Drake Sisters 03 - Oceans of Fire

these men, was a respected professional. He had the ear of people in high places. He had trust and even a high security clearance, yet he was a predator, ruthlessly destroying the lives of others to further his own cause. Saunders was another such man; and Flame had no doubt, just by observing him in the clubs, that Parsons was the same, even though they were on different sides of the law.
    “It’s like a damned secret society,” she whispered under her breath. “To get in you just have to screw everybody.” And why did people believe that sharks like Whitney and Saunders would eventually be brought to justice? In her experience they were never brought to justice. They schemed and muscled and killed and grew fat on their profits and everyone turned a blind eye. More than likely Parsons would end up dead someday, alligator bait in the bayou, while Saunders got fatter off of his illegal profits. Her headache was getting worse and if she didn’t tamp down her anger, the house was in for an unexpected Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    shaking. Did Louisiana get earthquakes? She hadn’t bothered to check.
    The light in the room below went off suddenly, alerting her to the fact that Saunders was heading downstairs to greet his guest. The door to the office closed and she could hear the distinct click of a lock.
    Immediately she moved to the skylight and peered down. Sure enough, the tower room was empty.
    Flame smiled, forgetting all about her headache. Securing a little justice went a long way in curing headaches. Staying low to prevent skylining her body, she examined the skylight, looking for evidence of magnetic switches or motion detectors inside the frame. It didn’t seem possible that Saunders could be so arrogant as to not install security on the skylight itself. Surely he wasn’t that stupid. She’d come prepared for a difficult task, but she found nothing to do but use her laser cutter to open the glass dome.
    Before lifting the glass free with the attached suction cup she once more checked for security, this time using all senses, not just visual.
    The sound was much too high for the human ear to detect. Flame froze without pulling away the glass.
    Saunders was using an old-fashioned ultrasonic motion detector. It was placed inside the skylight where little would disturb it. She rarely encountered them anymore because they were just too sensitive and often produced far too many false alarms. And that meant when she lifted the glass away the slight rash of air into the room would trigger the alarm.
    It was a simple enough device. A transmitter sent out a frequency too high for the human ear and the receiver picked up the sound waves reflected in the area under protection. Motion would cause a shift in the frequency of sound. The larger the object the greater the shift in frequency. Most detectors were configured to ignore the small shifts that might be caused by insects, but a larger shift would trip the circuit and set off the alarm.
    “You have the old Doppler effect going, don’t you, Saunders?” Flame murmured aloud, under her breath. “Well, sound just happens to be my specialty, you cheap slimeball. Your little old detector is simply comparing the frequency emitted by the transmitter when no motion is detected to the frequency of sound that results when motion occurs. And that, my lovely little mark, is easy enough for someone like me to work around.”
    She cocked her head to one side, pressing close to the dome to listen, determining the pattern in the high-frequency sound. With no motion present, the sound bouncing back was an even, steady configuration. She simply had to find that exact frequency and pattern and make certain that nothing interrupted it when she removed the glass and dropped down into the room.
    Flame nearly laughed. Here she was with all the latest high-tech equipment a cat burglar could possibly need and she had to run into someone with an old-fashioned setup. “ ‘Cuz you’re just too cheap where it counts, Saunders. You think because you rip off a lot of really nice people that makes you smart. It only makes you a mark, just like the ones you steal from.”
    It was gratifying how all those government-given talents came in handy when she went to work. Dr.
    Whitney and his little team of scientists would be so pleased to know their work had gone to a good cause.
    She maintained the high-frequency pattern as she pulled the