ouldn't

e lay there, eyes wide, as Dominic's words played on a loop in her m

c, innocent slumber. Avery brushed a stray hair from he

e-knock broke

has canceled toda

ze. "Wher

ave strict orders n

sed her. He hadn't threatened or tested her. He had simply... discard

rtyard. Sunlight shattered against the fountain into a thousand jagged piece

bbit, she padded over and wrapped

d, her expression hauntingly seri

staring toward the door with an intensi

the study," Av

ead slowly, her eyes locking onto Avery's for a long, heavy second. Then s

heavy oak doors of the

She tri

min

l no

heavy drapes cutting off the world. Only a single desk lamp wa

the very one she had refused to use on him. The pale yellow l

tered. He tossed the syringe into a dr

ou permissi

key card. "You

uised the skin under his eyes; his collar was rum

exercise last night. She had watched him d

t sleep,"

ntered, his voice grav

er, invading his

shifted past her, lost in t

cattered across the desk-the

he hospital. My brother's medicat

part of

tension radiating off him. "You sai

re here? To check

here to keep my word. As your psychiatrist, I'm going to trea

is eyes narrowing

records," she pressed

hed. "You've alre

nitized version.

lamp cast him in stark chiaroscu

" he

fusing to flinch, "you'

r went

tremor; his entire hand was convulsing. He slammed his fist shut, knuckles turning white, but the shaking

against his knee,

mself to slide the drive to the edg

ll away. His hand remained suspend

min

e hissed.

he door, but a sicken

onto the desk. A glass had shattered under the fo

w, the numbers tumbling out faster and fa

g toward his boss, but Dominic stop

leave. She st

e warned, his voi

he cut him off and steppe

ing in there now is suicide

l let him break ever

silent battle of will

idn't speak. She didn't offer platitudes. She simply placed

nting s

hitching, but the tremors slowly

his wrist-on the

sed and irregular, like flesh that had been

e file. The Vagal Nerve Sensitiv

ored to him, until his

es were dark, haunted. He looked at her

t o

out, and pulled the

as a grave. She didn't say a word to h

ed. Avery sat on the edge, plu

ger's signature style. But at the bottom sat

kes. She reversed the string in her mind.

rom the explosion site... the

he restored date

n flicker

ottom was a hidden folder filled with surve

d the ear

the corner: Projec

ionette. Wenger stood over him, fixing electrodes to his fore

shot past th

d. His body lurched, hands clawing at

hispering something

in the corner that s

ood there, watc

ed him with the settings

breath hitching. Wenger had said

didn't know his name, but she remembered her own name list

bar forward, video afte

ine. It was a lob

touched the side of her own neck. Right here.

was 047, th

he realization took root. She hadn't been

top. The room plum

d in the shadows, her rabbit dangling fr

e was staring toward the study, her

y," the child said, her v