Dragon and Judge

CHAPTER 24

For a long minute Alison just stood there, staring at the closed door, her mind skidding like an out-of-control bobsled.

One way or another, she was going to die tonight.

Taneem bounded out of her back collar. The sudden weight threw Alison off balance, and she barely caught herself before she could slam into the wall. "I'm sorry," Taneem apologized as she turned back around. "I came off too quickly."

"No, it's okay," Alison said, looking at the K'da with a surge of guilt. Take care of Taneem, Jack had told her just before he'd disappeared on Semaline.

Instead, Alison's failure was going to get her killed, too.

"Are you worried?" Taneem asked, stepping closer and peering into Alison's face.

"Yes, I'm worried," Alison told her honestly. "In fact, I'm terrified."

The dragon twitched her tail. "How may I help?"

Alison sighed as she sat down on the edge of the bed. "I don't think you can," she said.

"You will solve the problem," Taneem said firmly. "I know you will."

Alison looked away from that earnest dragon face. "I don't think so," she said quietly. "I'm stuck, Taneem. I can't figure out what the people who designed the safe were trying to do."

She started as something settled onto her lap. She looked down to see Taneem's head resting there, those silver eyes gazing up at her. It was so exactly like the way her old Newfoundland used to do that it brought tears to her eyes. "You're very clever, Alison," Taneem said. "I've heard both Jack and Draycos say so."

Alison had to smile at that. "Jack actually paid me a compliment?"

Taneem's tail flicked. "I'm not sure he meant it as a compliment," she conceded. "I think he was being annoyed with you at the time."

"That sounds better," Alison said. Her smile faded. "But all that cleverness doesn't seem to be working. You were right—we should have tried to get away back on Semaline."

"No, it was you who was right," Taneem insisted. "The risk was worth taking. As you pointed out, if we'd attacked our captors we might well have died."

"Instead of dying now," Alison said, stroking Taneem's head. "At least you they won't have to worry about burying."

And was instantly ashamed of herself. It had been horribly insensitive to remind Taneem that she would go two-dimensional and simply disappear when she died. She opened her mouth to apologize—

The words frozen in her throat. Would simply disappear . . .

And suddenly she had it. "That's it," she murmured. "Taneem, I've got it."

"I knew you would," the K'da said, lifting her head from Alison's lap. "Tell me."

"They were smart," Alison said, her whole body feeling limp with relief. "They were very smart. You know anything about fingerprints and retina patterns? Well, no, probably you don't."

"Were those some of the tests the doctor performed when we first arrived?" Taneem asked.

"Yes—right," Alison confirmed. She'd forgotten Taneem had been there for that.

Which was a strange thought all by itself. Was she really getting so comfortable with Taneem's presence that she could actually forget the K'da was there against her skin?

"Anyway, fingerprints and those other things are sometimes used like keys to make sure the wrong people can't open a door or safe or something," she said, getting back to her explanation. "That's what those indentations on the side of the safe are for. One of the crew puts their fingers in the right holes, that triggers some sensors, and then you can open the safe without the bomb going off and destroying everything inside."

Taneem pondered that a moment. "So the reason the other two safes were destroyed was that the people didn't know which indentations to use?"

"Partly," Alison said. "But mostly, they didn't have the right fingers."

Taneem cocked her head. "I don't understand."

"See, the problem with this kind of lock is that sometimes they can be fooled," Alison told her. "All a bad person has to do is kill someone who has access and then take his fingers or his eyes."

Taneem's neck arched. "That's barbaric!"

"I agree," Alison said. "Though it's actually a little more complicated these days. The point is that the safe's designers didn't want that happening here." She smiled grimly. "So whose digits do you suppose they keyed the lock for?"

Taneem's jaws cracked open in a wide smile. "They keyed it for K'da toes."

"Exactly," Alison said, nodding. "Add in the fact that you need a K'da/Shontine combination in order to look over the wall and figure out which indentations to use, and you can see that Neverlin and the Valahgua pretty well shot themselves in the foot when they wiped out Draycos's team."

"Only they don't know it," Taneem said thoughtfully. "What then do we do?"

"We open their safe for them," Alison said, standing up and holding out her hand. "Come on, let's get some lunch. Then we'll show them how a real safecracker does things."

Frost had apparently expected Alison to stall as long as she could. As a result, he was the last to arrive when the group gathered again in the Patri's suite after lunch. "Good of you to join us, Colonel," Neverlin said with an edge of sarcasm as Frost slipped into the room. "Alison says she's ready."

"Does she," Frost said, giving Alison a long, hard look as he crossed to his usual seat.

"Yes, she does," Alison said. "Or were you expecting her to wait until a little closer to your deadline?"

Neverlin frowned. "Deadline?"

"Colonel Frost told me before lunch that I had until midnight tonight to get the safe open," Alison explained.

Neverlin turned an unreadable expression on Frost. "Or?" he prompted.

"The Patri Chookoock was right—she was stalling," Frost said before Alison could answer. "I thought she could use a little extra incentive."

"And as you see, it worked," Alison said, watching Neverlin closely. "You ought to let the colonel take charge more often."

"We'll certainly consider it," Neverlin said coolly as he turned back to Alison. "And we're waiting."

Alison nodded and turned back to the safe. That had been risky, she knew. But the more she could create or encourage strains between Neverlin and his allies, the better. Kneeling down in front of the safe, she stretched out her left arm along the line of indentations, resting her palm on top of numbers four and six. "I hope someone's got my money ready," she commented as she got a grip on the combination dial.

And as she did so, she felt a whisper of weight come onto her palm as Taneem lifted her forepaw from Alison's hand and slid two of her toes into the proper indentations.

Alison keyed the combination she had worked out. There was a soft snick from somewhere inside the safe. Praying that she'd gotten everything right, she took hold of the break bar and pulled.

Without any fuss or muss, or smoke or explosions, the door swung open.

Neverlin and Frost were there in an instant, Frost shoving Alison aside in his eagerness. Fortunately, Taneem was able to get her toes out of sight before Alison's hand was pushed away from the safe wall. "Hey!" Alison protested as she lost her balance and landed flat on her rear.

Both men ignored her. "Well?" the Patri rumbled from his chair.

"They're here," Neverlin said, his voice almost shaking with excitement. He pulled his cupped hands out of the safe, full of the little diamonds Taneem had described. "And not burned to ashes."

The Patri gestured to one of the Brummgas standing guard by the door. "Order that its money is to be prepared," he said. "Order, too, that a transport be made ready."

"Let's not be too hasty," Frost cautioned, peering down at the diamonds. "This is from the one that crashed, remember. I think we should make sure the data's intact before we turn her loose."

"He's right," Neverlin seconded. "I'm sure she won't mind hanging around another day or so." He sent Alison a cultured sort of smirk. "After all, she's the one who suggested we should listen to the colonel more often."

Carefully, Alison suppressed a smile. She'd been afraid she would have to find a way to make that suggestion herself. "Not a problem," she assured them. "Just remember that another job will cost another twenty thousand."

"Understood," Neverlin said. "Colonel, would you escort Ms. Kayna back to her room?"

"I'll have Dumbarton and Mrishpaw do it," Frost said. "I think I'd better stay and help you check this out."

For a long moment the two men gazed at each other. "Whatever you'd like," Neverlin said at last. "Ms. Kayna, we'll see you later."

The afternoon dragged by. Alison spent the entire time alone in her room, wondering each minute if someone was about to arrive, hand her twenty thousand, and escort her out through the gate.

Kicking her off the Chookoock estate before she and Taneem had a chance to find and open the other safe.

But no one came. Shoofteelee arrived with her dinner at the usual time, with his usual polite but somewhat distant attitude. Alison and Taneem ate, then settled in for an evening that promised to be as long and nerve-wracking as the afternoon had been.

Again, no one had arrived by the time the lights-out warning tone came over the room's intercom. Alison was already in bed by then, getting in a little pre-bedtime doze in anticipation of a sleepless night ahead. Once the house was quiet, she and Taneem would go in search of that final safe.

And they would succeed. Alison had no doubt about that. Not anymore. Taneem's quiet faith, plus the afternoon's triumph, had blown away her earlier crisis of confidence like mist in a windstorm.

It was an hour after lights-out, and the slave areas around her had gone silent, when she heard the sound of her door being quietly opened. "Kayna?" Dumbarton's voice called softly.

"Who is it?" Alison asked, slurring her words slightly as if she'd been startled out of her sleep.

"Dumbarton and Mrishpaw," Dumbarton said. "Come on— Mr. Arthur wants to see you."

Alison winced. They weren't going to throw her out now, were they? "What about?" she asked, throwing off her covers and pulling on her shoes.

"You always go to bed with all your clothes on?" Dumbarton asked suspiciously.

"Hardly ever," Alison said, standing up. "I was resting and fell asleep."

"Sure," Dumbarton said. "Quiet, now."

They headed up through the slave areas, crossed the deserted kitchen, and emerged into the starlight through the same door Alison had used on her own midnight trip a few nights previously.

But it wasn't Neverlin who was waiting for her in the darkness.

It was Frost.

"There you are," he greeted her in a low voice. "Good news: the data diamonds gave us everything we needed to know."

"Glad to hear it," Alison said, the skin on the back of her neck starting to tingle. "Where's my money?"

"Where you'll never see it." Frost jerked his head toward an open-topped car waiting a few feet away. "Take her to the slave area," he ordered the two mercenaries. "And kill her."