Cowboys & Alliance : part 4

-------- Death in the Family --------

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Malcolm Reynolds watched as Lenore descended the ladder to the vault below. He wondered just how much like herself River had been able to program into the machine? If Lenore had anywhere near the combat abilities of the young Miss Tam, then she’d be a force to reckon with. She reached the bottom and motioned for him to come down.

In the vault below ground level, the room resembled more of a crypt than an actual place where money was being secretly stored. There were lots of old bits of furniture, farm goods and ranch supplies all around. Most had a good covering of dust on them, and the room wouldn’t have been of much interest except for souvenir hunting if it weren’t for the reason that the team knew something was hidden down there.

With the room being so untidy the secret hiding place of the vault had gone untended also. As they looked around, Mal and Lenore noticed a safe mounted on the opposite wall, a turn dial mounted directly in it’s center. There was an old picture portrait of some wise old general laying just below the safe. At one time he may have provided a covering over the safe, but now his job seeming unimportant, the general just lay resting his weary image on the dusty floor below.

Mal walked over to the safe, “ Well Lenore, if you’re half as good as River then you ought to be able to open this baby, no worries in the least!”

The captain went to spin the dial but it seemed frozen stiff it time, glued to the very vault it was set to protect.

“ Sorry Mal, but if you’re looking for the safe to be open by means of tumblers then you’re wasting your time.”

The she-bot walked over to an old desk located in the center of the room. She pushed a hidden button located on the side and a keyboard emerged from a rear panel.

“ Here’s how we get it inside,” She said. She pressed several buttons on the keypad and the door to the safe automatically sprang open. Mal was getting t