Sexy Beasts by Wensley Clarkson

Author:Wensley Clarkson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hachette Books
Published: 2016-04-04T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

SLEEPING DOGS LIE

The gang had created a 9.8 inches by 17 inches hole in the wall but the steel inner lining of the vault still separated them from tens of millions of pounds worth of loot. The gang had been expecting this because they knew that the grey steel cabinets holding the safety deposit boxes were anchored up against all four walls of the inside of the vault. The steel “skin” weighed several tons and was bolted to the floor and the ceiling. Shifting it would be no easy task, but the gang had come prepared by bringing a Clarke pump and hose attached to a hydraulic ram. Reader had admitted to Perkins a few days before the raid: “If that doesn’t do the trick then we’re fucked.”

Before continuing, Perkins then heard his walkie-talkie crackling. He waited to see if there was anyone on the line. There wasn’t, so he called Kenny Collins to check if anything was happening outside. Collins didn’t answer his walkie-talkie at first because he was fast asleep. When Perkins tried it again, Collins came on the line trying to sound alert and awake.

“You been akip, Kenny?” asked Perkins suspiciously.

Collins denied it and swore on his kids’ lives he hadn’t been asleep.

Reader then enlisted Jones and Wood to help him set up the pump with its heavy hydraulic ram by using some of those same metal joists they’d lugged from the van earlier to anchor it into position. Reader looked exhausted but as ex-robber Billy later explained: “The rest of them were running on adrenalin by this time. It’s better than any drugs.”

Basil sat in a corner of the room throughout, without offering to help. The others looked back in his direction every now and again. They later recalled he gave out a vibe that he was the man in charge, even though it was very much Reader and Perkins’ job.

With all the equipment now in place, there was an expectant hush in the room. Reader pressed the starter on the machine but nothing happened. He tried over and over again but the device refused to fire up. Two of the gang swore out loud with frustration. For the first time since the unannounced visit by that security guard more than four hours earlier, there was tension in the air.

Reader tried the starter button again and this time it fired up. Jones and Wood cheered. For the next hour, the hydraulic ram smashed backward and forward through the triple hole in the concrete wall. But the steel “skin” refused to bend, let alone snap.

When Perkins demanded the machine be speeded up, it made a terrible clunking noise and completely died. Reader and Perkins tried for at least fifteen minutes to restart it but it had totally expired. Basil sat in the corner of the room throughout this period, with a grim look on his usually cheery face.

Infuriated, Reader turned to Perkins, shrugged his shoulders and told the others to smash their way through the steel

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