"They bought it," Serena replied smoothly. "When people are blinded by extreme rage and jealousy, their emotions are incredibly easy for us to hijack."
Caleb looked up, adjusting his glasses. "Captain, I've been meaning to ask... how were you so certain they'd come to steal our data tonight?"
Serena arched a brow. "Because they're out of options."
Of course, the main reason was that she knew exactly how Isabella operated.
She knew perfectly well how Isabella would manipulate and goad Bianca into doing the dirty work.
"If they really went through with it, then tonight... we're in for a spectacular show," Vanessa chuckled, rubbing her chin with a wicked grin.
Serena lifted her gaze, glancing lazily at the clock on the wall. "It's about time."
The team looked at her. "About time for what?"
"For the main event to begin," Serena smirked, her smile faint but dangerous.
The second the words left her mouth.
"Ahhhh!!!"
"AHHHH!!!"
One blood-curdling scream after another violently shattered the dead silence of the night.
It was followed by a chorus of agonizing wails.
The members of The Hope Initiative exchanged glances, wicked grins of schadenfreude spreading across their faces.
"Let's go, let's go! Time to watch the show!"
"I can't wait to see what kind of masterpiece our two high-and-mighty heiresses have choreographed for us."
Finally! After waiting all night, the grand finale was here.
The team immediately shot up from their seats, mimicking the other competitors on the island by flicking on their lights, throwing open their doors, and rushing toward the source of the screaming.
Inside the Apex Research Hub.
Just as the two women were stealthily preparing to slip out...
One of them bumped into something in the dark.
Suddenly, a beam of light clicked on, illuminating the far wall.
Startled, Bianca and Isabella desperately scrambled to find the switch to kill the light.
But as they raised their hands...
They saw the wall. It was a writhing, suffocating mass of life.
Red ones. Black ones. Massive ones. Tiny ones...
It was an ocean of giant centipedes, poisonous scorpions, hairy wolf spiders, and a dozen other
averveline
venomous pests they couldnt even name.
Some of them...
Were horrifyingly larger than any normal insect had a right to be. Under the harsh glare of the light...
They could clearly see the massive black scorpions snapping their
heavy pincers, their tail stingers gleaming with a sick,
bioluminescent blue ve
l.ne
The red-headed centipedes surged like a tidal wave, their countless legs tangling
and rolling over one another in a sickening frenzy.
The entire wall was alive.
And the mass was growing larger. Getting closer.
It felt as though the swarm was preparing to leap directly onto their skin.
The dry, papery rustle of thousands of legs scuttling against the wall sounded right next to their eardrums.
The sheer visual horror of it...
Shattered whatever sanity the two women had left.
Ear-piercing, guttural screams tore from their throats.
Bianca's legs gave out instantly, and she collapsed hard onto the floor. "Ahhh! Bugs! It's the bugs again!"
"Help! Somebody help us!!!"
Isabella was completely hysterical, clutching her head and shrieking. "Stay back! Get away from me!"
Staring at The Vermin Infestation...
Every traumatic memory from their first day on the island came rushing back.
They remembered lying in their dorms, paralyzed as venomous their
centipedes slithered beneath net
blankets, erawling over then chests their faces...
The more they remembered...
The more they hallucinated that these massive, grotesque monstrosities inside the
lab had already latched onto their bodies.
A sharp, distinct stench of urine immediately filled the stagnant air.