Chapter 19: The Bank Vault

Once again fate intervenes as the two raccoons get closer, this time the ZPD calls Jake to save the day.

She was pressed against him when they literally waltzed their way into the Regency Hotel's lobby after returning from their afternoon date. The two raccoons had a wonderful time together, lunch at a quaint café in Sahara Square and then a concert. Marie knew that the time was right for them to take that final step and make love. She was aching for him almost as if she was in heat and she knew he wanted her too. They stopped and kissed as before released her from his embrace and then grabbing her paw, rushed towards the elevator.

"Mister Runnel your phone is off again and Nick has been trying to reach you!" a well-dressed gazelle called out from behind the desk.

"Not now Richard," Jake yelled back to the hotel's manager as he impatiently awaited the elevator.

"He said it is important!" Richard added.

"Didn't he say that it's important?" Marie asked. She could see the gazelle rushing towards them.

"Not as important as you," he almost purred before he kissed her again.

"I'm sorry to intrude, but this is a life and death situation," Richard said as he rang his hoofs together.

"Then why do they need me?" the male raccoon huffed.

"Look!" the gazelle pointed towards the large television screen in the lobby. A crowd was gathered around watching a report concerning a bank.

"They are not one of my clients, so why should I care?" Jake said with a shrug.

Marie had released his paw and stepped closer to the television. When she heard what the reporter was saying, her ears drooped. "Call Nick, Sugar. Call him right away!" she called back to Jake. "There's a little kit locked in the bank's vault and they can't get her out."

"Why don't they just open the vault?" Jake asked while he stepped closer to her. The reporter's words made him flinch, "accidentally locked…malfunctioning timer…company repairmammal having to fly in from out of town…asthmatic girl…," not the kind of things that bode well for the situation.

He watched when the camera panned back to show the bank again. "Oh crap!" he sighed while he turned on his phone and called his best friend. "I saw and have a patrol car pick me up at the hotel…don't let anyone touch the glass in front of that lock!...I've got to get my team there too and some gear from my warehouse."

Jake turned towards Marie and tried to give her a smile. "It looks like I'm going to have to break into a bank vault this afternoon, I'd ask you to come along but this is going to be boring."

"You've got to be kidding? A chance to see you in action sounds fun!"

"Well, you can sit around with the others outside and watch me go into the building, but I'm sorry that you can't watch. It's not that I don't trust you, but the safe company wouldn't be happy if they knew someone besides my team was there when I broke into the vault."

"Forget it Sugar, I'm coming along anyway," she announced. He just smiled and sighed before kissing her.

The patrol car arrived and with sirens blazing took several turns through the business district before finally arriving at a secure warehouse not far from the hotel. A set of steel doors rolled up, allowing the police cruiser to drive into the building where a tailless rat and two large polar bears waited. All around the large room were safes in various states of disassembly and even several full-sized bank vaults. Jake hopped out of the police car as the bears began loading gear into the van's trunk.

"Tails, you follow with the guys in the van," Jake called out as he began rummaging through a table full of rolled-up schematics and notes. Finally grabbing the one he wanted, he unrolled it out onto the table and grunted while he wiped his paws across his face before groaning, "It just has to be a Haymaker!"

Sullenly he climbed back into the police cruiser with the plans in his paws, not giving Marie the least bit of attention while he concentrated on what he was doing. She knew not to say anything but wanted to smile when his paw almost absentminded found its way onto her leg. He pulled out a phone and called someone, "It's Runnel…I can't tell you that, but let's just say your lesser model was difficult enough…that's not much of a help, any upgrades for this client?...it's going to take you eight hours to get here and then at least another four hours of drilling…this kit is asthmatic and could hyperventilate…I know! I know!" He hung up and looked out the window, she knew he was worried.

The police car made its way through the crowd and past the reporters, the van followed right behind when they pulled up in front of the bank. Marie peered out of the car's window at all the news reporters in the distance, a huge cape buffalo towered over a familiar uniformed red fox. A pudgy groundhog was standing next to a female squirrel who was leaning against Judy. "You never make it easy, bro!" Jake called out to the fox. "For once I want it to be something like a bathroom lock!"

"Can you do it?" the buffalo asked, the normally nonplussed large bull actually sounded worried.

"I can, but opening the vault is a noisy business and I'm afraid that it might cause the little squirrel to go into asthmatic shock," Jake replied.

"Her name is Shelly and I have a plan," Nick grinned before he threw his arm over the raccoon's shoulder. "Her favorite singer is Gazelle, so we're trying to get her to call in and talk to the kit over the bank's speakers. I hope the noise won't bother your concentration."

Marie watched while Jake and Nick began walking towards the bank leaving her alone. "Sometimes those two get caught up with their scheming and they forget that there are others in the world," a familiar voice spoke from behind her. She turned and found that Judy was standing there with a smile on her face.

"Do you think he can do it?" Marie asked. "He wasn't happy when he found out what kind of vault it was."

"I'm told by friends who aren't cops, that Jake is one of the best and has already had experience with this brand of a vault," the rabbit shrugged. "We cops ever found out who broke into the Spandshine Corporation's building, which has the same type of vault and took only five thousand out of the sixty thousand dollars that were locked in it. But Spandshine is now one of Jake's clients, so go figure?" The look the rabbit gave her made the raccoon giggle.

They watched when Jake stopped and talked to someone over the phone and then he ran his paws over his face again. After talking to Nick, the raccoon went to the side of the building and began climbing up the bank's wall using a drainpipe. He hopped over onto the bank's roof and disappeared.

"What the hell is he doing?" Bogo grumbled.

The raccoon was gone for about thirty minutes before he came walking out of the bank's front door and got his gear. He was out of view for just over an hour before he finally appeared again carrying the little squirrel in his arms. Her mother ran to him, took her daughter in her arms, and hugged her while profusely thanking the raccoon.

"How did you do that so fast?" Bogo asked when he approached the raccoon. "I was told by the safe company it would take at least four hours to drill through?"

Leaning against the bank's door, the raccoon smiled before he replied, "It seems that they have an oversized conduit pipe that actually runs wires into the vault, we pulled the wires, and then I sent Jerry into the conduit pipe. Being a mouse he squeezed through the tube and wiggled his way into the vault where he entertained the little girl while I did my thing."

"Still how did you get in that fast?" Bogo grunted.

"I have better drills than the company representative does," the raccoon bragged.

The bank president William Franks had arrived and was talking to Ratzolli. The rat looked at the raccoon and then the squirrel family before sighing, "We just worked out the price for you to break into the vault, but I guess you don't need to know how much now?"

"It's worth every penny," the raccoon smiled up at the well-dressed hippo. "Think of it this way Mister Franks, it will still be cheaper than any lawsuit if the girl had died."

Marie watched while Jake began walking towards her and she wanted to run to him. She hesitated when he was intercepted by the police commissioner and the talkative lama directed the smaller raccoon toward the press.

"Here we go again!" Judy laughed. "Nick has spent a lot of time coaching Jake on handling the press, I guess will find out if he listened?"

It was quite obvious that Jake was enjoying taking questions from the press and he was following Nick's advice of answering the question with his own question before answering that question. Suddenly, there came a question that no one expected.

A young porcupine in a grubby tee-shirt shoved his cheap camera almost into the raccoon's face. "Anonymous sources say that you are involved with organized crime?" the twenty-something-year-old reporter asked.

"I'm not a member of organized crime?" Jake answered with a puzzled look. "I don't know who you have been talking to, but they're wrong."

"They say that some of your clients are involved in illegal activity and your company is protecting them from the police."

"Look I only do business with legit companies and legit homeowners. We do the standard check, but I don't dig around in their affairs."

"But…" the porcupine tried to ask something else before he was drowned out by the other reporters.

After a little while, Jake finally broke free and finally caught up with Marie. "Sorry about that," he sighed. "I'm going to have to go back with the guys and get everything put away. Then Jimmy wants to talk to me about that business with the porcupine and then I've got drinks over at Mister Franks place, he wants to talk about his mansion's security."

"Oh," she sighed, looking disappointed. "I understand."

Jake stepped forward and kissed her. "The evening really turned into a bummer for you, didn't it?"

She smiled as she looked him in his eyes. "Sugar, I have never been so proud of anyone as I am of you tonight," she replied. "You saved that little girl's life and that is more important than if I had a good time. Now you go do what you need to do."

"I love you," he sighed before he kissed her again.

"Love you too, Sugar," she replied when he was dragged away by Jimmy Ratzolli.