Conner showed him the poker chip. “Yes, this belongs to our grandmother,” he said, and gestured to Pearl over at the slot machine. Pearl had proven to be a great cover thus far so Conner figured she couldn’t hurt them here.
“May I?” the manager asked, and opened a hand. Conner handed the chip to him and the manager pulled a magnifying glass out of his lapel and examined the ridges of the side of the chip. “Very well, please follow me,” he said, walking away from the roulette table.
Conner and Bree exchanged looks, each wanting the other to go first. Finally Conner followed the manager, with Bree right at his heels.
The manager led them through the casino and into an elevator, politely holding the door open. The elevator had a button for each of the building’s five floors above them, but once the doors shut the manager pressed several at once, as if he were entering a secret code. When he was finished, the elevator took Conner and Bree by surprise—it started traveling down to an unmarked level.
“Are you enjoying Monte Carlo?” the manager asked casually as the elevator descended.
“Yup,” Conner peeped nervously, terrified of where they might be going.
Finally the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened. “Right this way,” the manager said, and escorted them out of the elevator.
To their amazement, Conner and Bree found themselves at the top level of a gigantic underground courtyard. It was like they were looking at a four-story cell block beneath them, but instead of prison cells the walls were lined with rows of vaults.
“So this is where her vault is!” Conner said.
“This isn’t really a casino, it’s a secret bank,” Bree said.
“Oh no, it’s still one of Monte Carlo’s finest casinos,” the manager reassured them. “But before it was a casino it was one of the world’s greatest private storage facilities for hundreds of years. The building was bought in the early 1900s on the condition that it remain a working storage facility. The vaults are not rented or leased but purchased in perpetuity, like cemetery plots.”
“So there are things inside these vaults that will never be seen again?” Conner asked.
“Usually the vaults and their possessions are inherited, but occasionally we have clients who pass on before naming a benefactor,” the manager explained.
“And those people’s valuables will just be locked away for the rest of time?”
“Yes,” the manager said. “But typically when people lock away something in an underground vault, it’s because they don’t wish to share it with the world.”
Conner and Bree gulped in unison. The thought of what might be behind some of those metal doors gave them the chills.
“Now, please follow me and I’ll show you to your grandmother’s vault,” the manager said.
They followed him down two flights of stairs to the third-highest level.
“Here we are, vault 317,” the manager said and stood to the side of the vault door.
“Wait, how do you know for sure this is our vault?” Conner asked.
“Each chip contains a small number on its side, and I examined yours before bringing you down here,” the manager explained. “Each chip also acts as a key. The sides are not ridged like normal chips but have several unique grooves and dents. When you place the correct chip into the center of a vault’s lock and spin the handles, the vault will open. Place the incorrect chip into a lock and the chip will be destroyed when you spin the handles.”
“But how do you know that we’re the proper beneficiaries?” Bree asked. “How do you know we didn’t steal the chip?”
“That is not a problem,” the manager told her. “According to the three-hundred-year-old policy, whoever is in possession of the chip is the rightful beneficiary. We give one chip to each client. If it breaks or gets lost or is stolen, that is not our issue. We avoid many lawsuits and robberies that way.”
Conner and Bree nodded their understanding. This was a very strange and serious storage facility; it wasn’t a shock that Mother Goose had business here.
“Now please enjoy your time with whatever your vault possesses,” the manager said. “It is also policy that I leave the room before you open it, to uphold our guarantee of the absolute privacy of your possessions. Please wait until I have entered the elevator before opening the vault. When you have finished with your possessions, please take the elevator to the main floor.”
He spoke so casually even though there was nothing casual about this place. The manager walked off in the direction they had come from. He climbed up the stairs and disappeared into the elevator.
“This place is intense,” Conner said.
“This place is awesome,” Bree said. “Think about what might be in these vaults—think about who might be in these vaults!”
It dawned on Conner that what most people found frightening, Bree found intriguing. And knowing this about her both frightened and intrigued him.
“Fingers crossed this works,” Conner said. He put the chip into the vault’s lock. He spun the handles around the lock and the door opened with a pop. A gust of air carrying mixed scents came with it. Both of his hands were on the handles but he didn’t pull the door fully open.
“What are you waiting for?” Bree asked.
“I just thought about all the potentially amazing and horrible things that might be waiting for us inside,” he said.
“I know,” Bree said. “Too bad my phone is dead; otherwise I’d take pictures.”
Conner grunted as he pulled the heavy door open. He and Bree stepped inside the vault and looked around in astonishment at the treasures Mother Goose had acquired over the centuries.
It looked like they were in the storage room of a museum. There were large Egyptian busts, small Fabergé eggs, hundreds of rolled-up scrolls, portraits, canvases, dinosaur bones, clay pots and pans, and even a giant machine gun from World War II.
Conner and Bree began searching through the items. Some of them were so outrageous they completely forgot what they were looking for. Mother Goose had labeled many of the objects and they had a difficult time believing in their accuracy. A pair of wooden dentures had a note pinned to it that said “George Washington’s teeth.” A large rolled-up scroll was tagged “Map to Atlantis.” A small envelope containing a telegram said “Amelia Earhart’s Forwarding Address.”
Bree’s eyes were practically bulging out of her head when she read the tag on a small goblet. “You don’t think this is actually the Holy Grail, do you?” she said, and raised the cup to show Conner.
“Probably not,” Conner said.
Bree sighed with relief and tossed the cup aside. She unrolled a portrait and laughed. “Then this painting labeled ‘The original Mona Lisa’ with a note from Leonardo da Vinci probably isn’t real, either,” she said, showing it to him.
“Um… that one might be legit,” Conner said, remembering Mother Goose’s da Vinci stories.
Bree suddenly looked like she was holding an explosive in her hands and gently put it back where she found it. Conner was getting distracted by all the things he was finding. He had to keep reminding himself what they were there for.
“I wish Mother Goose wasn’t such a hoarder. It’d be so much easier finding the panpipe if she had learned to recycle,” Conner said. He pushed a stack of ancient maps out of the way and then leaped with excitement when he found a small wooden panpipe hiding underneath them.
“Bree! Get over here and look at this!” Conner yelled. “I found it! I found it!”
“You’re amazing!” Bree said, and hugged him tightly. “Does it say what notes need to be played to access the portal?”
Conner inspected the panpipe and found a series of letters carved into the largest cylinder. “It says ‘G-E-F-C, C-E-G-F,’ ” he said. “I’m assuming those are musical notes or maybe it’s how you spell a sneeze.”
“This is terrific! Now all we have to do is get to Neuschwanstein Castle and find the portal!” Bree said.
She was so excited she kissed his cheek and then hurried out of the vault. Conner turned bright red and almost passed out. She made him feel like the most special thing in the room of treasures.
Bree poked her head back into the vault. “Aren’t you coming?”
“Yeah, sorry, be right there!” Conner collected the panpipe and his senses and followed her out.
They shut and carefully locked the vault behind them. Conner tucked the chip safely into his pocket. They rode the elevator up to the casino and thanked the manager for his assistance. As they raced down the front steps they plotted what their next move would be, although it was jarring to see the sun had already set while they were inside.
“Before we left the train station I took a look at the upcoming departures,” Bree said. “If we can make it back in time, there’s a nine o’clock overnight train to Prague that stops in Munich on the way.”
“Perfect,” Conner said. “There’s only one thing we’re missing.”
“What’s that?” she asked.
“Pearl!” he said.
They turned around and dashed back into the casino. Pearl was still by the slot machine where they had left her. However, she was clutching three buckets full of coins she had won while they were downstairs.
“Nicely done, Pearl,” Bree said.
“Pearl, would you like to go on one last train ride with us?” Conner asked.
The old woman didn’t seem to understand him but she nodded sweetly. Pearl was in it for the ride as much as they were.
They brought her down the front steps of the casino and journeyed to the train station as fast as possible. They made it just in time and were the last ones to buy tickets and board the train. Their compartment wasn’t as nice as the other two had been but they didn’t mind—as long as they were on their way to Germany everything was right in the world.
The compartment door abruptly slid open to reveal an aggressive-looking train attendant. His eyes narrowed when he discovered Conner and Bree behind the door.
“Passports, please,” the attendant demanded.
“Why do you need to see our passports?” Conner asked.
The attendant squinted his eyes at Conner’s reluctance. “We’ve just gotten word of two runaway American teenage tourists,” he said. “It’s protocol to check the identification of every passenger on board the train who matches that description.”
Conner and Bree tensed up. They had come so close to getting to the portal but there was no way out of this now. Conner wondered if the train was moving too fast to jump out of it.
“But these are my grandchildren,” Pearl said in perfect English.
Conner and Bree turned their heads so quickly they almost gave themselves whiplash. Had she been coherent the entire time?
“I understand that, madame, but we still need to check their passports,” the attendant insisted.
“Fine, fine, fine,” Pearl said. “Let me get my purse and I’ll find them for you.”
She slowly went through her bag: one pen, one piece of hard candy, and one coin at a time. She pulled out wads of tissue and folded-up notes and stamped letters she had forgotten to mail. The attendant grew impatient waiting for her to retrieve the passports.
“Where did I put those passports?” Pearl said. “We were just in Monte Carlo and I put them in my pocket, then when we got back on the train I put them in my suitcase—yes, they’re in my suitcase! If you wouldn’t mind kindly waiting another moment, I’ll have a look for them in my suitcase.”
“That’s quite all right, madame,” the attendant said. He had run out of patience for the day. “I trust you. Please forgive this disturbance.” He slid the door shut and they heard his footsteps travel down the train.
Pearl put her belongings back into her purse and then looked up at Conner and Bree. Both were staring at her with wide eyes and open mouths as if she were on fire.
“So where are we off to next?” Pearl asked them sweetly.
“Have you been aware of what we’ve been doing this entire time?” Conner asked, completely mortified.
“I’m old but I’m not ancient. I can speak English, too, you know,” she said.
“And you let us take you around the continent willingly?” Bree asked, just as horrified.
“Yes,” Pearl said. “You seemed like nice kids at the train station in London. I wasn’t sure what was going on at first but I knew it would be good fun once we got on the train.”
Conner and Bree looked at each other. Both wore the same bewildered expression.
“I ran away on my own adventure when I was your age,” Pearl said. “I fell in love with a circus clown named Fabrizio and followed him around the globe.”
“Did you get caught?” Bree asked.