Free The White Fox Chronicles by Gary Paulsen Page B

right, then on the left and then, very slowly, listening with all his might, Cody turned the knob back to the right and finally heard the last tumbler drop.
    Cody let out his breath and pulled the safe door open. There was no time to check the contents. He grabbed at everything and began stuffing it into a canvas pouch Franklin had given him for the purpose.
    “Hurry it up, kid.”
    Cody jumped and grabbed for his gun. He’d been concentrating so hard he hadn’t heard Thompson come in behind him.
    “You shouldn’t do that,” Cody whispered angrily.
    “Do what?” Thompson whispered back from the doorway. “Scare the baby?”
    Cody ignored him and went back to cleaning out the safe.
    “I have you covered.” A bright light snapped on in the other room. “Turn around slowly and put your hands on your head,” a voice commanded.
    Cody realized whoever was in the next room couldn’t see him kneeling on the floor because Thompson’s large frame was blocking the doorway. He quietly crawled to the side while Thompson put his hands up and turned to face the voice.
    “Step over here, away from the door.”
    The soldier kept his gun on Thompson while he edged toward the room to see what his new captive had been up to. He spotted the open safe and cursed in the Republic language, then turned. “You will be shot for this—of course, you would have been shot in any case.”
    The instant the CCR soldier turned his back, Cody was up. In one motion he slipped the combat knife from the sheath and threw himself forward, the knife in front of him like a short sword. It was all automatic and laterhe knew that if he’d thought about it he couldn’t have done it. The knife seemed to disappear into the back of the soldier and the man gasped, a tight breath, half turned to see what had hit him and fell forward and down on his face. The soldier moved a moment and was still. Cody stood, staring at the knife sticking out of the middle of the dead man’s back. He could not make himself move. Not an inch.
    Thompson was not idle. He leaned over, made sure the soldier was dead and then smiled up at Cody. “You saved me.…” He was going to say something more but at that moment Rico sprinted into the depot, breathing hard, with an angry frown on his face. “What’s the holdup in here?”
    He saw the soldier lying facedown on the floor and glanced across at Cody, who was still poised to attack. “Is everybody okay?”
    “Thanks to the kid here,” Thompson said. “He’s something else. How old did you say he is again?”
    “He’s fourteen.” Rico grinned. “But he’s a
mean
fourteen.”

CHAPTER 10
    “C ome on, Mike. Here, boy.” Cody whistled and called to the big dog, who had run off after a rabbit.
    Mike bounded up behind him, nearly knocking him over. Cody knelt and playfully patted his head. “Where’s the rabbit? I guess you failed in your mission, didn’t you? That’s okay. With all that money from the depot safe, Franklin said he’d be buying everybody steaks for a while. What do you think about that?”
    The heeler licked Cody’s face.
    “Yeech. You don’t have to be that appreciative.” Cody stood up and adjusted his gun across his shoulder. Nowadays, he never left the compound without it. The gun, along with the combat knife he’d retrieved from the back of the dead soldier, had become a part of him and he felt strange when the weapons weren’t with him.
    It had been almost three weeks since the depot mission. Thompson had bragged on him until it became embarrassing. Franklin was proud too. Even though he didn’t say much, Cody could see it in his eyes. Cody was not proud—that is, he was proud that he’d saved Thompson, but he had dreamt several times about it, dreamt about the knife going into the soldier’s back, and he always awakened in a sweat.
    Rico continued to teach him martial arts and how to use the various weapons stored in the warehouse. But Cody felt restless. His thoughts turned more