Page 42 of In a Dangerous Orbit
But where did the Rahl hide it? Was it still here or had they moved it somewhere else in Haxx? Xenia ran the probabilities. “There is a fifty percent chance the Codex is still hidden somewhere here in the building.”
He closed the sketchbook. “Then let’s keep looking.”
She searched every shadowed corner. Nothing. Frustration ate at her but as always, she hid it away.
A growl echoed through the warehouse.
In a flash, she moved in front Axton and set her systems scanning. She couldn’t detect any movement…wait, therewassomething stirring back behind the cages.
A huge Rahl burst out of the darkness.
Xenia leaped forward to engage.
The Rahl was at least a foot taller than she was with a heavily muscled body. She aimed a roundhouse kick to his jaw. His head snapped back and he roared. She spun out of the range of his claws.
He was fast, charging at her with his head down. She leaped high into the air, over his head, and landed behind him. She shoved a palm to his lower back and used the deadly implants in her palms to electrocute him.
It took a second for her to realize that his body wasn’t warm. In fact, he felt downright cold.
And that her jolt of electricity didn’t affect him.What the hell?
He rounded on her and slashed out with his claws. She evaded and aimed a punch at his face.
He roared again.
Xenia let her fight training take over. Hand-to-hand was her specialty. She whirled and spun as she kicked, punched, and aimed blows designed to take a man of his size down.
None of it affected him.
He didn’t say a single word. The Rahl she’d encountered before had liked to trash talk.
She used moves that had immobilized plenty of Rahl during the coup.Nothing. No reaction. She dodged a kick. His face was caught in one expression of rage and his eyes were…dead. She ducked his claws.
But was a little too slow.
His claws raked her uniform, the high-tech fabric thankfully protecting her skin. But the force of the blow should have knocked her off her feet. Instead, it had felt like a tap.
Realization came in a flash.
“He’s a hologram,” she yelled. “Find the projector.”
She jumped into the air, spun, and slammed a kick—backed by all her weight—at the Rahl’s head.
As her foot connected, the Rahl’s image wavered, then disappeared.
She landed in a crouch.
Axton emerged from the shadows, a microprojector nestled in his palm. He stared at the rip marks on her uniform. “How can a hologram do that?”
“It was an advanced haptic hologram that you can feel. It’s experimental. I’ve seen prototypes from the Axis Academy. They just can’t quite get the minor details perfected, like facial expressions and body temp.”
Axton jiggled his hand, studying the projector. “This is Centaxian.” A muscle ticked in his jaw. “They used our own tech against us.”
“Yes.” She felt the same simmering fury that was in his voice. It had been months since they’d defeated the Rahl and they were still haunting Centax.
“You move like liquid lightning when you fight,” he said.
Xenia felt a flush trying to work free. She wrestled it back. “My training.”
