Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 138217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Taking the thin datapad, Theo stared at the jumble of black letters on white. Most of it was so fragmented as to be gibberish, but she could clearly see what Pax already had: Theodora M—
There were no other Theodoras in the current line, but—“Wasn’t I named after a great-great-grand someone?” Theo had zero interest in her family’s history; aside from Pax, they were nothing to her. “Maybe she was the one who made the original investment in the Centers.” A second later, she corrected herself. “No, it can’t be that. Her death would’ve predated the Centers.”
“Yes, but look here.” He pointed out a fragment she’d missed in her initial scan.
A date: November 2, 2055.
Her and Pax’s shared birthdate. Theo was exactly two minutes his elder.
She checked the entire document again, this time with intense care, but found nothing else legible. “You’ve already run a program to see if you can work out the rest of the scrambled words.” Not a question because that was exactly what she would’ve done, and in things like this, they thought the same way.
A short nod. “From what I can tell, multiple files were deleted at the same time and hit the same glitch, so what we’re seeing is a scramble.”
Just when she’d begun to breathe again, sure that her name had nothing to do with any Center, he said, “The only thing that I am certain of is that all the documents in that particular file dump had to do with the family’s interest in a specific Center.”
Theo’s hand clenched on the organizer, her bones pushing up against her skin. Rage simmered just beneath the surface of the person she’d patched together from the ruins left by her grandfather.
It took conscious effort to force herself to breathe and relax her hand, return the organizer to Pax. “There’s no reason I should be in those files. Grandfather never took me to any of his business enterprises.”
She looked away from her brother’s incisive gaze, not wanting him to see, not wanting him to know. Pax had always believed she was angry with him for being the favored son, the family’s shining scion.
His guilt was enormous.
How much worse would it be if she told him what Marshall had forced her to become?
Better that he believe her to be holding a grudge than realize that the reason she refused to permit him any closer was that she couldn’t bear for him to see the ugliness of her. Because Pax had a heart far less warped than her own; he’d protected her even when he was so small he shouldn’t have been able to protect her.
She’d die for her brother. More importantly, she’d kill for him.
“What do we know about this particular Center?” she asked when she could speak again.
Pax hadn’t interrupted. He knew about this part of her, this splintered chaos that boiled deep within and exploded as rage.
Uncontrollable. Deadly to anyone in the vicinity not as powerful as Theo.
Not a problem since she was a 2.7.
Unfortunately, she had an instinctive and inseverable connection to a Gradient 9. And in her rage, she could access some of Pax’s power.
They’d both tried to shut off the valve. It didn’t work.
When under the influence of a rage attack, she became a violent and murderous 9. And there were very, very few people stronger than a 9 on the Gradient.
“That’s just it,” Pax said, making no comment on her tense frame or rigid features. He had no idea of the root of her rage, but he knew the price she paid to keep it contained, keep up the meek and mild avatar she’d perfected so she could hide in plain sight. “We know nothing. The Center isn’t even a ghost in the main system. It’s nonexistent.
“What I did unearth,” he added, “I found in one of his private archives that he must’ve been in the process of decommissioning when he was assassinated—the job was half-done, a door left partially open.”
Nausea, inexplicable and bitter. “Grandfather hid it even from you?”
“Maybe he was planning to tell me. But then he got killed.” Pax said the latter in the same way he might mention a business acquisition.
Where others would see a ruthless predator with no emotions and no heart, Theo saw only the twin who’d had to survive a different kind of abuse. Being Marshall Hyde’s favorite grandchild and heir had been no gift. At least Theo had been able to spend the vast majority of her time out of her grandfather’s sight.
Now, her twin, the boy who’d refused to let go of her no matter what, held her gaze. “What’s your status? Are you able to take on the task of checking out this Center? I can’t be away from HQ with our dear cousin attempting a leadership coup, so it has to be you. Grandfather hid this because it’s important.”