Juncture 3.4

The air was an even temperature as we walked out of Siegfried’s office, the kind of weather where leaves were just beginning to grow again after a harsh winter. As I was subjected to some cold breezes, I was thankful that I had the leather jacket on.

“So… what are we looking for?” I asked Siegfried, as we walked down the sidewalk next to a large street.

“Well, there’s a person we’re looking for somewhere near here, in a bank near here.” Was his reply.

“Okay. How do you know he’s going to be there?” was my next question. He looked at me with a vague, blank expression, like it boggled his mind that I was missing something.

“Time, Marc,” he breathed out in a sigh, “we have full access to the timeline. We know where and when almosteverything happens.”

“Oh, right,” I said with a sheepish grin.

Almost?

We kept walking down the street. A few moments passed.

“Turn left,” Siegfried said. I did so, and he followed immediately after. In front of me down the intersection of the street was a large, regal-looking bank. A sign on top of the entrance proclaimed the building to be the First Bank of America. We walked through the glass doors, and into a long, garish hallway.

Everything inside was white marble. The floor was marble, the pillars lining the walls were marble, and the ceiling was marble. There was a line of people waiting, starting at the far end of the room, and ending close to where we were. We joined it at the very end.

“So do you know how long this is going to take?” I asked. I looked up at Major General Siegfried; his face was screwed up and his eyes were closed.

Right, he was using his TA to check. It was several more seconds before he opened his eyes.

“Well, we have… quite a while, unfortunately. Nothing interesting is going to happen here for a bit. Nothing that causes any large emotional shifts.”

“Do you know how long?”

“At least fifteen minutes.” Siegfried answered.

Dammit, that’s long.

I didn’t have the attention span to just stand here and do nothing for that long. Before Siegfried had even finished speaking I felt myself begin to get twitchy. After a minute, I was slapping my hand against my thigh.

“I’m going to wait outside for a little bit, look around for anything suspicious.” I said. Siegfried nodded and I walked back outside of the grandiose building. I paced for a couple minutes, scanning the area for anything weird. There weren’t very many other people, the street was practically abandoned.

A gang of guys passed down the far side of the street, all wearing the exact same outfit that I was. They couldn’t have looked more stereotypical if they were all snapping simultaneously as they walked.

Closer to me, a woman wearing scarily high heels tottered into a shop building, and a bell jingled.

I walked down to the other end of the street, scanning from side to side as I walked. Aside from the huge bank, there were several smaller shops lining the street. There were groceries, coffee shops, and restaurants. Most didn’t have very many people inside.

I walked back up the street, and decided to go inside one of the restaurants, called The Grillerie. The moderately fancy façade did not belie the oddly cheap interior. There were several folding chairs nailed to the floor around small tables, also nailed down. The tables still had scraps from the people who had been eating here before.

The only person aside from me in the building was a balding man who I took to be the cook. He was standing behind the register, wearing a red apron and an askew chef’s hat. He was smoking a large cigar, and looking at me with a droll expression on his face.

I quickly walked out. The man grunted as I left. I walked back up to the bank, through the swinging doors, and back up to Major General Siegfried. He had moved up around a foot and a half since I had left.

I stood next to him, and asked, “Anything yet?”

“Not yet. Give it time,” was his reply, “It won’t be long now.”

I stood next to him for a bit. That didn’t work. Then I walked horizontally all the way to one pillar on the left side of the room. That didn’t work either. I walked from there to the matching pillar on the opposite side of the room. I stayed there for a bit, a window was open next to me and there was a breeze.

The door opened, and a man walked in. He was wearing a baseball cap down over his brow. Underneath that was a pair of overly-large sunglasses. Underneath that was a scarf. He was also carrying a backpack in one hand, with the zipper half open underneath his other hand.

General conclusion: he looked shifty as hell.

He got in line behind us and began fumbling with his bag. He was trying to pull something large out. I pretended to not see him, following Major General Siegfried’s lead. He was audibly having trouble pulling whatever object was in his bag out, but after several seconds he persevered and the rifling noise stopped.

There was a tapping on my shoulder. I turned around and saw that the man was holding out a slip of paper in one gloved hand, and he held the other one behind his back. I took the paper, and tried to decipher it.

“Hello.

I am in the process of robbing this bank. 

Do not yell. I have dynamite behind my back. 

You are going to announce this to the rest of the people here, and accompany me to the back, where you will be my liaison. 

As compensation, nobody here will be harmed.

Thanks.”

After several seconds, I read the message in its entirety. I felt the blood rush from my face as I was reading it. We were being held up at dynamite-point.

Oh, fuck.