Dan's party was over, and Dan was now sitting alone in the living room, watching some random movie on TV. The last remnants of the refreshments, which needed to be eaten soon, were scattered on the table, and Dan was currently helping his mother with that. But then he remembered that he hadn't yet opened the letter that his great-grandfather Michal had left him. So he went to the kitchen, where Klára was making dinner, and asked her, "Mom, what about that letter from Grandpa, the one we've been waiting for so long?"
"Oh, don't worry. I have it here. I completely forgot about it with all this going on. Wait, I'll find it right away," she said and hurried away from the cooking for a moment. She went to a cabinet in the bedroom, where she had moved the letter three days earlier, and handed it to Dan.
"Tell me what was so secret in there, unless you want to keep it a secret, of course," Klára said, smiled, and returned to the kitchen to continue cooking. Dan went back to the living room, sat down, and carefully opened the letter. Inside the envelope, however, he found only a small strip of paper folded several times, on which was written: "Hello, I hope you are doing well. I have a small task for you. Do you agree?" and next to it was an arrow pointing down.
Dan unfolded the next fold of paper, where it said: "Good, read the next instruction only after you complete the task." Again, there was an arrow pointing down. Dan folded back the paper again, and there was the task: "Go to my villa."
Dan was happy; the letter had met his expectations, and even surpassed them. It was almost unreal, the car and now this… What had he done to deserve this?
"It looks like some kind of task-based game. Maybe he left me... who knows... maybe some hidden family fortune or something. Like… like a treasure hunt," he thought.
"So, what is it?" Klára's curious and optimistic voice sounded from the kitchen.
"I think I'll keep it a secret," Dan replied.
"Okay…" Klára replied, a little surprised, and left Dan with his secret.
"Tomorrow… that's going to be a very good day," he thought. Although it was Sunday, he had already arranged with a certain Karel Zelený to take over the house tomorrow anyway, and now he also had something like a treasure hunt.
According to the calendar, Dan had turned 18 on September 23rd, and it was then that Mr. Zelený had written him an email:
"Dear Mr. Hedgehog,
I am writing to you regarding the transfer of ownership of the property at Pražská 396, Podbělec. I am writing to you at this very moment because today you have reached the age of majority, and the transfer is thus possible from this moment on any day of the week by prior arrangement." And the email continued with other boring details.
Dan had read it through completely at the time and replied that if it was possible to take over the property on any day, would he happen to have time on the weekend? He expected a negative response. However, since the man had written "any day," it was worth a try. He wouldn't have to unnecessarily accumulate absences from school.
To his surprise, Karel Zelený replied:
"Yes, it is possible. It is no problem for me. The Sunday appointment does not bother me in any way. I was paid in advance by your great-grandfather, and it is my contractual obligation to be available to you even on weekends. He wished for the whole process to be completed as quickly as possible. Therefore, if you are also free, we can meet on the weekend. The whole process is short and will only take a few minutes. It is purely a presentation of the item, identity verification, and a confirmatory signature. Let me know the time, and we will meet in Podbělec in front of the house."
And that's when he arranged a meeting for Sunday. The original plan was to arrive by bus, but now that he had his own car, he would arrive by his own car.
He then parked the car on the right side of the road by the sidewalk in front of the villa, where a somewhat stout clerk in a suit and with a tablet in his hand was already waiting for him. "So that's what Mr. Zelený looks like," flashed through his mind for a moment. Mr. Zelený had only a few brown hairs on his head and seemed to be in a hurry. He was probably excited to get it over with soon and be able to return to where he had come from, even though he had written in the email that it was no trouble for him.
"Good afternoon," Dan greeted him as he got out of the car.
"Good afternoon. You are Mr. Ježek, or rather Hedgehog? I don't know if it's translated or not," Zelený said pleasantly.
"Yes, I am. Hedgehog," Dan confirmed.
"Excellent, so I'll just take a picture of you now... Don't smile," he said, pointing the tablet at Dan and taking a picture. He tapped something on the tablet and continued:
"The requested item?"
"I have it," Dan replied, pulling a small box from his pocket containing Michal's ring.
"May I have the ring?" Zelený said, extending his right hand to Dan. Dan opened the box and handed him the ring.
Zelený then moved the tablet to his right hand as well, holding it against his body with his right forearm. He immediately sent his freed left hand into his left pocket, from which he pulled out some kind of openable, spherical device of white color and placed the ring inside. He closed the device with the ring inside, and it promptly beeped and lit up green. And then he was opening it again and carefully returning the ring to Dan.
He immediately put the strange Poké Ball back in his pocket and switched the tablet back to his left hand. Then he read something to himself from it and finally said to Dan, "All right. It says he advises you to keep the ring for some final task, but it doesn't specify anything else." He tapped something on the tablet again and finally said, "Now just place your thumb here for the signature, and we'll be done."
Dan then obediently placed his thumb on the designated area on the tablet's display, where a fingerprint reader was hidden beneath the screen.
The clerk smiled quickly, as if it were part of his job, and said, "Well, and otherwise, the house is now truly yours. Have a nice day. I have what I need. Goodbye."
"Goodbye," replied Dan, who was still surprised by the tremendous speed of the villa handover, although the clerk had prepared him for it in the email beforehand.
Afterwards, he watched the calmly departing clerk for a moment, a little disbelievingly, as he headed to his black car parked in front of the neighboring house. It really seemed to be all over. So Dan pulled out his keys and went to the villa. The front gate was electronic, and inside the keys was a small transmitter. So the gate opened itself in front of him.
The villa was as he remembered it, only the plaster was now overgrown with ivy, which wanted to claim the house for itself.
Dan unlocked the front door and entered the hallway. He didn't even take off his shoes and headed into the corridor that led both right and left. He took the corridor to the left and found himself in the living room. It was empty. Yes, all the furniture was still there, but it was still empty. Dan pulled out the letter and unfolded another fold of paper. It said: "Find my study and find the treasure."
So he headed into the small hallway directly in front of him at the end of the living room and entered the door on the right. Before him appeared the all-wood yet modern study with a desk, a computer, a red carpet, above which stood a circular table with a speaker, and cabinets along the walls.
Dan then began to systematically search the study. He searched the cabinets; there he found only a number of papers. The desk drawers also did not hide any great surprises. He had been searching for about 10 minutes. Suddenly, a strange feeling washed over him. It was hard to put into words, but suddenly it somehow hit Dan. A kind of dreaminess. Perhaps nostalgia mixed with a sense of absolute presence.
When he thought about it, it was definitely a strange feeling to be so alone in such a large house where family gatherings used to be held. As he pondered and let his attention wander from his surroundings, it occurred to him: "The computer. A hiding place like any other. Great-grandpa liked technology; if the treasure isn't physical, it'll be in the computer's memory, or... it could even be physically inside the computer case." He hadn't looked there yet. In the context of the gifts of components he'd received from him... "Of course."
He unplugged the computer and pulled it out from the desk. At that moment, something fell with a muffled sound inside the computer case. Dan was instantly revived, but then he wondered, "But I didn't have to find it at all. If he cared about it so much, he could have just put it on a shelf so I could find it. On the other hand, I guess I should be glad. He probably did it so that no one else in the family would ever find it by accident, and he also doesn't think I'm a complete idiot." and he began to unscrew the loosely tightened screws by hand. The side panel of the computer came off, and a heavily and repeatedly wrapped package fell out. Exactly the kind used to smuggle drugs. Dan was frightened, wondering if his great-grandfather had left him a remnant of some illegal business. He hurriedly pulled out the piece of paper from his pocket to read the next instruction: "Don't be afraid and open it."
"Bullseye. It's good how prescient he was," he said with a slight sense of detachment. So he placed the package on the table and began to painstakingly unwrap it. Curiosity was far stronger than any fears. Finally, he pulled out of the package a strange black cylindrical device with a long, thin, and transparent crystal on top. Without it, it would measure no more than 8 cm, with it about 12 cm. Around the crystal, there was some kind of slightly hollowed-out circular groove. There was nothing else, just a simple on/off switch at the bottom of the cylinder. Dan pulled out the letter again, and on the next fold, it said: "Insert the ring into the groove and turn it on. Let yourself be guided and take the ring with you."
Even if it was a bomb, Dan's curiosity was irrepressible, and he did what his great-grandfather Michal wanted. He inserted the ring into the groove around the crystal. The device even slightly magnetically pulled the ring in itself. Dan then placed the device on the table and turned it on. The crystal began to glow blue, and it glowed more and more. It was constantly brighter and brighter. The crystal now illuminated the entire room with blue light like a spotlight… And then... there was a click, and the entire carpet in the study suddenly lifted up. Dan just stared wide-eyed and hurried to pull back the raised carpet on the other side of the study. Underneath, an open hatch and iron steps leading down awaited him.
At the end of them was light, and a concrete floor could be made out. Everything was well-lit and sturdy, so Dan wasn't afraid. Well, not so much that he wouldn't go down. He left the device with the crystal as it was, took the ring, and then began to descend the ladder.
"Was this supposed to be a bomb shelter? Or what was it for? Uff. Wow. This is… well, strange, at least strange, and otherwise... a little scary. Or I don't know, what am I supposed to feel about this. Hmm, but well… Great-grandpa certainly wouldn't give me a task that would put me in danger," he finally reassured himself as he climbed down. When his feet hit the ground, he had already descended very deep. There was only a short concrete hallway leading to a door like that of a bank vault. "Damn, this is starting to get serious," Dan said to himself. The door unequivocally convinced him of that. He immediately looked around a bit and reminded himself that this was actually happening, that this was the real world and he had found a door like this under his great-grandfather's house. Then he noticed that there was also a black panel next to it. With growing apprehension about what he had gotten himself into, he pulled out the letter with a slightly trembling hand for further instructions. "M45-CZ3-2100-D1L and put the ring in the groove in the table opposite, just that!" it said in the letter.
What had more power now? Anxiety or the adrenaline of the unknown? In any case, Dan cautiously walked over to the panel and began to enter the code. With each character he entered, a muffled mechanical sound was heard each time. He paused and realized that his entire hand movement, and therefore probably his fingerprints and face, were being watched by a small, hidden, and mobile camera moving under the dark part of the panel. He was very uneasy. Horror and dread, literally, but he still felt the need to finish what he had been drawn into. So he finished writing the code.
"To complete the creation of a new profile, I need to know your full real name," came from Michal's artificial intelligence, Ivanka.
"Uh. U-hm. Okay, you probably know everything about me by now anyway... Daniel Hedgehog," Dan replied, trying to act as calmly as he could.
"Voice signature saved. Profile match found. All conditions have been met. Have a nice day, Daniel," she said friendly, and the massive door began to unfold into smaller and smaller parts.
It was almost comically complex, and behind it awaited an elongated, dimly lit workshop. On both sides of the room were various boxes stacked on top of each other, with two large display cases standing between them on both sides of the room. In three of them stood darkened figures. They were tall, massive, and humanoid. Oh, and scary, like everything else, though maybe a little more than everything else. But whatever it was, Dan was convinced that it must have died in those 5 years, so he was probably safe. A lowered table ran down the middle of the room, and directly opposite it, at the very end of the room, stood a more massive counter, above which hung a huge, turned-off television. On this screen hung a glued-on piece of paper with a painted arrow pointing down, which Michal had left there for him 5 years earlier.
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