Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 169266 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 846(@200wpm)___ 677(@250wpm)___ 564(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169266 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 846(@200wpm)___ 677(@250wpm)___ 564(@300wpm)
“I had a headache in Montana. Sudden, severe, like someone was driving a spike through my skull. Not too long after that, you showed up. It’s happened before, too. More often lately.” I gesture to the screens. “Seems like something you’d easily be able to see.”
She’s quiet for a long moment. “Stress, most likely,” she eventually says.
“The enhancements put significant demand on your neural architecture. When you’re emotionally heightened, the strain increases.” She makes a note on her tablet. “I’ll have the team look into it, adjust some parameters. It should resolve.”
Adjust some parameters. Like I’m a machine with faulty code.
I walk toward the door on legs that feel steadier than they should, given what just happened. But I stop at the threshold, one hand on the frame, because there’s something else, something that surfaced during the sedation, flickering at the edges of my consciousness like a half-remembered dream.
“There was a man,” I say slowly. “During the procedure. I saw…I don’t know if it was a memory or something else, but there was a man with a mustache. Grey, I think. Distinguished. He was wearing a white coat, like yours. And he was—” I close my eyes, reaching for the image. “He was looking at me, but not like you look at me. He was full of regret.”
When I open my eyes, Julia’s face is carefully blank.
“Sedation can cause hallucinations,” she says. “Fragments of dreams, subconscious imagery. That sort of thing. Nothing to be concerned about.”
“Who is he?”
“No one. A phantom. Your brain filling gaps with random data.” She gestures toward the door. “Go home, Nate. Rest. I’ll see you at the press briefing on Thursday.”
She’s lying. I know she’s lying the way I knew when my parents were lying. When you know someone long enough, you learn their tells. But I also know pushing won’t get me anywhere—not here, not now, not when I’m still foggy from whatever they pumped into my veins.
So, I turn and leave, that bitter taste still in my mouth.
CHAPTER 29
MIA
The report to Mank at SOE took nearly an hour to encrypt and send.
Consciousness transfer experiments. Trafficking pipeline. End goal immortality and robot armies. Paragon might be synthetic—possibly the first successful prototype. Kapoor discovered connection, subsequently disappeared. Recommend escalation to highest priority.
That was a day ago. I’ve heard nothing back.
Now, I’m standing at my hotel window, watching the November sky turn violet, and trying to remember who I was before I knew what I know while simultaneously trying not to lose my mind.
My phone buzzes.
Tonight. 7 p.m. Wear something warm, and make sure your shoes are strapped on. I’m taking you somewhere special.
My stomach does double somersaults at the name. Nate.
The smart play is to pull back, wait for London’s instructions, stop tangling my personal feelings with an operation that’s grown far more dangerous than anyone anticipated. This is no longer about Vanguard being a weapon—no, it’s about weapons. Plural.
But of course, I have missed him like crazy, despite all of that, so my thumbs type: What do you mean about my shoes? Where are we going?
Just no flip flops. It’s a surprise. Trust me.
Trust. The word sits heavy in my stomach.
I know things about his world that would absolutely break him, or so I assume. I know his superhero partner isn’t human at all. I know the company he serves is trafficking people, murdering them in laboratories where they test them like rats. I know they’re building an army of synthetic soldiers for the United States government and who knows who else, and that the rich and powerful may one day live forever.
And I know if London decides he’s too dangerous, too compromised, too valuable to leave in Global Dynamix’s hands, then I…then they…
I close my eyes, force the thought down. I don’t want to think about that right now. I don’t want to think about anything beyond tonight.
I’ll be ready, I send the text.
Then, I start to get dressed for a date with a man I might have to destroy.
Seems my kisses still might end in death after all.
I find Nate on my hotel balcony when I step out of the washroom.
The sight of him hits me hard, nearly knocking me off my feet. He’s in civilian clothes—dark wash leather jacket, navy Henley, black jeans—and he looks exhausted. His eyes are weary, his shoulders look tense, and there’s something brittle in his smile. But still, he’s the most gorgeous being in the world.
“Hey, darlin’.”
I cross the room as he slides open the door, and when he pulls me into his arms, I let myself have it. I feel everything, just for a moment, just this once.
“I missed you,” he says against my hair, the cold air from outside snaking around us.
And I’ve been lying to you since the day we met.
“I missed you too,” I say, breathing his scent deep into my lungs, hoping to store it there for eternity.