Hey!

I’ve had a bit of rough day and you know how much I like sharing excerpts with y’all! 😄

Can’t wait to hear your thoughts!

Sigrid

Woodward shut the bunker door. His expression was grim.

”Rick, what are you talking about?” El demanded.

Louise stepped back and bumped into the wall. She leaned heavily against it. Woodward glanced at her briefly, narrowing his eyes.

He wagged his finger at El. “Women have always been your weak spot,” he said.

El folded her arms, bristling. “You are way out of line. What are you doing here?”

“Viv was bad but this one?” he continued, pointing at Louise. “This one really is the icing on the cake.” He shook his head in disgust. “Pathetic.”

“Enough!” El yelled.

Woodward stepped forward and grabbed El’s wrist. She tried to pull back her hand but he held on to it. Her lips parted in shock.

“You no longer get to tell me what to do,” he growled. “I should have stopped you much sooner.”

He let go of her wrist with an impatient sigh. El stumbled back. Louise tasted bile in the back of her throat.

“This Republic was founded by rebels,” Woodward continued. “Rebels fight for what they believe in.” He pointed at Louise again. “They don’t fucking sleep with the enemy!”

El found one of the chairs to lean on for support. Louise lowered her gaze. She wondered when Woodward had figured it out. How did they get caught?

“You’re weak.” Woodward started pacing around the bunker. “And you made us weak.”

Louise’s head jerked up. What the hell was he talking about?

“Really? That’s what this is about?” El asked.

Woodward grabbed El’s notebook and leafed through it. He snorted and threw it back onto the conference table.

“Damn right! I told you we should be fighting the Global Coalition! Try to bring it down!”

“That’s not what the people want,” El immediately replied.

Louise’s eyes darted back and forth between her and Woodward. They clearly had had this discussion before. What was Louise missing here?

“Oh, they will once they see our network infrastructure go up in flames! I bet they’ll want to fight back then!” Woodward said triumphantly.

If El was shocked by his statement, she didn’t show it. Louise, on the other hand, felt her jaw fall to the floor.

Woodward stood before El again. “They will realize that living side by side with the Global Coalition was always an illusion.”

El thought for a long moment. Then, she let go of the chair and straightened her shoulders. “What did you do, Rick?”

He huffed. “You mean what did *we*do.”

El stepped closer. “What does that mean?”

Woodward crossed his arms. “I didn’t come up with this. Your aunt Monique did.”

Alright, that’s it for now! See you back here on Saturday!