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When the doors opened Roht they had entered a jail had the bars not been hly polished steel A man as seated behind a desk on the far side of the bars jumped up the moment he saw the chair-shafted key Roh the open door, then waited until they were both locked inside The guard preceded them down a corridor, not unlike that of a wine cellar with teht was barely bright enough to ensure that they did not lose their footing At the end of the corridor, they found Herr Bischoff’s son waiting in front of a vast circular steel door The old er Herr Bischoff placed a key in a lock and turned it Then the chairman stepped forward and undid a second lock Father and son pushed open the nine-inch-thick door, but neither made any attempt to enter the vault
“You are in possession of five boxes Numbers 1721, 1722, 1723, 1724—”
“And 1725, no doubt,” interrupted Romanov
“Precisely,” said Herr Bischoff, as he ree from his pocket and added, “This is your envelope, and the key inside it will open all five boxes” Romanov took the envelope and turned toward the open cavern “But we must open the bank’s lock first before you proceed,” said Herr Bischoff “Will you be kind enough to follow us?” Romanov nodded and both Herr Bischoffs proceeded into the vault Ro Mr Bischoff opened the upper lock of the five boxes, three s a perfect cube “Once we have left, Your Excellency,” said the old man, “we shall pull the door closed, and when you require it to be opened you have only to press the red button on the side wall to alert us But I must warn you that at five o’clock the va
ult locks itself autoalarm will sound at four forty-five” Romanov checked the clock on the wall: three-seventeen He couldn’t believe he would need close to two hours to find out as in the five boxes The two Herr Bischoffs bowed and left
Romanov waited impatiently for the vast door to close behind him Once alone in Aladdin’s cave he looked around the room and esti the four walls, giving them the appearance of a library of safes He suspected there was more private wealth in that one vault than most countries on earth could call on He checked the nu like an orphan who has been told there will be second helpings
He decided to start with one of the small boxes He turned the key and heard the lock click before pulling out the stiff drawer to discover it was full of papers He flicked through thee tracts of land in Bohearia—once worth millions, now controlled by Socialist states As he checked each docu “not worth the paper they ritten on” sprang to mind Romanov moved to the second box, which he discovered contained the bond certificates of coed by His Excellency Count Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov The last time they had declared a profit was 1914 He cursed the system he had been born under as he moved on to the third box, which contained only one docurandfather’s will It took only moments to discover that all had been left to his father and therefore he was the lawful owner of everything—and nothing
Diser boxes, both of which looked big enough to hold a cello He hesitated before placing his key in the lock, turning it and pulling out the vast container
He stared down in anticipation
It was empty He could only presume that it had been that way for over fifty years unless his father had re, and there was no reason to believe that He quickly unlocked the fifth box and in desperation pulled it open
The box was split into twelve equal compartments He raised the lid of the first compartment, and stared down in wonder Before him lay precious stones of such size, variety, and color that would have erly he lifted the lid off the second compartment, to find it contained pearls of such quality that one single string of theirl into a society beauty As he opened the third box, his amazement did not lessen, and he understood for the first tirandfather had been considered one of theed to Alex Roovern how he could possibly enjoy such riches
It took Roh the contents of the re nine compartments When he reached the last one—alold coins—he felt thoroughly exhausted He checked the clock on the wall: four-thirty He began to replace the lids on each of the co the treasure hunt he had conificence that he could not resist reold chain weighted by afrorandfather—Count Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov, a proud, handsorandmother, so beautiful that she surely could have worn any of the jewelry in that treasure trove with distinction
For some ti it over his head and letting the ave the piece one last look before tucking it under his shirt When he had replaced the lid on the last compartment he slid the box back into place and locked it
For the second tihts turned to his father and the decision he one back to Russia with his secret Had he planned to rescue Alex froery that was all he could look forward to? What had been his plans, and had they included Alex? His father had always assured hi future but that there were secrets he was too young to share, and he, in turn, had passed that information on to the authorities His reward had been a place at the Korave, because Alex would never have learned of the fortune if it had not been for … Poskonov
His , or was it a coincidence that he had been sent to this bank first? Members of his chosen profession didn’t survive if they believed in coincidence