“You think you know my work,” Sentinel said softly. “But you’ve only seen the ruins.”
The files scrolled faster.
New ones.
Ongoing ones.
My breath caught—just once.
Sentinel noticed.
“There you are,” he said. “You don’t fear me.”
“No,” I said quietly.
“You fear what I havebecome.”
I met his gaze fully now.
“And you fear what I already understand.”
Silence.
Heavy. Taut.
Then Sentinel straightened.
“Good,” he said. “Because this is where the real experiment begins.”
The guards stepped forward—not to touch me, but to escort me toward another door.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked.
He paused at the threshold.
“Closer to consequence,” he replied. “And farther from rescue.”
I held his gaze, voice steady.
“Logan will adapt.”
Sentinel smiled thinly.
“That,” he said, “is what we’re going to test next.”
The door closed behind me.
The locks engaged.
And somewhere deep inside the facility, something powered on that hadn’t been running before.
Sentinel wasn’t trying to break me anymore.
He was trying touse me.
And that meant time was running out—for all of us.
9
