Chapter Fifteen
The Robbery
Monday, March 19. 2A.M. 125 S.A.
Rome. In the vicinity of the Vatican City.
Marco Bianci was proud of his job as a policeman, even though his work was rather quiet. In his three years of service he could say that he had never encountered any problems on his nightly rounds aboard the speeder-patrol, or on the rounds he made on foot.
He was almost always on night duty, and that meant quiet.
Aside from the fact that, from time to time, he might come across some drunken passersby, or perhaps some youngsters fooling around at night, he had never encountered any situation that warranted drawing the non-lethal pistol he carried in his belt. The biggest scares were almost always night cats, jumping out of the blue on the rooftops of the low-rise businesses, or running through the streets, perhaps scared of the mechanized Templar Guards, who also provided security around the Vatican City grounds.
He stepped off the speeder and parked in an open spot on the Via Aurelia. He was only a couple of hundred meters away from St. Peter's Basilica and promised to be another boring night on duty. And he was thankful for that.
He looked up at the sky, and saw the orbital belt, almost overhead and, in a westerly direction, away from the Holy See, as the giant skyscrapers of the city rose. He saw a Templar Guardian flying through the sky and charting a course for the Piazza San Pietro.
Yes, it looked like another boring night. But whatever it was, he had to make his nightly rounds in the area, if for no other reason than to meet some cats. There was almost no one around at that hour, and there were hardly any autonomous vehicles on the streets.
Marco Bianci walked along the sidewalks of the Via Aurelia, looking at some of the windows of nearby businesses. Some of the screens on the streets in front of him were projecting news and advertisements that, given the nightly hour, no one could see. He could barely see a few passers-by in the streets far away.
He distracted himself by watching the news about an agreement to extend a mining concession on a newly discovered moon, and continued his rounds.
It was then that he saw a black vehicle parked in a slightly crooked position on the street. He scanned it with the Optical Capture System, and the police recognition network indicated that it was a free transport vehicle.
He frowned. What are you doing here?
The free transport vehicles were free, but they were never parked. They were always on the move, unless called by a passerby. They were the closest thing to what in ancient times was called a cab, but they had no air navigation system. Perhaps it was probable that it had had a malfunction and that was why it was at a standstill. He scanned the interior, but it was abandoned and decided to report it so that someone could pick it up in the morning hours.
He was looking at the vehicle, on the other side, when suddenly he heard an angry meow of a cat.
"Get out of here, furball!"
What was that? He wondered as he turned around.
He was looking down a narrow, dimly lit alley. No doubt he had heard something. Maybe there was some drunken couple or some youngsters going on a rampage painting with polymeric relief paint. Whatever it was, It was his job to see what was going on.
He took out his flashlight and walked down the alley, finding nothing in the first moment. He had passed that way before, and it was an alley that turned to the left, but had no exit, since it led to a wall with a courtyard on the other side and a small eight-story apartment building.
Bianci rounded the bend and, a dozen meters down the cul-de-sac, came upon one of the strangest scenes he had ever seen in his short career.
There was a ladder leaning against the wall of the alley, separating it from the eight-story building and, on top of it, a nun in heels and looking across the wall. He didn't remember seeing the graffiti on the wall the last time he had checked that place, so obviously during the day someone had been vandalizing the walls.
"Are you doing okay?" asked the nun with her back to him, as if she were talking to someone on the other side.
The nun was halfway up the stairs and had stretched her body to face the other side. The wall, while not very high, was a little taller than the nun.
"Good night, sister," the policeman greeted, shining the flashlight on her.
The nun gave a jump on the ladder, which almost made her lose her balance, and slowly, with an almost mechanical movement, she looked up at him. Almost as if she had been caught red-handed, like a child committing a prank.
"Good night, officer," she said, with a face that looked like she was suffering from a nervous tic.
She was a pale-faced nun with a few freckles on her face. But it struck him that her lips were painted an obsidian black, and she had some dark makeup around her eyes. Or so it seemed to him in the light of the flashlight. He was pretty sure it was the first time he'd seen such a gothic nun, not to mention the heels and that she was up on a ladder.
"May I ask what you're doing there, sister?"
"....M-my Mother Superior sent me and a companion to...clean up some rather obscene graffiti that some young men put up here last night."
What? Since when are nuns in charge of cleaning up vandalism?! "Really?" asked the policeman.
"Yeah, if you don't believe me, look there," she said pointing to the opposite wall on the other side of the alley.
The policeman shined the light on the wall the nun pointed to, but he couldn't see anything beyond a few smudges. It was all very strange.
https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/42dd80f9-5ac6-42d5-8ccc-bcea020b6152/dg4q5cc-9da65431-e35d-43e8-9756-76b2ae68f1bb.jpg/v1/fit/w_828,h_1172,q_70,strp/nevermore_enygma_vol_3_chapter15_by_hasegawakein_dg4q5cc-414w-2x.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MTIyOCIsInBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzQyZGQ4MGY5LTVhYzYtNDJkNS04Y2NjLWJjZWEwMjBiNjE1MlwvZGc0cTVjYy05ZGE2NTQzMS1lMzVkLTQzZTgtOTc1Ni03NmIyYWU2OGYxYmIuanBnIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTg2OCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.BDa215_aizGVauJJWpyZJ9qR6gk_ojDBvXTPOsvRcR0 [https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/42dd80f9-5ac6-42d5-8ccc-bcea020b6152/dg4q5cc-9da65431-e35d-43e8-9756-76b2ae68f1bb.jpg/v1/fit/w_828,h_1172,q_70,strp/nevermore_enygma_vol_3_chapter15_by_hasegawakein_dg4q5cc-414w-2x.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MTIyOCIsInBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzQyZGQ4MGY5LTVhYzYtNDJkNS04Y2NjLWJjZWEwMjBiNjE1MlwvZGc0cTVjYy05ZGE2NTQzMS1lMzVkLTQzZTgtOTc1Ni03NmIyYWU2OGYxYmIuanBnIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTg2OCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.BDa215_aizGVauJJWpyZJ9qR6gk_ojDBvXTPOsvRcR0]
What was she doing there at this hour to begin with? They might as well clean the walls in the morning. How obscene or insulting could graffiti be that it couldn't wait until the next day to be erased? More importantly, nuns don't work on Sundays! All these thoughts were swirling around in Marco Bianci's mind and that's why he didn't see it coming.
"It's already Monday, asshole!" shouted the nun, jumping off the ladder like a cat.
Before he could react, the policeman felt something fall on his back and smash him against the asphalt of the alley. He tried to get up, and turned around to face her, but watched as the nun straddled him, revealing fishnet stockings, and threw a punch worthy of a wrestling champion, before he could even draw his non-lethal pistol.
No matter how he looked at it, he had never been attacked by a nun in his life. Least of all by one who should have been in a gothic bar, instead of up on a ladder. What the hell had just happened? The last thing the policeman saw, before he passed out, was how his Neurowire's emergency call system was being disabled, and someone was hacking into the entire system to take it offline.
The nun in heels stood up from the policeman and wiped her hands in satisfaction. As she did so, a voice echoed through the her's Neurowire.
[What the hell is going on in there? Talk to me!] asked a male voice, in a concerned tone.
The nun removed her black veil, revealing a messy dark hair. While she liked the black, she didn't like the headdress the nuns wore at all.
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Rum ran her hand through it a couple of times and messed up her hair. "It's okay."
[Well, then tell me if I'm doing well, or if someone is coming.]
"Yeah. Just hurry up."
Stan, on the other side of the wall, and dressed as a priest, was holding a heavy machine in his hands that looked like a manual hydraulic hammer. He was standing in the middle of what appeared to be a sort of bright red circle, at least five feet in diameter.
[Please indicate depth,] was the tool's command that appeared on Stan's Neurowire.
"67 meters, 61 centimeters."
He turned on the machine and it emitted a buzzing sound at the bottom.
[Stop in the middle of the Namazium circle and deposit the tip of the AVH in the center.] Stan did so and waited. [Two centimeters to the left.] "Really?" Stan wondered, and placed a device in his ears which, after pressing it, activated a mask on his head, covering his entire face.
[Correct connection. Turn on your boots, put your feet on the footrest and make sure to grip the AVH device firmly.]
Stan did so and the tip of the machine sank into the ground, but remained balanced with Stan standing on it. After a few seconds Stan began to feel a slight tremor under his feet. Looking down, he saw how his feet and the machine were sinking into the ground, and the circle of Namazium ore glowed burning the garden grass on the circumference. It was fortunate that no one was around at that hour.
To anyone watching the scene it would have looked simply as if Stan was sinking in the middle of the circle. But the truth was that, seen up close, inside the circle the ground was vibrating rapidly and subtly.
After the first few moments, when it took longer, Stan was already halfway into the circle. After that, it was like going down an elevator. Stan's vision was populated by the glow of the machine that carried him down and he could see the earth around him vibrate. He had never used an Atomic Vibration Hammer in his life so, he was enjoying it. But the trip was short and, after a few moments, he had descended through the earth the 67 meters and 61 centimeters that separated him from his destination.
He had broken through the earth from the surface, and was now in a tunnel dug underground.
He found himself in a dark, rustic-looking tunnel.
"Activate stand-by function." He said releasing the machine that hovered in the air.
[You have 26 minutes in stand-by mode. If you plan to use more, make sure the Namazium circle is renewed on the surface.]
It won't be necessary, I'll be out of this place in less than ten minutes. "Activate night vision."
Stan looked at the place where he was, it was a tunnel dug into the ground about two meters wide and a little less than two meters high. Without stopping to admire the rough terrain, he set off down the tunnel heading in a northerly direction.
[Let me know if you're okay,] Rum said.
"I'm fine, I'm going under the catacombs."
[Who the hell digs a tunnel under a cemetery, anyway?]
"It comes from the Ancient Era. From World War II, they were going to use it to store relics in case the invasion came this far."
[Wasn't Italy on the side of Germany at that time?]
"Yes, but the Vatican had always been a target of the Nazis. From what I remember of history I think even the SS commandant wanted to hang the Pope and then exhibit him. But the war ended before that happened."
Fifteen meters ahead was a fork in the road. Stan went to the right, then walked straight ahead and stood in front of a rotten wooden door, if that could be called a door, since it was just moldy rotten planks.
After following the indications Janus had given, he continued on his way, watching as his Neurowire alerted the sensors of the mask, which detected the rarefied air.
He was about to take another step, when he realized that he had reached his destination. It was another rotten wooden door that gave way at the first push he gave it. After struggling to remove the pieces that made it difficult to get through, he looked around the room and his heart almost skipped a beat at the sight.
"This place is huge. What the heck do they have here?"
It was a tunnel that, with the night vision, he couldn't see the end of, but it extended in an east-west direction. It was at least five meters wide by another three meters high. Surely it must have passed under the entire Basilica complex and through the Piazza di Pietro. But what caught his attention was the number of boxes that were in place, one on top of the other. Most of them were against the side walls. Stan wouldn't have been surprised to see some kind of guardian monster appear from somewhere, although, fortunately for him, that didn't seem to be the case.
[Are you doing okay?]
"Yeah. For now."
[It's thirty meters in a westerly direction, then the suitcase boxes on the right side. Look for three with the serial number 1986-CV-V-dM.]
"Yes I know…"
He continued deeper into the tunnel, following the map Janus had left them to get to the target. Stan couldn't help but wonder what it was all about, although he didn't really care. They were going to get the money from Janus in exchange for the core. One more job didn't seem to be too much.
With one exception. They had stolen a fast flying car since getting off the ferry and arrived at noon in Rome. They had spent the rest of the day chasing the target two that Janus required. But they had been unlucky in that respect. Now it only remained to try to accomplish objective two after accomplishing objective one. As for objective three... there was still no news of its location since Janus said he would give them the location in due time.
Without almost realizing it, he had reached his objective.
On top of other boxes, there were three old-looking metal suitcases, probably some aluminum alloy due to a light chalky layer of corrosion on the bottom. Two of them were almost the same size, about forty centimeters high, by thirty centimeters wide, and another thirty centimeters long, the largest was almost twice the size. He looked for the number that marked them and indeed it was the corresponding one. Following the serial number, there was another number on each one, which gave the order.
Stan smiled. It was number two that Janus had said he needed, one of the small ones. He grabbed it from the holder, only to realize that, despite its size, it must have weighed a good thirty kilos.
What's in this? He couldn't deny that he was interested in the contents, but he didn't have time. He took out a small cube from his habit and through his Neurowire he quickly configured it, so that it transformed into a sort of harness backpack around the box suitcase. Without further ado, carrying the precious cargo, he set off back the way he had come.
Six minutes. Not bad, he thought as he activated the AVH controls and made his way back to the surface. The ascent took a little longer because he had to use a reverse function to counteract gravity. He climbed back onto the footrests while gripping the handles firmly on the sides, to maintain stability on the ascent.
As he surfaced the Namazium circle was already glowing less brightly, but it should last another fifteen minutes at least. Stan whistled to Rum on the other side of the wall, as he shook off some of the dirt he was holding.
The metal ladder grew and bent to the inner side of the garden. Stan climbed up and once on his side Rum simply sent a new command and the ladder folded back on itself, as if it were some kind of organic origami, until there was nothing left but another small cube that Rum kept in his nun's habit.
"Who is this?" Stan asked, looking at the policeman on the floor.
"Never mind. Come on!"
"It's a shame to lose that hammer. They cost a fortune."
"You can buy a hangar of them if you want when we finish this."
The tool, supplied by Janus, could not be put back into compressed mode, as it came from the factory, once it was used. To do that it had to be completely reconfigured, carrying it was not worth it and would only slow them down at that point. Janus had said to discard it once it was used, so they did.
They left Marco Bianci resting on the asphalt and started on their way back to the vehicle, that was parked in front of the alley. A free transport that they had cracked.
It was a surprise to find a police mobile on the scene, with two other policemen examining the vehicle from the outside.
"Shit," Rum grumbled.
They stood at a safe distance, while Rum entered through the back doors of the Neurowire system and disconnected the cops' network. Before they could react, they grabbed them from behind and applied a sleeper hold to both of them. They left them lying on the sidewalk and, once inside the vehicle, they started their journey eastbound out of the vicinity of the Vatican. Stan got behind the wheel and deposited the heavy backpack in the back seat.
Chances were that the place would soon become a hotbed of police automated vehicles. Three policemen with the missing signal was more than enough to alert the forces of the Gendarmerie Corps and the Swiss Guard.
Target two was nearby, but it was going to be a headache to get around.
"That was close," Rum hissed.
"Pretty close. You should have seen what it was like down there. Who knows what's inside all those boxes. If they're relics there must be a fortune."
"Well at least we secured the package."
"For starters, what is this? And why was it in the Vatican?" Stan asked in confusion.
"I don't know. For the moment let's just get out of here."
They both looked at each other for a few seconds without saying a word.
"What do we do with the second target?" Rum asked.
"Call him."
"Can't you call him?"
"I'm driving. If I leave the auto-drive on, this thing is going to go 30 an hour."
Rum clicked her tongue in disgust and, reluctantly, called the private number through the Neurowire. The call was answered almost instantly.
[Yes, Miss Ruzicka. Good morning,] Janus' voice answered.
"Hello…"
[Did you manage to secure the package and target two?]
"About that... we were only able to get the package."
[... ]
"Target two has been running into people all day. We've been tracking it since we arrived in the afternoon hours, but the opportunity didn't present itself for us to secure it."
[The package is safe then?]
"Yes, we have it with us."
[... ]
Several awkward seconds passed during which Janus did not speak. Stan meanwhile nudged his partner, trying to figure out what was going on. Rum simply shrugged.
[Interesting... once again the variables can't be changed, just as Aleister said, but it's the same result even if they are changed. The savitronic cycle hasn't started yet anyway.]
What is this guy talking about? Rum gulped and asked, "Excuse me, Mr. Janus?"
[Yes, sorry. Don't worry about target two at this time, proceed as planned. Deliver the package at the agreed point and go to target three.]
"What will happen to target two?"
[I'm watching what happened. Don't worry, if all goes well you will probably get another chance at the agreed time. It's really funny how this works.]
There's nothing funny about this. Watching what happened? This guy can access the security videos? He still hasn't told us about the target three position, Rum thought angrily.
[The position will be delivered to you when you deliver the package. Good luck,] Janus said and cut the call short before Rum could ask any more questions.
"He cut me off! Asshole!"
"And? What did he say?"
"That we go to the agreed point to deliver the package... and that there we will be given the current position of target three, or two... I'm dizzy."
"Well, then... Turin, here we go."
Without thinking too much, Stan ordered the vehicle to go a little faster in order to arrive at the destination where he would have to deliver the mysterious box suitcase they had with them.