hard to see the big picture. So I come up here and I watch the sun set for what could be the last time. I have my cigar. It’s my last chance for those pleasures, if something happens,if I die. Then, I think about the people that I’ve lost and what I could’ve done to stop it from happening.”

Dust searched Carrow’s face. He hadn’t expected to catch the man being introspective, and he certainly hadn’t expected Carrow to actuallysharesomething like that with him.

“That’s a good thing to meditate on,” Dust said, finally, not sure what else he could add.

“I told you that your job is demo and redundancy,” Carrow said. Dust nodded. “I lied. Your job tonight, above everything else, is to keep my family safe. There is nothing more important than that.”

Dust considered his words. A plane pulled through the smog at the horizon, and somewhere a fire engine wailed.

“If our mission fails, if we miss the target — so be it. No job — no money, no score — is more important to me than the safety of those four people downstairs. You can fuck up the demolition plan. You can fuck up everything. But don’t forget your job — do not forget those four people and what they mean to me.”

“I understand,” Dust said.

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