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"Are you in the Net?"

She blinked "Of course" But her tone was unsure, her forehead furrowing

He waited as her lashes came down, as her eyes moved rapidly behind the delicate lids An instant later, they flew up "I’ into the wood veneer "He’s buried me in my mind"

"No If he had, you’d be dead"

The harsh words acted as a slap Katya jerked up her head, saw the cold distance in the eyes looking into hers, and knew there’d be no gentleness froer the Dev who’d brushed her hair and let her touch him This man wouldn’t hesitate to fulfill her promise But she hadn’t asked this man

Paradoxically, the ruthlessness of hi up out of her battered soul Where she would’ve softened for Dev, she didn’t want to surrender and give the director of the Shine Foundation the satisfaction "Yes," she said, forcing herself to still the panic "The biofeedback has to be coic of it was irrefutable - she wouldn’t have lasted more than a few minutes without that feedback from the neural network that every Psy linked to instinctively at birth "But I don’t think I can enter the Net itself"

"Doesn’t mean someone can’t find a way inside you"

Her sto she had to keep dohat she’d eaten "You think he already has," she whispered, looking into that pitiless face "You think I’ back up to his office after Katya - and yes, he found hi, that naan to sluht know the answer to the mystery that was Katya Haas He had a network of spies and informants that was as byzantine as the PsyNet However, a direct channel to that net was the one thing he hadn’t been able to achieve But, he thought, DarkRiver countedits nuh that an open line of communication existed somewhere

Looking down at the frenetic energy of New York, he weighed his next , then the powers in the PsyNet already knew she was alive and were - as she herself had said - controlling her However, he had to consider the converse possibility - that she’d been rescued and left at his hootten would never cooperate with the Council If so, any ripple in the pond could put her life in danger

"Dev?"

He turned to find Maggie, in the doorway "What is it?"

"Jack’s on his way up" Her eyes were syes of William, Jack’s son The last tietic little boy Now"Show hian to fleck theas Maggie withdrew, every blowaway from the sudden darkness, Dev returned to his desk To his responsibilities There was only one decision he couldinformation about Katya - she wasn’t as ied to protect A ruthless line, but one he could not cross

Several floors below, her eyes closed in sleep, Katya found herself back in the spider’s web

"What is your secondary purpose?"

"To gather inforotten, to discover their secrets"

"And if you fail to find any useful data in the designated ti she’d endured so long, it had become a bruise that never faded "I must shift all my focus to the primary task"

"What is that task?"

"To kill the director of the Shine Foundation, Devraj Santos"

"How?"

"In a way that makes it clear he was assassinated In a way that leaves no room for doubt about who did the task"

"Why?"

That threw her "You didn’t tell le, ice-cold word "Your job isn’t to understand, simply to do Now repeat what you are to do"

"Kill Devraj Santos"

"And then?"

"Kill s, his face as expressionless as when he’d shut her in the dark again though she’d begged and pleaded on her hands and knees

"Please," she’d said, scrabbling to hold on to his legs "Please, don’t Please, please!"

But he’d kicked her away, locked the door And now he sat - a god on his throne while she huddled on the floor - speaking to her in that cool voice that never changed, no matter how much she screa you alive"

"Why me?"