Page 53

The numbers along the pipe, cleverly disguised as rising heat waves, danced before her eyes: 3-7-12-9-5. A code? A combination? Her father’s birthday was March 7th, but the other numbers didn’t fit any pattern she recognized.
Grabbing the book, she jumped up and headed for the main room. “Help me check out this stove. There’s something off about it.”
Cody dropped his hammer next to a half-raised board and followed her. As they approached the old iron fixture, Paige noticed something she’d missed before. The stove pipe wasn’t connected to the ceiling—it stopped short by a couple inches, hidden from casual observation by the room’s shadows.
“It’s not even hooked up,” Cody muttered, running his hand along the pipe’s edge. “This whole thing is a prop.”
Paige’s heart raced. Whatever her father had hidden, it had to be inside this fake stove. But how to open it? Her eyes flicked back to the sketch, to those enigmatic numbers. “I think we needto turn these dials in a specific sequence. My father left us the combination.”
She opened the hidden compartment, revealing a faded file folder stuffed with old-school handwritten pages. She lifted it out. Beneath the file lay a rectangular gray case.
“You think?” Cody’s breath caressed her cheek as he leaned close.
“It’s the right size.” Her fingers shook as she pried it gently from the compartment and unzipped the zipper. But her excitement was quickly doused. “Nope.”
She held up a small device.
Cody wrinkled his nose. “That’s a glucometer. I didn’t know your dad was diabetic.”
She stared at the blank gray screen. It did look like a glucometer. Kind of. Not that she was overly familiar with the things. Whatever it was, it was the least interesting thing in the cache. She set it on the arm of the couch and opened the file.
Her heart leapt as she recognized schematics. “It’s the key to the virus code! If we don’t locate the drive, at least we can design an antidote.”
Cody’s eyes widened as he leaned in to examine the schematics. “Or a Trojan horse virus of our own. The old man really did leave us the key to blowing away the Consortium’s prize weapon.”
He ran a hand through his hair, his mind clearly racing. “This changes everything. We’re not just looking for a needle in a haystack anymore. We’ve got a map to the entire field. We’ve got to get this info somewhere secure and start analyzing it immediately.”
Paige nodded, her own excitement building. “You’re right. We need to ...”
She trailed off, her mind suddenly grasping the significance of the sentence she’d just read.
The sequencer is designed to plug directly into the drive. Then the key needs to be applied.
Her gaze fell back to the small device they’d initially dismissed. “Wait a second.” She picked up the glucometer-like object, turning it over in her hands. “My dad wasn’t diabetic, that I’m aware. Even if he was, why hide something he’d use daily?”
Cody leaned in for a closer look. “You’re right, it’s not quite right for a glucometer. The screen’s different, and there’s no slot for test strips.”
While she pored over the device, Cody moved to the salt-stained front windows, his posture tense. “We need to jet soon.”
Paige nodded absently, studying the device. A DNA sequencer. That was how she’d activate the key. Her heart froze.
No. He hadn’t.
How could her father put her in this position again?
Cody eyed her curiously. “What?”
“We’ve got it all. My dad left instructions for defeating the virus, and the key to opening the virus drive.”
“Why don’t you sound excited?”
She glanced up at him. “It’s me. I’m the key.”
“Again?” Cody looked pained.
“Looks that way.” She waggled the small device. “This is a DNA sequencer. Nothing super special about that. I can only think of one reason Dad would have stored it with his notes.”
Cody ran a hand through his sandy hair. “Because the drive will have a digital lock that requires a blood sample to open it. Penderson blood.”