The Job

Chapter 2 - The Plan

After Grogan left, Shaeffer just stayed out back, draining the last of the Sierra Nevada. Damn, it was good. He went up to get another, came back. His mind was already racing, trying to figure out the simplest way to do this job.

It needed to be quick, so that ruled out knocking over ATMs on routes controlled by banks. They were wise to his kind. Oh, the ATM routes were doable, alright. But you had to put together a top-notch string and it would take a year of planning. And it was better if you got someone on the inside, either to feed you info or to help with the job itself.

So what did that leave? He needed to do some research. Where was Grofield when you needed him? He was a whiz on Google research, thanks to his teenage daughter. Shaeffer took another swig of beer, mulling it over.

He had to find out about who stocked up all those indy ATMs that were inside gas stations. Lord knows the companies were spending a ton on security. Shaeffer laughed at the thought of what they considered security.

He drained his last beer and headed out to get more. Might as well stop at two or three gas stations, get a six pack each place and check out the ATMs, see if they had a service label on them or something. Field market research, they called this. Shaeffer was already liking it.

Shaeffer walked into the first BP station.He pulled out a six pack of Sierra Nevada from the cooler and walked over to the counter.

“Got an ATM?”

The cashier pointed over to the one in the corner.

Shaeffer went over to it. He looked it over. Hell, Grogan could probably just heave this over his shoulder and walk out of here. There was a sticker on the front of the ATM. “For service, call Ace ATMs 812-555-1212”.

Jesus, Shaeffer thought. He snickered. That sounded like a high dollar class operation.

He made a show of shoving his card in and pretending it wouldn't work. Last thing he needed was his debit card number showing up as a withdrawal on a an ATM that got hit 2 months later. And here Grogan was giving him shit for not being careful enough.

“Shit, I don't have enough on my card.” Shaeffer walked back over to the counter.

“Here's a sawbuck” The guy nodded and gave Shaeffer his change. Goddamn kid probably didn't even know what a sawbuck was. Wondering why the hell this old fart was calling a twenty a sawbuck.

Shaeffer headed out to the car with the sixpack. Time to case the next ATM. Yeah, Shaeffer could get used to this research. He just hoped his liver would hold out.

He pulled into the next BP station and pulled the same routine. The same outfit Ace ran this one. He was in luck. He walked out of the BP with his second six-pack, whistling a happy tune.

He went to the third BP down the street, hoping his luck would hold. No dice. This ATM claimed to be serviced by Automated Payment Systems. That could either be some guy trying to be big-time, or it was some no-name corporation that really was big-time. Either way, it was worth checking. If it was big-time, but wasn't affiliated with some bank, their security could be lacking. And the upside was that it would still have the same amount of cash offered by the big banks.

He threw the sixpack in back with the other two. He took a minute in the drivers seat to write down the names of the ATM route companies, see what he could turn up on a Google search.

At least Grofield showed Shaeffer some tech shit before he retired for good to be Macbeth, or whatever goddamn thing they played in summer stock. He just wished he had remembered more of it.

Shaeffer ran the anonymizer on his computer, hiding his IP address, then started his Google search. Jesus, what the hell did Parker and Nolan do back in the day? They'd have to drive all over creation to find out half the shit Shaeffer could find out in 10 minutes on the internet.