“Wh-what?” I stammered, but The Forgotten was standing up now, patting his hands over the many pockets of his tactical pants before pulling out a small external drive.
“Why would Sebastian Stevens care about any of this? Why would he offer me ajobat a time like this?”
The Forgotten shrugged as he toyed with the small device, spinning it expertly between his fingers as he observed me from behind his mask.
“You really have no idea how brilliant you are, do you, Milo?” he asked, his robotic voice sounding strangely tired. “Neurovance has been after you since you submitted that essay. Melanie wasn’t lying to you about that. Seb has the power and the money to make this entire investigation go away, and I need you to let him do that. Accept the job. Go and live on Neurovance property.” The stranger reached out and took my shaking hand in his. He dropped the drive into my palm and curled my fingers around it.
“Once you’re situated, Sebastian will get you set up in a lab that C-level Neurovance employees refer to as‘The Cave.’That’s where they’ll have you begin work on what they’re calling the NeuroManipulator 1.5. You arenotto make any progress on that device. I don’t give a shit what bullshit story you need to feed management, but donotfinish that project. Instead, I want you to plug this drive into the main stack. I’ll know once you’ve done that.”
“Y-you… You’re forcing me to be an accomplice in corporateespionage!?”I stammered in disbelief, and my captor let out a mechanical laugh.
“More or less. Yeah.”
“I can’t do something like this!” I exclaimed.
“You can, and you will.” His ominous tone stood in direct contrast to the way he almost affectionately tapped my nose with his index finger. I tensed, understanding the threat for what it was, but I couldn’t stop myself from protesting. Panicked words spilled out of my mouth without my permission.
“You don’t understand! I’m not nearly stealthy enough to pull something like this off. People call meMurphquake,for god’s sake. In first year, I was almost exclusively referred to asMurphy’s Law…Even by professors!”
The Forgotten slid his fingers around my nape and leaned over me, resting his mask against my forehead as he squeezed the back of my neck.
It was strangely grounding, and I found myself stilling instinctively beneath his touch.
“You can do this, Milo,” he whispered. I think it was meant to be comforting, but the mechanical voice distorter just made it eerie.
My lip trembled. “What if I can’t?”
He sighed and pulled away before making his way toward my bedroom window.
“You don’t really have a choice. I’ve shown you what happens if you disobey. Don’t make me hurt anyone else, Milo. Please, just… be good. I’ll be in touch.”
Suddenly, there was pounding on the door to my apartment, and a gruff, male voice was shouting,‘Police! Open up!’
I jerked around to face the door, startled by the banging. Reflex told me to rush to the door to let them in, but my wrists were still throbbing from the way I’d been tied down just moments before.
Whipping back, I found myself searching for my captor, unsure of whether he would allow me to answer the door.
But my breath caught as I quickly realized that he was gone.
My window was open, and my drapes were billowing softly in the cool nighttime breeze, filtering out the unsettling scent of my captor’s cologne.
Iwas in an interrogation room with two detectives, retelling the story of what had happened to me for what felt like thethousandthtime, when the door swung open.
The detectives, whom I suspected were trying to work me over with some B-movie version of good-cop, bad-cop, both swung to face the newcomer with annoyed expressions on their faces.
An older man with a receding hairline and a no-nonsense expression strode into the room, tailed by another officer who looked pissed off that this new man had interrupted my interrogation.
“Counsel’s here for your guy,” the officer said gruffly, and both the detective’s expressions darkened further.
“Detectives.” The elderly man gave them a dry nod. “I am Attorney Daniel Donnovan, representing Mr. Murphy. I understand he’s being questioned. I need to speak with him immediately,” the lawyer said. I eyed him up and down, taking in his expensive suit and Rolex watch. This was definitelynota public defender, and my heart rate sped up as I realized what The Forgotten had said would happen waslikely taking place.
The detectives turned their annoyed looks onto me and asked, “You sure you don’t want to clear a few last things up before your lawyer comes in?”
I opened my mouth to respond, but Donnovan interrupted me before I could speak.
“Is my client under arrest?”
“No…” the more dickish of the two detectives grumbled.
