02 Seekers (27 page)

“I’ll take care of the dogs,” I said.

“Am I lookout again?” Alex asked.

“Do you mind?”

“Nope.”

“I’ll call you when the coast is clear,” I told her.

Spider crawled out of Alex’s lap, with lots of hits and curses from Alex, and followed me out of the car. Alex followed and leaned against the perfect paint of the car casually. Despite her appearance of calm, I knew she was aware of everything happening on the street. I trusted her baby blues to be aware of danger long before it could trouble us. The dogs started barking with more fervor, some of the spit hitting my boots, as I approached the gate.

“Nice puppies,” I said to them.

Drool dripped from their large teeth as they tried to muscle through the bars to get to me. One dog even took to gnawing on the bars in his desire to get to me.

“Doing great,” Spider said. “You’re almost best friends.”

I glared at him, and he stuck his hands in his pockets with a grin. His gesture and expression was so familiar I thought for a moment I was looking at Daniel. I blinked to clear the memory of him and turned back to my snarling friends.

Not knowing what else to do, also not wanting to lose face in front of Spider, I did what came naturally. I listened to their thoughts. I had never tried to hear an animal before, but it was definitely a unique experience. Their thoughts were visual and focused on wants and desires. I felt from their desires that their owner ignored them often. He rewarded them with treats but, like all creatures, they wanted more than treats. They wanted love.

With that thought in mind, I reached through the bar. The dog closest to me lunged for the hand.

I tapped him on the nose mid-lunge. “No!” I scolded him. He whined and sat down. “Good dog,”

I said, starting to rub the first dog on the head. His companion stared at us in confusion. I put my other hand through the bars and rubbed the second dog. He sat down as well, enjoying the

attention.

“Go on,” I told Spider.

I moved my hand to the dogs’ chest, and their legs started moving in happy bliss, their eyes almost shutting from the joy. Spider’s smug smile disappeared. He moved to the doors of the heavy gate at my command and squeezed through, grumbling to himself at my success. The dog on my right put his paw across my arm, directing my rub to his belly, totally ignoring Spider and his path across the yard. After a long moment, a shrill whistle floated across the yard.

“Was that you?” I called.

Spider appeared at the edge of the flood lights. “What else would it be?”

“A sick bird?”

“Hurry up!” he called.

Losing a bit of skin in the process, I forced my way through the metal gates of the drive. The dogs met me there and danced around my legs, begging to be rubbed again, as I crossed the yard.

“I guess they like you,” Spider said.

“Just ‘cause I liked them first,” I replied rubbing them both between the ears. “Did you get it open?”

“After you,” he bowed me through the heavy front door. “The guy had a second silent alarm that trips if you cut the wire. I guess that works on someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing.

Only an amateur cuts the wire…he should have planned for a pro,” he said knowingly.

“Are you waiting for a compliment?” I asked.

“I had ‘You’re a genius’ in mind,” he said.

“How about ‘you’re about to trip’?” I asked.

He stumbled over a low table. I caught his arm, preventing him from crashing through the glass top of the expensive table..

“Did you say the safe was behind a woman in a red dress?” Spider asked primly, choosing to ignore his clumsiness.

“Yep.”

“I’ll go upstairs. You look down here,” he said heading upstairs.

“Don’t get sidetracked,” I said. “We here to steal what’s in that safe, not the kitchen sink.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he said.
The kitchen sink would never fit in my pockets.

Before I searched the bottom floor, I went back to the front door. I double checked if anyone was around then whistled for the waiting Alex. “What was that?” she asked when she reached me.

“A whistle…” I said.

“Sounded like a sick bird,” she said.

“Why don’t we look for that painting?” I asked.

“Kay,” she replied. She gave a low whistle as she looked around the living room. Her whistle was the first whistle of the night that did not sound like a sick bird. “This guy is loaded.”

“Loaded times two,” I agreed.

“Oh! A shower!” She had found a spare bedroom with its own bathroom. She went to the closet.

Clothes of all kinds hung in the space. Clothes that were clean and for both sexes. She looked back at me hopefully.

“We’re stealing from this guy!” I said. “Not spending time at a salon.”

“I know…you’re right…It’s just…I miss hot water….I miss shampoo…”

“Up here!” Spider called over her rambling.

“Soap…I miss not smelling bad...and a toothbrush!”

“Did you find it?” I asked Spider heading upstairs.

“Yeah. In his study room thing,” Spider said.

“Warm lathery water…I miss the fresh feeling after a shower…and warm fluffy towels…”

“Study room thing?” I asked Spider.

“Well it’s more like a…”

“War room?” I asked.

There were maps along the walls and rolling cork boards full of faces and names. A lot of the faces had a shopping list of weapons and ammunition next to them.

“And pajamas…I miss pajamas straight from the dryer…hot baths with a book…”

“Is she okay?” Spider asked pointing at Alex.

“She’s fine,” I said.

“Here’s the painting.” Spider pointed at it. The woman in the dress was beautiful. The clothing, along with the hair style, hinted at the 1920s though the picture was in rich, colorful detail.

“She’s pretty hot,” Spider added.

I rolled my eyes and took the picture off the wall. What I saw was not comforting. I didn’t know much about safes, but the one in front of me was large and silver and looked entirely

intimidating.

“This is…impossible,” Spider said.

“Define ‘impossible,’” I said.

“What else can ‘impossible’ mean?” he asked.

“Never mind,” I said, missing Daniel horribly in that instant.

“Lavender bath salts…clothes that don’t have holes…”

“Oh, just take one!” I snapped at Alex.

She jumped happily and kissed my cheek. The water in the bathroom off of the war room was

running before I could turn back to the safe.

Spider paced back and forth gnawing on his fingernail, oblivious to Alex and me as he thought over the best ways to crack the safe. “I don’t have the technology to break it the easy way. It would cost a year’s worth of stealing. Doll, go get me a glass.”

“Come on,” I said to the dogs, so I didn’t have to wander around the big house by myself. They followed me, their tails wagging.

I jumped the last three stairs and went to the kitchen. The clock on the pristine stove counted down our disappearing time as I searched for a glass. Hopefully, Spider’s plan wouldn’t take long; getting put in prison would only make what I was trying to do harder. Before I went

upstairs, I looked through all the cabinets for food, the habit of the past week’s, ‘take what you can get,’ mentality making it instinctive. They were empty though, and I knew that this guy ate out all the time or he was a Watcher. If he were a Watcher, I knew I had more to worry about than the police. If he caught us, he would kill us. Upstairs again, Spider took the glass I offered him and set it against the safe to listen.

“What are you listening for?” I asked.

“When you get near the right number it makes a click,” he said starting to move the dial slowly.

“You missed it,” I said rocking up and down on the ball of my feet, feeling nervous and full of energy. I just wanted to get this part over with and get my information. I wanted to leave before the owner came back and found us here.

“You can hear from there?” he asked.

The amplified hearing had been happening more often than not. It was rarity to be without it now. I nodded a ‘yes.’

“You do it,” he commanded, placing my hands on the dial.

The sound of the first click was unmistakable to my ears. I spun it the other way slowly, feeling more confident with every slow click. The dogs settled at my feet and Spider started roaming the room. He stuck small things in his pockets when he thought I wasn’t watching and appreciated the beauty of the rest of the things he couldn’t fit into his pocket.

“Spider...” I said at one point.

“Yeah?” he asked, turning to me.

“If you take one more step toward that bathroom I will make sure you understand the word

‘eunuch’ better than you understand the word ‘thief’.”

He stepped away from the bathroom door, where he had been trying to spy on Alex through the glass shower door and sat on the leather chair behind the large desk. “Clare…” he said after a moment.

“Yeah?”

He swirled around in the chair thoughtfully then put his feet on the elegant desk. He clasped his hands over his stomach and looked at me seriously. “Tell me about your mom…about living in a real house with a family.”

My hand hesitated on the safe at his request. The sadness and curiosity in his thoughts was surprising. The wistfulness in his voice was opposite the impression he had left with me while he had been busy organizing the others and helping us break into buildings. He had never gotten the chance to be a kid and, while he had made the choice to run away, he yearned for the existence of carefree youthfulness. Not that anything about my childhood had exactly been ‘carefree’. He longed for a family, however, and that was something I had always had.

“Sure,” I said, starting to turn the dial on the safe again.

All the cities I had been to, the places I had explored, and, more importantly, all the memories of Ellen came pouring out. He listened quietly, leaning back in the chair as he absorbed my

memories. His eyes roamed the richly decorated room as I told my stories, the flash of green bright against the dark light from passing cars and street lamps. Lost in the stories, I was surprised when the safe clicked and the door popped open.

“Ha!” I said surprised even with myself.

“We’re lucky he didn’t have a digital combination…” Spider said popping off the chair. “What’s in there?”

We both stared into the vault. A manila envelope sat exactly in the middle. Neither of us had expected the safe to contain so little. We shared a mutual look of concern then Spider shrugged.

He reached in and pulled the folder out, his body ready to run. Nothing happened; no trap was sprung with the removal of the documents. Before he could open the envelope, I pulled it out of his hand to look for myself. It was something else unexpected in a day full of surprises.

Chemical equations lined the crisp white paper the envelope contained; equations that I only understood the beginnings of.

“What’s it for?” Spider asked over my shoulder.

“Bad stuff,” I said. I shut the folder. “Alex! Are you done? We need to go.”

She stepped out of the bathroom. Steam boiled out from behind her, the light from the room illuminating the mist and gave her a halo. She was wearing the same clothes she had before, but her curly hair was wet and her tan skin was perfectly clean.

“Better?” I asked with an arched eyebrow.

“Tons,” she agreed with a smile. She sniffed the air. “It wouldn’t hurt you two, either.”

“I’ll just get dirty again,” Spider said with a shrug.

“The stink helps me fit in…Come on,” I said. I shut the safe and locked it again, using my shirt to wipe away the finger prints. I made sure the picture was perfectly straight before we left. With any luck, our theft would go unnoticed for a while.

“Spider, reset the alarm before we go,” I said. “Let’s not give away our theft quite yet.”

“Sure,” he agreed.

I rubbed the dogs’ chests again, sad I had to leave them to a master who neglected them. They licked my hands and face with their rough tongues in response, their brains not getting that I was leaving. Spider held the gate for Alex and me to squeeze through, then followed us out. The dogs whined as I walked away.

My stomach was filled with excited butterflies as I joined Alex and Spider in the car. We had done it! We had actually gotten away with it. The car started with a low purr, accentuating the feeling running through my gut. Alex flipped through the file curiously as I carefully pulled away from the corner.

“Why would Serenity go to such lengths to get this?” Alex asked. “It looks like my unfinished chemistry homework.”

“Do you know what it’s about?” I asked. “I couldn’t make sense of it.”

“I understand one thing,” she said.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“We’re right in the middle of things we shouldn’t be,” she said.

“What else is new?”

The bouncer at club Maquis was huge, his broad face intimidating. There was a long line of partiers all dressed to the nines waiting to get in. When we stepped to the front, ignoring the desperate crowd, his eyes remained bored and disinterested. “Back of the line,” he said pointing at the line which turned the block.

“We’re not here to party,” I said. “We have a meeting with Serenity.”

“Name?” he asked.

“Clare,” I said.

He poked his head in the door and checked a list that was hanging on the wall. “All right. Tell Mick at the bar who you are, and he’ll let you up.”

Angry yells from the people waiting in line followed us through the door. The bouncer ignored them and re-crossed his arms, his face still impassive against the insults. I navigated through the moving bodies, the pounding pulse of music creating a sense of purpose to the madness of

movement. I kept a firm grip on Spider’s arm not wanting to lose him in the madness. Alex kept a firm grip on his other arm. We squeezed our way through the people to the back of the club, where the bar was busy with orders as men and women, both, prowled for fun.

Mick was a tall, handsome man with sharp bone structures and the olive skin of someone from the Mediterranean. His dark eyes went beyond normal darkness. It was hard to tell in the dark room, but their darkness suggested they were black. When he caught my eye I instantly