“This model? I know it. My dad installed three before he died. He showed me exactly how they work.”
“Then open it,” Mateo challenged—swagger gone.
Santiago shook his head.
“I’m not going to open your safe, Mr. Sandoval.”
“Why not?” Gabriel demanded.
“Because if I open it, you’ll say I got lucky or cheated, or you’ll move the goalposts like rich people always do,” Santiago replied. “But there’s something better I can do.”
He looked directly at Mateo.
“I can tell you your code.”
Complete silence. They could hear the air conditioning hum.
“That’s impossible,” Mateo whispered. “No one knows that code but me. I never wrote it down.”
“Your code is 1-7-8-4-7,” Santiago said casually.
Mateo staggered back, nearly losing balance. The numbers were exact.
“How?”
“Every Swistech safe ships with a factory master code that should be changed immediately,” Santiago explained. “My dad discovered about 73% of clients never change it. They just stack security on top, but the original weak spot stays.”
He pointed to a tiny metal plate near the base.
“The master code is always the production serial reversed, with the last digit multiplied by three. The final code uses the last two digits of that result.”