The Storm Maker Read Free Page A

he said and took out a key of his own.
           The
manager turned his key in the door and said, “It’s only once a month that we
open this early. We have to count all the cash, count it twice, and track it to
the accounts and transactions. A lot of this work has to be done by seven this
evening when the armed truck sent by headquarters will arrive to take the
monthly cash to the big vault in the Capital.”
           “I
suppose once a month I can be bothered,” the guard said and turned his own key.
The front door only opened when both the manager and the guard keys were
inserted and turned.
           “Look
at the bright side of this bright morning,” the manager said as he opened the
door. He  turned around and pointed to the four young bookkeepers walking up to
the bank. “Those bookies have to work from seven in the morning to seven at
night doing all the counting and accounting. You just have to sit back and
watch.”
           The
manager entered the bank, followed by the guard and the four bookkeepers. In the
front were five counters and the tellers would arrive at nine o’clock. The
guard walked to counter furthest to the left, pushed the half sized swinging
door and put his shotgun on the counter. There were only three tellers on hire
at this branch and the guard had made the fifth counter his own corner.
           “Sir,
mind if I get a coffee?” the guard asked, “just down the road.”
           “Sure,”
the manager said. “By the way, I brought my pistol with me. Today is the only
day of the month I do.”
           “Don’t
worry, I won’t be more than five minutes,” the guard said and went to get his
coffee.
           The
manager and the bookkeeper went inside to the inner room behind the counter
desks and the manager used a special key and a number combination to open the
lock to the cash vault. They kept the cash that was needed for each day’s
transactions in the counters with the tellers, but all the extra cash that was
deposited was locked in this vault. Once a month it would be driven by the
armed truck to the main vault at the bank’s headquarters. But before it went,
the branch had to provide a full accounting of it signed by the manager.
           As
the guard walked out of the coffee shop located across from the bank just a
block away, he noticed a car parked in front of it. Two men sat on the front
seat reading newspapers. He was surprised to see a car parked there this early.
Most stores and offices did not open till nine and no workers would just sit
around in the car. Suspicious, he walked closer to the car and looked inside as
he walked by. The two men did not appear to be Starfirians. They were perhaps
tourists, he thought to himself.
           He
crossed the empty road and as he walked up the street to the bank front door he
turned around and looked again at that car . It was still there motionless. He
went in and took his seat behind his counter, put the coffee down next to the
shotgun and leaned back on the chair. He tapped on the gun, smiled, then drank
his coffee.
           The
three bank tellers, all women, came at nine and the first customer walked in
ten minutes later. The business today was the usual pace. Four to five
customers would be in the bank at any time. The manager and the bookkeepers
were busy in the back doing their cash counting.
           When
the afternoon rolled around there were twelve customers in the bank, taking
advantage of their lunch hour to conduct their banking business. The guard, who
had been sitting and playing cards with himself all morning, was debating his
choice of lunch meal when both the doors crashed open.
     
           Two
men with automatic rifles rushed in pointing their guns as they yelled
"Don’t move" to a suddenly panicked crowd. The guard had reflexively
grabbed the shotgun from the countertop when the doors had been slammed open
and he fired two shots into the