The Bank's Treasury was possibly one of the latest publicised functions of banking in the whole of the city of Birmingham. Without its existence the banking system would not have operated smoothly. A local headquarters for the supplying of additional cash, and the collection of surplus money by means of bullion vans, serving all the branches in the area, had replaced the previous method of dealing with these requirements by High Value Packets, both labour and time saving.

The bullion-vans passed almost unnoticed in the city traffic. Their weekly collections and deliveries at branches were noted with mild interest by passers-by. Those with more subversive motives attempted to discover their timetables, routes, and the amount of money which the vans carried. Yet an air of mystique prevailed. Security companies' vans were attacked frequently. The Bank's went unscathed, such was their organisation and security, including a number of guards who remained on board at all times whilst they were in transit, even to the extent of eating their meals inside during all weathers, in stifling heat or freezing cold.

Yet the Treasury itself was a veritable fortress, a basement stronghold beneath a huge office block where security measures were such that none could pass beyond the first checkpoint without proper authorisation. The underground structure was old, partially converted to meet modern requirements for the storing of vast quantities of money into a maze of tunnels which housed the many strong rooms and working areas where money was counted and sorted into denominations. Large amounts of cash, the daily takings of multiple companies, was also brought in here for counting and checking, thereby dispensing with lengthy delays at branch counters. This section, adjacent to the main strong room with grilled walls and locked doors, was known as the Credit House.

Some twenty clerks were employed in the Credit House alone, spending five days of the week shut away from the daylight, working laboriously and monotonously. They, too, were subjected to several checks before entering or leaving their place of employment, everything geared towards an invincible money store.

The heat wave penetrated the depths of the Treasury right down to the Credit House, the clerks sweltering in the heat that was conveyed underground by the brickwork in the same way that storage heaters retain their temperature.

Joe Lutton had worked in the Credit House ever since its formation a decade ago. Everything was a routine which did not deviate, and, provided one obeyed the rules and systems laid down, there was a substantial pension to be picked up on retirement. One did not even have to count the notes by hand these days. One simply inserted a bundle into a machine, pressed a button, checked the digits recorded on the dial, and removed the notes from a clip at the back of the instrument. Machine-minding, in effect. Joe Lutton, a small, dapper, freckled-faced clerk in his early forties did not even have to think about the work these days. His mind wandered to other matters as he laboured with the efficiency of a human robot.

Today he thought about bats. Everybody was thinking about bats. They were in the headlines of the midday edition of the Mail again. 'BATS HEADING FOR THE CITY? IS DEATH ON THE MOVE?'

It was a frightening thought. Joe was glad that he worked down here in this nice safe place. The overall compensations outweighed the boredom. Bats frightened him. He remembered his wedding-night and the bat that had somehow found its way into the bridal chamber. His wife had nearly had hysterics and their marriage had not been consummated for a further twenty-four hours. In his day, few people had sex before marriage, particularly within the respectability of banking circles. He had waited a day longer than most.

But the bats couldn't get down here into the Credit House. The Treasury was impregnable.

The afternoon wore on, hot and stuffy. Lutton finished checking a tray of P40,000-worth of five-pound notes, and went and fetched another one from the chief clerk's desk.

Mondays were always exceptionally busy. That meant a late finish, but Joe Lutton didn't mind. The overtime money would be useful.

He had counted the first bundle of fivers and re-banded them, when Don Lucas, a young apprentice—clerk, gave a shout from the other end of the room where he was working at a long trestle table.

'Hey! What's this?'

Heads turned. Something crouched on the floor, small and furry, tiny eyes glancing about it.

'It's a mouse,' somebody said.

'Don't be stupid.' Lucas backed away. 'Mice don't have wings. It's a bat!1

'A bat!'

There was a momentary shocked silence. Clerks turned and stared. They couldn't believe it. But the proof was squatting there, and even as they looked it took off, flew up to the ceiling, and alighted upside down on a supporting steel girder.

'Oh, God!' Lutton paled.

The Chief clerk, a man only a year or two younger than Lutton, picked up the internal telephone and dialled a single number.

'Sorry to bother you, Mr Baxterdale.' His voice was humble, apologetic, trying to hide his fear. 'No, no trouble really. Only . .. only there's ... there's a bat in the Credit House!'

Lutton sweated. He hated the chief clerk for his cringing personality. Sorry to bother you, Mr Baxterdale, he mimed his superior mutely to himself, there's only a bat in the Credit House and we could all be bloody well dead by this time tomorrow. Of course, we don't want to interrupt the work, and if you like we'll keep it in here ...

Baum, the Credit House chief clerk replaced the receiver, cleared his throat, and looked round at the others.

'Er,.. Mr Baxterdale says he'll ring the Area Inspector. Nothing to worry about. Just carry on. Don't anybody take any notice of it.'

Lutton sweated profusely. This new system of locking the grilles from the outside, the keys being held in the Treasury office by two authorised holders, had disturbed him right from its implementation. Suppose there was a fire and the intersecting corridors were cut off by a wall of flames? Those in the Credit House would die. But this was a thousand times worse. Death hung perched on that beam. It only had to touch one of them, so the papers said, and that would be that.

Lucas picked up something from the table, moving slowly. It was an old wooden cylindrical ruler that dated back to the early days of banking, as heavy and as lethal as the truncheons carried by the bullion van crews. A Treasury antique that was still in use.

All eyes were on him. Everybody knew exactly what he was going to do, and nobody made a move to stop him.

The childish streak in him had often prompted reprimand from Baxterdale. The young clerk was always flicking rubber-bands at his colleagues, and then immediately assuming an air of innocence. His aim was uncanny. They hoped it would be so now.

Lucas was poised to strike, arm back, ruler clenched firmly. Those watching held their breath. Then he struck, and it seemed impossible that he could miss.

Wood clanged on steel, the whole length of the girder reverberating. The bat had moved at the last second with the speed of a house-fly accustomed to dodging swats. It shot upwards, hit the ceiling, dropped to the floor, and then took off at an angle of forty-five degrees.

Clerks accustomed to the tranquillity of life in the Credit House panicked. Money spilled on the floor as they sought cover behind desks, but their safety was as perilous as that of the car driver who is suddenly attacked by an irate wasp in his vehicle. The bat zoomed crazily to and fro.

The chief clerk shouted in alarm, striking futile blows as the creature flew at him, seemed to become caught in the threads of his shirt and then freed itself. Lutton saw it heading in his direction. It passed him with a yard to spare, somersaulted, turned in mid-flight, and on its return journey glanced off the back of his neck. He fell to his knees.