Part One.
Quaint had never actually timed how long he
could hold his breath for; he had grown out of escaping from chains and tanks
of water. Holding one’s breath was a trick for younger men, and it had been
twenty years at least since he’d tried it. He only had one resort: no matter
what Quentin Claremont had said about escape being impossible, he had to find a
way to prove him wrong. After all, his life depended on it. He was caught
between the devil and the deep blue sea, not for the first time in his life,
but at least this death came with options. That was new. Not necessarily any
better, but new nonetheless. If he did nothing, the weight of the straitjacket
would slowly drag him down into the water and if he hadn’t freed himself by
then he would drown, and if he struggled too much trying to free himself, the
post supporting the chain would snap and he would drown. How he would have
dearly loved a third option, and preferably one that didn’t involve him
drowning, but none sprang to mind.
Quaint glared at the image of Claremont’s
face through the glass tank, as warped and indistinct as the man himself. He
didn’t know him either by name or reputation. In fact, he’d never even heard of
him before, nor any of the other magicians he had mentioned. Either that meant that
Claremont wasn’t quite as professional as he claimed to be, or that Quaint
rarely kept abreast of his competitors. The answer, as things turned out, was a
little bit of both.
This trap was built upon layers, and he
knew that in order to escape, the solution to this type of problem was always
to release one’s self from each layer in sequence.
The manacles first, then the straitjacket
to free up his arms and stop him sinking like a lead weight to the bottom of
the tank. It was unlikely that the wooden post would hold his weight, so freeing
the chain would be the next objective. Getting out of the tank would pose a
problem though. Its sides were taller than him at full stretch, and they would
need to be at least a half inch thick to be able to hold such a volume of water.
Because of the pressure, there was no guarantee that he would be able to break
the glass, and even if he could, he had nothing to break it with.
With his escape from the tank included as
an overall objective, Quaint now had plenty of hurdles to mount - and here he
was without a clue how to achieve any one of them. If only he could take care
of the manacles then at least he might have a chance, but with no other options
presenting themselves, it wasn’t as if he could take his pick…
The Enthusiastic Amateur will continue right here on Wednesday 29th
February 2012!!!
In the meantime, please check out the Cornelius Quaint Facebook page and Twitter for more information.
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