…the kind you eat
The Doclopedia #3,157
A California Kid & Spider Story: The Hot Job
This is the story of an art heist that takes place during a Fourth of July party, and what each person in the team was doing.
Spider
The Jervison estate sat on 10 acres of land and had an 8 foot tall brick fence around it. Atop that fence, spaces 3 inches apart, were 6 inch sharp steel spikes. The current resident had inherited the estate from his father, who had also been a US Senator, as well as an ambassador to France for 4 years. He had liked his privacy.
The north side of the estate faced a major parkway and beyong that, a gated community that was home to wealthy and influential people. To the east and south, the border was the Forest Hills Country Club, a very large and very famous place. Big PGA tours took place there 6 or 7 times per year. The memberships were very expensive and the homes along the opposite side of it were even more so. Tonight’s fireworks show would be originating on an island in the middle of a 15 acre lake about half a mile from Jervison’s eastern fence. The perimeter of the country club was patrolled every 30 minutes by two security guards in a golf cart.
The west side of the estate, and parts of the north and south side of the golf property, were bordered by the 600 acre Dendrige estate. Purchased by Tanner Dendrige, newspaper mogul, in 1880, 90% of the property remained virgin forest. The remaining 10% was the Dendrige family compound, high atop Spotter’s Hill, the highest hill in the area. It was patrolled by large and rugged men on horseback who were armed with shotguns and sidearms. Nobody ever trespassed because signs on the fence warned that trespassers would be shot, and over the last 95 years several had been.
Spider knew all of this because he had read up on it in great detail weeks ago. He also knew that the horse riding guards only passed by his present location twice a day, around 6 in the morning and 6 in the afternoon. He also knew that after years on nothing going on, the guards had grown bored and unattentive.
So he sat in his well concealed cold camp about 100 yards up the hill from the Jervison’s fence and the horse trail and drank some water to wash down the jerky he was eating. Once it a while, he’d turn on the small transistor radio in his pocket and check in with Central to see if there was and news. There wasn’t and he didn’t expect any. Things were far to well planned for anyone on the team to screw up.
As the clock ticked down, Spider considered tonight’s heist. Getting in and getting to the secret room would be relatively easy, 13 minutes tops. Getting the goods would take somewhere between 7 and 10 minutes. Getting out of the house and over the wall with the goods would take no more than 5 minutes. Less than 30 minutes, in and out. After that, it was a cakewalk.
Spider got up and walked over to a pine tree, which he then took a leak upon. A few yards away, he saw a red fox walking up the hill, a ground squirrel in its mouth.
It was 2 hours until showtime.
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