CHAPTER 9
MEL KNELTin front of the safe and studied it. Just as Kyle had said, a Sentronic 3000 with an electronic lock. Nearly impenetrable for an amateur, but, fortunately, she was no amateur.
She’d used the back of Kyle’s SUV to change out of her dress and into black jeans, a black turtleneck and a black utility vest. Now she patted the vest, looking for the digital scanner she’d rescued from the stash of equipment in her Santa Ana storage room—all officially put away for good, of course.
She set it up, turned it on and went to work. Five seconds later the door to the safe swung open. She stepped back, grinning like a fiend. No doubt about it; she might be retired, but she still had the touch.
Not, she corrected herself, that she wanted the touch. She was simply making an empirical observation about her own skills. That’s all. Nothing more.
Quickly she gathered her things and then made her way back outside the house. As soon as shecleared the residence, she hit the stopwatch button on her wristwatch and checked the readout. All told, it had taken her less than fifteen minutes to get from the Jeep, into the house, into the safe and back out.
Not too shabby for the control-group run. Now she just needed to make decent time with the real run. She was looking forward to the challenge, and right at the moment she was convinced she could do just about anything.
Thirty minutes later she wasn’t feeling nearly as cocky.
Kyle had turned the alarm system back on, and they’d started the process all over again. So far Mel was still outside. She’d been trying to circumvent the alarm system using every trick she knew and a few she was inventing as she went along.
Nothing worked. Frankly, she was beginning to get ticked off. No, not beginning. Shewasticked off. One hundred and ten percent.
She made another pass at the alarm controls, trying to shut down the system without tripping the alarm. The configuration, though, was unusual, beyond state-of-the-art, and Mel had to give Kyle and Brent Brownie points even while she cursed them.
She tried another approach, hoping to use radiofrequencies as camouflage for her movements. It was a relatively new approach to burglary, and she felt confident it would work.
It didn’t.
Damn it all to hell.
“You inside yet?”
“Dammit, Kyle. Quit bothering me.”
“Touchy, touchy.”
She exhaled, then decided just to give it up. After an hour she knew she simply wasn’t going to be making progress here. “Hold on. I’m coming back to the van.”
Half an hour later they were in his living room and she was pacing the floor. He stepped in front of her and she stopped, hands on hips. “What?”
“Calm down. It’ll be okay.”
“You’re not the one losing out on a performance bonus.”
“True. But there is some good news. You told me you’re the best, right? And you couldn’t get in. So we know the system is sound.”
“Not sound enough. Someone got in. There’s a flaw, and I can’t find it.”
He rubbed his temples. “And if you can’t find it, I can’t fix it.”
“The situation sucks, doesn’t it? You were just beingnice so I wouldn’t feel bad for not being able to break in.”
“Sorry.”
“That’s okay. I appreciate it.” She did, too. Only once before had she not made it into a house that she’d been casing. But that was years ago, back when she was still a novice. This incident was downright embarrassing.
Or, rather, it would be if she was still interested in pursuing a career in the thieving arts. But she wasn’t, of course.
She glanced over at him and caught him staring at the calendar. The days between now and August 12 were getting fewer and fewer.
“We’ll figure it out,” she said.
