Chapter 11 – Cash Withdrawal
Central London, England. 7:26am, 4th November 2032.
It's at last she can take a deep breath and put down the bags for just a brief second of respite. She looks up at the security camera, and reminds herself that she could not break cover until she was absolutely sure she was not being watched. Being undercover is always a favourite of Charlotte's; it's what she's good at and what she likes. This is what gets criminals in jail, not piles of paper requiring signatures on every single page. Since when has bureaucracy ever solved a crime? This is where it all happens, she's glad that she's here now and that she played it perfectly, perfectly being she wasn't caught. All it took was that she had to first of all believe she was a criminal, if that would happen then everything else would fall into place.
She reaches the bottom floor and walks under the weight of the bags through the front door. She walks around the corner, where she would be out of sight of any security cameras or prying eyes from the apartment, and enters a waiting car. She puts the two bags on the back seat with her.
"Is that it?" Her handler asks.
"Yeah, exactly what I said. Two million in this currency." She answers.
"Did he touch any of the notes?" He asks.
"No, I did." She replies.
"You know you just contaminated important evidence to convict him." He advises her with disappointment.
"We don't need that, besides, I have something even better." She answers.
"What exactly?" He asks.
"But first, I need £1.8 million in the next hour." She demands.
"Are you serious?!" he asks.
"Just think that this money buys Interpol a seat into the inner circle of Alex Cooper. You get eyes and ears and an eventual arrest that would send him and his gang in for life instead of 2 years. They're planning to steal 5 paintings at an auction in Romania in 3 weeks time, they'll do it before the auction takes place." Charlotte explains.
"I don't have the authorization to do that for you. You have to take this up with the chief." He explains. "I presume…"
"Just drive." She says.
"That's it!" He shouts, it's the final straw. "I've had enough of your attitude, you have no respect for you fellow officers, most of all me. I'm not going to drive you anywhere!"
"Fine, get out." She says nonchalantly.
"Excuse me?" He asks, he wants to punch her so hard, screw it that she's a girl.
"Get in the back or I'll make you do it." She warns before getting out of the car to get into the driver's seat, she waits outside for him to get out. After trying to stare her out, and failing, he gets out and tries to slam the door shut but she prevents him from doing so. She gets into the driver's seat, adjusts the seat and mirrors and heads off.
"Now, you're going to get that money I asked for." She explains condescendingly.
"I said, I can't. I don't know if everything was handed to you on a silver platter before, if so, I intend for that to stop and learn the real way to do things." He explains.
"You will and can do it, who's my boss again? You can get this done and have it waiting for me when I arrive." She replies.
"They won't authorize it." He says adamantly from the back seat.
25 minutes later
"Request approved." The bureau chief announces to her from opposite his desk. "The Bank of England will deliver the money as soon as they can."
"Thank you." She replies thankfully.
"My I have a private word with your handler for a second?" Asks the owl in his later 30's.
"My pleasure." She replies courteously. This really peeves off her handler as he sits next to her. He really wants to vent it all out the second she leaves the office. She leaves the room in a playful way with a smile on her face, knowing that once again it has gone her way. She even shuts the door on the way out.
"What the hell have you done?!" He asks irately.
"Jamison, while your numerous complaints have not gone unnoticed, there is no doubt about her talent. Even if you recommend at the end of the trial period that I disallow her promotion, I will approve it regardless. Having found a way into the inner sanctum of the most dangerous upcoming criminal in the world, presumably, is a monumental achievement for someone of her standing. Think about it like this, the £1.8 million pounds is an investment, we capture Cooper while he's relatively small and remove him from the population and save ourselves tens, even hundreds of millions in future stolen goods and operations because of what she is going to do." The chief explains.
"But she's a disrespectful brat who doesn't follow orders." Jamison argues.
"Who cares? She gets results." The chief argues. "Get that into your head."
"Yes, sir." Jamison replies.
"If she asks for anything else, call me and it will happen, don't let your judgment cloud hers you got it?" He asks.
"You're saying that she's better?" Jamison asks.
"I'm saying she's in charge, you have to be there because of the regulations, If I was the one in charge she would be solving cases on her own by now." The chief responds.
"Just say yes, don't make it sound so complicated." Jamison says, he's admitting to himself that he's pretty much worthless in their partnership.
"I'll inform you when the Bank of England arrives with the money." The chief replies. "Now I have to take an incoming call with my counterparts about how we will use this currency to go after the drug ring this currency was made for."
Jamison gets out of his chair and walks towards the exit of the chief's office. He steps through the door, knowing that he has been told that he is just a bureaucratic requirement and nothing else. The source of all his problems is just leaning against the wall next to the door playing with her phone. He looks at her being so innocent, but she's the devil to him. Charlotte makes him powerless and insignificant. If she did this to everyone, she'd make it to the top, but there'd be no one below her either.
It takes a further 10 minutes for him to be alerted of the money's delivery. It comes wrapped perfectly in several layers of cling wrap to keep it all perfectly straight and crisp on a steel trolley. It looks like it has just been taken straight from the production line. Charlotte notices there is something badly wrong with the money, not with the amount, but the way it looks.
"It's all wrong." She says to the BoE official that has travelled with such a large sum of money.
"This is exactly what has been requested." The official replies.
"No, it's too neat, this has to look like it's come from a drug dealer." Charlotte explains. "Do we have a note counter?"
"I have brought one along in case you disputed the quantity." The official answers.
"Perfect, we have to do this quickly." Charlotte explains. "They're expecting me back in about half an hour."
"Two things." The chief adds. "You do this in the storeroom under guard, you will be checked before you leave in case you decide to take some for yourself, understood?"
"Yes, sir." She answers before turning to the official. "Help me do this." She asks the official. "We take a bundle and crinkle some one them then group this into bundles of 100."
"I'll grab the counter."
They quickly rush into a storeroom under guard full of old case files and work in a corner with Charlotte and the BoE official start grabbing piles in their hands and bend it in various ways to simulate it being used rather than being fresh. The plastic notes don't crease that much, but they just have to appear to be used. They then pass it into the machine which counts the notes in a blisteringly short amount of time and binds them together with a small piece of paper with the quantity labeled on top. They then toss them into the two bags she arrived in with no care, they fill up quickly and take up almost twice as much space as the cling wrapped bundle that arrived. After 10 minutes, the 180 bundles of money are put into the bags and zipped up, ready for transportation. The official gives one last piece of advice.
"Before you leave, I should tell you that we have a list of all the serial numbers of each note. So if someone deposits it into a bank, we know where it will have come from and be able to trace it."
"Okay." She replies, but she's more focused on getting out here and back to being undercover as soon as possible. She knocks on the door from the inside and invites the guards to search for the money on her person and the official just in case. They are both clean, which allows Charlotte to quickly leave the building and go straight into the car with her unwilling handler waiting. It was a much quicker drive back as the morning rush hour had mostly passed. Jamison parks the car several blocks away from the apartment.
"You know why I'm doing this?" He asks, trying to find a chink in her armour.
"Simulating me walking the way there and back so they don't think I was driven." She replies.
"Just go." He says, it seems there is no end to the torture. She gets out with the two bags on either shoulder and tries to run to make her more tired, but the bags are very heavy and each step is difficult as they jiggle around and pull down on her shoulders which makes her more unbalanced by shifting her centre of gravity left and right. Even if the distance is only 4 blocks, it's a difficult challenge, but she's not as tired as she would like to be. She is too fit, a statement not said very often, Charlotte arrives at the apartment without any sweat, her shoulder's aren't sore and her legs are not cramped as she imagine someone of lesser physical capabilities might be. She continues on into the ground floor of the apartment, still thinking about what her image should be and what she wants them to think of her as. She knows that it's always easiest to be what she naturally is, so she decides to do exactly that after thinking about what they have seen about her earlier.
She boards the lift and waits for it to rise up into the air. As it does this, she tests her strength for fun by trying to hold the bags off the ground as the lift takes off. She finds it to be easier than expected. Charlotte walks out of the lift, thinking that she is no longer Charlotte but Jess as she had said before. She knocks and waits for the door to open. It does but she doesn't hear anyone approach it before then. She suspects who might be answering the door.
"You've got the money?" Alex asks.
"Right here." She replies.
"Perfect." Alex replies before opening the door fully to allow her in. The first thing she notes is that his hand's behind his back, surely he doesn't distrust her that much.
"Do really need to have a Taser on you?" Jess asks.
"Security reasons." Alex comments, showing it in his other hand. "It's not mine."
"Riiiiight." She says skeptically.
"Matt, the money's here." Alex announces to Matt who's working away on his computer, trying to sort out the logistics of their next move as well as make sure his hardware is safe following the recent hacks.
"Good, how much exactly?"
"1.8 million pounds." Jess replies.
"That's plenty." Matt answers. "I'll confirm those train tickets now."
"Open it up, let me see." Tyson says, wanting to see all that money right there for them. Jess opens up the bag, the sight of which is almost blinding to the tiger.
"Damn, we're rich!" He announces joyfully, but his joy is short lived.
"We have to use most of it to set up for the Antwerp heist." Matt explains.
"Antwerp, aren't we going to… um, what's the place called?" Jess asks in confusion but also intrigue.
"Constanța, and yes, but I am setting up another heist whilst you three go and do Constanța." Matt explains as he changes tabs to book something else.
"Hang on, why do you need a train ticket to Paris?" Jess asks.
"Alex wants one." Matt answers succinctly. "And don't ask why, you won't get an answer."
"Is he always like this?" Jess asks as she turns her head to find Alex staring out into the cityscape, standing near the window.
"I've only been with him for a day. I can't judge his behavior in one day." Matt explains quietly.
"Guys, look, mooonnneeeeeeeyyyyy!" Tyson gloats, holding several bundles in the air.
"Calm down already, it's a big pile of money, just relax." Alex urges, peeved off by the constant noise surrounding him where he would just like some time to think to himself about well, everything. It's what he hopes the train journey will give before he arrives at his intended destination in Paris.
"The next train leaves at 10:07am, you can make that one easily, should I book?" Matt asks.
"One ticket, one way." Alex reiterates.
"Done." Matt says, having completed the booking.
"Wait." Jess notes from the email invoice Matt received. "You're using your real name?"
"Why would we? We haven't stolen anything." Matt answers.
"Yet." Alex finishes.