The Circle (Hammer) - By Elfgren, Sara B.,Strandberg, Mats Page 0,95
answer there, and Vanessa sighs. She has to stop herself going up to him and giving him a shove in the right direction.
A girl with long black hair is standing at the free counter. She’s attractive and knows it. Unlike the other bank zombies, she’s irritated, which, as far as Vanessa is concerned, is to her credit. She beckons to Nicolaus impatiently.
‘It has the number one,’ says Nicolaus, when he walks up to her.
‘What?’
‘The deposit box to which this key corresponds. It has the number one. That was the information I was given this morning when I telephoned.’
‘You mean you have a safety deposit box?’ she asks.
‘That is what I have been told.’
She smiles professionally, but not one millimetre wider than necessary, while Nicolaus signs a few papers. ‘This way.’
Nicolaus goes around the counter and Vanessa follows him. She hopes her shoes aren’t leaving traces of melted snow on the carpet.
They walk along a corridor until they reach a pair of solid steel gates that the black-haired woman unlocks. ‘It’s just one flight down,’ she says. ‘I’m going to lock you in.’
Nicolaus looks horrified.
‘Use the phone to call us when you’ve finished,’ she says.
Nicolaus walks down the steps cautiously. Vanessa just has time to slip in behind him before the bank employee shuts the gate so hard that the metal bars ring.
The walls of the vault are covered with small rectangular numbered doors in dark-grey matte metal. Vanessa wonders about the money, jewellery and dirty secrets hidden in the boxes. Deeds revealing hitherto unknown siblings and illegitimate children. Illicit photos and love letters.
It’s silent. There’s a table and chair in the middle of the room.
Nicolaus scans the deposit boxes. At the very top corner there is a small door with ‘1’ on it. He walks up to it determinedly and unlocks it.
Vanessa backs away when he pulls out the box, carries it to the table and sets it down. When she sees the shiny metal rectangle she is suddenly nervous. Nicolaus takes a step back and stares at it. It’s obvious that he’s also afraid of what the box might contain. In the world where Vanessa is now living, it might be a big black hole that sucks up the entire universe and turns it inside out. Or a miniature unicorn that spits concentrated acid.
Nicolaus reaches out to open the box, but stops short. He turns slowly and looks about the room. ‘Vanessa?’
She holds her breath.
‘I know you’re there.’
Vanessa doesn’t dare make herself visible since there must be surveillance cameras in the room. But she takes a step forward and touches Nicolaus’s coat in confirmation. ‘How did you know?’ she murmurs.
‘I didn’t,’ he answers. ‘I guessed. There was something in Miss Minoo’s behaviour that put the idea into my head.’
‘She was afraid there might be something dangerous in the box,’ Vanessa whispers.
‘And if there is, how are you going to help me?’
‘At least then there are two of us. And I’m invisible.’
‘Evil sees more than we think,’ Nicolaus mumbles. ‘You should go.’
‘I can’t get out –we’re locked in. You might as well open the box and get it over with.’
‘Then for God’s sake take a few steps back!’
‘I’m already standing a few steps back.’
Nicolaus takes a deep breath, as if he were going to dive under water. He reaches for the box, but stops short again.
‘What is it?’ Vanessa asks.
‘I’m shuddering at the thought of what might be inside it,’ he says.
‘You’re not the only one.’
‘You don’t understand. Ever since my awakening I’ve been wandering around in a fog. Now the moment has arrived when that fog might lift. I fear the answers I’m going to get. If I get any.’
All at once Vanessa feels an enormous empathy with Nicolaus. It must be difficult to fumble about constantly in the dark as he’s doing. Yet he’s stood faithfully by theirside. He’s always tried to help them find answers. Unlike the principal, who has the answers but won’t share them.
‘I can open it,’ Vanessa says.
‘No,’ says Nicolaus, and takes another deep breath. ‘This is my lot.’
‘Suit yourself,’ she says, and sneaks a little closer.
Nicolaus opens the box.
It contains a black book with two circles stamped into the cover. And next to it, a now familiar silver loupe.
‘The Book of Patterns,’ Vanessa says. ‘And a Pattern Finder. It’s like the ones the witches use.’
Nicolaus picks up the book. Lying underneath it is a white envelope with old-fashioned handwriting on the front: