Chapter 1
The prickles on my neck told me I was being watched. I spun around and saw no one. I looked up at the security camera and a chill went down my spine. I could only hope that Samantha had successfully fed the camera a loop so that no one would see me. I knew that she had gotten into the system, mostly because there were no flashing lights and sirens. Plus, Sam was always right when it came to this kind of thing.
I turned back around to try to crack the code on the safe. I wiped the layer of cold sweat off my forehead, tucked my short hair back behind my ear, and put the flashlight back in my mouth. Keypad locks were much harder to crack than dials. "Thank goodness for technological advances!" I mumbled, aggravated. I probably had about three tries to guess the right combination. That's how it goes in all the books, right? I pulled out the list of possible combinations that I had made earlier, but I had about twenty possibilities. "Emma, some help?" I whispered into my headset.
"I did some research on Indagone and was able to shorten your list." said Emma. Thank goodness for Emma. She was the brains of all of our operations. I trusted her completely. "I think you can rule out one through five, seven, fourteen through seventeen, and nineteen and twenty." Sometimes I just love Emma.
"So I have eight choices. And three tries. We can do this. We have to do this!" I said more to myself than to Emma.
"Just relax, I'm still trying to eliminate some more. You probably have about a half an hour till you could get interrupted."
"Ok, am I going to have to start guessing combinations or do you have any more for me?" I said.
"Numbers eight and nine probably aren't it, but that's all I've got."
"Ok, time to think." I said.
"You mean you haven't been thinking, Lilly! Then why are you on this mission!" Emma joked. Only Emma can make jokes in the middle of a mission.
"Really Emma?" I said.
"Ok, ok. I would try numbers six, ten and eighteen in that order first. And if you have more tries, tell me." said Emma.
"Ok, I'll try." I said. I put the flashlight back in my mouth and stared at the keypad. I took three deep breaths and started to punch in number six. We knew that the password was six letters and two numbers long. I tried typing in "Gr8nes 2 u". I know it sounds wired, but Indagone was a fake cell phone service company. And I would trust Emma with my life, and I was. I could hear the wheels and gears start to turn inside the safe. I held my breath, and then they stopped. Nothing else happened. I sighed and started to punch in code number ten. I tried "Evil 1oh1". Again I heard the gears and wheels clicking and turning, but again it stopped. And nothing happened. One more try. I thought. Number nineteen was the weirdest of them all, and I don't know why Emma chose it but, like I said, I trusted her. We knew that the leader of Indagone loved cats, so I came up with a cat related one. The keypad also had the symbols that are above the numbers on a normal keyboard, and we think that the symbols could be used as numbers. So I typed in "C@ fann@ic". Once again, the gears started to move. I was very anxious this time. I didn't know if I had blown the whole mission or if this might just work. Then it was all silent. Nothing moved. "Emma?" I said into my headset, "I guess I get another tr-" Then I was blown to Kingdom come.
