Chapter 26: Oakmont's Eleven

"You must know," Clarice explained as she ran her hand across the shell of the PDA which Todd started up, "that I can only lead you to where the vault is. What's in there is mostly beyond my competence, but we've got an expert who knows the inside of the vault like the inside of his computer."

Chip mentioned, "He told us he hasn't been there since the Versailles Palace's completion."

Todd looked up from the booting device. "That's true, but I still remember a lot. Besides, I've still got copies of some of the plans in here. I discovered I still had them after Chris was gone, and I decided to keep them as a kind of souvenir." When the main menu appeared, Todd tapped on the touch screen and started a document viewer. "Gather around here, and I'll show you whatever you need to know. And then some."

"Does this include the security systems?" LaWahini asked.

"Of course, that's what Chris worked on all the time."

The Rescue Rangers stood in a circle around the PDA. Chip shoved Dale to the bottom end of the computer, right next to Todd. "Well, this is your mission," he said, "and you're the expert in such things. What do you want to know, Dale?"

"What do I..." Dale thought for a second. He recalled the heist movies he had ingested in the recent past. And the one thing he knew about vaults was that they were usually beefed up with high-tech security devices. Chip would say that they were all just movies and too unreal to be reality. But Dale remembered what Todd had said, namely that Chris, the designer of these machineries, had taken the same inspiration from these movies for crafting them as Dale planned to take for defeating them. "Todd, I take it the security in the vault is pretty tight."

"That's right, Dale."

"Any way of shuttin' them down without triggerin' the alarm? Maybe by cuttin' the electricity?"

"Nope. The vault can be supplied independently from the rest of the building. You could pull an Ocean and black out all of Las Vegas, they'll stand strong. Besides, that's not really what you want, neither is killing off the vault's own power supply that's protected as thoroughly as the vault itself, by the way, it'd just double the effort. No, you'll have to go one of the two regular ways. One would be shutting the systems down regularly, but that'd require security codes which are practically impossible to obtain, more so if you want them tonight."

Dale sighed loudly. "Great. What now?"

"The other way is the maintenance mode. It can be activated by an infrared transmitter such as the one in my PDA. And as the former pet and best friend of the security designer, I've got the necessary software, too."

"What about the codes?" Gadget asked. "Do you have them, too?"

"Theoretically," Todd answered.

"What do you mean with 'theoretically,' Todd?!"

"I've got the codes we used when we set up the system. Chris took me here with him a couple of times. Of course, I didn't really do anything, at least not when someone was watching. But I've got the codes from back then. This doesn't mean they've remained unchanged until today."

"Was anyone else involved in the maintenance of the systems?" Sparky inquired.

"No-one was allowed to maintain the systems except the company Chris worked for. Security issues, you know. This increases the chances for the codes to still be valid. Not by much, but they do."

"Let's hope they're still the same," Dale said. "So there's an infrared receiver installed outside the vault?"

"Yes, but it's for maintaining the security systems of the room from which you enter the vault. This one's fairly easy to access from the air ducts, but the only way into the vault is through this room and the heavy steel door. And the infrared receiver for the vault's own systems is... inside the vault. Both sensors are hidden behind wall tiles which are easy to recognize as they're made of aluminum instead of marble, but which have to be removed nevertheless, and you have to overcome the security systems to achieve this."

Dale leaned forward comfortably on the PDA. "Let me guess, Todd. Floor sensors that react upon touch or weight. Right?"

"You can bet on this, Dale. The most basic security means right after cameras and motion detectors."

"Easy. Let Foxy tear off the wall tile, an' then do your magic with your PDA. She's a bat, she can fly, she won't trigger the sensors."

"Bad idea, Dale. There are also usual infrared motion detectors that will detect her body warmth."

Gadget raised a hand. "May I propose something? Zipper is an insect, so his body temperature is always that of the surrounding."

"Yeah," Todd said, "but if there are detectors for floor pressure and for temperature, don't you think there are detectors for sound, too?"

Dale heaved himself up again. "Yes, I've seen somethin' like this in a movie. Only that they measured the temperature instead of usin' motion detectors."

Gadget began to think about the situation. "So we need someone cold-blooded who can either fly or climb walls, an insect or a lizard for example, but who doesn't make any noise either. Zipper only fulfills two of these requirements, but he and Foxglove are the only ones who can fly. How can we..."

She was interrupted by Zipper who landed on her shoulder and talked to her.

"You think you can do that?"

Zipper replied to her.

"Can do what?" Todd asked. Unlike the Rangers, he didn't have enough experience with Zipper's talk to understand him.

Gadget explained, "Dale, Todd, Zipper just suggested something. He wants to gain as much speed as he can in the entrance room once we're in there, and when the vault door is opened, he'll glide into the vault quickly and silently. He can't promise it'll work..."

"And if it doesn't work," Todd interjected, "he'll trigger either the noise detectors if he starts to flap again or the floor sensors if he doesn't. Zipper, can you at least steer in mid-air without having to flap your wings?"

Zipper told him he could do that to a certain degree, and Gadget translated again.

"We'll try it," Dale decided, "an' we'll try your old codes, Todd. Unless anyone's got a better idea. So, what's next?"

"You mean what comes before entering the vault, Dale," Todd said. "First, we need to get into the entrance room and overcome its securities. And then we'll have to unlock the vault door. The entrance room has got air vents for the air conditioning." He looked at Clarice. "I suppose you know the way there."

"That's what I meant, Todd. I'll lead you right there. Heh, I think I've got the easiest part so far."

"Okay, here comes the tough half. The entrance room has got a touch-sensitive floor, too, just in case, but that's irrelevant for now as the air vent we will come through is near the ceiling which will require ropes to get our equipment down on the floor once the security is deactivated. As I already mentioned, there's an infrared receiver behind a single aluminum wall tile, fortunately opposite our air vent. Besides, the lights in both the entrance room and the vault are off usually. They're switched on when the door that leads into the entrance room is opened which requires a human to do it and the codes which I haven't got and which we won't be able to get within this night. This deactivates the entrance room's security, too, so we might not have to go the maintenance mode way this time. It's actually fairly simple: There's an electric switch in the door lock which can be accessed from inside by removing another wall tile. We did that because the switch used to be very unreliable originally. It had to be worked on a lot, and there had to be a solution to get to the switch without breaking half the wall open, hence another removable wall tile. So instead of going into maintenance mode, this switch can simply be short-circuited."

"Sounds like a task for me," Sparky said. "I love to work with electricity."

"Good, but how do you want to find the tile in the pitch black dark, let alone get there?"

"I'll carry him," Foxglove offered. "I can tell aluminum from marble by sonar resonances without having to see anything, I can fly, and if necessary, I can also carry Sparky in the air. There, problem solved."

Dale gave her a smile. "Thanks, Foxy. Wow, that sounds really easy. Now, Todd, what do we need to open the vault door, other than muscles to pull it open?"

Todd tried to calm him down. "Wait, wait, wait, not so fast, Dale. You've still got surveillance cameras to deal with. They're installed in the entrance room and in the vault. And before anyone asks, yes, they operate silently or at least a whole lot quieter than a fly."

LaWahini looked at him in disbelief. "Surveillance cameras? Didn't you say it's dark in there? How are the cameras supposed to see anything if all the lights are out?"

"Easy. Imagine someone did actually manage to break into the entrance room. They'd have to unlock the door which shuts down the security and turns on the lights. Now imagine you're a guard and sitting in front of the surveillance monitors, and suddenly some of the screens that are usually black show something in bright light. Would draw your attention and surprise you a lot more than if the lights were always on, wouldn't it? Oh, and if someone somehow cut their way through the closed door, they'd trigger the alarm which turns on the lights, too. Even if they could fly or if they managed to get through the entrance room on ropes or whatever without touching the floor, they wouldn't even make it into the room, for the door itself is protected by three dozen photoelectric barriers from inside. But this isn't important for us, we won't enter the room through the door."

"Are the cameras connected to video recorders of any kind?" Gadget asked. "VHS tape recorders or such?"

"They did use VHS for two years, but then they switched to DVD-RAM. The room where the recorders are located is accessible via the air ducts, too. I believe I know what you're up to."

"DVD-RAM is perfect," Gadget said. "Saves us a lot of time. You just stop it and skip to the beginning of a recording instead of having to rewind four hours of tape. LaWahini, care to help me with the recorders?"

"Sure, sis," LaWahini gave her okay.

"Alright, Todd, how exactly does the DVD and surveillance system work?"

"Conveniently for us. There's one custom-made double DVD deck per camera. One drive is recording, and when the end of a disk is reached, the second drive is started. After four hours, the double-sided cartridge is turned around, and after another four hours, the cartridge is replaced by a new one. Manual access to the drives is possible, though. The contents of each DVD-RAM cartridge is stored for two weeks, so there are lots of cartridges in use, you can believe me." Todd then turned to Clarice. "When do the guards go on patrol?"

"Every full and half hour. That is, they leave one minute early. The patrol itself takes only five minutes. Add the minute they take for leaving and one more to settle when they're back, this makes seven minutes."

"Thanks. Dale, I suggest we start our mission at 3:30 AM. From midnight on, the vault is closed, so the cameras will record nothing but blackness for the following two hours. We need a full two hours of blackness because switching back to recording is tricky, and bringing the system back into the two-hour rhythm manually is impossible. What we can do is as follows: The cartridges with the recording from midnight to 2 AM will be ejected and turned shortly after 2 AM. The first task of the video team will be to turn the cartridges around again. There are four disks, one for the entrance room, three for the vault. The second task will be to abort the recording. The decks will switch to record and pause 30 seconds before the actual recording starts, and the record and pause mode can be switched off like on every VCR out there. The third task will be launching the playback on these four decks as closely in sync with the recording on the other decks as possible. The decks are sorted, and these four decks are mounted in a rack above each other, so a team of two should be able to do it quickly."

Clarice threw something important in. "I recommend hurrying up with the playback part. From my experience, I can tell that the guards look into the room with the decks two minutes after they start their patrol which would mean 4:02 AM in our case. So after you launched the playbacks at 4 AM sharp, you've got two minutes to get lost and remove all traces of your presence."

"What makes things much less easier than you might think," Todd continued, "is the fact that said four recorders are in a rack opposite the door. They're easy to find once you know which rack it is, for they're labeled. But when the guards enter, this rack is among the first things they look at."

"You can count on us!" Gadget and LaWahini assured.

"Is this okay with you, Dale?" Todd asked.

"Sure it is, Todd. Now all we've gotta do is open the vault door. I take it there are cool gizmos such as iris scanners 'n all that."

"Well," Todd said, "there are no iris scanners. Chris tried to get one, but the manufacturer stated they weren't sold for commercial use, so he had to rely on the good old fingerprint scanner in addition with a numeric code. Hope that's still cool enough for you, Dale."

"Cool or not," Chip remarked, "how do you think we shall get a fingerprint that matches the scanner, and that will open the door for us?"

"If the old access codes are still valid, so is my handprint. Chris scanned it in back then just for fun and for secretly making me a member of the security team, and as far as I know, he never deleted it."

Monty rubbed his hands. "So all that's left is openin' the door, right, Todd? Sounds like a decent match o' tug o' war ta me."

"Monty, that door is weighing 18 tons!" Todd said. "Fortunately, it's got an electric drive opening and closing it." He laid his arm around Dale. "And with this detail solved, we're able to get into the vault, mission leader Dale."

Dale was amazed. "Wowie-zowie, what a plan! Like in the movies! Now we need to find the gems an' carry them away. Anyone remember the locker number?"

"305," Todd said. "I know where it is, and it's right above the floor, so getting the gems out of it will be easy. The lock on it is easy to pick, too. What are the gems in?"

"They're in a box," Chip replied. "From what we've seen at the airport, the box is a bit smaller than a shoe box."

"Uh-oh, that might get tight," Clarice supposed. "A shoe box wouldn't fit through the air ducts without difficulties."

"It has to fit," Chip said, "it's our only way in and our only way out."

"Oh, I'm sure we'll manage it somehow," Dale tried to calm him down. "Once we've got the box in the air duct, the hardest part is over, an' the gems are ours. We'll just carry them away an' fly them to New York City, an' the case is solved."

"We'll of course have to reactivate the security systems," Todd reminded him, "that means basically undoing what we did before. The vault security activates itself one minute after the maintenance mode has been quit, so after I've switched it back to normal mode, we've got one minute to put the wall tile in place and shut the vault door which locks itself then. Reactivating the security in the entrance room will be done by either leaving the maintenance mode again or by removing the short-circuit from the door lock. When everyone's back in the air duct together with the gems, and the grille in front of the air vent is back in place, all we need to do is get the box out of the building."

"I'll show you the way again," Clarice offered, "and wave after you when you fly away. I hope you'll come back soon."

"So do I," Todd said, realizing that the Rangers were going to leave the city after they got the gems.

"So what are we gonna do now before we start?" Dale asked. "Clarice, where's your TV?"

"We all had better take a nap," Chip recommended. "And this includes you, Dale."

Unknown to everyone inside Clarice's apartment, Melissa was still outside and trying to find out what was going on on the other side of the door. 'It's getting quiet now. Guess they're leaving.' She looked around to find a place to hide before the door opened as she expected and spotted another door along the corridor which belonged to a closet. It was unlocked, so she opened it, slipped inside, and left it half-closed, so she could peek out and see the apartment door. But nothing happened, nobody came out, and as it was near midnight, Melissa was so tired that she fell asleep after only a few minutes.