Read Dragonback 05 Dragon and Judge for Free Online Page A

again, fighting for her
life.
    "Do you want to live to reach fifteen?" Mustache asked. "The boss
wants the safe open. You're going to open it."
    Alison's pulse was thudding in her throat, her arms and legs
starting to tremble, her stomach wanting to be sick.
    Then, like a slap across the face, something slid subtly across
her skin beneath her shirt . . . and in that instant, the terrible
feeling of helplessness vanished.
    Because she wasn't alone. She had Taneem. And if the young K'da
female wasn't nearly as well trained as Jack's own poet-warrior friend,
Alison had seen enough of Taneem's abilities to know the kind of help
she would be in a pinch.
    She took a careful breath, rubbing her shoulder gently as if
massaging a stiff muscle. Taneem took the hint and subsided. "All
right," she said. "For five hundred."
    She had the satisfaction of seeing Mustache's eyes widen slightly.
" What ?"
    "Five hundred," Alison repeated. "I know the law. If you pay me to
commit a crime, it's entrapment and you can't charge me."
    "This is not —"
    "Give her the frinking money," Sideburns snapped.
    Glowering, Mustache put his gun away and pulled out his wallet.
"Two hundred up front," he growled, dropping the bills on the table in
front of her.
    "All right," she said, forcing calmness into her voice as she
stood up. She'd convinced them—maybe—that she wasn't associated with
Jack or Virgil Morgan. But cracking safes wasn't really her area of
expertise, not like it was Jack's. The whole thing could still blow up
in her face. "I'll need my tools."
    Mustache gestured to the items scattered around the table. "Help
yourself."
    Alison picked up her multitool and makeup kit. On the other hand,
she would bet heavily that her collection of gadgetry was a lot more
impressive than anything Jack had.
    The safe was in a tiny office, tucked away beneath a cluttered
desk to the right of the kneehole. It looked to be a typical low-end
device: standard tumblers, with probably only a single-stage hazer to
block audio intrusion. "Well?" Sideburns prompted.
    "Patience is a virtue," Alison reminded him as she opened her
makeup kit and pulled out the slender powder case.
    "What's that?" Mustache asked.
    "It's powder and powder applicator," Alison said, throwing him a
scornful look as she snapped it open. "Don't you know any actual women?"
    "What's it for?"
    "It helps cover skin blemishes and imperfections—"
    "I know what it's supposed to be for," Mustache snapped.
"What are you going to do with it?"
    "With the powder?" Alison asked, unscrewing the mirror set into
the case. "Nothing." Setting the case aside, she held the mirror by the
edge and squinted through one of the pinholes in the back.
    They were there, right where she'd expected: a trio of infrared
lasers slicing invisibly through the space in front of the desk. "Got
some pingers blocking access," she said, handing the mirror to Mustache.
    He peered through the pinhole a moment, then handed it back. "Nice
gadget," he said. "Must have set you back some."
    "You just have to know where to shop," Alison said, setting down
the mirror and pulling out her mascara tube. Unscrewing the bottom end,
she wedged it into her ear. Then, being careful to avoid the lasers,
she pressed the open end of the tube against the escutcheon plate
beside the combination dial.
    A soft hum of static issued from the earphone: the hazer she'd
expected. She counted off the seconds as the tiny computer inside the
tube analyzed the sound, patterned it, and phase-countered it.
    Before her count reached thirty, the sound was gone. Single stage,
all right. Leaning forward, again being careful not to brush the laser
pattern, she got a grip on the dial and started turning.
    Two minutes later, with the clicks from the tumblers as loud and
solid as if the whole thing had been a basic training exercise, she had
it.
    "Careful," Mustache warned as Alison pulled the door open a couple
of inches.
    "I know," Alison assured him, stopping the door's