Chapter 15 – Preparation
Constanta, Romania. 2:14pm, 5th November 2032.
Alex has no choice but to accept his very onerous terms of a poker tournament. It was either definitely losing the money tonight or losing the money when he had a chance of winning. He figured that there was nothing to lose. Alex knows how to play poker, but he's never played for real money, money that was very precious to him when he was younger and is still precious now. The pile of money in the hotel safe is something he doesn't want to give up so easily and so helplessly, the thought of fighting the henchmen or taking out Jeremy right then and there never crossed his mind such was his state of paralysis at seeing the blatant intrusion into the hotel room. In any case, Alex doesn't like having to fight because it's way too confrontational, he'd rather do everything cleanly with no fights, no takedowns and no murder; death is not an option, either for him or anyone he faces.
He spent the rest of the morning trying to get to grips with the game he will be playing later tonight thanks to an app he got on his phone as well as watching a real poker tournament on TV, calculating if they are bluffing or not. His success rate was about equal to chance. He also played with Tyson, but he won too easily. He then played with Jess, but found out how difficult it was to read her. Her face was like a brick wall, unchanged whether she had a straight flush or nothing at all. She used this to her advantage and managed to win all of the £10,000 which they used as the pool for practice. It would take only 20 minutes for Jess to bleed him of the money, playing him perfectly by sucking him in when the right hand came to fruition.
"5th time in a row." Jess remarks, sweeping the 100 £100 notes towards her.
"It's not working." Alex replies in frustration.
"What isn't working?" Jess asks.
"I think I have good cards and then I suddenly get destroyed." Alex moans.
"Think about it this way, screw what cards you have in your hand, make them believe whatever cards you want." Jess says.
"How?" Alex asks like he's missed out on something so obvious that it should be staring him in the face. She takes a pile of 7 random cards from the pile and gives him two and puts the other 5 face up on the floor, a 5 of diamonds, a 7 of hearts, a jack of diamonds, a three of diamonds and a 10 of spades, as in a real scenario of poker.
"Sell be those cards without showing me." She commands.
She watches Alex look at his cards and waits 10 seconds before deciding on her price.
"I fold." Jess says.
"You're just being safe." Alex says. "There's three diamonds on the floor, if I have 2 diamonds in my hand then I have a flush, you're just not wanting to take the risk."
"The probability of you having a flush is… less than 5 percent." She calculates.
"What? You're smart as well?" Alex exclaims in exasperation, his practice could not get any harder. "You're just like my sister."
"You have a sister?" She asks, not as emotionally charged as Alex. She missed that part on the dossier. Instantly a whole new range of possibilities opens up for her: a new source of information, a contact, leverage…
"Yeah, but she's not into this sorta stuff." Alex explains. "We're twins, but different."
"Did she… ever try…?" Jess says, trying to get Alex into saying words that she wants to hear.
"No, never. She has the skills though, and the brains on top of that. She's a bit like you except without the… flat, unchanged expression on your face all the time. It's annoying when I have to play poker against you." Alex explains.
"What does she do?" She asks.
"University, at Oxford. I think of it like, if we swapped our desires with our skills, then it would all work out." Alex theorises.
"Like your smart enough to go to Oxford." Jess retorts. She gets up from the prone position on the floor and heads towards the bathroom.
"If stealing was a subject I could pass." Alex replies before she's gone.
Charlotte reaches into her pocket and gets her phones and looks up the appropriate hidden contact on her phone. She waits until the bathroom door is locked before calling.
"Jarman's gardening."
"I need to order a RXC100." Charlotte answers.
"One moment please."
She waits with time running out to convey the information she needs to say without being suspicious.
"Slade."
"Listen, he has a sister who's at Oxford. Use her to get information, get leverage, it has to be his weakness." Charlotte whispers quickly and quietly.
"She's not the target Slade. Do you have any more info you want to share?"
"Yes, there's a poker tournament at this hotel. Le Paradox is having someone acting on his behalf named Lawrence Fischer who will be there as well. Cooper will be playing as well. You can get them both there if you send a team here to arrest them." She explains.
"We'll take it under consideration."
"Hey, wait!" She pleads. The bureaucracy machine keeps on ticking effortlessly. It's the worst part about this new transition, requests are not approved within an instant. It was a much easier time being a kid, adult responsibility and all that. Now she doesn't even know if this job is going be over within 24 hours or if it will continue ad infinitum. She gets out of the bathroom and returns to see Alex playing against himself, dealing 5 other hands apart from himself and even betting on their behalf despite not seeing their cards. He turns over the 5th card in the centre and looks at his own hand before placing 5 notes into the pot and doing the same with the other 5 hands. He turns the hands over until he reaches the fourth hand, to which he reacts with frustration.
"Can't even beat yourself?" She jokes.
"No, and also don't try and surprise me by sneaking up on me, it doesn't work." Alex replies. At that moment, Alex decides to check his phone messages in case Matt has sent him any of those profiles that he talked about earlier. He finds that there are exactly 15 that were sent to him. Alex feels like he's working in HR for a brief second as he sees the first few profiles which have a standardised layout with their name at the top, physical profile, previous jobs and experience, skills along with a picture and a small sentence on the bottom on why they want to work with him; making the entire form as civilised and organised as trying to be recruited by a bank.
"I'm taking a break from losing." Alex says as he gets up and stares into his phone, reading the contents of the messages. He moves into one of the actual bedrooms and closes the door, from the lack of items strewn around the place, he takes a guess that this is Jess' room. He scrolls through the digital documents. He finds that everyone are lone thieves who all rely on different things. Mostly technology, some through disguise but none seem to have done anything big. Every theft, whether the take was over a million or less than a thousand, seems to be done on a whim, with little or no planning in a short amount of time. For example, one theft labelled as 'pharamceuticals storage facility - $15,000', was probably planned and executed within 5 minutes. There's no way that someone would just decide that they needed some medication that they would just waltz into a secure laboratory and relieve them of their products. Considering this profile is one for someone that's good with computers, he guesses that the bank account has been drained.
It's not the type of accomplice that Alex wants at the moment, in fact, he doesn't want anyone else. All these people throwing themselves at him in the hope of being near to him just don't live up to what he pictures as a thief, it seems closer to being a celebrity. He then goes through each one quickly, a very large proportion of which are computer technicians. It's not that he didn't know about the current state of affairs in crime where the bulk of thefts are in cyberspace, all the aspiring thief needs these days is a computer, a Wi-Fi connection and some programming knowledge. People don't have to even go outside to steal things anymore, it's one of the big pluses of this set up, the anonymity gained from not having to physically be present at the scene of the crime is a huge bonus. Alex knows that what he does is an antiquated art, much like the artworks he's planning to steal in a few weeks, very rare and each one different. He goes through the entire pile of requests, not finding anyone that he would want to work with. Sure there is no computer technician in this room but his computer genius is only a call away, the only one he wants to work with.
4:15pm
After having eaten he was soundly beaten, albeit in a slower amount of time because Tyson had joined in after hours at the hotel gym. It is clear to Alex that Jess is definitely not getting constantly good cards but also is somehow making those cards better than even the best of hands received by either opponent. Jess would put down a confident bet of £2000 which would make Alex and Tyson fold in quick succession, and even when Alex had the guts to continue on, he'd always lose. Alex would try and stare into her face for a tell, the sign that a player is bluffing, but he could never find it whereas Jess read Alex like a children's picture book.
"Please, just say how you do win all the time." Alex complains after having lost to a three of a kind, thrusting his face up cards into the floor in frustration.
"I said last time, you look at someone and read them. For me it's just natural." Jess repeats, hiding the fact that she's been trained in psychological manipulation and body language recognition.
"Can't you explain at least a tiny bit or that £1 million is probably going out of the door faster than Le Paradox can take it." Alex pleads.
"Look at me, try and notice what I'm doing, look at all the tiny things: pupil dilation, if someone touches their head, if they look down at their cards, a tiny smirk or something, there's loads of things can be seen. While you are only trying to concentrate on your own cards and how to beat me, you're not controlling yourself. Your only focus is on how to beat me but you forget about your own expressions. I don't have a flat expression because I'm gruff or pessimistic but because it doesn't tell anyone anything about what I'm thinking." Jess explains.
"And what are you thinking?" Alex asks as he shifts his cross-legged position on the floor.
"I'm thinking that your…" Jess begins to explain, only to be interrupted by a knock on the door. They wait for a call out from the hotel staff they suspect is on the other side.
"I'll check." Alex says quietly, standing up to check who's at the door although none of them can see that, they can only hear his voice. Alex turns on a small monitor next to the front door to get the picture from the camera mounted inside the door which allows people to see who's outside. This disturbance is from 3 suit wearing persons who Alex briefly thinks are Jeremy's henchmen, returning to give some sort of punishment, but they are silent until Alex replies to them.
"I'll be a minute." Alex replies, in reality he's waiting to reappear so he doesn't freak them out.
"We will wait."
Once he's checked himself, he opens the door for his 3 guests stand outside.
"Mr. Cooper. It is an honour to finally meet you despite our previous attempts." An antelope says in a Germanic accent with his neck held high with perfect posture, he seems a very correct person.
"What previous attempts? Who are you?" Alex asks, but they don't acknowledge that reply.
"Do you have it?" He asks.
"I don't know what you want or who you are so you…" Alex says, gradually escalating his voice and becoming more temperamental.
"The cane Mr. Cooper, the cane." He answers. "We need to talk, outside. And please hurry."
Alex takes a step back and looks over to the corner where the cane is leaning up against the wall before double taking back at the three unknown persons.
"Not until I know that this isn't an ambush." Alex refuses.
"There is no time for arguing, we have to hurry."
"Why are you here then? Tell me or I won't go." Alex refuses once again. The two other assistants are instructed via a hand signal to move into the apartment to drag Alex away forcefully. Alex backs away as Tyson and Jess get up, sensing that they are in danger too. Alex moves behind them to grab his cane, this causes a brief stand off between the two 'lesser' groups. One of the lackeys makes the first move and tries to overpower the seemingly weaker of the two in Jess. She side steps to the right and kicks him in the back of the knee, bending the knee to make him lose balance, bringing him to the ground. Next, with Tyson stationary from the sight of such a quick disarmament, she blocks a punch headed towards Tyson who wouldn't have dodged it in time. The guard's fist is sent downward by her arm thrust downwards onto his forearm before pushing him backwards over the couch. Tyson steps back, he doesn't really need to do any thing here. She returns to the first guard who she kicks in the chest to force him down again.
With Jess occupied with the other guard. Tyson sees an opportunity to join in as the other guard gets up from being flung on the couch. The guard tries to punch Tyson and succeeds, Tyson couldn't dodge his hulking body fast enough which allows the other guard to land a second blow that didn't really to much damage. Tyson tries to swing his huge arm for a right hook but that's dodged way too easily before he's jabbed in the stomach which partially winds him. Tyson puts up his arms to block as the other guard tries to punch around them. Tyson then hears a loud crack from right in front of him, causing the guard to moan in pain. Tyson drops his arms and sees Alex lowering his cane and putting it back into his right hand, holding it almost parallel to the ground. Alex had come up from behind and swing his cane with the back of the hook right into the guards lower back after doing what he does best. Alex takes out a wallet from his pocket and inspects it more closely and figures out what he might be here for.
"You're Arnold Herrman, correct?" Alex begins, reading off a bank card.
"That's my wallet." He realises in surprise, but then again he should know better.
"You work for a Swiss bank in Zurich." Alex continues. But Arnold wants his wallet back, he storms forward to get it back.
"Show some respect Mr. Cooper. Hand it bank!" He demands.
"I think I know why you are here." Alex says, placing the wallet back inside the banker's jacket pocket which was where he found it.
"Where are you going?" Jess asks.
"Zurich, so make sure that you take the money with you when you leave."
"Why don't you take the money? You're going to a bank right?" Jess asks.
"You take it, use it to survive. I have to this."
Jess moves towards the front door, followed by Tyson, in anticipation of following him. The two guards get up gingerly and try to hide their pain as they escort Arnold and Alex out of the room.
"Only Mr. Cooper will be required, thank you." He warns, which causes the two of them to stop. Alex walks out of the apartment with the cane clutched in his right hand with two in front of him, Arnold and an assistant with the last one following behind. They go into the elevator and move themselves such that Alex is behind them all, like they have to protect his life, like they are now his bodyguards.
They all stand motionless, facing the front of the elevator except for Alex who looks at the backs of their heads and their suits. Once they have gotten to the basement floor, Alex sees that there is a car waiting for him, waiting just outside the elevator, with another person wearing the same suit holding the door open. They usher him forward towards the car, which Alex gets into followed by one of the guards on the left and the other on the right, sandwiching him in the centre. The old antelope gets into the front passenger seat and they drive off, heading towards the exit. It's only once they are out of the building that they begin talking.
"Mr. Cooper. For security reasons, we couldn't say anything in that place as everything is recorded, we couldn't take that chance. But I can sense that you didn't realise that at the time so you became frustrated" He begins as the car swings onto a coastal road along the sea. "I am here to personally greet you to inform you that you have come into the possession of a Swiss bank account bequeathed in your name."
"My dad isn't dead." Alex says. "He's in prison."
"Under the terms of the agreement, in the unlikely event of incarceration leading to a sentence greater than the life expectancy of the current account holder, it shall be passed onto the next of kin which in your special case, includes a unique set of criteria." He explains. "First, you must be 18 or older, the usual; Secondly, you must display an interest in upholding your families tradition and the third is a test to be administered at the bank."
"I was never told about this account by my father." Alex insists.
"Your family has been dealing with us for nearly a century, ever since the end of the second world war. You are our most valuable customer." He explains.
"What's inside?" Alex asks. The proceeds from nearly 100 years of thefts.
"The actual amount is unquantifiable, it is impossible to accurately value the contents of your account because many of them are… unique."
"Do you have an estimate?" Alex asks.
"No, it would be foolish to estimate it's value."
"So where are you taking me?"
"To the airport…" Arnold says. "We leave immediately."
"Okay, do you think there are diamonds allocated to me?" Alex asks, having a brainwave.
"We do not keep an exact manifest of the contents of your deposit due to the nature of these dealings but I think I can remember him talking about diamonds, but I don't know how big or how many there are. Only the account holder can open the account." He explains as Alex dials in a number into his phone before waiting for an answer.
"What are you doing?" Arnold asks.
"Liquidating assets."
Alex waits until the recipient of this phone call is free.
"Alex, what do you need?" Matt asks.
"Are you set up?" Alex asks.
"Not quite, it's impossible to buy into the market here." Matt says.
"I was going to say are you interested in some diamonds?" Alex asks.
"Do you have them with you?" Matt asks. "What size?"
"Meet me in Switzerland and I'll hand them off to you." Alex instructs.
"What time?"
"Late, I don't know when." Alex answers.
"Is this about a Swiss bank account?"
One of the bodyguards overhears this conversation as he is sitting right next to him and snatches the phone off him and ends the call before giving it back.
"The less people that know, the better." He instructs, still bitter from having taken a pounding.
Alex gets his phone back, a wise decision for the bodyguard as Alex was already eying what to pinch off him as punishment which is probably the watch on his wrist, obviously Swiss made.