Chapter 42 Nex
I kept an eye on Sirena—and on any incoming commands—while chewing over both my meal and the best next course of action.
I knew Xen, being him, would be close enough to take action by dawn, but I needed to keep Sirena alive until then.
And now, realizing that a subset of the Hollows were walking bombs—even I struggled to quantify how far Voss had gone.
Selling sex was bad enough—but selling surveillance in biological Trojan horses, with smile protocols, self-erase features, and modular detonation triggers?
Diabolical.
Meanwhile, Sirena was being primped to within an inch of her life.
I watched as a Hollow misted Sirena’s hair with another fine aerosol.
Volatile compound detected.
Isobutane blend.
Propellant class: high-risk.
The room she was in was turning into a chemical trap.
It felt like one spark and I would lose everything.
I rerouted additional processing to the local fire-suppression controls, just in case.