Chapter 45 - Knock! Knock! Who's there?

As Tiamat was slithering back into the bank and reviewed her past interaction she noticed that it had become increasingly easier for her to think and plan actions. In the past she had almost solely relied on her basic emotions and made short term goals but now she was somehow...more? Despite the small headache she noticed and dealt with everything more clearly, everything could be planned and handled with greater ease. Shortly after she emerged from the walls and returned to her former location where she could detect multiple heat and pheromone signatures corresponding with many of her own kind although every last one of them differed in race.

Tiamat: [Hey strange creature! What now?]

H: [Can you take them out somehow or lure them away from the other ones of my kind?]

Tiamat: [They are somehow not in control. If you could block the smells then I might be able to convince them to leave…]

H: [Stay there for a while...I have to think about this.]

There were many paths he could take now. For one, as the hostages were in a different room than the villain, giving him the opportunity to fill all openings with stone or metal to block all smells. This however could attract attention to him and might raise questions causing him to rate it only as a last resort option. Alternatively he could task Tiamat with poisoning the villain but it would leave the villain with plenty of time to kill all hostages. In the end he decided on luring the villain towards the vault and sealing it shut to isolate him and achieve his goals.

H: [Tiamat! As soon as I give you the command assert dominance over all the snakes and take them away from the hostages. Understood?]

Tiamat: [Yes, yes. Just do your thing and bring me to my new warm den…]

Activating his Energy&Matter perception Hermann quickly found the way that connected the vault with the room the villain was currently located in. The villain was apparently in the process of accessing a computer that was present in the room, the room probably belonged to the director of the bank. Perhaps the villain was also a hacker or copied all files to let a hacker encrypt it?

Regardless he had to lure the villain inside the vault...Smiling after a short time of thinking Hermann forced the vault to open on it's own. Dozens of small connected locks opened at the same time due to a small simulated electric signal Hermann had induced into the cables inside the door. Soundlessly the vault door swung open. Now onto the next point on the agenda. Luring the villain inside the vault. How should this be possible?

Unsure on how to proceed Hermann decided to create small valuable objects out of gold and silver embedded with various precious gems whose components he had scanned during his many raids in the air above the ways from the route that passed from the hostages room towards the vault, not forgetting to simulate the smell of a human that had quickly walked towards the vault.

In his raids he had by now scanned almost every metal and substance he had ever known of and should he at some point in time decide to become a large drug producer or smuggler he would find no problems in doing so.

Letting the pieces fall with short intervals of pauses between each drop, starting from the room that held the hostages, he hoped that the sounds of the dropping objects would be enough to alert the villain. To his happiness he succeeded and the villain instantly ordered all of his snakes that were not guarding the hostages to investigate and protect him. Strangely enough the orders he sent through the pheromones did not seem to affect Tiamat but to keep up the disguise she followed the rest that were quickly slithering towards the villain. As the villain asked to investigate the surroundings of the door and all snakes remained calm, answering with pheromones that corresponded with security the villain finally opened the door. After ordering all of the present snakes to climb on his body the villain slowly followed the trail, regularly sending out snakes to scan the surroundings for potential ambushes.

After a few minutes of slow and careful advance the villain finally arrived in front of the open vault. Surprised and shocked the villain ordered almost all of the snakes to guard the entrance as the room laid in the center of the building, had no windows, only one entrance and only one source of smell that seemingly had wanted to escape the room but after hearing him decided to hide in the corner furthest away from the entrance in the hope of him not noticing it.

Slowly stepping away from the vault door inside the room he sent the rest of the snakes to investigate the source of the smell. Confident about his victory the villain slowly advanced towards the source of the smell.

Villain: "Come out! There is no reason to hide...I know much about you...You are male, you are a child, you are afraid and you must be somehow related to the director...His son?"

The last on was a pure guess as he tried to explain to himself how a small child had been able to open the vault where he had failed although he had searched the directors computer for information only to find countless pictures of cute kittens and pictures of the directors family. As the child was male and had somehow been able to open the safe he had simply assumed the obvious. Slowly with his hands in the air he advanced towards a small mound in the corner where the smell originated. Until he suddenly heard the door behind him close, locking him in without any opportunity to escape or communicate with the outside.