Here, He Calls the Shots

106. Here, He Calls the Shots

"Reid."

Once her consciousness cleared, the first thing Song Zhaomei saw was Reid's dark face, one she knew all too well.

After staring blankly and blinking for a few seconds, she gradually came back to herself and more or less recalled fragments from when her mind had been hazy.

Her last clear memory was sending Reid a signal, then being taken away by Kurt Hansen. Everything after that was mostly scattered fragments.

Blood?

Monomolecular Wire.

Gunshots.

A chaotic jumble of sounds and shapeless images swirled together in her mind, yet Song Zhaomei did not feel the headaches and physical discomfort that usually came from having too many thoughts.

Rather, the fact that she could think, recall the past, retain memories, and reflect on them at all was itself unbelievable—nothing short of a miracle.

Had her condition improved?

Once she realized that both her mind and body felt incomparably better than before, Song Zhaomei began to understand.

Had Reid dealt with Kurt Hansen, then brought her here to the Neural Matrix for treatment?

It seemed like the only explanation for why she was in such good condition and felt neither burden nor pain.

The disappearance of those hacker siblings had been the Intelligence Bureau's doing. Song Zhaomei knew about that much.

Although her condition had already been terrible at the time, to the point where she could no longer even use her skills as a hacker, she had still forced herself to stay conscious enough to follow news concerning her own life.

And after the hacker siblings vanished and her chance of recovery vanished with them, she lost her final source of support. Like a building stripped of its load-bearing pillars, she could no longer bear the weight of her mind and body, and her