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looked at Zarko, who stood in front of the vault door, bouncing on his heels, anxious to get started. The stitched cuts on Zarko’s face were swollen and red. Nick thought he should probably see a doctor about that.
    “You can open the vault now,” Nick said. “But very slowly.”
    Zarko entered the combination, turned the three-pronged spindle wheel to retract the locking pins, and pulled the heavy door open. As he did, the magnetic plate on the jamb came away with the door, dragging wires out of the wall socket. Nick stared at the magnetic plate. If it fell, they were finished. But the suction cup device kept the two plates together, maintaining the magnetic field as if the door was still closed.
    Nick watched closely to make sure the wires didn’t break. He waited until the door was open just wide enough for a man to enter the vault by slipping under the taut wires that were attached to the magnetic plate.
    “Stop,” he said.
    Zarko did. Now the iron gate was all that separated them from a bank of safe-deposit boxes filled with millions in diamonds.
    Zarko bounced on his feet again and tipped his head toward the gate. “How do we open it?”
    The other three Road Runners looked at Nick too, eager to see what he’d do next.
    “With a paper clip,” Nick said.
    Nick reached into his pocket. He held up a paper clip between his index finger and thumb for them to admire. The four men stared blankly at him.
    “Trust me,” Nick said. “Best tool ever designed by man.”
    Nick unbent the paper clip into a straight wire, went to the supply closet door, and effortlessly picked the deadbolt lock. He opened the door, reached inside the closet, and came out holding a bizarre four-sided key that looked both ancient and magical. The thieves stared, astounded.
    “How did you know it would be in there?” Dusko asked.
    “Human nature.” Nick slipped past the open vault door to get to the gate. “There’s only one key and the guards don’t want to lose it. They also want it handy if something ever goes wrong with the remote locking mechanism. So they hung the key in the closet. I’m sure it wasn’t kept here to start with, but it’s probably been there for at least a decade or two.”
    “Morons,” Zarko said.
    Nick slid the key into the gate’s lock. “That’s what happens when the same security people do a job for forty years without any incidents. They get lazy.”
    He opened the gate and slipped the key into his pocket as a souvenir. He reached up and stuck a piece of black electrical tape over the light sensor on the ceiling. He pulled off his night vision goggles.
    “You can turn on the lights now,” Nick said.
    Zarko hit him from behind with a lead sap, once to get him down, and once more to keep him there.
    —
    Kate was still standing in the dark alcove, leaning her back against the front door of the falafel joint, when she saw the garage door roll open at the Executive Merchants Building and the van begin to slowly drive up the street.
    She called her father. “They’re coming out.”
    Jake started his car but kept his headlights off. “I’m ready.”
    When the van passed Kate’s hiding place, she bolted across the street and ducked behind a car that was parked close to the garage. The van stopped in front of the open garage. Four men carrying heavy duffel bags dashed out of the garage and jumped into the van. Nick wasn’t one of them.
    Damn!
    “Follow the van,” Kate said into her phone. “Don’t lose those men and the diamonds. Ram them and call the police if you have to.”
    “Where are you going?”
    “To find Nick. He didn’t come out.”
    She stuck the phone into her pocket and got ready to move. The van drove off. The garage door started to come down. Kate raced for the garage, dove to the ground, and rolled under the descending door an instant before it closed.
    And this is why I don’t spend a lot of time ironing my clothes, she thought, getting to her feet, noticing that the knee