drown at the beach, Donati, and you know why? Because they know. You swim in the ocean. It’s always the same—waves come in, break, roll up the sand, wash back, and in comes another. You swim in the ocean a hundred times and it’s always the same. So you figure you know how to swim in the ocean. One day, you go to the beach and it’s the same—same sand, same sun, same umbrellas, and same surf. You decide to take a dip in this same ocean, only this time it’s not the same. There’s an undertow, never felt it before, or maybe there’s an icy current ten, fifteen feet off shore, a rip tide. It feels like the Arctic Ocean. Before you know it you’re under, cramped, or washing out to sea. People drown at the beach, Donati, because they know. Been to the beach a hundred times and they know.
“Now, the guy who doesn’t know, the guy who’s afraid of the ocean…respects it. He won’t drown. Nothing surprises him because he figures the worst could happen, so he’s careful. He checks everything—not once, but several times. He prepares. He thinks he knows but then, you never know, do you?
“I’ve seen every alarm system there is, Donati, a hundred times—and every time I work on one, I’m scared. See, I don’t know, Donati—I think.” Harry sat back, the challenge still in his eyes.
“Okay, you’ve made your point. How long will it take, all of it?”
“Maybe two and a half, three hours.”
“That’s too long, Grafton. We got four floors of pictures to put into the trailers. It gets light around five, and we can’t start until after midnight. You take two and a half hours and that leaves us two and a half hours for the rest. No good, you get one hour.”
“Two.”
“One.”
“Look, Donati, I can’t work any faster and be sure. There are a lot of steps that have to be taken and systems to get around before I can even begin to work on the box. I can cut some time by rigging the TV early—say eleven o’clock. It shouldn’t make much difference when that happens. You can save some time by pulling the trailers close to the site and not putting the pictures in the racks. Why not just stack them flat—floor to ceiling. Leave out the spacers too.”
“It’ll ruin the pictures, they said. When we move, they’ll rub and mess up the paint.”
“What do you care about that? Look, if you are going to pack them right, you’ll need more than five hours—you’ll need five days. If you just toss them in the trailer, you can get all of it done by five thirty or six at the latest. That is at least three, three and a half hours. If one of you does nothing but pull frames and make bundles of say, thirty pounds each, and the rest of us just haul and stack, it could be done.”
Donati thought a moment and then agreed. “Okay, Grafton, two hours—one and a half would be better. You shoot for one and a half. Two is a maximum.”
Donati turned to Red, dismissing Harry from his thoughts.
“You got what you need?” Red scratched and nodded.
“Two trailers, one big Peterbilt tractor. They are painted to look like Titan Van Lines, like you said.”
The room became silent again. Harry felt more uncomfortable. He allowed his mind to assemble a shopping list—magnets of different and standard strengths, induction coils, the video recorders, and switching boxes.…
Donati’s velvet smooth voice cut through Harry’s calculations.
“The plan is simple. We’re calling it Artscape—don’t ask why, I don’t know, it’s what they want. So, Thursday night, we go to the building and get into position. Red will have one trailer ready. As soon as Grafton starts, Red, you bring it into the lot and park by the door, unhook, and go get the other one. When the alarms are off, we go in and start pulling the pictures from the frames and loading. When the first trailer is filled, Red pulls out and we fill the second one. When we are done with that one, Red hauls it away and we all split.
“Grafton, you and
“Now, the guy who doesn’t know, the guy who’s afraid of the ocean…respects it. He won’t drown. Nothing surprises him because he figures the worst could happen, so he’s careful. He checks everything—not once, but several times. He prepares. He thinks he knows but then, you never know, do you?
“I’ve seen every alarm system there is, Donati, a hundred times—and every time I work on one, I’m scared. See, I don’t know, Donati—I think.” Harry sat back, the challenge still in his eyes.
“Okay, you’ve made your point. How long will it take, all of it?”
“Maybe two and a half, three hours.”
“That’s too long, Grafton. We got four floors of pictures to put into the trailers. It gets light around five, and we can’t start until after midnight. You take two and a half hours and that leaves us two and a half hours for the rest. No good, you get one hour.”
“Two.”
“One.”
“Look, Donati, I can’t work any faster and be sure. There are a lot of steps that have to be taken and systems to get around before I can even begin to work on the box. I can cut some time by rigging the TV early—say eleven o’clock. It shouldn’t make much difference when that happens. You can save some time by pulling the trailers close to the site and not putting the pictures in the racks. Why not just stack them flat—floor to ceiling. Leave out the spacers too.”
“It’ll ruin the pictures, they said. When we move, they’ll rub and mess up the paint.”
“What do you care about that? Look, if you are going to pack them right, you’ll need more than five hours—you’ll need five days. If you just toss them in the trailer, you can get all of it done by five thirty or six at the latest. That is at least three, three and a half hours. If one of you does nothing but pull frames and make bundles of say, thirty pounds each, and the rest of us just haul and stack, it could be done.”
Donati thought a moment and then agreed. “Okay, Grafton, two hours—one and a half would be better. You shoot for one and a half. Two is a maximum.”
Donati turned to Red, dismissing Harry from his thoughts.
“You got what you need?” Red scratched and nodded.
“Two trailers, one big Peterbilt tractor. They are painted to look like Titan Van Lines, like you said.”
The room became silent again. Harry felt more uncomfortable. He allowed his mind to assemble a shopping list—magnets of different and standard strengths, induction coils, the video recorders, and switching boxes.…
Donati’s velvet smooth voice cut through Harry’s calculations.
“The plan is simple. We’re calling it Artscape—don’t ask why, I don’t know, it’s what they want. So, Thursday night, we go to the building and get into position. Red will have one trailer ready. As soon as Grafton starts, Red, you bring it into the lot and park by the door, unhook, and go get the other one. When the alarms are off, we go in and start pulling the pictures from the frames and loading. When the first trailer is filled, Red pulls out and we fill the second one. When we are done with that one, Red hauls it away and we all split.
“Grafton, you and
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