Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History Read Online Free PDF Page B

he might not have anticipated: tedium.
    Notarbartolo knew he must spend several hours in the office during each of his visits to give the illusion that he was working. It would surely arouse suspicion if his computerized badge traffic showed he spent only a half hour at a time in the building. Since his real work needed to take place outside the office, he made sure to bring with him several Italian-language newspapers and magazines to kill time. He was fortunate that the newspaper vendor across Schupstraat from the Diamond Center carried several Italian publications, lifesavers that kept him from pacing a hole in the carpet for hours on end. He also brought with him a pad of paper and some pencils. Pulling up a chair, he settled behind the desk and took notes on what he’d seen so far, drew a few preliminary sketches, and created the first of many to-do lists. The office was very quiet except for the sound of his pencil scratching on the notepad.
    After an appropriate amount of time passed, he took his briefcase to the elevator and hit the button for floor -2, the vault level. When the doors slid open, he was again finely tuned to note and record to memory as much detail as possible. He noticed, for example, that although there were three elevators that served the upper floors of B Block, only two came to the bottom floor. He saw that the only decoration on the walls of the vault foyer was a framed diagram of the fire escape route, which conveniently showed which of the four doors in the foyer opened into the stairwell. He heard how the whole floor echoed, the tile amplifying every small cough and footstep. He made a mental note to wear sneakers when the time came.
    He walked to the day gate that provided entry to the safe room, immediately memorizing the brand name printed on both the intercom keypad and the keypad connected to the magnetic alarm. He noted the manual fire alarm lever, a small camera in a smoked glass dome over the door and the flexible steel pipe containing the magnetic alarm’s bundle of cables that vanished into the ceiling overhead.
    Notarbartolo pressed the intercom buzzer and waited. As a new tenant, he was prepared to announce his name through the squawk box, so the guard on the main floor could confirm him as one of the safe deposit box renters. When the door clicked, Notarbartolo casually examined the jamb as he pushed it open. He didn’t notice any overt signs that the day gate was alarmed; he made a mental note to keep checking this on subsequent visits. When he stepped inside and let go of the door, he heard the muted hiss of pneumatic hinges slowly closing the gate behind him.
    Entering the vault, Notarbartolo stepped directly to his safe deposit box, number 149. When he’d rented the box, Boost had given him a small metal key with an oval handle and a two-inch-long round pipe. The end of the pipe was fitted with over-and-under metal flanges. Known as the “stamp,” this was the part of the key that operated the lock. The silver-colored key fit into a horizontal slot in a round brass plug on the left side of the door. Three golden knobs adorned with all twenty-six letters of the alphabet around their circumference lined up horizontally to the right of the keyhole.
    Once alone in the vault, Notarbartolo could finally begin the exploration he’d been itching to do. He dialed in his three-letter code on the worn golden dials, inserted the key, and twisted it clockwise. As he did so, a brass deadbolt inside the lock retracted from its slot in the doorjamb and the door swung smoothly open on its hidden internal hinges. With the box’s door open, he twisted the key to the locked position and watched the deadbolt extend from the lock. He guessed it was an inch long, two inches tall, and a quarter of an inch thick. He would make precise measurements later—repeatedly. His first visit to the vault was just for the sake of walking around, opening his box, and getting the lay of the