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Standing in this alcove, Erika spoke to her reflection: "Twelve twenty-five is four one"
A voice-recognition program in the house computer accepted those five words as the first part of a two-sentence combination to the vault The centera plain steel door without hinges or handle, or keyhole
When she said, "Two fourteen is ten thirty-one," she heard lock bolts disengage, and the door slid open with a pneumatic hiss
In addition to tall upper cabinets, the vault contained lower drawers, allthe same: one foot deep, two feet wide Each of three walls held twelve drawers, nuh 36
From Drawer 5, she withdrew sixteen bricks of hundred-dollar bills and put them in the small suitcase Each banded block contained fifty thousand dollars, for a total of eight hundred thousand
Drawer 12 offered a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of euros, and she emptied it
From Drawer 16, she withdrew one million worth of bearer bonds, each valued at fifty thousand
Drawer 24 revealed nu closures tied in neat bows In these were precious gehest quality She scooped up all of the bags and dropped them in the suitcase
No doubt Victor nificant sums, held by such an intricate chain of shell companies and false names that no tax collector could link theer part of his wealth
What Erika collected here, according to Victor’s instructions, was his on-the-run ht need if the current crisis could not be contained Listening to hiht he should use the ould instead of
With the suitcase, she returned to the mirrored alcove, faced the open vault door, and said, "Close and lock"
The pneued Thewith it her reflection, as if it had previously taken her ie, Erika stowed both pieces of luggage in the cargo space of the GL550
With a large cloth tote bag in which to carry their books, she returned to the library In his new attire, Jocko looked less like Huckleberry Finn than like a mutant turtle from another planet, out of its shell and likely to pass for huh the faded blue jeans looked all right froed in the seat because the troll didn’t have er than those of a real boy, so the long-sleeved T-shirt fell three inches short of his wrists
For the first tiers on each hand
He had adjusted the expansion strap on the back of the baseball cap to its full extension,The cap ca it back to see out from under the bill
"It’s not a funny hat," he said
"No I couldn’t find one here, and the funny-hat store doesn’t open until nine o’clock"
"Maybe they deliver earlier"
Stuffing Jocko’s selection of books in the tote bag, she said, "They don’t deliver like a pizza shop"
"A pizza would be a funnier hat than this Let’s get a pizza"
"Don’t you think wearing a pizza on your head would attract more attention than ant?"
"No And the shoes don’t work"
Even after taking the laces out, he had not been able to fit his wide feet comfortably in the sneakers
He said, "Anyway, Jocko walks way better barefoot, has a better grip, and if he wants to suck his toes, he doesn’t have to undress theers and had three knuckles each Erika thought he must be able to cliuised if you stay in the car," she said "And if you slump in your seat And if you don’t look out the hen another car’s passing us And if you don’t wave at anyone"
"Can Jocko give theer?"
She frowned "Why would you want to estures at anyone?"
"You never know Like, say it’s a pretty night, bigyou with a broo ‘What is it, what is it, what is it?’ You run away faster than they can run, and you want to shout so sive then?"
"I think it’s better if you keep your hands down and just enjoy the ride"
"Can Jocko give theood!"
"Maybe the next tiive them a power-to-the-people fist?"
"I didn’t know you were political" The tote bag bulged with books "Coot In his roo in your room that you’ll need"
"Be back in half a jiffy"
He snatched up one of the laces fro it between his teeth, somersaulted out of the library