Hey! I'm baaaack! I've been so busy... but now
Chapter five
Unpleasant surprises
S-H-A-D-O-W, I typed into the keypad; praying that my answer was correct. The machine whirred for a very long second, and the word "CORRECT" appeared on the screen. The doors slid open and I passed through, looking around at this new portion of Riddler's Gotham. Hallward's was straight ahead, though as usual, it was augmented due to the Riddler's 'improvements'. Hallward's looked as if it had been abandoned for some time, with cracked walls and windows that were in desperate need of a scrub. I walked to the door and turned the nob, surprisingly, it wasn't locked thought the door screeched angrily as I opened it.
I peered into the pitch-black room; I could hear a rapid clicking sound somewhere inside. As soon as I let go of the door knob the door slammed shut on its own. I could tell that the sound was coming from the back room where I worked. "Hello?" I called out, no one responded. I pressed my hand against the wall and felt around for a light switch. I finally found one, and the lights clicked on.
I raised an eyebrow as I peered around the place. Aside from the fact that the light was green, there wasn't much that was different from the real store; the front desk even had a crack in it from when old Mr. Donoghue dropped his wrench while fixing a light, he had copied the room down to the minute details. Which means he must have been spying. Trying not to dwell on that, I walked to the back room where the sound was coming from and tried to open the door, it was locked. I knocked twice, needless to say, it didn't work.
I knelt down and looked at the lock on the door; I rolled my eyes with disgust. It was a simple sliding puzzle. Come on! Give me a challenge, pal! I thought, even though it was a bit more difficult working without knowing what the image was, it only took me a few minutes to solve; it was an image of the pyramids of Giza. Click. The door opened and I stepped inside, there was a sewing machine in the room, but the needle wasn't moving. Similar to the front door, the door to the back room shut as soon as I let go of the handle.
I noticed a piece of paper attached to the needle. I walked over to the machine and tore the page off.
Sarah,
Congratulations on making it this far. I hope it wasn't too difficult for you as it's only going to get harder from here on.
If you can decode the message at the bottom of the page, you'll find out where to go next.
EBDURC LHDO GRKS, YRFAD XHVDO BKQ
-Good Luck
P.S There's a key to decoding the message in this building somewhere, but I won't tell you where.
"E-B-D-U-R-C L-H-D-O G-R-K-S, Y-R-F-A-D X-H-V-D-O B-K-Q?" I muttered, "Seems like just a random string of letters; now where is that key?"
I patted the floor down, but couldn't find any loose floorboards or anywhere else to hid things; there was no way to open up the sewing machine. I turned around noticed another piece of paper nailed to the door; the print on the page was tiny. "Huh?" I walked closer to the door, my eyes widened as I read the note,
Oh, and one more thing; there's a bomb underneath this place planted in a sewer pipe which was made active as soon as you entered this room. It's going to go off in two minutes and, once it goes off, will level only this building but, if you aren't at a safe distance, will take you and the decoding key with it.
Better hurry!
I cried out with frustration, "Damn you, Nigma!" I burst through the door. If I were to hide something in here, where would I put it!? I didn't even know what the key looked like! The entire search passed by in an utter blur, I opened drawers, I broke things, I searched everywhere I could think of; until finally I found a Rubik's cube on a shelf near the front desk. I broke it open by smashing it against the desk and pulled the remaining blocks off. Sure enough, there was a piece of paper folded up inside of it.
I quickly unfolded it; I could tell that it contained a guide but knew I had to get out of the room quickly, so, taking both notes with me; I raced out of the building and down the street. As soon as I had run half a block, the building, as promised, exploded.
I slumped against the side of a building and sighed with relief; that was too close. "Okay, let's crack this thing." I compared the code to the note; what the note really said was:
GOTHAM CITY BANK, VAULT SIXTY-ONE
The bank is six miles away from here! I thought, assuming that nothing happened on the way there walking that distance could take me over an hour, an hour that I didn't have. I had no choice; I would have to take a taxi. I stood on the edge of the sidewalk and looked up and down the street, within two minutes a green car drove down the street, "taxi!" I called. It slowed down and stopped right next to me, the windows had been blacked out. Very uncomfortable, I slid into the back seat. I took a deep breath and, as evenly as possible, said "Gotham city bank, please."
The small screen, which was situated in between the front seats, flickered and Edward Nigma's cocky face appeared on the screen. "Hello Sarah, so glad you could join us."
In this particular instance I wasn't scared, just annoyed. "Can we cut to the chase, what do I have to…"
"As you're probably aware, one of my men swiped your wallet a few hours ago. Fortunately for you, I don't want your money." The car began to move, "here's how this is going to work; once we reach our destination I'm going to ask you a riddle, it will be easier or more difficult depending on how far we've travelled. You can guess the answer to the riddle as many times as you'd like, but the doors won't open until you answer correctly. Do you understand?" I nodded my head yes, the screen went black.
A minute or so later we pulled up in front of the bank, the
screen crackled to life again.
"Now here's your riddle; a woman shoots her husband, holds him under water for more than five minutes and hangs him, but an hour later they go out and have a nice dinner together, how is this possible?"
What?
"Uh…" I muttered, "she shot her husband…held him under water and…"
"Tick, tock." Said Nigma smugly, crossing his arms.
Doesn't the word 'shot' have more than one meaning? My eyes lit up that's it!
"She took a photograph of her husband!" I shouted, almost jumping out of the seat with excitement. The grin slowly faded from the Riddler's face; which only excited me even more. "She took a photo of her husband, then she developed it, and then she hung it up to dry!"
He considered her answers as if he were searching for something wrong with it, and rolled his eyes, "you're such a bore." Click, the locks on the doors popped open. I sighed with relief and reached for the handle, "oh and one more thing" he called out before I left, "35 minutes!"
I flinched, 35 minutes… I hoped I didn't have many more riddles to solve. I pushed open the door and stepped out onto the street as the cab drove away. "Huh?" I cocked my head to one side; this building didn't look like a bank. The real bank was wide and went underground. This one was extremely tall; probably as tall as the real bank would be if it were sitting on its side. Vault sixty-one in this case would mean the first vault on the sixtieth floor, my stomach rolled as I thought of the motion sickness.
So... I didn't think this was my strongest chapter honestly...but there it is... thanks for all the reviews while I was gone!