Pay Dirt by Garry Disher Read Free Book Online Page A

forearms back from the table. She picked up her
wineglass and drained it.

    You dont like working with a woman,
she said.

    But that wasnt it. He didnt like
to be rushed. The answers always came to him when he was alone, concentrating
hard. Just now he didnt feel like concentrating. He was aching after riding
the Suzuki all over the state and the wine made him feel sleepy and he wanted
Leah to have her mind on him, not the job. Then he caught himself. He didnt
like that sort of thinking in himself.

    Okay, he said, well brainstorm
the job.

    Bribe someone on the inside, she
said promptly.

    Like who? The driver? The guard?
What will you ask them to do? What if they talk? Do you actually know anyone at
Steelgard?

    No.

    No, but if you approach them theyll
soon know you. Next idea.

    We put up a roadblock. When they
stop we get the keys off them and open the back.

    A roadblock may come into it,
Wyatt said, but it doesnt mean theyll give us the keys. First, they dont
ride together in the cab. The guard rides in the back, which is a separate unit
sealed off from the drivers cab. Usually the guard opens from the inside. And
I note that you said we.

    He said all this coldly and rapidly.
Nevertheless, Leah grinned. She was enjoying herself. After a while, Wyatt
grinned too.

    Leahs smile faded. She was
thinking. Whats the company policy when staff lives are in danger?

    These firms dont want anyone
getting hurt or killed. It costs them too much in compensation and bad PR. The
moneys insured. They tell their employees, if it comes to the crunch, give in.

    So we drag the driver out and hold
a gun to his head so the guard sees it, or we hold up a stick of dynamite and
tell the guard if he doesnt open were blasting the doors.

    The driver and the guard are linked
by an intercom, Wyatt said. We can jam their radio, but we cant jam that. As
soon as something goes wrong, the driver will warn the guard.

    So?

    So there could be a whole range of
emergency shutdown procedures we dont know about. Steelgards employees are
slack, we know that, but the vans could be high-tech all the same. They might
be fitted with door and brake locks that can only be opened by someone from
their base office. They might be fitted with time locks. You never know. We
have to expect things like that. Breaking through that sort of gadgetry takes
time, effort, equipment.

    Leah was silent. Then she said, So
theres no easy way in.

    There might bewe wont know till
the day itself. What Im saying is, we have to be prepared for good-old
fashioned forcecutting gear, blasting with nitro or C4 plastic, whatever. An
effective, time-honoured, noisy, time-consuming, attention-grabbing method.

    Her face went rueful and she reached
out and touched the back of his hand. Dont be like that.

    Like what? Im telling it like it
is. We sit in the middle of the road for twenty, thirty minutes, an hour,
cutting our way in, hoping no roo shooters or local cops come along.

    She grinned. Or we cut our way in
somewhere else.

    Where?

    The hideout.

    The hideout. How do we get to the
hideout if we cant even get into the van and theyve got some sort of complete
shutdown in force?

    Leah poured more wine for them both,
dragging it out, enjoying this. We cart it there, she said.

    There was a pause. He began to
smile. A breakdown truck or a low-loader, he said. And someone to operate
it.

    She smiled back at him. Ill just
make a phone call.

    She left the room and went into her
kitchen. Wyatt sipped his wine. She wanted to protect her sources, so he didnt
intrude. All the same, he felt vulnerable. Not about the fact that Leah had a
say in things now, or about the quality of her opinion, but because he felt cut
off from the people he normally worked with. Hed have to watch his back. He
didnt know Leahs sources or if they could be trusted. He tried to tell
himself this job was no different from all his others, when he had to rely on
people like Eddie Loman for men and equipment, but it