General B-02 stayed quiet.
For a long, agonizing stretch of time, he did not move a single synthetic muscle. His glowing amber eyes dropped from her bruised, pale face to the key clutched in her trembling fist.
His advanced internal scanners swept over the object, attempting to read a digital signature, a microchip, an encrypted frequency, anything that made logical sense.
He found nothing.
The silence stretched, heavy and suffocating. The sheer weight of the adrenaline that had propelled Nikki through the maintenance shafts, past the stealth drones, and into Mei Lin's apartment suddenly evaporated.
The dull, manageable ache in her bandaged temple violently flared into a sharp throb.
The exhaustion crashed into her. Nikki's hand slowly lowered. Her knees wobbled, and before she could catch herself, she sank down onto the edge of the bamboo coffee table.
She let out a ragged, shuddering breath. And then, completely entirely against her own willpower, Nikki started crying.
