“Such lethal grace. No, I think it’s all you.”
She cleared her throat.Stick to the mission. “Let’s keep looking.” She headed to the next search grid.
Moments later, Axton called out. He was shining his light up at the roof and frowning. “There’s something up there.”
“On the roof?” She saw his ion light reflect off an object.
“Something suspended on a wire.” He wandered closer.
She did the same, zooming in with her enhanced vision. “It’s a Sync communicator.” Her pulse tripped. Finally,something.
They both stood below the dangling communicator.
“It’s too high up,” he said. “I’ll call to have someone bring a?—”
Xenia bent her legs and jumped.
Her enhanced strength took her high into the air. She reached out her hand, arm extended straight above her head.
Her fingers brushed the Sync, but she wasn’t quite high enough.
She landed back beside Axton, crouching to absorb the impact. When she stood, he was watching her.
“Impressive.”
“But not enough. I just barely touched it.”
He cupped his palms together and put one knee down. “Let me give you a boost. Should give you enough extra height to reach it.”
She really didn’t want to get too close to him, but the quicker they got the Codex back, the quicker she could be off on her next mission.
Xenia drew herself up. She put one boot onto Axton’s hands.
“Ready?” His eyes had a faint neon glow in the darkness.
“Ready.”
He flung her up and she used her own strength at the same time.
This time she gripped the Sync. One hard yank and it broke free of the wire.
She landed back beside Axton and held it up. “I?—”
There was a strangethwapsound. She spun and saw a net fly out of the darkness.
It wrapped around her and knocked her back into Axton. The metal ropes of the net contracted, crushing their bodies together.
“What the hell?” he yelled.
His arms locked around her. She scrambled to stay on her feet, her face pressed against his chest.
The net tightened.
Then the floor beneath them gave way and they were falling.
Axton swalloweda groan at the hard landing. It was so dark that he struggled to make out anything. He had no idea where the ion light had ended up.
The ugly recollection of his prison cell lurked in the back of his mind. But the fact he wasn’t alone made it slink away. He mightn’t know where the hell he was, but he did know that he was trapped with Xenia’s body plastered against his. Things could be worse.
