Page 184 of Black Reign

A location.

Everything.

I don't press.

Not yet.

Instead, I return to NULL.

GHOST: You should have told me.

Her response is immediate.

VESPER: Before or after I discovered you were Xavier Blackwell?

Fair.

GHOST: Before you started sending me Shakespeare about hating me.

A pause.

VESPER: I don’t hate Ghost.

My chest tightens.

GHOST: Xavier?

Nothing.

GHOST: Do you hate Xavier?

Her typing indicator appears.

Stops.

Reappears.

VESPER: I don’t know yet.

I lean back.

That answer should irritate me.

Instead it scares me.

Because Vesper rarely doesn't know.

GHOST: Depends on what?

VESPER: What happened to my father.

There it is.

The entire game changes.

No more bridge.

No Sergei.