Read Online Sammy Keyes and the Sisters of Mercy by Wendelin Van Draanen - Free Book Online

zero and one will probably work if you overshoot in the other. Depends on how sloppy the mechanism is. So really you only need to try one out of five numbers—like 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, and so on. Let’s say the combination is 3–23–56. Or 4–23–56 or 5–23–56 or 6–23–56. 5–25–55 will probably work for all of them or any other combination within the mechanism’s margin of error. You get the idea. So now the right combination isn’t one in a million, it’s about one in seven or eight thousand. Something you could do in a day or two.”
    Now when I thought of Hudson helping me open thesafe, I wasn’t picturing having to flip around a dial for hours and hours. I was picturing Hudson going into the Pup Parlor with a few tools and some experienced fingers, and coming out with the doggy door wide open.
    He looks at me and says, “Not exactly what you were hoping to hear, eh, Sammy?” He chuckles and says, “It may seem rather dull to you, but a yegg’s best tool’s his brain.” He taps my head and says, “It’s better than a crowbar or a diamond drill or a truckload of nitroglycerin, so don’t you roll your eyes and sigh at me, young lady! It’s probably the only thing that’s going to get you past an S&G lock, nearly an inch of reinforced steel and shielded bolts.”
    I sit up. “I didn’t roll my eyes and sigh!” Then I kind of mumble, “But it’s not like I want to break into Fort Knox!”
    He shakes his head. “Sammy, Sammy, Sammy … Some safes may be easier than others, but the concept’s the same. Stethoscopes and cracker fingers are a myth. You can’t get into a safe that way! And torching the mechanism or trying to drill it is just going to make it lock up.
    “Which leaves you with ripping a hole in the side or using your brain.” He eyes me. “Which do you prefer?”
    I guess I wasn’t looking too happy because he says, “Come on now, Sammy. Chin up.”
    “I don’t want to try eight thousand different combinations! I’d rather dissect dog poop!”
    He laughs. “Well, there
is
another way to go at this.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “It comes down to the fact that people are creatures of habit.”
    “How’s that get you into a safe?”
    “Imagine, if you will, that for your birthday I gave you a brand-new Browning safe and you had to decide on a combination that you wanted the lock to have. It could be any combination of three numbers, zero to ninety-nine. What would you choose?”
    “Doesn’t the safe come with a combination?”
    Hudson laughs, and says, “Ah-ha! Very good! Choice number one—the factory setting. Usually along the lines of 25–0–25, and the first combination you should try when confronted with a lock.”
    “What do you mean?”
    He smiles. “People are also lazy. Some will leave the combination on the factory setting because it’s too much work for them to figure out how to give the safe a new combination.” He rubs his hands together. “But you are
not
lazy, so you would come up with your own combination. What would it be?”
    I’m in the middle of thinking when he says, “Would you pick random numbers? Say, 17–85–12?”
    “No. I’d forget them—unless I wrote them down.”
    He claps his hands. “Another possibility! If it’s a random combination, or one that they’re afraid they’re going to forget, most people write it down and then put it someplace concealed but convenient. Like they write it inside their desk drawer or tape it to the back of their safe.” He laughs and says, “There’s not much sense in having a safe if you’re going to tape the combination to the outside of it, but people do it all the time.”
    He goes back to petting Rommel. “Now, I know you’vegot more marbles than to do that, so what combination
would
you use? And remember—this safe is something you’re going to have for a long, long time.”
    I sit there for a minute, thinking. Then I say, “12–34–56. That’s what I’d use.