Page 53 of Monster Queen Rising
She watches my face.
"Looks like I guessed right."
Crull angles half a step across me, between my body and the threat.
"You didn't come up here for me."
Her eyes flick to the cabinet.
"You came for what's inside.”
She smiles, "It won't open without me."
"It has every active file. Every woman who hasn't been taken yet. Addresses. Collection windows. Names."
She doesn't blink.
"Everything you came for."
I step around Crull. "And the basement."
"Samples. Archives."
"What do you want?"
"Safe passage."
"That's all?"
"That's all that's left."
"You think I'd let you walk?"
"I think you'll decide what’s worth more to you."
I let the silence stretch.
Crull doesn't move.
Linden's built her whole play on two things—the man behind her with the sealed units in his ears and the cabinet only her print will open.
She's planned for the Voice. The reports from four burned sites. The woman who speaks and people obey.
She built an answer for that.
What isn't in any report is what happened three nights ago on a riverbank. What changed there. She built those earpieces for the thing I say.
Not for the thing I am.
Slate races up my arms.
The gun comes up.
Chapter twenty
Jen
"Put it down."
