"And then what?"
"Complete the mission? Seduce Linda? Make her my woman?" He laughed, but there was no humor in it. "And then what comes after, Lilith?"
He pushed himself to his feet, legs unsteady but holding.
"Let's say I do it. Let's say I walk back out there, apologize, and finish what I started. I get the power. I get the billion dollars. I get everything the system promises."
His voice dropped, became quieter but somehow more devastating.
"Then what? I wake up tomorrow morning and look at myself in the mirror? I sit at David's table for breakfast and smile while knowing what I did with his wife? I shake Danny's hand and call him brother while carrying that secret?"
He took a step toward Lilith.
"You think power can carry that weight? You think a billion dollars makes it easier to look Nina in the eyes? You think enhancements erase the fact that I became the kind of man who uses people?"
His hands clenched into fists.
