Free Rogue Angel 54: Day of Atonement by Alex Archer Page A

see, each change indicating the sending and receiving of an electrical pulse between the computer and the safe as it raced through the dizzying permutations eight digits offered, searching outthe slightest difference that would indicate it had found the correct number in the sequence.
    By the time the third number had been locked onto the screen, Garin was absolutely certain he knew the combination. The old man was predictable. A smile played across his lips.
    05301431.
    A date that was seared across both of their lives.
    The date of Saint Joan’s execution.
    He tapped the eight digits into the keypad.
    The wall opened with an electronic click as the lock disengaged.
    The way he figured it he had less than an hour to similarly open the vault and then get back to his room before he was caught. It wasn’t as if the old man would have been thoughtful enough to have Guillaume Manchon’s papers neatly stacked in a pile and put to one side conveniently for him to find. That would have been too easy.
    But Garin was a resourceful thief.
    It was one of his better qualities.

14
    Garin had disappeared by the time that morning came.
    Roux thought at first he’d simply gone for a run in the grounds, but then he saw his erstwhile squire’s car was missing from the drive.
    It shouldn’t have surprised him. Garin Braden had been disappointing him one way or another for centuries. He should have guessed there was another reason for his late-night visit than simply concern for Annja. There was nothing he’d said to Roux that couldn’t have been said over the telephone, which meant he had another purpose for coming.
    He almost missed it, because nothing in the study had been moved, but when he went through the security tapes, he got to watch firsthand as Garin robbed him.
    Most of the documents and treasures he kept inside the vault were more of a sentimental or academic nature than having any intrinsic value.
    He followed the usual procedure, then entered the vault.
    The room, given the kinds of things it had been designed to protect, was airtight.
    At first glance it was next to impossible to see what, exactly, had been taken.
    The jewels he had acquired from King Louis XIV were still in the black velvet pouch that had kept them safe since the day he’d stolen them, and the gun he’d liberated from the German SS officer who’d thought that he possessed the power to do anything he liked likewise was nestled in its place. There were so many incredible items in the vault, each with a history that defied simple categorization on a museum’s shelves. So many seemingly innocuous treasures that were little more than trifles to the human eye possessed such significance to the eye of time. And, as far as he could tell, they were all still where they had been left.
    It would take ages to check each one on his inventory.
    But why would Garin steal a memento?
    He wouldn’t.
    That wasn’t his style.
    There were other antiquities in the vault, arguably more precious, even if they looked less glamorous. There were a stack of notebooks and papers, ledgers, journals, diaries, everything that he had ever accumulated that could possibly be used to pick a path between who Roux was now and who he had been. They were tied up in ribbons, each color signified a century and decade within it—hardly the most elaborate filing system, but it sufficed. One of the ribbons, the purple of the fifteenth century, was loose.
    The old man rubbed at his jawline, feeling the rough stubble where his beard was already thickening, and took down the bundle. Surely Garin knew he would have allowed him to examine any of these papers, and that the only secrets they represented were the ones that down the years had protected them from witch hunts and claims of heresy?
    He should have burned them all, of course, but he could never bring himself to do it.
    Roux had few secrets from the man. How could he have? They’d shared so much of this life together, the only two men in