Page 105 of Wicked Little Nightmare

"And how exactly did you stumble onto Sarah’s radar?" Cam asked, his tone casual but his eyes sharp.

Kyle's hand twitched before he shoved it in his pocket. "Let's just say we had chemistry and the rest is history."

Not much of an answer, now, was it?

As we watched each other warily, Sarah refocused on Rose, doing whatever voodoo shit she was doing. Rose was answering questions about what they’d done to her, but it was like she wasn’t present. She was inside her head. Maybe reliving it, maybe just remembering it, but it wasn’t like she was in pain, or terrified. She was just eerily calm.

Sarah gently started coaxing Rose back to the present, and I knew we'd be idiots to pass up this chance. I’d never let her fuck around in my head like that, but when Rose opened her eyes, they were different. Clear. Alert.

“I feel better. I’m ready to get going.” Rose was determined, that much was fucking clear, but the skepticism still sat in my gut. Theres no fucking way Sarah had cured her during this little session, but I didn’t care enough to point that out. If Rose said she was ready, then she was ready and who the fuck was I to say she wasn’t?

"Well then"--I grinned, slapping my knee=="Looks like we might have ourselves a little war party."

Kyle leaned forward, his tattooed forearms resting on his knees. "Alright, you trust us now? Rose is fine, everything is good, we’ve eaten and done the small talk, let's move on now. Chimera's main hub is a fucking fortress."

I cocked my head, studying him. His eyes were hard, focused. This wasn't some half-assed intel.

"We're talking state-of-the-art security systems, armed guards, the works," he continued. "But the real kicker? They've got a goddamn underground bunker. Everything else is small potatoes compared to what’s inside there."

Cam's eyebrow twitched - the only sign he was impressed. I felt a familiar thrill race down my spine. This was gonna be one hell of a bloodbath.

"How'd you get the layout?" I asked.

Kyle's gaze flicked to Sarah, then back to me. "Let's just say we have our ways. I don’t know you well enough to give you trade secrets."

I smirked. "Feelings mutual, sugar."

Sarah cleared her throat, drawing our attention. "The chip in Rose's neck? It's not just a tracking device. It's connected to Chimera's entire database of experiments."

“Yeah, we figured.”

"We're talking years of data," Sarah continued. "Every test subject, every 'procedure' they've ever done. When they move subjects to different labs, they’re scanned in and the doctors can see what’s been done, and what is left to do."

I glanced at Rose, who was staring at her hands. Poor little lamb. Part of me wanted to wrap her in a hug. The other part whispered how fun it'd be to make her captors scream.

"And let me guess," Cam said, "if we don't move soon, they'll realize what they've lost both her and Christian, and wipe her data?"

Kyle nodded grimly. "A week, tops. They have software constantly scanning for broken links, but they’ll try to find them first, try to reconnect. After that we won’t have access to her files anymore."

“Right, but why does it matter? We all know the shit they’ve done to people like us.” I asked, feeling an itch under my skin. They were far too invested in Rose and what happened to her, and it felt wrong. Invasive, almost.

He sighed. “Because, in order to fix her brain, we need to know what was done. Sarah can keep helping on the trauma side of it, but to really deprogram her, we need to know what she was even programmed for.”

“Every one of the kids they took through the system, was used for a purpose. The new gen all have neural chips, but they wereall programmed for different purposes. Then there’s the ones that they bred in the lab, the first gen, the ones they didn’t track.”

There was that familiar rage boiling under my skin, the need to hurt, to destroy. But for once, it wasn't aimed at innocent bystanders. No, this time, that rage had a target. A name.

I caught Cam's eye again, saw the same fury reflected there. Guess we were trusting these strangers. We were in this now, no turning back.

Sarah leaned forward, her eyes burning with an intensity that made even me want to take a step back. "We have to do this," she insisted, her voice steel-edged. "Every second we wait, more people suffer. More lives are destroyed. They get closer and closer to their goal with eachchildthey program."

I watched her carefully, noting the slight tremor in her hands, the tightness around her mouth. This wasn't just about saving the world for her. This was personal.But why? Because they used her? Or because of something — or someone?

Cam shifted beside me, his body language screaming suspicion. "And what exactly do you get out of this, sweetheart?" he asked, his tone deceptively light.

Sarah's gaze snapped to him, unflinching. "Justice," she spat. "And the satisfaction of burning their whole fucking operation to the ground."

I didn’t quite believe her, but even I could admit she had a stellar poker face.

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