Chapter 22

Kyle Reynolds's POV

The next afternoon, Taylor cracked it.

The command room on the fourth deck was still freezing cold. The main screen was lit, and the white line was displayed dead center, bright enough to hurt the eyes.

Taylor put the decoded data on the screen and read it out only once: "K-7-01. Unit Zero Symbiont. Priority recovery recommended."

With that, he took his hands off the keyboard, walked over to the cabinet, leaned against it, and said nothing more.

Dorian asked, "The remains at the outpost—K-7-03—was probably executed, or abandoned. With no support from the organization, Sample 03 was left to rot in the open."

I didn't answer right away.

Which side Sera was on—the Combine or the conglomerates—maybe it didn't matter anymore. Whether the Combine or the conglomerates, they were both cold, merciless entities.

When a tool became defective, they would abandon it without hesitation.

Unless the tool still had some use left… in which case they might recover the tool's corpse and put it to use again.

I sighed. "The difference is that the unqualified ones get eliminated, and the marginally qualified ones get recovered. And recovery requires a dedicated team. Until they've seen the tool, they will never let go."

I turned my chair to face the screen. "Elimination and execution only need one person to confirm and destroy. Priority recovery is a completely different situation. The mission target is a living person. Someone has to transport her, receive her, and continuously monitor her condition along the way."

Dorian was silent for two seconds. "So you're saying the organization behind K-7 has already sent people after her?"

I said, "Very likely."

Taylor straightened up. "Then we tell her."

Dorian refused. "No. Have you forgotten Sera's personality? Knowing her, if she found out she was being hunted by an organization, she would definitely leave. She absolutely wouldn't want to drag us down. So I think it's best not to tell her."

"Better than her knowing nothing and getting hunted down in confusion," Taylor said.

They disagreed, and both turned to look at me.

I was silent for a while.

I was hesitating too.

I didn't want to frighten Sera. I wanted to keep Sera by my side, never out of my sight.

But at the same time, I felt she should know the whole truth.

She was the victim. She should want revenge for herself.

She was that strong-willed, that tough.

I thought for a long time and sighed. "Tell her. Let me be the one to tell her."

That night, I went down to the second deck.

Sera and Vera were organizing cans at the long table, stacking them in rings by type, every label facing out.

I called Sera out. She followed me without hesitation, and we walked to the corner.

I turned to look at her, hesitating.

"Sera…" I let out a long sigh. "There's something I want to tell you."

Sera tilted her head. "What is it?"

I took her into the command room.

The lines on the screen were still lit. I stood beside her and didn't try to hide anything. "K-7-01 is your designation. Unit Zero Symbiont. That's you."

I tapped the end of the line. "Now it shows priority recovery."

She looked at the screen, her expression unchanged.

Had she guessed?

After a few seconds, she asked, "What does priority recovery mean?"

I said, "The file isn't fully decrypted. Based on the current information, priority recovery should mean they want to capture you and take you back—either for a second surgery, or for centralized disposal."

Sera's voice was calm. "They're hunting me?"

I nodded heavily.

"So." Sera looked at me. "Me staying with you means you're not safe. If you shelter me, you're on their kill list too."

I didn't deny it. "Very likely. The entire Titan may already be on their blacklist."

She looked at me and went on. "If I keep staying on the Titan, the Titan becomes their new target."

Theoretically, yes—but that was still only our guess, not certain.

I said, "Not necessarily. Maybe they haven't found the Titan yet."

Sera said, "If I were them, I would stop at nothing to hunt down the target. And the K-7 organization has the nerve to modify genes, which means at the very least their background is deep. The Titan is too big a target—they'll find it sooner or later."

She let out a breath. "I should leave."

"No." I looked into Sera's blue eyes. "If you leave alone—no medicine, no backup, nowhere to go—the organization will find you, and you'll be recovered. Is that a good ending for you?"

She answered quickly. "At least you won't be hunted because of me."

"The day you joined, we were already bound together. It's too late to say that now." I paused, then went on. "And we haven't even confirmed they're nearby. You're going out to solve a problem that doesn't exist yet, and you'll create a whole pile of new ones."

She said nothing.

I went on. "Once the file is out, I'll tell you everything. Whatever they want, I won't let them get it."

She glanced at me, was silent for a moment, then nodded. "All right."

The conversation ended, and dinner began.

Vera set out the food and handed over a can of hot soup. Jax leaned out from the couch, grinning as he chatted with them. For now, they still didn't know about K-7.

Sera took a sip of soup. Vera sat down beside her and started telling the story of how Jax had almost dropped a crate on his foot today.

Jax protested from the side, and Cole added without looking up, "She's telling the truth. You really do have bad eyes."

Sera kept her head down, drinking her soup without a word, her shoulders slightly slumped.

Late that night, I went to the third deck to get the inhibitor. Dorian was still awake, sitting at the lab table refining crystal cores.

Seeing me come in, Dorian put down the dropper. "You told her the truth?"

I said, "Yes."

Dorian sighed. "What did she say?"

I shrugged. "She wants to leave."

Dorian asked, "So what are you going to do?"

"Whatever happens, I'm not letting her go." I softened my voice. "I finally found her. We finally reunited. How could I let her go?"

I undid the clasp on my glove. "I'll protect her. I won't let her get hurt again."