The free ride express, hidden in plain sight

Someone’s tripping. In fact, someone’s tripping balls. It’s not usually something Edgar would notice, but the 911 call is already on record. Furthermore, whoever is making the call, can barely speak. Edgar thinks the volume up so he can hear the operator a little better. It doesn’t really matter. Whoever is on the other end of the line sounds like a lunatic. Within ninety seconds the inevitable occurs. The operator alerts dispatch to send a unit.

It’s protocol. Especially when there’s no intelligible response to the request for identification. Or a request for help, yet no one disconnects the call. It means Edgar has about five minutes. However, it should take less than three. He continues to monitor the emergency channel. Internally. Meanwhile, he clears the last of the items from the tables. He could have gotten more, except for the crazy lunatic on the phone. Of all the nights, and times, to intervene. The wheelchair is right where he left it. Keeping the enormous vault door from accidentally closing.

He hefts the heavy loot filled bags with ease. Still no alarm. Although the 911 operator still has the crazy lunatic on the phone. Furthermore, she is giving the deranged denizen a run down of the ambulance’s ETA. Edgar has three minutes now. He needs one of those to get the heavy vault door back in place. There’s no need to take any chances. He doesn’t want anyone suspecting anything until after he’s long gone. He doesn’t need a bunch of questions. Questions are no good. One thing leads to another with questions.

The Free Ride Express

Edgar is one of the few. A cyborg. Cue the dramatic, movie scene music. The only problem is, things may not be exactly how they appear. He’s definitely a cyborg. He even has super strength. However, only he knows this. In fact, he can do more than anyone knows. Including his newfound ability to walk. All thanks to the implant. And if that were not surprising enough, it appears there are many things the doctors and the researchers did not know. How could they? It’s all experimental.

With this in mind, he clears his thoughts. It’s going to take all his concentration for the bank’s computer. It takes less than a minute to tell the computer that all the cash is still in the vault. This is the easy part. The hard part, the rub, is convincing all the other systems the bank’s information is accurate. However, he does it with relative ease. It’ll work as long as no one asks any hard questions. And of course until they actually take inventory of the vault. Now, he moves back to the chair.

One minute left. Plenty of time to get back out of the building. Even with the chair. Besides, the trick isn’t avoiding being seen. It’s avoiding being seen acting out of character. For example, everyone expected someone in a wheelchair to be sitting in a wheel chair. Therefore, he has to move quickly. His entire strategy went out the window the minute the lunatic outside the bank made the 911 call. He must be able to rely on a storage plan until late tomorrow, at the earliest. Then he can return and retrieve his loot.

Ain’t But One Way

If he didn’t have an appointment with his neurosurgeon Dr. Splice tomorrow, he would stay here until the police leave. It sounds like a bad plot twist scheduling for after his doctor’s appointment the following day. But Edgar is nothing if not resourceful. His backup plan is almost more important to him than his main plan. Furthermore, he is patient and doesn’t believe in a free ride. Especially where Dr. Splice is concerned. Dr. Splice is someone Edgar preferred didn’t ask too many questions. Things have only just begun to evolve into something with potential. He must protect the implant, at all costs.

Edgar has a hunch he and the doctor have more in common than either one is willing to admit. However, only Edgar has particular answers. Similarly, he feels certain Dr. Splice knows more than he admits, or reveals. The problem, is that Edgar has more to lose now than ever. So, like the doctor, he keeps certain things to himself. For example, some of the added benefits of the implant, like his growing strength. He is easily able to carry the bags of loot out of the vault. And with his free hand, he slams the vault door shut.

And hoists the wheelchair into the air. Then he carries it, and the bags of loot, into the alley behind the bank. There is an old pile of trash adjacent to an ancient, and rusted out dumpster. It’s just behind the building. By the time he is slowly wheeling himself onto the sidewalk in front of the bank, the first police car races to a stop almost directly in front of the bank. There’s a small group of people there. They are motioning to the officers. Trying to get their attention. Once again, Edgar is invisible.

Free Ride Out

Detective Seevers listens to the call come through dispatch. He confirms his status and picks up the pace. Ordinarily he wouldn’t respond to a call like this. It’s an obvious overdose. However, it’s the third silent alarm this week. Something else they would ordinarily overlook. Except for the pattern. Detective Seevers knew a pattern when he saw one. No matter how well hidden that pattern might be. In this case, he felt like they were missing something. It is something uncommon, but obvious.

Maybe it is nothing. However, if they prove this silent alarm coincidence, is actually a coincidence, he can go back to eating dinner before midnight. A thought that causes his stomach to react hungrily as they pull up to the small group of people near the entrance of the bank. The ambulance is already here, and they have the overdose victim stabilized on the ground. There’s a small group gathered around watching the commotion. Except.

Vanishing Returns

Except for one. An unlikely one at that. Detective Seevers gets out of the patrol car and waits for his partner to join him at the curb. He watches the man in the wheelchair move away at a steady pace. The commotion and animated gestures of the small crowd in front of the bank grow exponentially as Detective Seevers, and his partner, approach them. Seevers can’t take his mind off the strange man in the wheelchair getting a free ride out. They should at least ask if the guy saw anything. He turns and looks down the street. No one. The street is empty, as far as the eye can see. (end part one)

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