Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 128413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
“A wise decision.”
Auden kept up her front until she reached her bedroom. But right when she would’ve collapsed, she remembered how Charisma had run into her room two months earlier, after Auden stumbled and fell onto her hands and knees.
The walls were watching Auden.
A scream built up inside her.
She turned it into rage as cold as the heart of midnight and said, “Charisma, I want a clean room. Now.” Maybe she was crazy and talking to the empty air, but she didn’t think so.
Charisma appeared at her door three minutes later, a flush on her cheeks and her chest heaving. “I apologize, sir. I didn’t think. Security will be here momentarily.”
A short man with round cheeks and a clean-shaven head ran down the hallway just then, his eyes flared so wide it was obvious he was terrified. Too terrified to hold up the pretense of Silence. Not meeting Auden’s eyes, he ducked into the room after Charisma gave him a nod, and—after pulling on gloves—began to remove listening devices dotted throughout the room.
The only visual recorder was by the vanity mirror.
“Slight overkill don’t you think, Ris,” Auden said in a tone of voice that she’d heard from her mother when she was in a more relaxed frame of mind.
Charisma’s expression was wary. “The neural deficits were significant enough that I judged there was high risk of inadvertent harm to you or the child.” A pause. “You did have that one fall where your balance was off…”
Auden left her hanging, her eyes on the short man. He ducked into the bathroom. When Auden looked at Charisma, the other woman quickly said, “Only two biomonitors. To ensure we’d know if you had a fall or a faint. You had multiple small seizures after the first attempt.”
Attempt.
Another word with a meaning behind it that Auden didn’t understand. “Acceptable,” she said at last. “The last thing I’d want is to crack my skull and bleed to death at this point in the process.”
The security man emerged from the bathroom on the heels of her words. “All clear.”
“Show me.”
His hands shook as he tried to pass over his organizer.
Grabbing the device, Charisma spun it around to show Auden. On it was a design that displayed the exact location where each device had been embedded. Every single one now bore a red cross over it. “I will be displeased in the extreme if I find even a single errant monitoring device left behind,” she said, and she wasn’t looking at the security man.
It was Charisma she had in her sights.
“I oversaw the installation,” the other woman said. “The room is now clean, sir. You know, I would never lie to you.”
Despite the aide’s vow, Auden didn’t lower her guard even after the other two had left—and even though maintaining this mask washed exhaustion over her in deep waves that made her want to sway on her feet.
To save her child, she had to play this game to the end.
Chapter 20
She made another attempt despite the fact the fetus isn’t yet ready. A test because the situation is so dire, but it seems to have been a complete failure.
—Dr. Nils Verhoeven to Charisma Wai (3 October 2083)
CHARISMA CUT OFF Jitan when he would’ve spoken, and only spoke herself once they were out of the house. “You did as requested,” she said. “Your task is done.”
“It’s not just my head on the line!” he said, his voice coming out through gritted teeth. The man’s Silence had fallen as fast as he’d fallen for sexual contact and gambling highs, but unfortunately, he remained the best in the business at this kind of covert surveillance manufacture and installation. “If she finds out we left one in there—”
“She won’t find out. I can remove it without her ever being aware it was present.” Before she did that, however, Charisma had to be a hundred percent sure. Because while she wanted to believe, she didn’t.
Not yet.
Auden’s gaze seemed to flicker at times, her expression to soften. That could be a glitch in the transfer process, but it could also be a sign that either Auden was playing them or something had gone very wrong.
The latter was far more likely—Auden had been too brain damaged for too long a period to have learned to play such games with expert dexterity.
“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this.” Jitan used a rag from his pocket to mop up the sweat that had broken out over his face. “I should—”
“Think about betraying me,” she said, her tone brutal, “and I’ll stop paying those debts of yours.” Debts he’d taken out with the worst of the worst in the Net.
Face going white, he nodded. “Your head’s on the line, though. If she finds out, I’ll rat you out in a heartbeat. What she’d do to me would be far worse than the loan sharks.”