Chapter 10: the Safe


21st January 2008, 19:17

Right after William left, they hoped the group would succeed. It would be dramatic if they didn't succeed after almost forty-five minutes of hard work. Time was really starting to run out for them and as the minutes ticked away, Jeremy got more and more nervous.

"Jeremy?" Theo asked, and Jeremy looked up, indicating he'd listen to Theo talk.

"There are two things I want to tell you," Theo started and Jeremy listened carefully. This might be important, and Theo did sound serious enough not to be joking about it. In fact, when this adventure was over, Theo would be more than pleased to forget everything that happened and he would probably never set foot in there ever again. But for now he wasn't gonna leave Jeremy all alone – not with the things he has seen and heard today.

"Well, important matter first. I'm not suggesting any of us should go to the past, but I'm sure you've noticed the appearing keys as well. And once they're done getting those keys, they will shut down this damned clock!" He pointed at the thing, "Do you, by any chance, know where I'm going?"

"No, not really," Jeremy eventually admitted. He had no idea what that meant, but he guessed it had something to do with stopping the clock. Theo sighed in irritation, and then smiled.

"Huh. I figured something out faster than Belpois. Great." Jeremy frowned, "I'm talking about stopping it. When will they do it?" Jeremy shrugged.

"When they have all the keys."

"That's not what I meant. Will they do it now or then? If you're thinking 'what does it matter?', I can tell you it does. Because if they disable this damned clock in the past, they can't come back here. They'll be stuck. Goodbye Ulrich, Odd, Yumi, William, Aelita and Sissi… how are we gonna explain that to the police? I'm sorry, they are stuck in 1908, they stopped a cursed clock! That's up to you to decide."

Even though he sounded calm, he sure wasn't, and now Jeremy panicked too. How could he forget such an important detail? He should've thought about it! He could've said something about it, but everyone seemed to have forgotten about this. Nobody spoke about the exact timing, about the fact they should return first and then figure out how to stop it. Possibly with some kind of instructions, if that's possible.

"They're all gonna die!" Jeremy exclaimed in panic, with mixed feelings. Theo did the only thing that seemed reasonable right now, and he slapped Jeremy in the face.

"Stop whining!" Theo exclaimed back, "they're smart, they'll figure out to leave before trying to stop it. They're gonna make it back, Jeremy. They're gonna make it." Jeremy nodded, wanting to believe Theo's words. It was just the two of them; it would be crazy to go to the past and leave one of them all alone here – what if something serious happened? Wait a second…

"You said there were two things you wanted to talk about. What's the second?" Jeremy hoped it wasn't as serious as the issue about when exactly to stop it. Theo pointed at one of the leftovers of the gigantic arch that once stood in this theater. Now, the only leftovers weren't bigger than ten feet and only where it stood on the carpet floor.

"When I was bored, I was looking at these leftovers and then I found this." Theo walked closer towards it, and then pointed at the arch again. Jeremy almost didn't see it and if he hadn't been looking for something, he didn't even seen the safe hidden where once was part of the arch. "I found this safe unintentionally, but I think this still might be important. It was there during the fire and survived. Besides, who'd place a safe in an arch where there is always a chance of someone seeing it?"

Jeremy came closer to it, examining it closely. Theo continued: "I haven't figured a way of opening it with force yet, because it probably won't do any good. I did figure out it needs a combination of four numbers to open it, and it isn't any from 0-0-0-0 to 0-1-0-0 – I already tried that." Jeremy nodded. Brute force won't help here, but they could take a chance with trying out several other combinations. They still had less than fifteen minutes to find it out, but it couldn't be so hard, could it?

"Have you tried 1-9-0-8?" Jeremy suddenly asked, and Theo shook his head.

"Off course I haven't, only zero times four to zero-hundred."

"Maybe this number has some figural meaning behind it. And maybe it's 1-9-0-8 because it's the year of the fire breaking out?" Theo nodded, and then raised his hand to try this code. Jeremy was more used to safes with the keyboard and punching in the combination, but this hundred year old lock could be cracked the old fashioned way.

"Nothing," Theo told him, and then tried another one. When that one also didn't work, Theo sighed and Jeremy looked at his companion with confused eyes. "Since 1-9-0-8 wasn't too great, I tried 2-0-0-8 too, just in case. It's neither. Any other combination we should try?"

Jeremy answered after a few seconds. "How about 1-2-3-4?"

Theo turned his head to Jeremy. "Are you serious right now?" He almost shouted these words. "Such an easy number? That can't possibly be the code we're looking for!" Now Jeremy shook his head.

"Just because it's an easy number, it's easily overlooked and people won't try it. And in that case, it's the right combination. Besides, it can't hurt to try." Theo sighed.

"Could've figured that out myself." he said, and he tried out if those numbers are part of the combination. "You don't mind if I try the opposite too, right? 4-3-2-1?" He just said it while already trying that code. You could understand Jeremy wasn't exactly happy none of the two had any success. He sighed.

"This is hopeless!" he said, and he looked at the clock, making him sigh again. "We'll never guess the right code in time!" Theo shook his head.

"Don't be such a pessimist, Jeremy. We'll just have to enter several combinations with the speed of light an then we'll get it." He paused. "Hopefully."

"There are approximately 10,000 or more combinations." Jeremy said. It was clear he didn't exactly look forward to trying to figure out which one to do. They, on the other hand, was already focusing back on the safe, trying 0-1-0-1, which also wasn't the number they needed to open it.

These were going to be the longest 11 minutes of their lives.


And we're back in the present with Theo and Jeremy. Question: What do you think the combination? Again, short chapter, but no worries; the next chapter will be longer (I hope). Anyway, next chapter we go back in time, but that has to wait for the 15th of January. And here's my response to the review before ending the chapter:

Bluedog197 (We'll see if William will be there in time, and we know Jeremy - almost always placing Aelita first. We'll see if the clock's a bomb and what the quote does. And I also need to thank my sister for helping me create the puzzle. And thanks for reviewing!)

See ya next time!

-DutchWriters2