Chapter 6 special bond

Herb got up early in the morning. After a quick bite of breakfast, he grabbed his briefcase and prepared to go to work.As soon as he reached the door, he turned around again and shouted into the room: "Mom, I'm going to work!" "Go, be careful on the road, I wish you a happy work today!" Herb's mother's gentle and sweet voice came from the bedroom, "You won't be late today, will you?" "No, Mom." Herb comforted his mother, and he could hear a trace of tiredness in his mother's voice. "Is it work at seven o'clock?" Mom asked.

"Yes." Herb replied.His eyes scanned the living room, feeling a little sour. Herb's father passed away at an early age, and it was his mother who brought him up single-handedly.Mother used to run a business, but the failure of the business left the Herb family impoverished.Now, the mother and son are barely able to live a subsistence life through hard work.Because of Herb's meager salary, the mother had to go out to work to supplement the family income. Therefore, the years of hard work made the mother much older than her actual age, and she also suffered from a whole body of diseases.

Herb stood at the door, looking at everything in the living room with emotion.Among the old but elegant pieces of furniture was a faded mahogany chest--in it was the fine china that my mother had painstakingly collected, all of which were dearest to her.In the corner of the living room, there is also a small jewelry shelf with various trinkets hanging on it. Although these objects are not expensive, each one embodies Herb's fond memories of family life.Today, I will bid farewell to everything here forever. Herb closed the door, walked into the elevator of the apartment, and pressed the button to go to the first floor.The dilapidated elevator creaked and descended slowly.Herb leaned in the elevator, staring at the inner wall of the elevator, which was engraved with crooked words by naughty children.In Herb's forty years of life, he spent thirty years in this apartment, and this old elevator witnessed his boyhood.In all the years of living here, Herb has never scribbled in an elevator like other kids.At this moment, he reached into his bosom, touched the carving knife hanging on the chain of the pocket watch, and felt an urge to carve his name in the elevator, but his natural timidity and habit of obeying order made him Withdrawing his hand from his bosom again, he sighed, there will never be another chance in the future!

Herb was a disciplined and meticulous man.For decades, he has been living in peace, working conscientiously, and living on a meager salary.Sometimes, he also thought about changing the status quo, but every time he flinched because he lacked enough courage.But today, he finally made up his mind and planned to steal half a million yuan from the company before the sun went down.Thinking of this, a smile appeared on his face. As usual, Herb sat in the back of the third car of the shuttle.He took a copy of The New York Times from his briefcase, folded it neatly into quarters, and held the paper close to his eyes, reading the day's news with his nearsighted eyes.

When the shuttle reached Wall Street Station, Herb put the newspaper back in his briefcase and got out with a number of men in black serge suits, bowler hats, and umbrellas.He got out of the station and walked towards an office building. When he reached the door of the office building, he nodded to the guard, and then took the elevator up to the sixteenth floor.After getting out of the elevator, he came to a translucent glass door with a line written on it: This is where Herb works. Herb pushed open the glass door, and the first thing he saw was a blackboard, on which was recorded the stock prices of various companies the day before in chalk.Herb went straight down the corridor into an office with six desks, filing cabinets with glass doors against the wall, and a window.Herb's desk was the innermost, and it was separated from other people's desks by a baffle around it, which showed that Herb had more than twenty years of experience in this company.

When it was almost seven o'clock, other colleagues in the office came one after another.The first person to come in was Billy, a tall, thin man with a haggard face, and his seniority in this company was only two years behind Herb's.After Billy came in, he greeted Herb first, and then sat down in his seat.Miss Fender came in next. She was thirty years old this year and was the secretary of the deputy manager of the company, Tabor. She was a very talented woman.After Fendai sat down, the first thing she did was to open the dressing box to touch up her makeup.Then came two young clerks, and finally Lawrence, the nephew of the company's deputy manager, Tabor.

Just after seven o'clock, the deputy manager Tai Bo came out of the inner office. He inspected it and was very happy to see that everyone was seated on time. Then he motioned for Miss Fender to come to his office. At half past nine, Miss Fendi came out of the deputy manager's office with no expression on her face.Then Tepper also came out, and he came to Herb's desk. "Good morning, Herb! How is everything?" Tai Bo always spoke in a false tone. "I'm fine, Mr. Tepper," Herb replied. "I've thought about it, and I have a task for you." "Okay, please tell me." Herb said briskly.

"Today is Friday, and a batch of special bonds will be delivered in the afternoon, and you will be responsible for receiving them. These bonds are free to circulate, and you are responsible for storing them in the warehouse downstairs, no problem?" Tai Bo said seriously. "No problem, leave it to me!" Herb nodded. At this time, Lawrence who was at another desk stood up, walked to Tai Po and said, "Uncle, let me cooperate with Herb." Tapper turned his head and asked Herb, "How about having Lawrence assist you?" Herb didn't want anyone to come in and ruin his plan. He said, "I think I'm good enough by myself."

"Okay, that's up to you alone," said Tai Bo. Lawrence had no choice but to return to his seat, his face flushed slightly, and he seemed a little unconvinced. After Tai Bo explained his work, he returned to his office. At this time, Herb looked around and saw that everyone was busy with their work, so he picked up the phone and made three consecutive calls: the first was to call his mother; One was for the cafeteria; the third was for the real estate company downstairs. After Herb put down the phone, he opened the drawer in the middle of the desk, took out a stack of blank receipts, and began to fill in them.He had obtained these receipts last month from a shipping company that delivered the special bond this afternoon.

When he was about to leave work at noon, Herb had already filled out the fake receipts.He carefully put them back in the middle drawer, hidden in the back, and locked the drawer.Then, he put on his coat and hat, said hello to his colleagues, and walked out of the company. Herb took the elevator to the first floor, walked out of the office building, and headed for a small cafeteria five blocks away.In the restaurant, he selected some food and walked over to the two men with his plate.One of the two men was tall and thin, and the other was short and fat. They were the two men Herb called to make an appointment. Among them, the tall and thin one was named Stone, and the short and fat one was named Brown, both of whom had a lot of connections with the underworld. Herb had met them three weeks earlier in a New York bar.

Herb explained his purpose to them while eating lunch.At the beginning, Stone and Brown seemed a little absent-minded, but when Herb mentioned the total amount of this special bond, the two of them were taken aback and looked at each other with wide eyes. Herb looked at their surprise and said, "This is a good opportunity to make a fortune, and there is no risk, because I have already planned it!" After finishing speaking, he leaned forward again and introduced them in detail his plan. In Herb's plan, the most important thing is to master the time difference.For this reason, Herb has been observing the activity patterns of his colleagues for several months.He knew that on Fridays, everyone would leave work early, and Miss Fendi would go to the bathroom to put on makeup five minutes before get off work every day. At this time, only the deputy manager, Tabor, was in the office—the best time to rob. Herb's plan is also very simple: in the afternoon, Stone and Brown will first go downstairs to the real estate company to pretend to have a business talk, and when the time comes, they will take the elevator to the company where Herb works. It was already off work, Miss Fendi was putting on makeup in the bathroom, and only Herb was in the office of deputy manager Taber with the special bond. At this time, Stone and Brown rushed in with masks on, drew their pistols, threatened them to hand over the bond, and then Knock the deputy manager Tebow unconscious, and to avoid suspicion, they also wound Herb, but they must not kill anyone. Hearing Herb's plan, Stone asked full of doubts: "What will we do after we grab the bond? The woman named Fendi will be back in five minutes, and we will have no time to escape from this building within five minutes." !" "Yeah," Brown went on, "if Fendi calls the police, the guards will block the exits of the building, and we won't be able to get the bonds out of the building." "Don't worry, I've already thought of this." Herb said proudly, "I have a way to never let them find those bonds." "What way?" Stone and Brown raised their eyebrows immediately. "You don't need to carry bonds with you!" Herb said. "No?" Both of them shook their heads in bewilderment. "This is the most critical part of my plan, and it's also the last detail." Herb motioned the two of them closer, "Listen carefully, both of you. The bonds are thrown into a wastebasket that I have already prepared. At the same time, I will prepare some waste paper on the table. You also sweep the waste paper into the waste paper basket, cover the bonds, and then You just go down the fire escape stairs, remember to throw away your masks and pistols, and finally leave with dignity." "So, as long as there is nothing suspicious on us, the guards won't stop us?" Brown asked. "certainly." "So how do you get the bonds out of the building?" Stone asked. "That's easy," said Herb. "When the police come, they'll question each other, but they won't suspect me, and when they're gone, I'll take the bonds out of the wastebasket and put them away." Put it in a suitcase and take it out of the building." "That's great!" Brown said excitedly. "A bond of five hundred thousand dollars. It's a no-brainer!" "That's right! After the matter is completed, I will definitely get a lot of money from the part that belongs to you!" Herb said, "Next, let's confirm the action steps and time." Herb repeated the steps to them and checked their watches.At last Herb stood up, put on his bowler hat, and said solemnly, "Let's separate and make sure there's no trouble. See you at four fifty-eight!" At 3:30 in the afternoon, the transportation company delivered the special bond. At four o'clock in the afternoon, Herb secretly prayed in the office: Stone and Brown must come downstairs as planned. At four-fifteen, Herb took a yellow receipt from a drawer, put it on the table, and began registering the bogus entries. When it was closing time, Lawrence was the first to leave the office, followed by two other young employees, and finally, Billy also left the office and went home. Herb looked at his watch. It was four fifty-five.At this moment, Miss Fendi walked to the bathroom with a handbag.Just after Miss Fender left the office, Herb quickly put the wastebasket in an inconspicuous place, and also put a dozen pieces of waste paper on the desk. He took a look and felt that everything was ready.Then, he picked up the large bundles of bonds, knocked on the door and entered the office of Deputy Manager Tabor, asking him to sign. At this time, the hands of the watch pointed to exactly 4:58. "It's time for them two to come." Herb thought to himself. Everything that followed happened as planned—two men wearing masks broke into Tai Bo's office, threatened him with guns to hand over the bonds, and after getting them, they knocked Tai Bo unconscious, and then shot He Bob was knocked out.Herb lay on the ground, and through the slits of his eyes, he saw Stone and Brown throw the bond into the wastebasket, and then a few pieces of waste paper slipped in, covering the bond tightly, and finally, Stone and Brown Fleeing to the fire escape in a hurry... About a minute later, Miss Fender's screams were heard in the office. An hour later, the officer finished questioning Miss Fendi and Deputy Manager Tabor and turned back to Herb. "So, you can't describe the gangster's appearance?" "Yes," replied Herb, "they were all wearing masks. I didn't see their faces. I only knew that one of them was short and fat and the other was tall and thin." "Is this all the numbers on the robbed bonds?" the officer asked Herb, taking a number slip from Tabor's desk. "right!" "Okay then," the police officer turned to a policeman beside him and said, "Notify the relevant department immediately, and all the bonds of this group of numbers will be voided!" Herb laughed secretly: "This set of numbers is all forged!" Tai Bo was beaten badly. At this moment, he rubbed his injured head and asked the police officer, "Can I go to the hospital now?" "You go, I'll ask this Mr. Herb to find out more about the situation." The police officer said. So, Deputy Manager Tai Bo went to the hospital accompanied by Miss Fender. The police officer sat behind the desk and asked Herb some details of the incident.When he was asking questions, he swung his right foot back and forth and kicked the wastebasket several times. The wastebasket wobbled a few times and almost fell over.At that moment, Herb was so nervous that his heart was about to jump out of his throat. He hurriedly pretended to be nonchalant and took two steps, consciously or unconsciously using his toes to stabilize the wastebasket. At this moment, the door opened, and an old wrinkled woman walked in, pushing a cart with a large sack on it.The police officer looked at the old woman in surprise, and Herb quickly explained: "Oh, she is a cleaner, and she comes to clean after get off work every day. Let's talk in the back room." As he said that, Herb led the police officer into the inner room of Tai Bo's office, and continued to describe the situation at that time. At this time, Herb heard the sound of cleaning the table outside, and the sound of the wastebasket being picked up and the contents being poured into the big sack, and he couldn't help but feel agitated. When Herb and the police officer came out from the inside, he pretended to be casual and went to the wastebasket to see that it was empty! After the police officer finished talking with Herb, he also left.Herb didn't dare to stay for long, so he took the elevator downstairs in a hurry, then ran to the corner of the street and called a taxi, "Quick, go to the airport!" Herb said to the driver. Ten minutes later, the taxi arrived at the airport.Herb jumped out of the car and ran all the way into the waiting room, when he heard the radio broadcasting: "The last broadcast, the last broadcast, passengers of flight 706 to Rio de Janeiro, please go to gate 4-C, the plane will leave soon. It's about to take off!" Herb quickly ran to the door of 4-C, and saw a man in a black coat and flowered hat standing at the door, with his back to him, and two suitcases beside him. Herb ran over immediately, patted the man on the shoulder from behind and said, "Mom, I'm here!" "That's great! Child." The man turned his head and said in a soft and sweet voice.That was Herb's mother, and she looked fine. "Mom, everything is going well! We can finally leave this country." As Herb said, he pulled up the suitcase and walked to the boarding gate with his mother. He laughed. From now on, my mother will no longer have to work as a cleaner at Taber & Sons.