Read Jumper 1 - Jumper for Free Online

Perhaps I was being paranoid. If I stole something worth more? Jewelry? Go to the museum and rip off paintings? The more expensive the item, the more chance I had of not making any money from it, getting ripped off or killed.
    Maybe the government would hire me?
    I shuddered. I read Firestarter by Stephen King. I could imagine being dissected to find out how I did this thing. Or drugged so I wouldn't do it—that's how they controlled the father in that book. Kept him on drugs so he couldn't think straight. I wondered if they already had people who could teleport.
    Stay away from the government. Don't let anyone know what I can do!
    Well, then—I guessed I'd have to steal money itself.
     
    The Chemical Bank of New York is on Fifth Avenue. I walked in and asked the guard if there was a bathroom in the bank. He shook his head.
    "Up the street at the Trump Tower. They have a rest room in the lobby."
    I looked distressed. "Look, I really don't mean to be a problem, but my dad's meeting me here in just a few moments, and if I'm not here he'll kill me, but I really got to pee. Isn't there an employees' rest room somewhere?"
    I didn't think he'd buy it, but the lie, plus any mention of my father, was making my distress real. He looked doubtful and I winced, knowing he was going to send me away.
    "Ah, what the hell. See that door there?" He pointed to a door past the long line of teller's windows. "Go through there and straight back. The bathroom is on the right at the end of the hall. If anyone gives you a problem, tell them Kelly sent you."
    I let out a lungful of air. "Thanks, Mr. Kelly. You've saved my life."
    I went through the door as if I knew what I was doing. My stomach was churning and I felt sure that everyone who passed me could read my intentions and knew I was a criminal.
    The vault was two doors before the bathroom. Its huge steel door hung on hinges larger than myself, open, but a smaller door of bars within was shut and a guard sat before it, at a small table. I paused before him, looking past him to the interior of the vault. He looked up at me.
    "Can I help you?" His voice was cold and he stared at me like a high school principal looks at a student without a hall pass.
    I stammered, "I'm looking for the bathroom."
    The guard said, "There are no public rest rooms in this bank."
    "Mr. Kelly said I could use the employees' rest room. It's kind of an emergency."
    He relaxed a little. "End of the hall then. It's certainly not here."
    I bobbed my head. "Right. Thank you." I walked on. I really hadn't gotten a good enough look. I went into the bathroom and washed my hands.
    On the way back I stopped and said, "That sure is a huge door. Do you know how much it weighs?" I stepped a bit closer.
    The guard looked annoyed. "A lot. If you're quite through using the bathroom, I would appreciate it if you returned to the lobby!"
    I pivoted. "Oh, certainly." I stared at the door again from my new angle. I saw carts and a table up against one of vault's interior doors. The carts had canvas bags on them, as well as stacks of bundled money. Another step and I glimpsed gray steel shelves against another wall.
    Got it!
    The guard started to stand up. I looked away from the door and saw his face color.
    "On my way," I said. "Thanks for your directions."
    He growled something, but I walked briskly down the hall. As I walked past the lobby guard, I smiled. "Thanks, Mr. Kelly." He waved and I went out the door.
     
    I spent the rest of the afternoon in the library, back in Stanville, first reading the encyclopedia entries under Banks, Bank Robberies, Alarm Systems, Safes, Vaults, Time Locks, and Closed-Circuit Television, then skimming a book on industrial security systems that I found in Applied Technologies.
    "David? David Rice?"
    I looked up. Mrs. Johnson, my geography teacher from Stanville High School, was walking toward me. I looked at the clock—school had been out for an hour.
    I hadn't been to school in three weeks, ever since