The next morning, Frank picked up breakfast from a nearby fast food restaurant and, after telling Alice the plans for the day, he left to be at the bank when the door opened. Again he parked a block from the bank and watched the area from the car for 20 minutes. He saw nothing unusual on the street. Taking his briefcase from the backseat, Frank walked up to the bank, all senses alert for the slightest anomaly in a normal street scene. Inside the bank, the tellers were taking their first customers. Frank knew the name of the young woman who dealt with customers who wanted to get access to a safety deposit box. He approached her and said, “Susan, I see I beat the crowd. Can you get my box for me? Here is my key and I.D.”

“Sure. Follow me. They changed the forecast last night, did you hear? It looks like a storm is going to hit us this afternoon. Are you traveling anywhere?”

“Yes. Unfortunately I have to drive to Cleveland for a day or so. I’ll still be in the heavy snowfall area. I hope I can beat the storm.”

“You better get started. It’s a good five hours to Cleveland in good weather.”

Using both keys, Susan pulled the large box part way out and said, “You take it from here. That is a heavy box. Must be full of gold.”

“Don’t I wish? Legal documents and ledgers weigh a ton. But if we lost our business records, this off-site storage could save our business.”

Susan nodded, then left Frank with his box. When the door closed, he transferred the bundles of currency, bars of gold, and diamonds to his briefcase. He also took the identity documents and the .22 silenced High Standard automatic and extra magazines. Frank inserted a loaded magazine into the handgun and slipped it under his belt in the small of his back. He transferred the two bricks from his briefcase into the box and called Susan. When she came in he slid the now lighter boxH into its slot and said, “Thank you. Now I have to get on the road to Cleveland.”

“Good luck,” she said with a smile. “See you next time.”

Frank left the bank and walked a pre-planned route to check for any surveillance. When he was sure no one was following him, he slipped into a street phone booth and called the bank in Cleveland. When he was put through to the assistant manager in charge of customer services, he identified himself by the name on the safety box and inquired about bank hours and the weather. “I’m trying to get there before the bank closes. I’m in Chicago now.”

Harry Barnes, the assistant manager said, “We plan to close at five unless the weather is terrible, and then we may close earlier so employees can get home safely. Oh, by the way your partner called to see if you had checked your box today or yesterday. He said he put some documents in the box you should see. He also said he would be in sometime today. Maybe you two could meet here at the bank. I can make a conference room available.”

“No, I probably won’t get there until mid-day tomorrow because of this weather. I’ll try to get him on the phone. Thank you for the offer,” Frank said. He hung up.

I guess I was right about the KGB checking on the boxes when I’ve opened them. I hope they will believe I’m coming to Cleveland and will set up to deal with me there. By tomorrow afternoon, they will be getting nervous about my no show. Bad weather may lead them to wait one day longer. By that time I’ll have emptied the box in the Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh. I’ll never get to the Cleveland or Washington, D.C. boxes, and they will no longer stop at trying to capture me. The effort will be to stop me permanently. A sniper set up in Pittsburgh is probably their best shot. At least I now have a better understanding of how this game is unfolding. They cannot use the bank authorities or the police but they can empty the box. I need the contents of the Pittsburgh safety deposit box. I’ll have to move faster than they can. The coming storm may help me. They won’t drive and if the airlines are delayed or cancelled for several hours, I can beat them. It will be close. It is worth the risk. I’ll need the money to escape and hide. In another two weeks, they will have at least one team hunting me full time.