The Bank

An unfinished short story about a historian/treasure hunter uncovering a secret tunnel. One of my 30 minute writing exercises.

Snow had fallen the previous night and had slowed traffic in the city. This is just what Jack wanted. Jack looked at the cars all crowded together as they inched towards traffic lights and stop signs. He smiled because he knew how great this was for his evening plans. He quickened his pace. Making sure not to look up towards any of the buildings that towered over him on either side of the street. "Alright, almost there", he muttered to himself. He came to an alley way, which sat between an overpriced clothing store and a bank. He took his phone out of his pocket and used it as a flashlight in order to see who or what was in the alley way. It was empty, just as he wanted. "This is almost too perfect", he thought. As he walked down the dark alleyway he knocked with a metal bar on the bank wall. As he neared the end of the wall he let out an audible "HA!". He hit the wall with the metal bar it was hollow in this spot. He checked his watch. 11:42 pm it read. He then proceeded to take out a hammer from his jacket pocket and a chisel. He jammed the end of the chisel in a weak point on the brick wall and started hammering. He had placed a piece of foam on the blunt end of the chisel he was hammering in order to dampen the noise, although he didn't think it was really necessary now it may com in handy later. After a good 20 minutes of hammering a brick fell away. From this point he began grabbing bricks and pulling them out. Once he had cleared a hole big enough that he could squeeze through he got out his phone again and turned on the flashlight. The light reveled a tunnel. He couldn't see the end of it from where he was, but he was confident that he knew where it led. He threw the loose bricks into the tunnel and then climbed in. Once he was inside the tunnel he placed the bricks back into place on the wall. The air in the tunnel was musty. Jack was a 19th century historian and treasure hunter. He currently worked at the Smithsonian museum in Washington D.C.. One day as he was going through a stack of old letters from a well known prominent banker of the time, he came across something interesting. It was a letter from the banker to a well known bank robber and bandit. The letter contained a written plan presumably formulated by the banker for the bandit to break into his bank and steal everything in the banks safe. The letter contained schematics of a tunnel that had been dug close to one of the bank walls. Jack was intrigued by what he had found in the letters and knew he had to find out if what was written in the letter was true. From the drawings in the letter he knew the tunnel was on the wall facing the alley. As he continued through the tunnel he began to see a faint light. He quickened his pace. 

Author's Note

One of my 30 minute writing exercises.