He hadn’t mentioned our almost kiss yesterday, and after The Forgotten’s warning, I was glad he seemed to be keeping his distance today… but I’d seen a part of him that he couldn’t take back.
‘Seb’s basically a puppet,’The Forgotten’s AI had said, and the way he was frowning right now, his blue eyes dark as the arctic sea, I could tell hehatedit here… so why did he stay?
“That’s… extreme.”
“Yeah, well, there were new rules implemented after… You know what, never mind. It’s not important. What’s important is that we get you set up as quickly as possible.”
Seb said, gesturing for me to exit the elevator.
“Right…” I hummed, diligently following my reluctant leader into what I knew immediately was ‘The Cave.’
The Cave was aptly named.It was dark, industrial, and the cement floors gave the whole place an echoing, cavernous feel.
There was that strange twinge of deja vu again as I took in my surroundings, but I couldn’t seem to make sense of anything my brain was clearly trying to tell me.
In the center of The Cave was a large, round desk covered in half-built extractors and manipulators. Some were plugged into computers running code, others were just strewn about as if they had been discarded.
On the far wall, there was a surgical chair similar to the one I’d been asked to sit in for my neuroscan the other day, with matching large TVs mounted above it. I imagined this was where prototypes were tested.
All of this seemed more or less standard and mandatory for the type of work I knew was done down here.
Whatwasn’tstandard was what looked like a large, iron cage that had been welded into the wall on the left side of the space.
I froze, staring at the cage—complete with a cot and what looked like a freakingbucket —and I was hit again with a strange, fragmented moment of disorientation.
‘MILO! MILO—NO!’
“Milo?” Sebastian asked, reaching out to touch my arm.
Ragelike I’d never felt exploded through me, and I swung my eyes up to meet his.
His touchburned,and I wanted to freakingslaphim across the face.
The violence of the urge confused me, and I stumbled away from him, shaking my head as I tried to breathe through the confusing explosion of anger that was detonating in my chest.
“What…” I took a deep breath, doing my best to keep my voice steady as that phantom voice continued to scream my name in my head, like they werebeggingme to stop… doingsomething.
“What is the cage for?” I finally managed to rasp out, and Sebastian’s lips pursed.
We stared at each other for a long, heavy moment before he finally spoke.
“Chimpanzees. Sometimes we use them for testing.”
Liar.
You’re a freaking liar.
“Right,” I bit out.
Sebastian gave me one of his fakest smiles and shrugged.
“Yeah. So, shall I show you around?” he asked, slipping out of his suit jacket and rolling up the sleeves of his dress shirt slightly.
“Luke wants you to start with this one over here…”
“Has he installed it yet?”
“Would you relax? Hejustgot there.”
