Heading for a Fall.

The same four sat round another table in a northern suburb of Philadelphia to interview a fifth man. Normally cocky this man was nervous.

“So the IRS figure you owe a million and a half, maybe two and at least two of your jobs are under investigation, fraud.” The man, Jackie Jackson, was in no place to argue and anyway these guys were obviously not the IRS. “Demolition must be lucrative.” He shrugged. One of the four read a list of the buildings he had ‘pulled.’ He looked at Jackie, “Impressive.” Jackie thanked him.

“So could you pull say the twin towers?” Jackie’s eyes widened, “well yes or no?”

“Yes sure they’re steel ain’t they.”

“Mr Jackson,” the main guy fixed on Jackie, “this job could wave that IRS bill and your likely prosecutions and pay two million bucks on top. You interested?” Jackie calculated.

“So you must be government, CIA or something, and this is no ordinary job right? Yep I’m interested.”

“Can you prep the buildings with no one noticing? I should tell you lots of the floors are empty now. And your guys, are they good Americans?”

“You got plans?” One of the four spread some large sheets on the table for Jackie to peruse. “Lots of room, that’s good, but there’ll be dust and banging, and it’ll take a lot of time. But why do you want to pull them?”

“All we want from you is can you do it and can you do it on the button when we want?”

Jackie agreed, “and they’ll be empty right?”

“The buildings will be empty and so will the surrounding blocks. We will arrange that. And what might remain as evidence they were pulled?”

“Oh it’s an insurance scam, sure I’ve done, well you probably know about them right. OK well the steel will show Thermite shears, it needs to be cleared up asap. I know a scrap guy does that sort of thing, but he ain’t cheap, but he’s a good American.” Jackie added with a smile. “The Thermite burns like crazy so there’s nothing left of that, and the rest is one great pile of rubble.”

“That’s all we want to know at this stage. And Mr Jackson if any of this gets out you will be prosecuted for tax evasion, insurance fraud and, well you get the picture. And tell your guys that too. We’re not people you can mess with.”

“So when do you want them pulled?” “We’ll tell you that later.”