982 He'll Still Have Me

"...And that, essentially, is what happened," Siri concluded on a somber note.

A palpable silence followed the end of her tale. Jake stood frozen before her, fists clenched tight, his expression as icy and terrifying as a winter tempest. His face was so pale with fury that the android could only be grateful for its lack of eyes.

Eventually, Jake snapped out of his stupor, exhaling deeply as he unfurled his fists. With an effort that seemed colossal, he forced himself to ask in a voice as neutral and even as he could manage, "Is that it? You don't know what happened next?"

Even though the android was incapable of empathy in the strictest sense, she had learned to distinguish the subtle nuances of emotions. Jake, who had just posed a question, was undoubtedly affected by the news.

However, where others might have responded with despair or desolation, all she could perceive in his barely restrained voice was a simmering rage teeming with spite, all directed at the culprits.