Tree days until the Lab K-9 assault.
Two days since Echo scorched a battalion of Hollowpoint soldiers without mercy.
One day since the rebellion fractured from within.
And now?
Now they were bleeding in silence.
Not from wounds, but from secrets.
Secrets that festered like infection.
Secrets that Aurora could feel crawling beneath her skin, screaming to be unearthed.
---
"Where did you get this?" she asked.
Jace didn't look at her. He stood with his arms crossed, jaw locked, avoiding her eyes.
The file in her hand was thick. Heavier than it should've been. Stamped with the Hollowpoint insignia in faded red, pages frayed, some of them burned around the edges.
"I found it the night of the attack," he muttered. "Tucked in the vest of the last one Echo killed. He burned everything else. That file survived."
Aurora's fingers clenched around the paper. The cover was labeled ECHO // SUBJECT: 001-∆R4.
Beneath it, in blocky ink:
> CLASS: UNSTABLE // DISPOSABLE
