Page 66 of The Company We Keep

That brought him back to consciousness.

“What, seriously?”

“Mhm.”

“I was half joking, you know.”

“I know,” Carrow said. “But it’s a good idea. I think it could work. And youknowthe crew would like it…”

And so it was settled, as easy as that. Carrow put the job into Dust’s hands, and the younger man went to sleep, dreaming of his plan.

Two days later, Carrow called a meeting.

Anyone in The Company was welcome to suggest a job, plan a heist, or request a change. The thing was this: nobody everdid. It wasn’t because they weren’t ambitious or because they didn’t have ideas. The members of the crew were simply pleased to go along with any of Carrow’s ideas. Barring the odd one-off that happened when old vendettas surfaced or random jobs came through contacts with one member of The Company, Carrow was always the planner. He was great at it —and admittedly, it was what he was born to do: moving talented criminals around like an excellent game of chess.

But he was more than happy, that day, to hand the reins over to Dust.

He’d done a remarkable job, too, asking Carrow for his advice in every step of the planning process. He’d consulted with each member of the crew to ask their opinion, never assuming that he could understand the full ramifications of each person’s role. It was a good quality for a leader to have — to respect the jobs of the people around him — and Carrow took an odd sort of pride in seeing Dust display the hallmarks of someone who could effectively direct a crew.

Dust paced the aisle in front of the glass boards as he explained the bank job.

The score wouldn’t be all that incredible — just the contents of one armored truck.

It was the execution that would be key.

“We’ll hit them on a Monday, first thing in the morning,” Dust said, passing a copy of the timeline around the table before gesturing to a map he’d stuck to one glass panel. It displayed two blocks of Las Abras in the northeast section. “The city is scheduled to start a sewer repair here that morning.”

He gestured to the map, pointing to a spot half a block from the bank.

“So, the area to concentrate on is this corner: Wood and Vine.”

He pointed to another spot just steps away from the front door of the bank.

“On the Friday before, we post an ad on Craigslist — ‘Help Wanted.’ We pose as a contractor for Las Abras — Wayles, if you can track down whoever got the contract on the sewer job, that would be perfect. We create a post stating that we need day laborers for the Monday of our job.”

Leta was already snickering.

“We give a generous figure. Maybe guaranteed eight hours of work at 25 bucks an hour for anyone who shows up on time, at the corner of Wood and Vine wearing the proper gear. That’s the vital part.”

“And what’s the proper gear?” Vashvi asked, leaning in.

“I’m glad you asked,” Dust said, winking at her. He produced a cardboard box from under his seat at the meeting table.

“Respirator,” he said, producing one and tossing it to Wayles. “Blue shirt,” he said, pulling one out and throwing it to Herron. “Orange safety vest” — this one went to Vashvi.

“And protective eye wear.” He produced large shaded glasses and put them on his own face.

“Oh shit,” Vashvi said, smiling at Leta as if she’d just gotten a joke.

“What?” Wayles said, a whine inching into his voice. “I don’t get it. Where does the robbery come in?”

“He hasn’t gotten to the robbery yet,” Herron explained through a placid grin. “But he’s just talked us through our cover.”

“Bingo.”

Dust fired a finger gun at Herron and Carrow bit down a laugh. The kid was really getting off on leading this meeting.

“We’re going to hope that the shitty state of the Las Abras job market brings plenty of strapping young men, women, and others down to the corner of Wood and Vine to wait for their sweet day of well-paid work,” Dust explained. “We’ll have our own work gear, on of course. All we have to do is blend in with the crowd until 7:45.”

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