Chapter 16 – The Cooper Vault?

Zurich, Switzerland. 7:46pm, 5th November 2032.

"Why did you abandon them?" Erin accuses. Alex is trying to focus on what she's saying; it's all a fuzzy and blurry conversation.

"How much do you value them? Is it more than what it's inside the safe?"

"Wha…no. I didn't leave them." Alex defends himself as he lies on the ground.

"Why did you abandon them, abandon them, abandon them…" Erin says, saying the last part like a broken record player except growing in loudness and fuzziness as a loud roar builds up until it becomes painful. The world shakes…

…and Alex wakes up, thrusting himself forward to escape the nightmare, breathing quickly, and sees the inside of the private jet he had been flying in. The sumptuous leather of his seat that had cradled him for the brief catch-up of sleep that he managed to get on the journey was something he definitely noticed, along with the array of screens and other luxury appointments he did not get enough time to look at. The plane has just touched down onto the runway with the engines going into reverse thrust to slow the plane down to a speed where it can taxi safely into it's small hangar. As soon as the plane stops, the plane's main door opens to let out the 4 passengers to go to another waiting car waiting right next to the front of the plane. It's a short drive to the bank itself, a small building on the outside, only a few stories tall but then again this is not a major bank. It's a private bank only catering to the wealthy; the minimum amount needed to set up an account is 1 million Swiss francs.

They enter into the building as soon as the car stops; the private bankers really want this to be finished as soon as possible. Alex looks out of place with his outfit compared to the suits around him. There are only a few extra people in the building but most of them are security personnel hired for this event. The staff had stayed up too, knowing that their best customer was going to arrive. They walk down a set of stairs to the vault level where a security guard sits outside. He gets up and together with the banker, swipe their keycards simultaneously to unlock the sealed vault door where all of the safety deposit boxes are stored. Alex was expecting something… more than just several deposit boxes.

"Is this it?" Alex asks to the banker as he looks around at the interior of the vault.

"We are not allowed inside with you, we can only stand outside the vault."

"Which deposit box is mine?" Alex asks.

"This is the test." The banker explains. "Like I said earlier."

Alex looks around at all of the boxes that line the walls of the interior, each with a number on the front. Alex thinks through his mind which 3-digit number would be his deposit box. Each despot box itself is only the size of a shoebox that makes Alex wonder if it's the only box that they have for him. After 30 seconds of searching, he finds the one box that is different from the others; the numbering is in an ever so slightly different font. #937 is the answer.

"Do you have the key to box number 937?" Alex asks.

"We have no key for that box." Arnold answers, this frustrates Alex even more. He stares at the box, it's exactly the same shape as the others with only the font for the numbering being different. Eventually, he tries to force it open. He pushes in on it, and realises that the box itself is loose. He pushes it further into the wall before he hears a click. He can hear the hissing of pneumatic arms moving as he sees a portion of the deposit boxes, the one's positioned in the centre opposite the vault door, move backwards and then sideways into the wall, revealing a hidden area. A dark, and empty area with only one thing at the end which catches Alex's attention, another safe that is brightly lit. Alex turns around and sees a black curtain has been dropped over the open vault door to obscure the view. He walks forward slowly, down the two concrete steps and onto a short plateau the same width as the vault itself, about 7 metres wide and only 3 metres long before the platform simply drops off. Alex can't see if there is a bottom to the pit.

The hidden doorway retracts back into it's position, leaving Alex trapped inside the dark room. Once the door is shut, a single red laser shoots out from the far end towards the platform Alex stands on. It's the only light source apart from the single light source shooting down to illuminate the next safe door. Alex waits for something else to happen, something that could get him across the 15-metre gap to the other side.

"Okay… think." Alex says to himself, hoping he can regurgitate a passage from the Thievius Raccoonus that would help him. Wall running is out of the question; the gap between the sides is too wide. There is nothing attached to the wall or the roof to hook the cane to. The single laser is not a good protection to impede someone from moving through.

"Think…" Alex exclaims. Then he realises what he needs to do.

"No, noooooooo, no, no. Do that?" He asks himself. To walk along a laser beam like a tight rope? That defies the laws of physics, but then again so does invisibility. He takes a step back before lunging himself onto the laser beam, sliding along the beam against all possible thoughts of falling. The beam only stays on for half a second, trapping Alex only a third of the way across. He falls into the pit with no visible bottom, which lasts for slightly more than a second. He lands right on his feet despite the unexpected nature of the fall, using his cane to balance himself in the air. The room below is dark initially, it suddenly flashes into brightness. A wide expanse, barren black floors and a mirrored roof that reflects the lighting from around the edge of the floor.

Suddenly the floor beneath him begins to lower, but other sections are not and other sections of the floor open up to reveal a series of obstacles. Hooks coming from the roof, pointy spires poking out from the floor and lasers blocking the path with chrome plated pole in the far corner, which looks like the exit to him. As soon as the floors and rooves and everything stops moving to set as they are, Alex looks for a path out of here. He analyses the path for a few seconds, climbing up platforms, opportunities to ninja spire jump across gaps to shorten the time, he feels confident after creating a plan. However, his plan goes right out the window just as he approaches the first raised platform, all the obstacles start moving again, changing the layout, making Alex have to plan the journey all over again.

He leaps onto a pointed spire and jumps to a raised platform that suddenly lowers as he grabs onto the edge and pulls himself up; he's right back to the same attitude as he started. The course is plotting against him with every single move he makes. He takes a leap across to a lowered platform and onto another, hoping that raw speed will beat the computer tracking his movements and making the decisions. But regardless of how fast his movements are, the computer's 'thoughts' are faster, but that doesn't mean that the pneumatics and magnetics controlling the room are. He realises that the platforms raises and lower the slowest, followed by the spikes, the hooks in the ceiling and the lasers moving the quickest.

Alex moves along the platforms as much as he can, continually rising and falling but incrementally finding a gain in height with each leap upwards. The pace he's moving at is faster than what he's achieved in his life, because this is a worthy opponent for his skills, a real test. Slowly, he manages to get closer after going at the course for nearly 2 minutes of hard and constant changing movement to go along with the changing movements of the course. He can almost leap onto the chrome pole on the other side which he hopes leads onto the other side. A hook juts out from the roof and he finally sees his opportunity to leave this area. He jumps of a spike and reaches out with his cane and swings using the hook, sending him forward onto the only platform that hasn't moved this whole time, the one attached to the pole. He grabs onto it with his free hand and feels the solidity of it, sweet solidity this room a lacked over the past few minutes. He look up and sees light at the top, quickly he climbs up the pole with one hand as the hole he has to fit through won't allow for him to have the cane in his mouth without it tilted sideways. As he climbs up the pole the light gets dimmer and dimmer, it was just a trick and it's not over yet much to Alex's delight. He was starting to enjoy the challenge once he got the hang of it.

He reaches the top of the pole and sees the small crawlspace at the top that is the only way forward. He feels the dimensions with his free hand, only about 70 centimetres wide and 50 centimetres high. There's no room to turn his body around so he has to decide whether or not to enter on his stomach or on his back. He chooses his back simply because it's easier for him to get in from this position. He enters head first, still holding onto the pole with his legs and one arm, once he's aligned himself properly with the crawlspace, he pushes off the pole using his legs. The raccoon has to lift up his back slightly so his tail doesn't get crushed under his body and also has to spread his legs out to accommodate the tail's volume which goes down to about halfway along the shin bone as it's longest point. This inconvenience is why it's preferable to go on his stomach. He has to feel his way around with no light visible from any direction, so he begins by shuffling his body using his hands and feet until he hits his head against a wall.

Alex sticks out an arm to feel for where the crawlspace leads. He feels the sides then feels the edges of the space rising up above his head. He leaves the cane on the horizontal area and begins moving himself as close to the far wall as possible to fit himself around the corner. He curves his back and braces his arms against the sides of the tunnel whilst he scrambles his legs to moves them around the gap. Once he stands up in the tiny gap barely big enough for him, he shuffles his foot along until he feels the hook of the cane. He turns his right leg around to the left and, using the back of his shoe, pushes the cane up against the stainless steel wall until it just makes it around the corner and allows Alex to pick it up with his right hand. The only way is up now.

He uses the tiny amount of room to perform a tiny jump, and whilst he's in the air, he braces himself against the sides using his forearms and his feet. Now he's off the ground, he thrusts himself up a little bit using his legs, bracing himself just a little bit higher than before. He repeats this jerking motion several times, each effort requires more effort as fatigue begins to set in. It's a slow and painful process, with each huge effort yielding a tiny gain in height. Once he's done 20 of these motions, making him 2 metres off the ground, he nods his head forward and backward against the sides to feel for any end to this torture. He does it another 10 times and still no end in sight.

34… back, forward, nothing. 35… back, forward, nothing. 36… back, forward, nothing. 37… back, forward…

Finally he can feel an edge and beyond that, a flat section. He braces himself with his feet and begins to slowly move his arms from being by his side to above his head so they can grapple onto the edge, putting his cane up there in the process. No more small movements with his legs anymore. He pulls himself up onto his stomach with the tunnel heading in the opposite direction he first entered, and also directly above it as well. Once on his stomach, he takes a brief second to rest his aching ankles and catch his breath. It also gives him an opportunity to see the literal light at the end of the tunnel coming from something below Quickly though, he gets a move on, shuffling himself forward using his forearms with his right hand holding the cane. It takes only 20 seconds for him to reach the end and see a downward path after moving only half as far as the first tunnel.

There is a small grating after about 50 centimetres down that prevents him from passing through to the end. He runs his hand along the edge to feel for what secures it, it's a completely flush finish with no screws, which tells Alex that it all he needs to do is lift it out. He reaches down with his left hand and grabs the grating by one of it's cold steel elements and passing it over his head, using the butt of the cane to push it back along the crawlspace until it's near his feet where it won't bother him. Alex looks at how to do this landing, head first is not the traditional way to do it and could also greatly shorten his potential thieving career. So he shuffles himself along further, bending his body downward to conform to the path of the tunnel. Once his torso is leaning down, he can see that where he's ended up is on the other side of the platform; he can just see the other side of the platform from where he started. He shuffles along his torso to further move himself along until he past the centre of gravity along this fulcrum, which mean gravity pulls him down quickly, making him fall down but he's stopped by his feet that have hooked themselves onto the flat section of the tunnel. He hangs upside down like a bat resting on a tree branch.

The floor is 2.5 metres below his head, and with such a tight space, a complete flip would be tricky. So he begins to slowly swing is body forwards and backwards to try and get a little bit of momentum. He gradually increases the amount of effort and waits until he can perform the stunt. He leans forwards with as much effort as he can muster, simultaneously moving his feet off their perch. He extends his arms out for balance and flips forwards and sticks the landing. Alex gets up and sees just how far he's come, he proud of himself, he may not have had the chance to face the skunk in a game of poker, but this was a far more rewarding experience. He can see the safe doors, huge steel monoliths shoved together with 3 large solid tungsten alloy pins clasping them together. He approaches the safe door and two security devices reveal themselves from inside the wall as a panel retracts; a handprint scanner and retina scanner. He places his bare hand on the scanner and look directly into the retina scanner. The small screen reveals the results.

New Source

DNA Test to Confirm Acceptance

Alex rubs his head hoping that a loose hair will detach itself and sure enough he gets a couple of dark grey hairs end up on his hand which he places into a small round receptacle that looks like a small petrie dish.

Scanning…

4%...

27%...

53%...

79%...

99%...

100%...

DNA MATCH

OPEN SAFE?

Y/N

Even this computer language is one that Alex can understand.

Y

He hears the whirring of the pins being retracted from their default positions that he thinks haven't moved for more than 10 years. A clunk signals that first process is done, then there is a huge whirring as the massive safe doors begin to open very slowly, only 5 centimetres per second. The doors open about 1 metre before they stop, lights turn on from inside the second safe, and what he sees is what any thief dreams of seeing, a whole heap of loot, booty and scores galore. He steps inside quickly to see everything for himself, paintings, ancient artefacts, precious metal and; bundled neatly in neat piles, stacks of cash in more than 10 different currencies. This is all his now, all of the contents inside. In fact, he expected more but he's not complaining. Behind him, a walkway extends out from the far end of the hidden room to intersect with the other side to safe him from combating the devious room below. He looks around at the room for the diamonds he promised to give to Matt to help him ease into the diamond market.

There are some display cases, which have pearl necklaces, diamond rings and the like but no raw or cut diamonds. He opens the black metal draw below and finds what he is looking for. There is a small maroon velvet pouch which Alex opens that contains numerous small diamonds, it brings a small smile to his face before he puts it back in the empty draw. He opens the one below and finds more gems of different colours, rubies, sapphires, emeralds and diamonds, these are the larger ones all set on a soft velour base. He picks up a medium sized diamond, about 5 carats and feels it in his hand. It's so smooth and yet the edges are so sharp. It's the hardest object in the world, the material that will scratch anything, even itself. He takes 4 diamonds and a pinch of the smaller diamonds and puts them into his empty left pocket. Having satisfied himself, he leaves the safe and once he steps onto the walkway, a pressure sensor relays to the vault door to shut it. The lights turn off and the steel doors slam together with a crash even at such a slow speed before a muffled crash from the locking pins rings out as Alex reaches the other side. As he approaches the door, the hidden door slides towards him as it did before and slides to the side to reveal the safety deposit box room.

This causes a great pang of frustration in him.