Sock Machine

…it makes socks

The Doclopedia #3,159

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.

Queen Bee

The woman known to the thieving crew as Queen Bee was the best Central Control money could buy, and she had worked with this crew 5 times in the last 2 years. It was a sweet deal, as her bank account would attest to. At just past 45, she was fast approaching her target retirement date. She was also not far off from grandmotherhood, a role she was excited about.

Her cut from tonight’s job would buy a whole lot of baby clothes and toys, to say nothing of nice things for Grandma & Grandpa.

The clock was ticking closer to the start of things, so she once again tapped the signal button on her transmitter three times. This sent a signal to the small transistor radio that each crew member carried. Her signal would cause them to silently pulse 3 times. Within 30 seconds, she got back a three pulse signal from each person except Chief Richards. He was just a useful idiot tonight, not a crew member.

Next, she checked the two cameras that Spider had placed in tall trees up the hill from the estate. They were focused on the cops patrolling the back of the mansion. Seeing that nothing unexpected was happening, she checked the final camera that was mounted over on the golf course. It had a great view of the party, which looked to number about 300 people, maybe 50 of whom where kids under 12. Nothing unexpected going on there, either, so she leaned back in her chair and sipped her coffee. This space was a bit cramped, but for being half a catering company truck, it was not bad.

After another few minutes, she sent the “all is well” code to the boss, then checked everything again. She was feeling a bit of a thrill, as she always did when working with this crew.

It was 30 minutes until showtime.