“I just want this to be fucking over. I hate that we can’t see him while he’s in there. Do you think I need to lure Seb out? I bet he has orders to stay in there with him since they weren’t able to complete Milo’s security scan.”
“Couldn’t hurt,” NOVA replied.
We’d carefully moved several buildings closer to NeuroWell as we waited for Milo to insert the war-drive containing a piece of NOVA’s code into the main stack of The Cave.
NOVA had taken over most of the camera feeds from TECHA at this point, but we couldn’t access the ones in The Cave until Milo executed his part of the plan.
“Alright, send him an email from Luke’s account. Tell him to meet Luke in the Annex and that Milo needs to keep working. Hopefully, he’ll have enough sense to use that opportunity to install the drive, then we can releasethe alert to evacuate.”
“He’ll be very happy with you for choosing to evacuate all those people instead of letting them get blown up like you originally planned.”
I shrugged. “It’s not about that. I’m hoping the chaos of people rushing for the exit will give me the cover I need to make a stop at Amygdala before we get out.”
“Mhmm. It has nothing to do with the fact that you don’t want all those innocent people to die. Big hardened war criminal that you are and all.”
“Shut up, NOVA.”
Iwas having a hard time focusing. I had the NeuroManipulator 1.0 open and ready for inspection, but my attention kept returning to thatfreakingcage.
Who had they kept in there?
Were they planning on puttingmein there?
This was getting way too dark for me. I needed to insert that drive and just get the heck out of here.
“Doing okay, Milo?” Seb asked. He was lounging in one of the swivel chairs at the desk next to me, with both hands crossed behind his head.
Sebastian was a marketer, not a scientist, so he wasn’t much help to me, which he was more than willing to admit. He was only here to keep an eye on me since they wouldn’t be able to properly complete my neuroscan for another few days… which was making me anxious.
I needed to get that drive in the stacktoday.After seeing that cage and knowing that the doors to my condo locked from theoutside,I had no interest in staying here a moment longer than necessary.
“Yeah, just… getting my bearings,” I lied, giving Sebastian what I hoped was a convincing smile. The sleeves of his shirt had tugged up toward his elbows with the way he had his arms thrown up over his head, and my gaze snagged on a red, irritated mark on the inside of his forearm… right where he tended to swipe his arm over all the security scanners.
I frowned as I was struck with the realization that he hadn’t been using a bracelet or a fob sewn into his clothes… It was animplant.
Okay. Yeah. Definitely needed to get the heck out of here.
Just then, Seb’s phone chimed, and he slipped it out of his pocket.
His brow creased as he read whatever message had come in before glancing back up at me.
He looked worried. Scared even.
Probably a message from Luke.
“I, uh, I have to pop out for a few minutes. I’ll be right back. Don’t move, okay? Stay right there in that seat until I get back. I don’t want to bethatguy, but there are cameras, and I’ll know if you move. So please, just…stay.”
“Uh, sure,” I replied, and Seb nodded in thanks before getting up and jogging back to the elevator.
I watched the elevator light turn from red to green, indicating he was back on the main floor, and I bit my lip.
Crap.
I eyed the cage warily, my gaze darting from the iron bars to the cameras Seb had pointed out, and I hesitated.
Just then, my phone went off too.
Unknown:
