Page 125 of BounBound By Scars

Rage built like a tidal wave in my chest. But the terminal blinked again.

|They look pretty happy. Well… except for the Bennetts. But I swear that wasn’t me. :)

My hands curled into fists.

Cipher: Fuck you.

The response came instantly.

|Touchy. You know, Cipher, it’s cute how you still think you’re the one playing defense. You’re not. :)

Another pause and then—

|Mr. Romano wants a deal. Your tech. Your skills. :)

|You. :)

|All wrapped in a nice little package with Sentrix slapped on top. :)

I could feel the blood drain from my face. They knew. They knew about Sentrix.

|It’s unfortunate that we lost Specter. So we’re left with you. Lucky for us you’ve got a lot more people you love! :)

Zane? They had tried this with Zane? What did they meanthey lost him?

Is that why he’s missing?

|You switch sides, Kabir. You work for Mr. Romano. And everyone you love stays breathing, okay? :)

The condescending tone of this motherfucker was grating on my nerves. The cursor blinked slowly now. Like it was watching me.

|Well, maybe not Amelia ‘Falcon’ Desmond. Is she dead yet? :(

My pulse pounded in my ears, every instinct screaming to smash the damn laptop and set the entire world on fire.

|I hope that ventilator doesn’t accidentally get disconnected. :(

What the fuck?

How did they—

|One wrong move, Cipher. And our informant at Blackthorn will happily become… clumsy. :(

No.

No, no, no, no.

I was beginning to type when another message popped up.

|We’ll give you 36 hours. If we don’t see you at the Pentagon by then, the photos will become memorials. :)

And then—just as suddenly as it appeared—the terminal vanished. Not closed.

Vanished.

One second the threat was alive on the screen. The next, it was wiped clean—like it had never existed. Like it had crawled back into whatever rotten void it came from.

The boot screen flickered once… then the laptop powered down completely.

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