Elemorts

Chapter VII - Heraclark

Planet Loogmor

Heraclark Scotnyx lazily swiped his hand in the air. The holographic display in midair shifted from the action flick he had been watching to the CCTV footage of the various parts of the Bank of Loogmor. It was the same as usual — wealthy clients garbed in the finest of attires, standing at the tellers' desks, waiting on the couches in the lobby, or being escorted to the retrieval room in the basement. Every time Heraclark did that, he felt like a mere security guard, except that he was not — he was the manager at BOL, sitting in his small yet cozy office at the back of the bank.

His office was comfortably warm, so the full sleeves of his powder-blue dress shirt were rolled up. Over it was a navy sweater vest in a diamond pattern. His dress pants were chestnut with purple-taupe loafers.

Everything is wretchedly dull as usual, thought Heraclark. Satisfied, he swiped his hand again, and the action flick resumed, featuring the beautiful and lithe Pinz Ailoraw from planet Felitty.

No sooner had Pinz fired a shot than Dusknell came bursting into the office so that it seemed she had actually shot him. "Heraclark, you won't believe what just—" He paused, frowning back and forth at Heraclark and the space above his desk. "It's so painfully obvious you're watching a movie again, Heraclark."

Dusknell, his assistant manager, had raven-black hair parted in the middle and olive eyes that always seemed to be analyzing something.

I'm not really trying to hide it anyway, Heraclark thought to himself. He removed the headset that enabled him to visualize the display and placed it on his desk.

"Anyway, scratch that," Dusknell carried on before Heraclark could answer. "As I was saying, something unbelievable just happened. A client just came in to make a withdrawal from none other than that account!"

Heraclark sat up straight in his chair and removed his legs from the top of the desk. "You don't mean that account?" he asked in disbelief.

"Oh, I so mean that account!" Dusknell said, excited like a kid.

The account in question had been opened long before Heraclark was employed at the bank. As of now, it had remained dormant for over twenty years. The Bank of Loogmor was distinguished in that it ensured complete anonymity of its clients who were only given a unique key as identification. Therefore, no one knew who the owner of the account really was.

"Have they completed the application for claiming it back?" Heraclark asked.

The contents of accounts remaining dormant for more than five years were turned over to the planetary treasury and had to be claimed back. Whatever was in the account had probably been not worth it and had not been moved from the bank's vaults. Still, it was the Loogmort government's property, and bank employees were restricted from accessing it.

"Yes, he did," Dusknell replied as he handed some papers to Heraclark. "You're authorized to hand over the contents to him."

Heraclark studied the papers meticulously, which looked legitimate enough. Casting them aside, he got up and briskly moved toward the door. He really wanted to see who had turned up after all this time and what useless garbage the bank had been holding for them.

As he alighted onto the walkway outside his office overlooking the lobby, a cold draft of air greeted him, and Dusknell fell in beside him. Heraclark had a much better view from this vantage point than all the surveillance cameras combined. He could even see the sneaky Skygga at her desk in the distance, discreetly accepting something from a client when she thought no one was looking.