Serena's eyes crinkled in amusement, as if thoroughly entertained by the prospect.
A deliciously wicked, profit-hungry smile crept across her lips.
She casually reached out and hooked her finger into his silk tie.
Her slender fingers wrapped around the dark fabric, giving it a playful tug before slowly tracing the length of his chest.
It was an impossibly bold, seductive move.
"I certainly hope you have deep pockets, Mr. Blackwood." She looked up at him, her ruby lips curving into a smirk, her voice dropping into a tantalizing purr. "Don't disappoint me."
The physical proximity and breathless delivery made it look as though they were sharing an intimate whisper.
The sexual tension crackling between them was suffocatingly real.
Director Kaelen stood off to the side, utterly bewildered by the display.
One was loaded.
The other was greedy.
They really were a match made in hell.
It felt as though he was the only person in the room still having a heart attack.
Taking a deep breath, he forced his spiraling panic into check.
He glanced nervously toward The Observation Theater, where Specimen Seven had finally fallen silent.
For some reason, even though the bio-monitors had flatlined back to baseline, a leaden weight still pressed against his chest.
He couldn't shake the terrifying feeling that this was far from over.
Scowling, he forced himself into administrative mode and snapped orders. "Terminate the preview."
"Transport Specimen Seven back to the medical bay for a full diagnostic scan." "And..."
Kaelen glared at the engineering team, his voice dropping into a lethal, paranoid growl. "Tech division, take the data Ms. Panacea extracted and run a back-trace on that Ghost Frequency Overlay."
"I want to know exactly where on this ship that hack originated."
"Whoever breached the system, whoever touched the clearance logs-I want every single name!"
A ruthless, desperate gleam flashed in his eyes.
He was going to find out exactly which executive was trying to set him up as the fall guy.
The tech crew scrambled back to their terminals, frantically tracing the digital breadcrumbs Serena had exposed.
Because she had already uncoupled the Ghost Frequency Overlay from the targeting protocols, they had a clear path.
They were no longer flying blind.
They immediately began unwinding the surface-level signal loops.
Hearing the chaos behind her,
Serena merely fluttered her
eyelashes, looking utterly
ovel
uninterested in their amateur
cyber-sleuthing.
She released Nicholas's tie, tapped him playfully on the chest, and smoothly pushed
past him. "Let's go."
Grabbing her medical case, she turned to walk away.
But at that exact second.
Bang!
A deafening crash exploded through the room.
The entire floor of the preview hall violently shuddered.
Every head whipped instinctively toward The Observation Theater.
Specimen Seven, who had been completely immobilized just moments ago, had its eyes wide open.
Its irises were a terrifying, blood-soaked crimson.
The monstrously overgrown body, launched off the holding platform. As it surged upward, the heavy industrial chains binding it shrieked and snapped.
Crack!
One.
Two.
Three.
The reinforced restraints-designed to hold heavy assault-class
synthetics-were effortlessly
shredded the moment it unleashed its strength.
Roaring like an apex predator driven completely insane, it vaulted forward with terrifying agility.
It crossed the fifteen-foot gap from its containment cell to the reinforced viewing barrier in a single bound.
Its colossal fist slammed squarely into the Titan-Grade Aegis Glass.
Boom!
The impenetrable glass buckled under the kinetic shockwave.
A massive spiderweb of fractures splintered outward from the point of impact,
tearing across the surface in a heartbeat.