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The blunt question froze her in place She told herself not to hope, not to wish for the impossible Yet, when Clay replied, she felt as if he’d flayed the skin off her flesh "Tally’s mine" Possession, not an affirmation of trust

But it seemed to satisfy Judd "Are you aware that Silence functions by conditioning young Psy not to feel?" he asked her

She scraather her shattered resources "Yes Clay explained"

"The process no longer works well enough for the Psy Council," he responded

Sliding a hand behind Clay’s back, Talin held on to hi Clay’s arhtened

"Because of the nu, Silence," Judd continued, his voice getting everblack, "the Council has initiated the beginnings of an Implant Protocol"

As Talin watched, Brenna reached out to curl her hand around Judd’s upper arh he didn’t seem to notice the touch, when he next spoke, his voice was less inhuman "They want to put implants in children’s brains to ensure full implementation of Silence The chips will turn the PsyNet - currently composed of individuals - into a hiveentities"

"Don’t they see that it’ll kill the Psy?" Talin asked, horrified at the idea of cutting into developing brains "It’ll destroy innovation, bury brilliance for the sake of conformity"

Judd’s classically handsoer "The Council sees power That’s the only thing that matters to thes?" Clay asked

"Until a few o, the Ied and the research destroyed, the Council moved its activities to a hidden location"

Talin felt her hand turn into a claw against Clay’s chest "You’re saying the kids are being taken to this hidden lab?"

"I’," Judd corrected "They could have other facilities But this one is isolated enough to provide the perfect base of operations"

Clay put his hand over hers "Any way to find out for sure?"

"My contact was able to confir further"

"Do you believe hied "He’s loyal to the Psy race, so he won’t betray them But he considers the Implant Protocol the worse evil I pointed out that there is a possibility the kidnapped children are being used as test subjects"

Talin choked back her rising terror "Do you really believe that?"

"I can’t see the worth of using non-Psy organs to test such a sensitive is are chaotic in the Net at present The Council’s attention is scattered Itcontrol over some of those it previously contained"

Brenna’s expression grew sole to escape"

"That could explain e’re finding bodies at all - if the Council was running this, they wouldn’t have left a trail," Clay said, as Judd picked up his mate’s hand and pressed a kiss to her palm "Is there any way to infiltrate this lab and verify whether or not it is the base of operations?"

"That," Judd said, continuing to keep Brenna’s hand in his, "is the issue If I give you the location of the lab and you go in openly, it may blow my contact’s cover Only a select few have access to that data"

"But if we could save Jon - and others they haven’t yet taken - wouldn’t it be worth it?" Talin asked, angry at the SnowDancerso daaze and realized her mistake "If ain, we ht not be able to stop the Implant Protocol It’ll affect hundreds of thousands I’ you to make a choice between this boy and the Psy children ill be i you there is no easy answer"

With those words, he turned black and white into gray, left her grappling with a moral dilemma that appeared to have no solution "I don’t suppose we could sneak in?"<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>