THE SOUND OF MONEY
James Haresign
Copyright © by James Haresign 2012
Cover art © Alex Pass
www.fromsmallpixels.co.uk
It all started with a bank robbery in North Dakota. Not the type of case that the FBI would usually get involved in, in fact we didn't. Even taking into account that no one could figure out how anyone had got in and out of the bank without being caught on CCTV, tripping motion sensors or even opening the vault door, we weren't interested. It wasn't until the second break-in two weeks later in Montana that we were called in.
Just like the first bank, this one showed no signs of forced entry. Nothing on the cameras. If it wasn't for the fact the money was missing you'd have no idea the place had even been robbed.
As the four of us walked into the main floor of the Montana FBI field office, it was clear that we weren't welcome. Not that I could blame them. Another team from another office taking over an investigation that had only just started? It'd piss me off too.
From the sea of evil eyes appeared the man I figured must be the Special-Agent-in-Charge. Tall, bald, African American, and a stance that screamed he ran this ship how he wanted to. He held out his hand “Philip Reddick.”
I shook his hand. “Nathan Taylor.” I gestured to my three colleagues. “This is Anna Durham, Mark Brundell and Seth Lincoln. What have we got?”
He pointed towards a door off the floor and down a corridor. “Not much. The evidence from the Fargo PD just arrived. No one's had a chance to look at it yet. However, we've gone over the robbery at Great Falls and we can't figure a damn thing out. Absolutely nothing on camera except money disappearing into thin air. Even forensics haven't found anything.” He stopped at a door and ushered us inside as he pulled it open. All five us us crammed into a small room with what amounted to a big television, a sweet sound system and a very complicated DVD player. Not the most sophisticated set-up I'd seen.
“Why don't you have a look?” Reddick said.
I nodded, he hit play and the five of us watched what could have been a static image of a bank vault, except the clock in the corner was counting off the long, painful seconds. Eventually the screen slightly wobbled and shortly afterwards a faint buzzing started to come through the speakers. Then the strangest thing of all; money just started disappearing, brick by paper brick.
“What the...?” muttered Brundell.
“Our reaction exactly,” Reddick admitted.
“What was that interruption?” I asked.
“The techs think it might be some sort of feedback, but that's with the sound levels cranked up to full. It was ages before anyone even noticed it. They haven't looked into it yet. Didn't want to do anything without your say-so.”
And there it is. I'd wondered how long it would take for him to get a jab in. I'm impressed he waited till now. “Have we got the video from Fargo?”
Reddick headed over to the other side of the room and picked up a DVD and dropped it in the machine. We sped through, waiting for the money to start disappearing. The tape slowed, the screen wobbled and there was the buzzing again.
“Okay, get the techs on it now. I want to know what that is. Durham, speak to the banks security companies. See if they have any idea what could be generating that noise.”
Over the next few days several theories started. Durham even suggested that the weird feedback noise on the footage was people using some sort of device that could create a resonance at the exact frequency to walk through walls. Everyone else pointed out that you should still see them on the cameras.
Brundell had money on Raven. He certainly fit the bill too; an international thief renowned for getting in and out without ever being seen. However, after a lot of work forensics could usually find some trace of how he did it. Then there was the fact the he was one of the best art thieves on the planet. Bank jobs would be slumming it for him.
By far the most popular theory was a Power. You see them on the news all the time these days. People that can fly, who are far stronger than your average man, some can read minds, or move objects without touching them, and some had started trying to help people like in films or comics. Of course more had turned to easy money, and taking on security systems that just weren't designed to deal with the sort of abilities these people had. Once all that had started it didn't take the media long to start branding some of them with ridiculous superhero monikers like Blaze and Spartan.
It wasn't that much of a stretch to figure that the suspect could go invisible. How he got in was another question. Where he was going to strike next was a far more important one.
Then, almost a week later, the bank in Idaho was hit. We knew he was moving west. I pulled our team out of Montana, back to Washington State and the huge office Seattle offered.
“Taylor?” I turned to look up as Durham knocked on my open door. She seemed to have an affinity for these weird cases. “Get this, both banks use the same company for all their security packages.”
“That could be something,” I admitted.
“Yeah, but I can't get anyone from their head office to talk to me properly. However, we've been going over the footage from the banks with their in-house security teams. Remember that weird noise we complained about? They've been over everything from North Dakota and their techs assure us that it's got nothing to do with their equipment.”
“What the hell is it then?”
“The Power maybe?”
“The Power?”
“I've been thinking about it. What if he can hit just the right frequency so he appears invisible and walks through walls and such?”
I smiled. “What is it with you and resonating frequencies?”
She smiled back, a sweet smile. She was gonna make someone feel very special one day. “Find me another explanation for how someone can walk through walls and I'll pursue that. In the meantime, Science and Tech have agreed it's entirely feasible, it explains the weird buzz, and are working with Quantum Labs on theories.”
That got my attention. Quantum Labs were a huge scientific research company that specialised in trying to find out what was behind this recent human phenomenon that meant people could fly.
But Durham wasn't finished. “We've also had it confirmed that the Idaho bank also ran the same security company. Different system again, but definitely same company. I think coincidence can be ruled out.”
“I do too. Okay, you and Lincoln keep on the Quantum Labs angle. I'll take Brundell and see what we can learn from this security company.”
It took two days before I got to see someone worth talking to at the security systems company. In that time we'd identified seven banks in Seattle that used the firm and could be the next target. After hearing non-stop that their security systems being bypassed was a rare occurrence, a blip or an unfortunate anomaly, a technician who openly admits that they hadn't even considered Powers as a problem was a welcome relief. It didn't take him long to realise that the banks had been hit in order of increasing security. It was as if our invisible bank robber was testing how far he could push the systems without setting anything off.
It was a decent plan, but his trial runs had got our attention and he was going to pay for it. The tech went down our list and eliminated three more likely targets as they all had lesser models than Idaho. If he was building up to something bigger, he'd already surpassed them.
Lincoln was the one that made the connection that each vault hit only had two walls between them and the outside world. That brought the potential targets down to two. It certainly wasn't concrete science, but we had to do something. I'd be in serious trouble if our guesses were wrong.
To hedge our bets I posted agents at all four of the banks, but full SWAT teams at the two favourites.
/> Thankfully, Durham had some solid news. Quantum Labs had come up gold. After reviewing the security footage from all three banks, they thought they had identified the resonance frequency range of the suspect. With that established, they had managed to set up sensors attached to the outside walls of all the banks. Of course, to shame us all, they also pointed out that there's no way sound manipulation or vibrating at high speed could make someone invisible - maybe hard to see - but not invisible. At best the frequency was messing with the camera feeds. Given time it was something they could possibly fix but that wouldn't be fast enough to do us any favours in Seattle.
Not only that, but another week later they managed to put together some device that could put out an alternate frequency that would, theoretically, stop whoever it was from escaping.
We now had two of them up and running at our prospect targets.
Of course we couldn't do any testing, so there was no guarantee any of this would
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