rner. She walked out of Apex Innovations, the sound of polite, forced

e city. Then, she slowly reached up and took off her glasses. Her vision sharpened, the world coming into clearer, har

top gleamed. This wasn' t the standard Apex issue. She opened it. The screen lit up, not wit

ng software engineer, was

ts core technology – Project Nightshade, her own creation ironically – and acquire it for Sterli

d nearly convinced her. She' d started to believe in a different future, a normal life. She' d even put the intelligence gathering on hold,

t just humiliated her; it had cauterized that fo

tion of Nightshade' s IP. Now, it would be

hade. Sarah knew Brittany was utterly incompetent. She would let Brittany drive Project Nightshade int

uld leak the truth about Brittany' s incompetence and the project' s failure. Sterling Industries

ould pay for his bet

hesitation. Her personal feelings were dead, buried under the rubble of Ethan's publ

silver line. It used to make her feel self-conscious, a mark of a past trauma she tried to hid

h Miller, the real Sarah