Page 69 of In a Dangerous Orbit
“There’s something under here!” He started scraping the sandy dirt off with his shoe. Xenia joined in.
After several minutes, they’d uncovered a large metal plate. It was divided into a three-by-three pattern of squares. Each was engraved with a Rahl symbol.
“I’ve seen this,” she muttered, staring at the marked squares. “I saw this on the Sync.” She lifted the device. “There’s a correct sequence. Press the squares in the right order and it opens the vault beneath.” She pressed her palm to the Sync, scrolling through the data stored on it.
A wave of dizziness washed over her. She blinked. She must have lost more blood than she’d thought. She blocked the sensation and focused on the data. She needed the sequence.
Her head cleared and she found what she was looking for.
“Step with me on theexactsquare I stand on. I don’t want to see what other booby traps the Rahl have devised if we get the sequence wrong.”
He nodded. She stepped on the first square, and he stepped on it beside her. There was a groan of metal, and the square sank an inch.
She stepped on the second square. Funny, she’d always liked working alone, but Axton’s big, warm presence beside her was…nice.
They followed the sequence outlined on the Sync. With every step, she held her breath, expecting more nets or projectiles or something worse.
Finally, they stepped on the final square. Axton grabbed her hand and squeezed. She squeezed back.
The square dropped. And kept dropping.
He leaped off and pulled her up with him. As they watched, the square continued descending, then it rose back up again.
And resting in the center of it was a protective plas box.
Inside it was a leather-bound cover filled with yellowed sheets of paper.
“The Codex Da Vinci,” Axton breathed. “You did it!”
“We did it.”
He undid the lid on the box and lifted up the Codex. Gently, reverently, he opened the leather. Each one of the pages inside was protected by a thin plas-coating. Vitruvian man. Da Vinci’s design for a humanoid robot. Incredibly detailed anatomy drawings. “It looks like it’s all here.”
Xenia’s eyelids flickered and she frowned. A…sensation was rising in her. She blinked and shook her head.
Axton was talking, but she couldn’t make out his words. All noise sounded distant and distorted.
Suddenly, she lunged forward and snatched the Codex from his hands.
“What the hell?” He turned toward her.
It felt like someone had taken over her body. Her muscles trembled and she fought for control.
She moved, raising an arm and slamming it against Axton’s throat. They crashed into the rusted hulk behind him.
His eyes were wide. “Xen-ia?” He could barely talk since she was cutting off most of his air.
She was trembling all over, fighting whatever foreign force was invading her. Her inner alarms were blaring. “Virus. It’s…invading my systems.”
“Hold on. We’ll take you to Security. They’ll fix it.”
A sob tore from her throat. The virus was winning, blanking out everything inside her, everything that was Xenia.
“You don’t understand.” The struggle washed away, leaving the cold, emotionless cyborg she’d always thought she’d wanted to be. “I have new programming now.”
He pushed against her hold. “Xenia?”
“I will take the Codex back to the Rahl.” She pushed her forearm harder against his neck. “And assassinate you.”
