Chapter 9

As the sun rises to greet another day, his eyelids feel like they have been glued shut.

Surely it's not morning already he thought as an unconscious groan leaves Dan's mouth. The same as most mornings, it seems like all he did was blink and the night was gone and felt like no sleep came.

Gagging for a coffee and willing the little 12v kettle would hurry up, the mobile phone on charge kicks into life.

"What's up?" Dan asks.

"I have the plans you wanted" Ray informs

"Fantastic, where are you?"

"You don't want to know"

"Alright, I need them now, where can I meet you?

"Be at the petrol garage opposite the cemetery on the A13 in thirty minutes".

"Give me an hour I need coffee, Oh and Saim's joined"

"He didn't take much convincing then. See you soon"

Within the hour, Dan turns into the garage. Driving up to Ray and parking the car in the opposite direction, He places the two driver's doors side by side making it easier to pass things between.

Ray passes Dan a coffee.

"Cheers mucka, still not had enough caffeine yet"

"No worries, if you knew what I had to suffer to get these. I'm sure my cut should be higher"

"Nobody said crime was a clean job" Dan smirks "Right what you got?"

"Street Plan for each town from Stratford to Barking along with plans for every man-hole and sewer pipe under the towns."

"Excellent, now it's my turn to retreat for a few days and ponder over these. I need to work out the most viable and worthwhile bank".

"Bank, I thought you said it was cash in transit job!"

"All in good time my friend, don't rush what you don't know. Once all the plan is mapped out I will let you all know"

"Okay, fair play. Anything else you need?"

"Not from you but find out if Rob has the cars sorted. He needs to stash them for a couple of months. He has the address to put them in"
"Yeah no problem, I will let you know as soon as I do"
"You know the motors I like, dark with a good size boot, nothing flashy, with plenty of oomph but quiet"

"I know, I will make sure he does"

Back home Dan starts by clearing the mess off the seats to make some room and places the plans. Unrolling the A3 size plans, he overlays the street map with the sewer maps and searches for the location of the best, most viable, site. The maps were a few years old but he doubted much had changed. Locating the site to hit will be the most crucial aspect of the plan. Using a yellow marker pen, he finds all the manhole covers at street level and colours each one. The easiest and quickest routes in and out of each area were coloured in red. Using a blue marker pen, the sewer pipes were next to be traced. The network of pipes looked like a ball of knitting wool that had been unrolled and left in a pile. As the last line of blue was finished, the once spaghetti junction of pipes became clearer.

Each map for the various Towns, Stratford, East Ham, Ilford and Barking had been marked up. Now the task of choosing the perfect location could begin.