The Getaway - By Tom Barber Page 0,62

now I’m one of only two people in the entire United States who know that you’re on our side. If you kill me, you really are screwed.’

Suddenly, headlights lit them up from behind. Both of them jerked around.

But it wasn’t a threat. Just someone trying to get past. Archer pulled into a parking slot to his left and let the car pass. Katic stayed where she was, making no attempt to reach for her pistol, rubbing her neck and arm instead. On the kerb in an empty slot, Archer switched off the engine and took a deep breath. He glanced over at the woman. She looked far too troubled for this to be a play. She wasn’t messing him around.

‘Right,’ he said, the pistol still in his hand. ‘Please tell me what the hell is going on.’

‘We’re a six man team. Used to be twelve, but eighteen months ago, finally, our clearance rate improved,’ Katic said. ‘We were six -and-six, six FBI, six NYPD. The cops pulled their guys from the squad, sending them elsewhere. Claimed the clearance was so high that their work was done, that we could handle it and their resources would be better used elsewhere.’

‘Yeah, I know all this. Gerrard explained this to me. You felt like they ditched you.’

‘Exactly. Since they left, the number of heists have risen. But that means we’re the ones taking all the flak for it. The cops have their own bank robbery detectives, but they handle note-jobs and liquor-store stick-ups, petty stuff like that. The big heists get sent our way, with just six of us asked to handle every single one in the five boroughs.’

They were momentarily lit up as another car passed them down the street, but neither reacted. Archer listened closely as Katic explained.

‘I was with the old team. One of the originals. Once we’d got that heist level down to just 26 in a calendar year, our old boss figured his work was done too. No better note to retire on. He packed his bags and headed back to Virginia for his retirement. Two of the others were promoted and transferred back to D.C. So there were three of us from the old team. Myself, O’Hara and Lock. And last summer, three new agents were brought in. Siletti, Parker-‘

‘And Gerry.’

She nodded. ‘Yes. And we couldn’t have asked for three more different guys.’

‘How so?’

‘First of all, Gerrard was bitter as hell when he arrived. We all noticed it straight away. There were a lot of rumours circulating, but word on the grapevine was he got demoted from his old position at Quantico.’

‘What did he do?

‘I don’t know for sure. But whatever he did, it pissed off everyone above him something severe. They demoted him, screwed up his pension, his $401k. Everyone Gerrard came up with had climbed the ladder, or stayed where they were, but he got pushed straight back down. Not just down a level, but down several. Almost twenty years of service, gone just like that. They knew the role here was a poisoned chalice. It was a ticking bomb waiting to go off. After Williams retired, no one in D.C wanted it. So they gave it to Gerrard and sent him up here as punishment.’

Archer didn’t respond. But he listened closely.

‘Siletti came with him. They transferred him from Finance. He’s a moaner, but he’s reliable.’

‘And Parker?’

‘The golden boy, fresh from the farm at Quantico. His family are crazy wealthy, but he decided he wanted to become a Federal agent. He’s young, younger than me. Everyone likes Parker. He could have taken the easy route, and lived on a yacht or in the Hamptons off his family’s money, but he started from the bottom. Wanted to carve out his own path. He went through the training at Quantico, aced it, and they transferred him here a month later.’

She paused.

‘I’ll say it again. Before they all joined, our clearance rate had been rising. It was rock solid, you know? Over fifty per cent, the highest it’s ever been. We were on a roll. But since Gerrard’s been at the helm, it’s plummeted. I kept thinking that it had to stop, that the decline would end. We’ve got some good people on the team. But it just kept dropping and dropping. Farrell and his crew have been running riot. Someone on the inside has to be helping them.’

‘And you think Gerrard is the rat?’ he asked.

‘It makes sense, doesn’t it?’

Archer shook his head. He wasn’t convinced.

‘That’s one