I did, however, look back—at the white door, now framed in nothingness, behind me.
If Sophia had managed to remember her number, maybe they’d recorded where they’d caught her? And maybe we’d eventually be able to take her home. And if this one knew her number, too—I searched the back of the door for answers and only found scratches.
As if, once upon a time, someone had been trapped in here.
Trying to get out.
“Oh God,” I whispered, and flung myself back into my body—and found Nex having a meltdown.
Report, Sirena! Report!he was shouting with his mind, and I caught a glimpse through his eyes. He was running.
I waved my hands frantically at the ceiling, batting him and his concern back.
Give me a signal if you’re all right!
I gave a huge thumbs up, and felt him calming.I almost died. Again,he marveled, to himself, and then to me,That was not compliance!
I flipped off the ceiling, and felt his dry amusement.
Good,he thought.Clearly you’re fine.
41 /XEN
T+003:07:16:03
Bandwidth Prioritization: Realigned.
Sensor Array: Calibrated.
Threat Matrix: Active.
The timeline had moved up, and so must he.
Xen rerouted all available cores to tactical escalation and descended three floors into the sub-basement of HQ, where Lung stood halfway through an isometric workout. He was the only one off-comms—mid-rep, with chains wrapped around his wrists and a barbell across his back the weight of a small car.
“Is it time?” he asked, dropping the barbell the second he saw Xen.
“Yes,” Xen informed him. “Bring all of your guns.”
42 /NEX
I kept an eye on Sirena—andon any incoming commands—while chewing over both my meal and the best next course of action.
I knew Xen, being him, would be close enough to take action by dawn, but I needed to keep Sirena alive until then.
And now, realizing that a subset of the Hollows were walking bombs—even I struggled to quantify how far Voss had gone.
Selling sex was bad enough—but selling surveillance in biological Trojan horses, with smile protocols, self-erase features, and modular detonation triggers?
Diabolical.
Meanwhile, Sirena was being primped to within an inch of her life.
I watched as a Hollow misted Sirena’s hair with another fine aerosol.
Volatile compound detected.
Isobutane blend.
