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All of us locked on that one moment.
She opens it.
Slow.
Careful.
Inside—
Cloth.
Wrapped tight.
Her hands tremble slightly as she unwraps it.
And then—
There it is.
A flash drive.
Small.
White.
With dried blood on it.
I go still.
“That’s it,” Blaze says under his breath.
Yeah.
That’s it.
The thing people killed for.
The thing she lost six years of her life over.
Tessa stares at it.
Like it doesn’t make sense.
Like something that small shouldn’t carry that much weight.
“I had it the whole time,” she whispers.
“You didn’t know,” I say.
But I see it.
The weight hitting her anyway.
“I still don’t understand what it is,” she adds.
I take a slow breath.
Focus.
