White Collar - as an unofficial novel - part 6

The art of robbing a bank

Dressed as a janitor, Neal pushed the cleaning cart in the basement under the bank. No one was down there more than they had to. Painted brick walls and no windows. For a moment he came to think of the isolation cell in prison. But this was bigger and he could leave any time.

He reached the compressed air tubes. This was an old-fashioned but effective way to transport papers within the building of the bank. Following his mom to the bank as a kid he had watched one of those tubes crossing the ceiling, waiting for a capsule to pass through. It never did. Either it was not much in use or they passed too quickly.

Neal brought out a metal string with sawteeth, glanced around to see if he was still alone, pulled it around one of the pipes, and quickly saw throw the material. With a yank, he pulled the pipe loose and pocketed the string. The air whistled throw the gap. He grabbed the pre-prepared capsule with Nick Halden's documents and pushed it inside the tube. It was sucked up and away and Neal replaced the tube. Before anyone would notice it was cut he would be long gone.

From a secret compartment in the trash bag on the cart, he pulled a nice, shiny briefcase. He left the cart and walked to the elevator. Inside he stepped out of his overalls, revealing himself in Nick's dark suit and gray tie, with a slightly pink shirt to it. He adjusted the cuffs and tie and stepped out of the elevator into the bank's main lobby.

It was a grand lobby, like a cathedral.

He did not aim for the information desk in the middle but the employees to the left. He stopped by the first desk, probably a personal adviser considering it was accessible to customers. The sign on the desk said 'Pamela Smith'.

"Hi. I'm Nick," he said and she looked up. "Nick Halden. Today's my first day."

Pamela leaned back in her seat, frowning.

"We're not expecting any new employees."

"Hmm? I spoke to Brittney in HR. She said my welcome badge and packet would be ready for me."

"Nobody told me about any of this," she said as if it was his fault. He smiled and shrugged. She rose. "Hang on."

There were four desks outside the restricted office. None of the others were occupied. She searched on the desk behind her and then moved further to where the tubes delivered their treasures. She opened the hatch and picked out his capsule. On the way back she opened it, brought out the envelope, and found the ID with Neal's smiling face on and his title as Account Manager.

She smiled at him for the first time.

"I'm sorry about that. Welcome packet's right here." She handed him the whole kit.

"All right," he glanced at the id. "Looks like me."

"Come on in, Nick," she waved at him and moved towards the restricted office.

"Okay."

They stopped by the door. She pointed at the pad where he was supposed to unlock the door with his new card. It beeped negative. He flipped it over and it beeped again.

"Am I fired already?" he beamed at her.

"First-day glitches," Pamela beamed back and held up her own card. "Here you go."

"Ah, thank you. Oh, you got a little something..." he said, put the briefcase down and took a step closer towards her, "lint right here," removing nothing from her left shoulder while he unhooked her card from her right pocket. "Got it... Just some lint."

"I hope you like it here."

He pushed the door open.

"Oh, so far so good."