Cambridge—nearing 9:00 p.m.
The false alarm dampened everyone’s spirits but not their appetites.
“I could smell that pizza two blocks away,” said Jenkins as they returned to the van.
“I figured you’d all be hungry,” said Flores, who’d brought two pies. “Mushrooms and plain.”
Chelsea shook off the offer.
“You gotta be hungry,” said Jenkins. “Come on.”
“Not for pizza,” she told them.
“Perfectly balanced food,” said Robinson. “Fat, carbs, protein, tomato sauce. Doesn’t get any better than this.”
She rolled her eyes. Jenkins was right—she really should eat—but not pizza.
She looked at the video console, which showed the ATM they had under surveillance. It was all on the FBI now.
“Nothing going on,” said Flores. “Only two people have used it all night.”
“We’ll keep surveillance on all night,” said Jenkins, “but it doesn’t look good.”
At precisely five minutes to six, Jenkins’s second in command knocked on the door of the van, ready to begin the day shift. With him were two other FBI agents and a young Smart Metal employee, Jason Chi, who worked in the UAV division but had a strong background in AI. It took less than three minutes to brief them; Jenkins checked in with the surveillance teams, who were also being replaced, then walked Chelsea out to her pickup truck.
“See you tomorrow night?” she asked.
“Absolutely.”
Riding back to the task force headquarters, he checked his messages. His brother’s wife had called twice during the night; both times she’d tried to say something but couldn’t get it out. Too tired to call her back, he told himself she’d probably be sleeping. He checked his official e-mail quickly, then left for home.
Two hours after he arrived, Dryfus woke him with a phone call.
“They struck overnight,” said the tech supervisor. “I just got a call from Bank of America.”
“Son of a bitch. Was it the machine we were watching?”
“No. And none of the ones we staked out,” said Dryfus. “But . . .”
“Yeah?”
“It was in the next batch on the list. We just missed it.”
Jenkins collapsed back on the pillow, completely defeated.