Five Beautiful Boys

Those Eyes!

"Where's Bob?" Ray asked as he folded the blueprints carefully.

Frank put a cigarette to his lips and lit it, drawing on the nicotine with a satisfied smile. Tipping another from the pack, he offered it to Ray.

"Thanks," he muttered, looking expectantly at Frank while he reached for his lighter.
"Bob's out meeting an old army buddy; getting equipped for the job. Apparently the vault isn't the only problem. The jewels are in a mini vault inside the main one, but blowing the door is likely to damage the contents and we just can't risk it."
"So what's he getting?"
"Some sort of hi-tech device, experimental apparently," Frank shrugged.
"Experimental in that it might not work?" Ray replied, his eyes widening at the idea and surprised that Frank seemed to think it an acceptable risk.
"Oh, no!" Frank laughed. "Not that experimental. It works all right, just not in manufacture yet."
"Won't the army miss it if there's only one of them?"
"We have a two day window," Frank explained. "It's finished trials and is about to go into discussion for production. The manufacturer can't meet with the army for another two days, so, it's going into storage. The theory is, no one's going to be looking for it for two days."
"That theory has to hold."
"Even if it doesn't, they won't know where it is and they're hardly going to announce to the press that they've mislaid a multi-million dollar investment, are they?"

Ray smiled; it seemed as though Frank had thought of everything. But then, that was Frank's chief role in the team. Frank was the planner; detail was his strength and he played to it perfectly.

Frank Iero had met Ray Toro and Bob Bryar in prison. At the time, two ofthe trio were small time crooks; their biggest mistake being that they had both extended themselves beyond their areas of expertise and had been caught. Frank could see the bigger picture, he would choose the target and carefully orchestrate the operation. The attention to detail he managed had always astonished his two companions, but they had their own special talents. Each of them were aware of the unique and vital roles they all played and knew that they depended upon each other heavily. Another of Frank's roles was as fence to the stolen goods. His contacts were seemingly innumerable, positioned worldwide and above all, very discreet. There was always a market for the proceeds of their thefts and their wealthy customers wanted their identities kept secret as much as the trio.

Ray Toro's speciality was electronics. Having trained both as an electrical engineer and computer programmer, Ray had found he possessed a natural affinity for all manner of complex circuitry and mechanics. With his talents, he had secured himself what he had hoped would be a job with good prospects but despite his obvious abilities, his lack of a college education appeared to give his employers the excuse they needed to continue to pay him poorly and overlook him for promotion. Toro found himself in the exasperating position of having to train less experienced and less able co-workers to perform jobs that, by rights, should be his. He fumed with frustration as talentless idiots on twice his salary had to be constantly bailed out by him. Many were the occasions when he would work late into the night to fix a project that had been bungled by one of the team he worked in. It was during one of these late lights that Ray Toro decided he should be remunerated properly, even if he had to do it himself. Hacking into the accounting system, the young engineer began siphoning off company funds. Just small amounts – he would never describe himself as greedy – Toro was able to raise his salary to an amount that he considered fair for the work he did. Finally, an amount he could actually live on in reasonable comfort. And so his existence continued for almost two and a half years only to be interrupted by the discovery of his thefts when the company installed a new accounting software package. Ironically, Toro would normally have been involved in installing the new software and would have been able to cover his tracks easily, but he was away on vacation when the discovery was made. Arrested and brought to trial, Toro was sentenced to three years.