page11 (1/2)
KALDAR lay on a low ridge, wearing one of the Mirror's night suits The fabric, painted with swirls in a dozen shades of gray, hugged his body, for but too elastic to hinder hishis hair and his face painted gray and black, he supposed he resembled a ninja
It was good that nobody could see him because he looked completely ridiculous
Although, coes For exaht vision, he could ad to Audrey's incredibly shapely ass
"Kaldar," Audrey hissed "Stop looking at my butt"
Behind thehing but really rese
She had a sixth sense That had to be it He would never again take wohtly
She leaned closer, her whisper so quiet he had to strain to hear it "Do you ever take anything seriously?"
"No"
Audrey shook her head and raised her binoculars to her eyes, looking down on the house three miles below Kaldar picked up his binoculars and looked, too The fullwith patches of silvery light and deep shadow The house sat in the reenery The building rose two stories high, hite arches sheltering a long front porch under a bright orange roof Five thousand square feet, at least A tennis court stretched in front of the house To the left, a fenced-in field contained a horse course hite gates Farther back, a barn looht, a picturesque pool gleaun tower behind the house and the ring ofthe house, which served as anchors for the defensive spells, the place looked like a tropical resort built by a Spanish family with unlimited funds
The huritted his teeth If houses could tell stories, this one would bleed
According to Gaston, Arturo Pena prayed on coyotes, the huals from Mexico into the embrace of the State of California Arturo and his band of hired lowlifes ao, and sold the people in the Democracy of California's slaveinto the Weird The other half followed shortly thereafter There was a reason why the robber barons always needed fresh bodies to till the fields, build their castles, and fight in their armies
Nobody ever missed Pena's victims The Broken's California didn't know they existed; the Broken's Mexico lost jurisdiction once they left its borders, and the victims themselves had no idea where they were taken Those who ran away never found their way back across the boundary
Pena was a sonovabitch of the first order His naers feared him, but for the most part, he left the considering that Arturo Pena didn't believe in banks and was rue sums of cash in his house Itmoney in the bank resulted in questions Money earned interest, which was reported Arturo Pena avoided all that transparency by hiding all of his blood money in his house, in a supposedly unbreakable safe A teer
Kaldar focused the binoculars at the circle of iron spikes The ward extended in a rough oval shape around the house, not including the barn or the caretaker's dwelling The ward couldn't be very old - the house looked too new Still, the defensive spell presented a probleic and so with it would be like ringing a warning bell because anyone with any
This was ione with his plan: stroll up to the front door and con their way in He had tried suggesting that, but both Audrey and Gaston refused It see visitors in the face first and checking identification second
Next to Audrey, Ling crouched on the slope
Kaldar leaned to Audrey, and whispered, "I still don't understand e had to bring that creature"
"Because she helps," Audrey told hiht hurt her feelings"
And she nagged hi to help?"
Audrey nodded at Ling "See how she's quiet? This s Don't move I'll be back in a minute"
She slithered backward and, bending low, ran to the right along the ridge Ling followed her He watched the his field of vision
"If you keep taking her side instead of mine, I'll have to disown you," Kaldar murmured
"I' struck in the heart
"That's right Don't forget whose rolpies are pulling your boat" Walking up to the front door was still a better way to go Getting through the wards without noise would be i with Audrey's brilliant plan How uards would they have to deal with?
"Uncle?"
"Mmm?"
"Arturo Pena He's a slaver A scu"
"Yes?"
"Why don't we just kill him?"
Kaldar paused
Gaston shrugged "With the equiph that ward Walk in, kill hiuys realized that their paycheck was dead, they would scatter"
"You've spent too much time with the wolf," Kaldar said
"William is efficient"
"He is that" This would have to be said just right "What's the difference between you and me and a murderer?"
"A murderer kills out of passion or for money We kill for our country"
Kaldar shook his head "We kill to keep our people safe 'Country' has a nice ring to it, but it doesn't really get to the heart of the matter Families, Gaston Our farandht, worry about their daily problems, and have delicious berry wine on their porch while their kids play in the grass"
Gaston srandeur"
"I'm not Tell me, what do you want out of this life?"
"Vengeance for our family"
"And then?"
The boy shrugged again "I don't know"
"You think, eventually youand start a family?"
"Sure"
"You irl to be your wife, have some kids, someone to come home to?"
"Yeah, I guess it would be nice"
"This job, if you let it, will burn every shred of humanity out of your soul It will chew you up and spit out an empty husk If you don't take care, you'll be hollow like an eirl for your wife, no ho" Kaldar paused to ents They walk jingling enoughbands, but their eyes are dead That isn't what you want"
"At the end of the day, they know they've done their job"
"That satisfaction doesn't keep theht It's no substitute for a life or a clear conscience" Kaldar pointed at the house "Every tiet into a situation like this, I want you to think of our family If one of us asks you why you killed or maimed or tortured, you need to be able with a clear conscience to say, 'There was no other way'"
"William"
"William has Cerise," Kaldar said "And she has a temper, and she kills, but she is also kind and cos Willia he lacks It's not his fault; the Adrianglians did their best to murder any humanity he had in him when he was a child And even he has some lines he won't cross I once saw hiuns and bows, to save Lark, with no regard for his own life"
"That was different! Lark is a kid"
"Can you tell me for sure that there are no children in that house? Can you tell ht in the cross fire? Are you prepared to murder Pena while his family watches?"
Gaston opened his mouth and closed it
"You must hold on to your humanity, nephew, so when it's time to return to your house for a family dinner, you can do so as a happy hter When you come home, you need to be able to look your wife and children in the eye"
Gaston looked at the house
"We kill only e have no other choice Is Pena a scu? Sure he is But he's outside of the scope of our job We are not judges Remember, we do only what is necessary We need his money, and we'll take it - because it's dirty and we can But until he levels a gun on another hu, ill not take his life Am I clear?"
"Yes, Uncle"
"Good"
They fell silent
Gaston stirred "If it helps, Audrey checked your ass out before she took off"
"She did?"
Audrey slipped next to Gaston "I did what?"
"Nothing!" Kaldar and Gaston chorused
"Shh" Audrey glared at the around?"
"Yes, m'lady" Kaldar ducked his head in a half bow
Audrey tapped Gaston's shoulder with her finger "Think you can get into that barn?"
Gaston shrugged his muscular shoulders "Sure"
"I need you to get down there, open the stalls inside, and panic the horses"
" 'Panic'?" Gaston asked
"S"
He gave her an insane grin "I can do that"
"What about me?" Kaldar whispered
"You lie here and look pretty I'll be back"
Look pretty, huh She'll pay for that
Gaston and Audrey melted into the darkness Audrey and his nephew seeround, cohtless, and Gaston snuck around like a big cat, noiseless despite his bulk Kaldar turned to the house Well, he did want to see her work All he could do was hope that she didn't get the lot of them murdered
Breaking into the house in the ht just wasn't his style He did his best work in plain view, and, usually, his tongue was doing most of it
Now that was an interesting thought Heh
He et another "Oh, my God!" out of her
She hugged the ground next to him
"Where is my nephew?"
"Watch," she told him, and pulled her mask on
A long minute passed, then another They lay in silence atop the hill Kaldar leaned closer to her until their faces almost touched "Take your mask off"
"Why?" she whispered
"I miss your face"
Her eyes widened Aha! He had finally scored one
"We've got a few minutes," she whispered "Do you want to make out?"
It was a trap A one hundred percent, genuine Audrey trap If he fell for it, he'd be sorry But then there was that slight, one in a thousand chance that she was serious He'd be an idiot not to take it
Kaldar reached over and gently tugged her mask from the lower half of her face
She flicked her fingers, hitting hihtly on the nose "You're so easy"
"No, just smitten" He leaned closer His lips almost brushed hers
Audrey didn't pull away "Now, remember what happened the last time you tried that?"
"Worth it," he whispered
The door of the barn belo open with a thud Horses burst into the night Audrey turned toward the herd, and he grabbed her and kissed her She tasted just like Kaldar reht For a moment, Audrey didn't respond, as if they had both paused on the edge of a skyscraper with the ground far below, and she was too scared toSuddenly, Audrey , and they fell off the edge into the e down, they floated, wrapped up in each other Kaldar lost all sense of time and place He just wanted more of her
She hit his shoulder with a closed fist Pain shot through his biceps Kaldar let go "Ow"
Audrey glared at hien
"What the hell? We're working!"
She took everything so seriously "For luck," he told her
Audrey yanked her mask over her face "Follow me and try to be quiet"
They descended the slope, the raccoon sneaking through the night a few steps ahead of the the driveway and ju to the the flower beds in their frenzy
A long, ululating call of a pissed coyote rolled through the night Gaston was always good at i animal calls
Floodlights snapped on, bathing the scene in harsh white light Men spilled frouard tower, a sentry dressed in black yanked a rope A siren wailed The horses lost what little calm they had left The scene turned into colorious
Kaldar laughed soundlessly and padded through the brush, uests
Audrey dropped behind a dense clump of brush He landed next to her
"Can you strut louder?" she whispered "I think there uards who haven't heard you yet"
"Lies," he told her "Nobody heard me Not even you"
A huge, pale horse charged out of the barn, scattering the guards like a pike scattered a school of fish The horse veered left, galloping toward them, its mane like white silk A stallion Kaldar wasn't a horseman, but even he had to admit: the stallion was one hell of an animal
A door opened, and a half-naked man marched out frouards following at his heels The uards outside the ward The wind brought tatters of his voice fro horses"
Hello, Arturo Pena
The guards set down their rifles Pena bent down, grasped an iron spike, and pulled it out of the ground The flow of uards next to him Two men chased after the herd while the third went back inside A uard from the tower slid down and joined the pursuit Pena surveyed the scene, spat, and went back into the house
Audreyas her silent shadow He followed Together, they ran toward the house, angling to the right, away frouards toward the darkness of the pool A few lass patio door
AUDREY touched the lock on the glass door Locked Her face burned under the mask She wished she could take it off, but that would've been foolish The Mirror's suits were beyond cool Theythis one back Not in a million years
When Kaldar kissed her, she hadn't reacted quickly enough She'd been focused on the horses, and the bastard ambushed her All her nerves had been keyed up, and the kiss had sung through her, hot and sudden Kaldar kissed like the world was ending And after she came to her senses, his face was so full of self-satisfaction that she knew she'd stumbled It had been a crucial blunder, and now he'd be insufferable
Her ers in translucent tendrils of deep, beautiful green The tendrils tasted the lock, seeped into the tiny space between the door and the fra the door open and slipped inside Kaldar followed and shut the door behind theive it to him: when the man closed his mouth, he could actually move quietly
The living rooht shadows Across the rooany spanned the wall Between the bar and her, a set of plush couches circled a coffee table, facing a colossal flat screen on the wall A handful of pinpoint lights in every color of the rainboed under the TV, where assorted electronic equipinable luxury A other people into slavery could buy you
Ling trotted along the wall, sniffing at the air Audrey kept still, listening
Hello, house
The house answered: the tiny buzzing of electronic gadgets, the whisper of the air-conditioning, thefro of the wallsThe sounds enveloped her, blending into a calm white hum, and she committed their pattern to memory Any stray noise, no matter how tiny, would sound the alarm in her head
Audrey padded through the rooht-hand end of the bar, where the hallway led deeper into the house, diving under a wide staircase The safe would be on the first floor Gaston's intelligence claih for a hed thousands of pounds and required reinforced flooring, which wasn't likely judging by the first floor's ceiling Besides, the logistics of dragging a safe of that size and weight up the stairs would drive anyone mad You needed a forklift to move it
A quiet creak announced a door swinging open above Heroff in rapid succession Heavy footsteps -or sneaking - not alared on the bar Arturo Pena wanted a nightcap That had to be it
Audrey crouched, pressing against the outer edge of the bar, and put her hand on the floor Hide Ling darted under the couch and lay down Kaldar dropped down next to Audrey
Arturo Pena jogged down the stairs She caught a flash of hairy tan legs under a short white robe and a black hts came on with a click
Breathe in and breathe out Nice and calm
The cabinet door creaked, opening A heavy glass clinked as it was set on the marble bar
Breathe in
A heavier clang - probably a crystal decanter Swiveling top sliding out with a barely audible sound as it was being spun The scent of scotch spread through the air, alcohol fumes mixed with a distinct aroma of burned honey
Breathe out
Glass clinked against glass, Arturo sed in a long gulp, exhaled, and headed back upstairs, hitting the light switch with a casual swipe of his hand Arturo climbed the stairs A moment, and he was out of their view
The door thudded shut
He had never let go of the gun Talk about paranoia She waited another ed from under the couch and slunk into the hallway Audrey paused, but the raccoon didn't return The as clear She rose and host behind her
The safe sat in the back of a sht side of the hallway, a solid black tower She crouched by it Hello, old friend TURTLE60XX, Super Vault, 7625 tall, 3925 inches wide, 290 inches deep Capacity of 204 cubic feet Weighing in empty at fifty-nine hundred pounds The ht and a quarter inches thick It would take hours to break through it with a drill, and if you did, at the end you'd hit a plate of telass and activate the relocking mechanism It was a monster of a safe, the kind diamond dealers used
Audrey touched the door Three locks secured the safe A co e one, too She'd seen one before: the locking mechanism connected to four steel rods, each as thick as her wrist It would take a lot of pressure to open it Finally, a digital lock, an optional feature Not that it did anything superfancy, but the digital display looked awesoh to impress Pena, because he'd paid an extra chunk of cash to have it installed
Magic slipped froital panel blinked and vanished Bye-bye coo Unfortunately, the other two locks would be harder Audreyto the hallway The raccoon padded out Audrey pulled a stethoscope out of her suit and slipped it on, pressing the sensor to the door
Kaldar bent over her, his lips barely ic?"
"The key lock's too heavy," she breathed "The heavier the lock, the ic it takes A quarter of a pound feels like five hundred Need to save the juice"
"A problem?"
"No problem I'm not a one-trick pony"
She touched the wheel gently One, two, three, four, fiveturn, turn, turnwith a faint click the false tumbler fell into place It was a dry sound, clear and distinct, designed to fool an average picklock Audrey touched the dial again Turn Turn A tiny h the stethoscope There it was, the real tumbler It was an almost imperceptible sound, but she'd practiced on these co as she could remember
Ling dashed into the room and crouched in the corner
"So," Audrey whispered