Lincoln drove the car down a random road, and stopped. "Ranch is gone, Michael"
"Well, the five million might not be"
"And you're gonna find it, how? What, you got a divining rod tattooed on your ass?" T-Bag said.
"I don't wanna hear anything out of your mouth other than what your photographic memory spits out regarding that map!" Michael shouted, making me jump out of my skin. Michael didn't lose him temper often and this was only the second time I had witnessed it.
"You watch your tone with me, boy"
"I will watch you get tossed to the side of the road to fend for yourself, boy. Because if you can't remember where that silo was, you're worthless to us" Tweener banged on the trunk.
"Yo, fools, let me out!" I felt a little bad for him, I had completely forgotten he was even in there.
"Shut up"
"The map!" Michael yelled.
"Okay, okay. All right, all right, all right"
"Let me out, boss!" Tweener shouted.
"The ranch was at the center of a box...Sheep Road on one side, Kokosing Road perpendicular. In the center of the property was the ranch house...and the ranch house was surrounded by trees"
"Come on, man, let me out!" We all got out of the car, and a man jogged by staring at us, which I found rather rude.
"Every tree here is a year old at most" He pointed out some of the shorter ones "Except those"
"Where's the silo?" I asked T-Bag.
"Inside the trees … I wanna say on the left, but that may have been a barn. I remembered the best I could, gents, but I didn't know this place would now be smothered in tract homes. So, you know, I'm sorry that I'm not Rain Man over here" We got back in the car and drove down another street, looking where we thought the silo might be.
"Silo, silo, silo, silo, silo..." T-Bag chanted, thinking.
"This is stupid. We're gonna get made out here" Lincoln said, and I privately agreed with him.
"All right, shut it. I think I remember. If I had to bet, I'd lay it all on the silo being on the left of the ranch house, inside the trees" T-Bag said.
"No. It's outside the trees. Right there" Michael pointed, and we all looked. "You see those two trees? They're shorter than the rest. They were all planted at the same time, but those two didn't get as much sunlight"
"Something was in their way" I said.
"The silo. Our money should be right there, under that garage"
"You better be right, boy" T-Bag said, and I glared at him, annoyed.
"This isn't a high-end subdivision. They slapped this place up overnight. The silo's foundations might still be there. To save money, they probably just laid the concrete for the garage floor right on top of it. We'll dig straight down. If we hit the foundation, we stay. If not, we go"
"Let's do it" Lincoln said.
"Hey, let me outta here" Tweener said, just as we got out of the car, a blonde woman came out of the house in her dressing gown to get the paper. We got back in the car.
"Oh, man" I moaned. "Why does everything have to be so complicated"
"Ain't no problem that a screwdriver to her temple won't fix" T-Bag said, looking at the woman. "People die all the time, boys. Five million dollars comes once in a lifetime"
Tweener banged on the trunk again "Let me outta here, man, come on, guys!"
"Well, we gotta do something. And it's not gonna involve hurting anyone" Michael said.
"I got an idea" Lincoln started the car "First, we're gonna need some supplies" He drove the car behind the subdivision and parks, and we got out the car.
"A hundred and 10 percent, I do not agree with this!" T-Bag said.
"You don't have a choice" I said.
"Everybody's gotta pitch in to make this happen" Lincoln said.
"But back in the big house, the boy proved he couldn't be trusted!" T-Bag argued.
"Which is why we're doing it here. If he gets caught in town, he ain't got a clue where the house is" Lincoln retorted.
"Besides, you're the one we can't turn our backs on" T-Bag glared at Michael as he opened the trunk.
"I could have died in there, man!" Tweener gasped, getting as much air as he could.
"Well, guess what. I need you to do something"
"I need you to do somethin' for me. I want my cut of the money"
"Well, we'll talk. Once you prove we can trust you"
"What do I gotta do?"
"I want you to go back to that garden center and get everything on this list. And gas up the car" I handed Tweener a list and some money. "And we'll meet you right back here in an hour"
"A'ight"
"And David...Don't screw this up" Michael said.
"This ain't Fox River no more, man. You're lookin' at the real deal now. But I want my cut" He adjusted his cap and got into the car, he glared at T-Bag who was leaning against the hood of the car.
"Be back in an hour" He started the car as we walked away.
"Let's go" Lincoln said.
"Mistake. Big mistake" T-Bag said angrily.
"Just shut up. For once in your life" I said, massaging my temples, I walked over to where Lincoln was fiddling with something in an electricity box.
"Where'd you learn about electricity?" Michael asked.
"I used to steal copper wiring from transformer boxes. Then I'd sell them on the docks, make a few bucks. You were in school, of course" I looked up at the house, the woman was deciding what the wear for the day and I looked across the see T-Bag ogling at her, Michael noticed the same thing.
"I was just lookin', Pretty. What's that old chestnut? I can look at the menu, doesn't mean I'm gonna eat"
"We get in, we get the money, we get out. That's it"
"No, absolutely"
"We're good" Lincoln said, as the sprinklers stopped working and popped back in the ground.
"Now it's just up to the kid" Speak of the devil, Tweener drove the car up and stopped near us.
"Do you get everything?" I asked.
"Yeah. Yeah, I got it" Something was wrong, he was acting very nervous not looking at any of us as he opened the trunk.
"What?" I heard Lincoln ask.
"Nothin', it's cool, I handled it..." I turned around as Lincoln grabbed Tweener and shoved him over towards the trunk.
"What?" He shouted.
"Whoa, whoa, okay...! Check it. This fool came in the shop. He was acting all shady, he got a bad vibe...so he picked up his cellie phone, he started making calls, so I popped him" Lincoln grabbed him again and shook him.
"What?"
"I hit him with the shovel, man! I didn't know what else to do! So I just...OI tied him up and put him in the back room with that other country hick"
"Here we go. Here we go" T-Bag said.
"I came through, you gimp!" T-Bag slammed the shovel in the trunk.
"Who was he calling?" I asked.
"The sheriff. Man, I...man, I don't know, dude. It just set off so quick!"
"Did the call go through?" Michael asked.
"Maybe, man, I don't know" Lincoln shoved him.
"What do you mean, maybe? Did the call go through?"
"YES! I...No, I don't know. I don't know, man" T-Bag shoved him this time "Yo, but I got the gear..." He said meekly as Lincoln pulled him away from the trunk.
"We gotta move on this now"
After we had all put on our disguises, Michael walked up the driveway and rang the doorbell. I watched their conversation nervously from where I was standing holding a clipboard.
After a little persuasion, we were allowed into the garage.
"The defective cable runs right beneath your garage. We're gonna have to dig up the floor to get to it" Michael said.
"Well, who's gonna pay for this...and what about the clean-up and the repair?" She asked.
"Well, the company will cover all costs" Michael said, as I saw T-Bag playing with a screwdriver, I slapped his hand gently to get him to put it down.
"We'll just dig a small trench. Once we're finished, we'll relay the cement. It'll look as good as new" Michael continued.
"How long is it gonna take?" She asked.
"One way or another, we'll be out of here today"
"Really need to get started, ma'am" T-Bag stood very close to her, but she didn't seem to mind. "Wouldn't want a pretty little thing like yourself sitting in the dark tonight, now, would we?"
"Well, that depends on who I'm sitting with" They were just as bad as each other.
"Touché" He said, smiling. Lincoln entered the garage carrying some supplies.
"Fine. It's okay, y'all go ahead and do whatever y'all need to do"
"Jeanette, the noise might be substantial. You might wanna take in that tennis game after all"
"Oh, no, it's too hot for that now. Plus, I gotta keep an eye on y'all and make sure you don't steal anything" I opened the door leading back to the house.
"Ma'am"
"How are you?" She asked me, dear god I was freaking out. Did I seriously look like a boy that much? Well seeing as T-Bag still hadn't figured it out, I'm going to say yes.
"Good" I smiled politely, she beamed back at me and walked out. I quickly shut the door.
"All right, where's Tweener?" Michael asked.
"He's next door, plugging in the extension cord" Lincoln answered.
"We're gonna have to cut up the cement" Tweener suddenly ran in.
"Yo, we gots company!" C-Note and Sucre came in.
"What's up, Snowflake?" C-Note asked, and I smiled a the two of them, adding in a little wave to Sucre.
"Well, as always, your timing is flawless" Michael said.
"I don't follow"
"Well, let me try to explain it to you. We're trying to run something here, and we can't have people walking in off the street"
"Oh, oh, okay, so you want us to leave and then you can just mail us the check?"
Michael walked over to Sucre and said something, but Sucre shook his head.
"I'm not going nowhere. I want my share of the money"
"Wait a minute, hold on, man. Ain't we did this dance before? You know, I say I want in, you say no. Then I threaten to tell somebody about what's going on here. And then you decide to play nice and then we're one big happy family. Why don't we just stop wasting time, all right?" C-Note said. Michael looked at him, backed down, and walked away. "Thank you"
I got back to work, trying to figure out how to use some of the more advanced equiptment we had, looks like I'll just be digging on this one, at least I've had a lot of practise at that.
"Damn, man, you still alive?" C-Note asked T-Bag.
"And kicking, homeboy"
"How'd you find us?" I asked.
"Man, if I can do rapid deployment of satellite communications, for Uncle Sam all over the world..." There was a knock on the door and Jeanette came in.
"How are you guys doing?" C-Note pulled on a hat.
"Who are you? Who are they?" She asked.
"I, uh...I had to call my supervisor. He sent them right over. This job is a top priority. They want to get this done as quickly and as efficiently as possible" Michael quickly lied, and she looked round at all of us.
"Well, Jeanette...like I said, there's a lot of work to do and it's gonna be noisy"
"Oh, drinks. I forgot to ask"
"We're good. Thanks" She looked a little disappointed, but gave us a little wave and left.
"Yo, man, this is not good. We got her up in our grill checkin' in on us all the time..." Tweener said, looking nervous. That boy needs to calm down.
"The boy is right. And since I can't dig, I'll volunteer to keep her occupied" T-Bag walked over to the door, where Michael is still standing having shut the door behind her as she left.
"You don't touch her"
"Who are you, Sister Mary Francis? I know how to play nice"
"I'll be watching" He left as Lincoln turned on a drill.
"Did you talk to Maricruz?" Michael asked Sucre, as we were digging the hole.
"I don't wanna talk about her"
"I gotta get some water or somethin'" Tweener said, wiping some sweat off his face.
"Use the hose on the other side of the house" Tweener left and Michael whispered to Sucre.
"Down the road, if you're in trouble, . It's what we can all use to communicate. Post a note on the message board"
"What's it called?" Sucre asked.
""
"That's a bird, right?" I looked around to see that C-Note had came back. I was about to say something when I heard the thud of a shovel hitting something.
"I got something" I saw Tweener come back in from the corner of my eye as I crept forward to see what Lincoln had hit.
"It's the silo's foundation" Michael said, and my face split in a grin
"Hells, yeah"
"We just need to find the edge and dig underneath it. We'll get the money, hit the back roads.."
"Uh, well..." Tweener started, uncertainty.
"What's wrong?" Michael asked.
"We gots to stop in Tooele first and gas up our ride"
"I thought you already did that!" I shouted.
"Man, when the garden center thing happened, I just forgot, a'ight?"
"I want you to go back into town. I want you to gas up that car. Because I am not driving around with millions of dollars in the trunk. Do you understand?" Michael said.
"Man, why do I gots to do it?" Tweener asked.
"Because it was your job in the first place" I said, as Lincoln pushed him towards the door.
"Okay. Okay" He left out the back door.
"I'd better check in on our friend" Michael said, leaning out the door.
"Hey, man, one hand or not, I think hillbilly needs to be up in here digging. What you think?" C-Note said, as Michael came back to dig. He got back out the hole and went to the door.
I heard a car drive up and a door slam.
"Riley, check it out" I walked outside and peered outside, seeing a police car and a police officer standing by it. I hurried back inside.
"Cop" I said.
AN: WOOO! Two in one day :) I'm awesome.
