“You will repair what you broke, Milo. Then, we’ll run the demonstration that should have been performed on my son on your lover. So, it would be in your best interests to ensure it works properly, that way we won’t cause any…unnecessarydamage.”
I narrowed my eyes at Luke and shook my head.
“No,”I snapped. “Never. I’llneverhelp you.”
Luke didn’t seem phased. He just let out a dry laugh and slid his hands into his pockets with a shrug.
“We thought you might say that,” he deadpanned before glancing over his shoulder at the armed men flanking Jay.
“Shoot him,” he ordered, and one of the men immediately pulled out a handgun and pressed the muzzle directly against Jay’s thigh.
Panic tore through me, and I screamed, throwing myself against Sebastian’s punishing grip again.
“NO! No, STOP! Don’t! I’ll do it! I’ll fix it! Don’t hurt him!”
“Stand down,” Luke ordered lazily, and the man immediately holstered his weapon without a word.
My chest was heaving with each breath, and my cheeks were wet. I wasn’t sure when I’d started crying, but I couldn’t stop.
Jay was staring at me with wide eyes, his face pale, and all I wanted to do was hold him and make sure he was okay.
They’d really almost justshot him!
“Jay…” I sobbed, and he strained against his restraints, trying to get as close to me as I was trying to get to him.
“Milo…” he whispered, and the space between us felt like an uncrossable canyon.
“Get to work, Mr. Murphy,” Luke drawled. “I think I’ve made it clear what will happen to Mr. Reynolds if you refuse to comply.”
Feeling like I was going into shock, I slowly turned my head to face Luke.
I swallowed, my throat burning with the effort, and I found myself nodding.
“Good. Release him, Sebastian. The quicker you work, Milo, the easier I’ll go on him. We’ll start with smaller memories and work up to bigger ones. As long as you do what you’re told, I’ll make sure he remembers you long after he’s lost his humanity.”
Lost his humanity?
“Isn’t that right, Mr. Reynolds? Just like your daddy, we’ll turn you into the animal you are, and you’ll disappear, won’t you? No one will remember you once we’re done with you. Not even Milo. You’ll simply beforgotten.”
The atmosphere in the room was so thick and heavy that I felt like I was moving underwater. Slowly, I made my way to the desk, unable to keep my eyes from darting around the lab.
Dr. Grey was still fingering one of the needles filled with what I was now certain was a sedative of some kind meant to keep Jay compliant while they used my tech on his mind.
Jay had said Dr. Grey was the director of DARPA, and they wanted to use the manipulator on soldiers.
Did they think that if they manipulated the parts of the brain that felt things like empathy and love, they could eliminate the psychological side effects of war?
I stood before the broken pieces of the manipulator, staring down at my work as I forced back the urge to vomit.
Tears burned the backs of my eyes at the thought of all the ways they could use this device to turn the man I loved into something unrecognizable.
Jay… the man who liked to spend his downtime playing cozy games like Stardew Valley. The guy whose favorite way to start the day was with a sticky cinnamon bun and a coffee sweet enough to give a toddler cavities.
The man who’d stopped to help a stranger who’d been pushed to the ground on his first day of work.
And now, these evil people wanted to use me to twist that beautiful mind up into something violent and insidious.
I couldn’t do it…
