Chapter 9 – The Depths of Despair
Central London, England. 6:54am, 4th November 2032.
Alex opens the door into the apartment, with Tyson following behind with the bags of money, and finds Matt lying on the couch facing the ceiling. There are two hard drives plugged into his computer, whirring away in the background.
"We've got the money." Alex says as Tyson puts the two bags down next to the couch. Matt is motionless, still looking at the roof.
"I need you to…" Alex begins.
"Do you think… that perhaps, it's not you that he wants to go after, but me?" Matt states. "I mean, he pushed you off a building. But I had to watch that, knowing I couldn't do anything to stop it from happening even when I was promised that I could. Who am I kidding? I took a promise from him and now where it's got me, I shouldn't have trusted him, I have no reason to."
"I don't think it's you he wants to go after, but all of us." Alex states, trying to share out Matt's woes as the rat sits up on the couch.
"Yeah." Matt says pausing to think on that statement, but finds a flaw in it. "But how about you Tyson? You're the only one not to be threatened."
"Wait, isn't that a good thing?" Tyson asks in confusion.
"I don't know, maybe it means that we can use this to our advantage, but I don't see how yet. Anyway… pass me a bundle of the money. I think I've figured out what it might be." Matt announces. Alex bends down and unzips the bag and tosses a bundle of cash over to Matt.
"Okay, here's a question, what makes this money different to a real currency?" Matt asks.
"That it's fake?" Alex asks.
"No, that's where you're wrong. Anything can have value; it's just that this money is only valuable to some people. Imagine if they took away the pound and the banks declared that they wouldn't accept it or use it, then it would only be worth the piece of paper and ink on the note itself. It's funny to imagine that our entire monetary system is based on the belief that these printed pieces of money and minted coins are worth what's printed on them."
"Okay, so… who's this money valuable to?" Alex asks.
"Apart from him, I don't know." Matt answers. "But as long as someone else believes it's worth something then it's worth 2 million… units of whatever it's called, otherwise we've received 20,000 pieces of inked paper."
"I should call 'Il Ladro' and inform him we are successful so that we can get out of here" Alex answers.
"Yes, do that." Matt says, wanting to get as far away from Jeremy as possible. Alex boots up the holographic projector and redials the blocked number that has called them several times before.
"Yes?" Antonio asks, sipping from a cup of espresso.
"We've got the money." Alex says.
"Good." Antonio answers.
"But it's not normal money."
"You still have a bit to learn." Antonio says, in a kind way, like it was some fatherly advice. But Alex will never accept him as his father. "What you should have is around 2 million in a currency which has no name, like the person who created it has no name."
"He does have a name." Alex confidently states. "Jeremy, Initials J.L.P."
"Is that right? Well, I…" Antonio says still trying to figure out to express the meaning of this to his protégé as well as reliving the fears of old. "…I haven't heard of that name in years."
"What name?" Alex questions the old raccoon. Antonio takes a deep breath.
"Le Paradox!" Antonio shouts, like he has to get it off his chest.
"No! No! Noooooooooooo!" Alex shouts as well, putting his hands in his head as he sits down on the ground to contemplate what he's thought all along and hoped would never eventuate. It all adds up, he knows what's in the Thievius Raccoonus, he's read the stories of Le Paradox and their history. He hoped it was all just a coincidence, it's a skunk coming after the Cooper line; lightning can't strike twice could it?
"Le Paradox?" Matt asks in confusion whilst also being concerned for his friend's behavior.
"It just keeps getting worse." Alex comments.
"I didn't promise an easy ride." Antonio notes.
"Did you know?" Alex asks with a hint of anger.
"I didn't think that…" Antonio tries to explain.
"Of course you don't know." Alex sarcastically begins. "You surely know everything, so how come you didn't know about this. Oh wait, it's 'cause you're not my dad!"
"Don't become irrational." Antonio warns. "I wouldn't even dare, I have too much respect for him."
"Is this entire plan for you to wipe out Le Paradox? Because you can't do it, you needed someone else, someone with history, someone with a reason to do it." Alex argues, emotions are getting the better of him.
"That's not my intention." Antonio replies calmly.
"Oh yeah? Then what is it?!" Alex asks. "Tell me."
Antonio pauses, Alex keeps pressing.
"Tell me!" Alex shouts.
Antonio lets out a sigh, the over exuberance of youth is something that can't be changed.
"You can either believe what I said earlier, or you can leave. Return to your pitiful existence; throw away the best opportunity of your life to fulfill your hopes, dreams and destiny. Do you really want to be a doctor's assistant?" Antonio argues calmly without raising his voice.
"You've tapped my phone?" Alex asks, having lost some of his fury from being quieted down. "You said it was clean." He asks quietly to Matt.
"It is." Matt reaffirms from the couch.
"Please, let us move on with our lives and discuss our next venture." Antonio says, moving on the conversation. But before he can continue, there is a knock at the door.
"I can't be seen, call me back when you are able." Antonio explains before the call gets terminated.
"I'll answer it." Tyson declares. "If someone's here to kill us, they won't get past me."
Alex moves towards his cane, just in case and Matt stays stationary, thinking that it can't possibly be a life and death situation. Tyson moves slowly towards the door and lightly grips the handle, which would be stronger than a normal persons grip. He then turns it and opens the door quickly to reveal something unexpected; not an army of policeman or soldiers, but a girl by herself.
"Hi, we're not interested." Tyson says.
"Wait!" She says, hoping the door will stay open but it's shut with only a minute percentage of Tyson's strength.
"Just please, please help me out." She pleads, hoping to guilt the tiger into opening the door again.
"Not interested." Tyson repeats, strolling back into the main living area with satisfaction.
"Just some random person, no trouble." Tyson explains.
"I'll redial Antonio back on the line." Matt says, operating the holographic projector to reacquire the signal.
"Okay, So. Our next plan is located in Romania, I suggest we leave for there as soon as we can." Antonio explains. "There's a group of items going up for sale in 3 weeks time, a very expensive group of items I should say. "A set of 5 paintings, each one on it's own could sell for $2 million, but together, they'd be worth more than $20 million."
"The full set is worth more than the sum of it's parts." Matt notes.
"The only problem is that, they won't go to auction; because you will have them in your possession before they make it to the auction table." Antonio explains.
"Are you serious?" Alex moans.
"I have it on good information that 3 of the paintings are stolen themselves and are only resurfacing now because they all coming together. I know about how you prefer to steal from other criminals; that's said, please don't steal from me. Oh and you better turn that money into some useable currency, otherwise it won't help you much outside of the criminal world. On a side note, who wants to be a diamond merchant?" Antonio asks cheerfully.
Tyson and Alex turn their attention to Matt.
"Why me?" Matt complains.
"Because, why not?" Alex reasons. After a bit more staring, Matt agrees to go along with being a diamond merchant.
"Good, when you exchange the money, find a place to set up and get started. Antwerp's not for the faint hearted." Antonio warns. "See you all in Constanța."
Alex sighs at the significant jump in difficulty they will face.
"Is this guy serious? We're going to go from robbing one guy to taking on an auction house, a Romanian auction house probably full of security guards, a huge safe and a lot of traps." Alex thinks out loud.
"Then you're going to need some help."
Alex instantly disappears from view, not recognizing the foreign voice in the room. The other two whip their heads around quickly to see who it is. Tyson knows that what he sees means that he has failed, but how could he be blamed? He locked the door securely when he prevented the hawker from chatting and wasting his time. Tyson stands up to assert his physical dominance over her but she isn't intimidated.
"Get out or I'll make you do it!" Tyson shouts.
"Who is she?" Matt asks, half hiding behind Tyson's strength.
"Please, I'm not scared." She replies.
Tyson takes this rebuffing of his warning as a challenge, therefore he lunges into battle. He walks forwards and tries to wrestle her out of the apartment with Matt sitting on the couch, watching in his well-accustomed role as observer. But Tyson's lunge is dodged with a calm ease. Tyson tries again to force this intruder out of the room but before he knows it, he's on the ground having been tripped up in the process. She then slowly walks towards Matt, which causes the rat to panic. He begins to back away from the intruder, fearing harm.
"Please don't." Matt says, scared for the umpteenth time this morning.
"I'm not going to hurt you." She says playfully.
"Stop there!" Alex shouts, pointing the Taser gun he found in Matt's room at the foreign individual.
"So you're Alex Cooper." She says, unconcerned by the gun pointed at her.
"Not a word." Alex warns, he's already on edge, his finger on the trigger. As he hoped but didn't think would happen, she remains silent.
"You're going to get out of here, and not come back." Alex explains.
"Fine, I could just dial up the police and tell them that you're here right now, or, you can let me help you guys out. You clearly need some professionalism around here." She explains.
"Don't try anything big guy, I know that you're there." She warns despite not turning her head. Tyson was trying to sneak up from her left and hopefully get lucky a third time around.
"You have one minute to convince me not to pull the trigger." Alex gives the challenge, clearly emotionally distressed from the combination of events this morning.
"Okay." She says, still remaining in the opposite emotional state as Alex. She backpedals slowly towards the bags of money. Alex steps forward at the same pace she does to keep the pistol trained on her until he is in the main living area watching as she takes out a bundle of cash from the stolen bags.
"This guy on the front. Jeremy Le Paradox. You have some of his money, his special currency used only by his dealers." She explains. "You need it changed into real money, I can get it done. The exchange rate is roughly one to one."
"Is that all?" Alex asks.
"What if I said I want him gone as much as you do, not as much as your nervous friend though. So our interests are aligned." She explains as she tosses the bundle of notes onto the top of the bag.
"Not enough." Alex warns. Tyson stands ready to bundle her out of the door when required. She signs heavily, knowing she would have to play her ultimate trump card.
"I hoped I wouldn't have to do this." She says as she slowly tries to walk forward to whisper something to Alex, something very private. But Alex doesn't know what she is trying to do, so he reasserts his control of situation.
"What are you trying to do?" Alex asks, getting slightly nervous.
"Whisper something." She says casually. Alex looks over to Matt for relief.
"Matt, take the gun and aim it at her." Alex asks, passing the Taser over to him. Matt stands with two hands on the Taser, the perfect grip, as if he had just been trained by a firearms expert…
…on the Internet.
She goes up, casually but Alex is getting nervous. He's afraid of what she might say, it's going to be more powerful than the last two things he knows, just what exactly that may be is a complete unknown. He has to keep all options on the table just to be safe, but he fears the worst. She whispers four words into his ear, and he is immediately convinced that she has to join them. He knew in the back of his head that she was probably going to say it, just how she knows is a complete mystery to him. But the hammer blow of actually saying it, it makes him just want to hide in a dark corner and cry. It's what he tries to do. He runs away after a few brief seconds of silent contemplation, bursting free of the apartment, running around Tyson and straight out of the door. Matt is concerned, but he can't do anything, at least he feels he can't do anything, not even pull the trigger. Tyson is more willing to throw some punches, which all fail to hit their intended targets, making him only feel just that bit more inadequate before giving up.
"You have to go." Matt says, he can't make it sound as forcibly as he wanted, it's not his personality anyway.
"I'll go talk to him." She says, walking towards the door.
"You don't know where to go." Matt warns.
"What makes you think I do?" She asks innocently.
"Because whatever you said, you made him cry in less than a minute. Is that all you can do? Break people down like that until they're reduced to tears?" Matt accuses. "Get out, just get out." He commands with disappointment for such a cruel person.
"I'm going." She says, making her way hastily to the door and out of the apartment.
"I'm going to find Alex, I'll find her before she does." Matt declares, leaving Tyson in the apartment alone.
"Fine, guess I'll just guard the… everything." Tyson announces to himself, not knowing what he should do.