Free Gravity (The Taking) by Melissa West Page B

standing by the door. “What are you doing?” I whisper. “You’re lucky I didn’t scream, ruining this before we even start.”
    Jackson laughs. “Nah. I trusted you.”
    “Well, move over. I’ve got the key.”
    “Like a master key?”
    “Yeah, I took it from Dad’s office. How else were we going to get in?”
    Jackson shakes his head, evidently in awe. “I thought we’d do the normal thing—break in. But this works,” he says as I swipe the card and hold the door for him to get inside. “This definitely works.”
    We ease down the hall, Jackson insisting on going first, until we reach the servants’ elevator at the end. A scanner protrudes from the wall beside the elevator. I swipe the card, hoping the master keycard works for all the scanners in the building, and instantly the doors pop open. I guess so.
    Once inside, Jackson pulls out a notes tablet and starts clicking through something I can’t see. I lean closer until my arm touches his arm, my face inches from his. “What’s that?” I whisper, unsure if we’re supposed to be all spyish about this or not.
    He turns, and I feel his breath on my cheek. He swallows hard. “It’s a map of the security floor. We’re going to duplicate a video chip.”
    The elevator ping s open before I can ask anything further. We step off into a dark hallway.
    “Flashlight?” Jackson asks.
    I click it on, shining a thin ray of light down the hall. He sneaks forward, but I grab his arm. “Wait, security cameras.” I point at a two-inch silver triangle stuck to the ceiling.
    He smiles. “No faith in me, huh? I had someone take care of that. We’re invisible for the next fifteen minutes.”
    “How…?”
    “Don’t worry about it. The video library is down here.” He motions to the right, and I follow close behind. We pass door after door. I wonder what lies within these walls. The truth about the Ancients? The truth about our history? I feel as though I’m walking through a morgue of secrets, as gross and decaying as the bodies at the medical one.
    Jackson stops at a set of double doors and holds out his hand for the keycard. I hesitate. Stealing it was one thing, but handing the master key to an Ancient is on a whole different level. He must interpret my thoughts, because he steps back, giving me room to swipe the key myself.
    A chilly breeze rushes from the room. We slip inside, and the door clicks shut behind us. My heart slams in my chest. We’re here. I’m really doing this.
    I flex my hands to keep them from shaking. The room is nothing but floor-to-ceiling cabinets, a thousand different drawers, and a single T-screen. Each drawer is labeled with a number and letter sequence that makes no sense to me, but Jackson goes directly to a drawer labeled CIV3. He pushes the door in, which should make it pop out, but it doesn’t budge. He pulls on it and tries to wedge his keycard inside it, his face growing redder and redder. I glance around, wondering if the library has a locking system similar to the one in Dad’s office.
    I walk to the center of the room and peer around. Where would they hide the keypad? No, they wouldn’t use a keypad here. They would use a scanner. I study the room, the walls, the lights, each of the cabinets. Then it hits me. I turn back to the door. No one would think to scan the outside scanner once inside the room. Maybe…I step out and swipe the master keycard. Instantly, a series of clicks sounds through the room. “There,” I say. “That’s better. Now, can you tell me what we’re looking for?”
    Jackson stands, shaking his head. “Brilliant, Alexander. Really brilliant.” He opens the drawer, exposing three rows of tiny squares. He pulls one out. “This is a video chip. The C stands for Chemist, meaning the building. IV is the floor and 3 the lab number. So this drawer holds the camera readings from that lab. Your dad took me through the Chemist lab yesterday. Lab 3 was blocked off, the glass in the door covered so