Page 13 of Epsilon Criminal


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This was beyond anything I’d ever done. Sounded like one of those stoner ideas people came out with after a sesh. Was it even possible? My life depended on finding out.

I stepped forward to the safe and put my ear to it. Closed my eyes. Turned the dial.Click. Click. Click. Click.Clock.

There it was. One of the positions.

“Sixty,” I told him.

I turned the dial in the opposite direction. The clicks were quieter, because the tumblers got smaller as they were closer to the final open position. I had to concentrate hard to get this one.

The sound changed, just on the edge of hearing.

“Twenty-one.”

The third one was even quieter. I turned it back, clicking so softly I almost couldn’t hear it. There was no way I would find the third position.

I shook my head in defeat as the dial had turned all the way and I still hadn’t found the last position.

“I’m sorry. I can’t get the last one.”

What would happen now? I’d failed. He’d get Fert to take care of me or something. I stared at the floor, waiting to find out what he was going to do to me. In all honesty, safe cracking wasn’t my specialty and I had no idea how to really do it, except for what I’d seen on TV. I’d been surprised it had worked at all.

But two out of three wasn’t good enough.

“The safe was a test. I don’t need a cracker,” he told me. “I need a breaker. But I wanted to know what you’d do with a curveball.”

I didn’t really understand what he meant.

“It’s easy for people to learn their only skill, to rely on tools, to do it without thinking. All my crew had to prove themselves by solving my puzzles. Fert, for example, had to take care of someone without using his weapon.”

I glanced at the bodyguard, who had his ear to the front door and his fingers curled around his gun.

“So, have I failed?” I felt like I was waiting for someone to push me off a cliff.

He looked at me for a long time. Sizing up how I coped with silence? At last, he talked.

“No. You thought your way through the unfamiliar. You even got two out of three. I’m not letting you in just yet, but you’ve got my attention. Now you can really prove your worth. Meet Jerel on the steps at sundown. He’ll tell you what to do.”

I nodded and gathered up my lockpicks from the floor. “Thank you.”

“Fert, show her out. She’s not to be touched by anyone.”

Well, that was something. He wasn’t letting me into the gang’s inner circle yet, but he wasn’t killing me, either.

Standing outside, I moved my feet so people didn’t think I was lost. The fastest way to lose credibility in front of a crew was to seem uncertain. But seriously, what was I going todoall day while I waited for this meeting with Jerel?

I headed back to Ryon’s flat. Maybe in the light of day there would be some food in the kitchen.

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