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"Yes, you can" Skarda tapped his chest "I can"

We continued to stare at the lake I learned later that the lake was just over eighty acres in size, which meant it easily made the cut--in Minnesota a body of water needed to be at least ten acres to be considered a lake We had 11,842 of the, I mean"

"Do you knohere the supermarket is?"

"There’s only one in Silver Bay"

"Do you have any binoculars?"

"Sure, why?"

"Let’s go watch"

"Really?"

"I’d like to see the Iron Range Bandits in action Who knows, Ior two"

FIVE

Froravel and paved county roads through the City of Krueger--Skarda hunched down in his seat so no one would recognize hihway 1 toward Lake Superior, driving sixty-tworoadway that took et the scenic wonders of the Superior National Forest it bisected--it was a road built to exciteit in winter , to say the least When we reached the sparkling great lake, we turned south and followed the highway five miles to Silver Bay

Silver Bay was a company town built in 1954 for the employees ere hired to process the taconite that was ained notoriety in the sixties when it was discovered that the Reserve Mining Cos--a potentially carcinogenic waste--into Lake Superior to the tune of 67,000 tons each day The company didn’t stop, either, until the courts forced them to cease and desist in 1972, and as far as I knew, the tailings were still there Most of the city itself was located on top of a hill that rose up from the lake It had been built on an area where the trees and brush had been scraped clear with bulldozers; houses and cos had been carefully laid out with surveyor stakes

The super Center Road The co a large asphalt parking lot It was hailed as the largest shopping center north of Duluth when it was first built, although I seriously doubted it still held that designation

To reach it, I drove down Davis Drive and then took a left, driving between the Silver Bay Public Library and a weathered brown-brick building built into the side of one of the city’s few hills There was a Silver Bay police car parked in front next to a white flagpole that flew both the US and Minnesota flags I crossed Shopping Center Road and parked the Jeep Cherokee at the edge of the lot, close enough to watch the superh away that I could quickly access any one of three potential escape routes Cars moved in and out of the lot around us

"When is the heist scheduled?" I asked