Page 123 of BounBound By Scars

I forced myself upright and reached under the bed for my hidden laptop.

I should call for an emergency meeting soon and tell them about the hit that was out for all of us.

I was waiting for the OS to boot—sliding myself into a comfortable position on the bed—when I glanced at my screen for half a second. Only to do a fucking double-take.

For a moment, I thought I was seeing things. Blinked. Leaned closer.

And then the words appeared—ghostly white against the dreaded black.

‘Found you.’

TWENTY-EIGHT

Kabir

I slammed the lid shut, heart pounding against my ribs like it wanted out.

Every instinct I had screamedtrap. My pulse spiked, cold sweat prickling down my spine.

Someone was inside my system.

Not just anyone.

Someone good enough to breach the laptop no one even knew existed.

This had Crazon written all over it.

Where was Zane when you needed him?

Madarch—

My fingers hovered over the laptop like they didn’t belong to me.

I slowly opened the lid again, ignoring the static roar in my ears, and pressed the space bar.

A black terminal blinked to life. No boot sequence. Just one waiting line. A cursor, pulsing.

I flinched when a message pinged.

|Hi :)

I stared at it. One second. Two. Then typed.

Cipher: Who are you?

It replied instantly.

|Does it matter? :)

My jaw clenched.

Cipher: What do you want?

Another blink.

|I’m just curious. :)

I frowned.

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