“So you want the good news or the weird news?” Travis asks.
“Start with good.”
He types for a few seconds, eyes scanning fast.
“The pool’s gone.”
“Completely?”
“Domains scrubbed. Admin account deactivated.” He glances up. “No active bounties.”
I lean back in my chair.
“That was fast.”
“Well Kristie’s dead,” he continues. “No one’s getting paid now.”
“Or someone higher up shut it down.”
He hesitates. “That’s the weird part.”
I look at him.
“It didn’t collapse,” he adds. “It closed. Clean. Like someone flipped a master switch.”
“Grant or Elliot”
“Probably.”
Travis clears his throat.
“Is Brooke okay?”
“She’s okay.”
He doesn’t look convinced.
“I mean,” he says carefully, “she went through so much. In that place. For a week. And she lost the—”
He stops himself.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine.”
“It just seems… normal,” he murmurs. “For her. The sniper. Kristie. None of it shakes her. She wasn’t even that scared in the woods.”
I let out a quiet breath through my nose.
“No,” I reply. “It’s not normal.”
He looks up.
“Brooke’s not normal,” I add. “I’m not either.”
The fire cracks softly.
“After you go through enough shit,” I continue, “your body runs out of ways to react. Fear doesn’t hit the same.”
