Chapter 13 - The Echo Went Public.
The upload climbed from forty-one percent to forty-six.
Voss tried to reach the console.
Ethan kicked her weapon away and restrained her injured arm.
“What did you upload?” he demanded.
Nathan sat against the wall with Sophie clinging to him.
“Everything she changed.”
Vivian stared at the server display.
“Everything?”
“The original ledgers, altered warrants, fabricated transfers, access logs, and internal authorizations.”
Voss laughed bitterly.
“To whom?”
Nathan looked at her.
“Every oversight endpoint your office cannot erase at the same time.”
The upload reached fifty-three percent.
Voss stopped laughing.
“You built a dead-man mirror.”
Nathan nodded.
“With Vivian’s father.”
Vivian turned sharply.
“My father knew?”
Nathan’s eyes softened.
“He knew Black Lantern would eventually be corrupted by someone who understood its safeguards.”
“So he created another secret system.”
“He created a witness.”
Vivian looked at the bunny.
“The echo.”
Nathan nodded.
“The toy was only the portable trigger.”
Sophie hugged it tighter.
“Bunny helped?”
Nathan kissed her hair.
“Bunny helped a lot.”
Vivian wanted to be relieved.
Instead, six months of grief returned all at once.
“You could have told me.”
Nathan looked at her.
“No secure channel remained.”
“You could have come home.”
“They were watching you every day.”
“You let our daughter cry herself to sleep asking where you were.”
Nathan’s eyes filled, but he did not look away.
“I know.”
“No, you do not.”
The upload reached sixty-seven percent.
An alarm began screaming through the facility.
Ethan checked the hall.
“Movement outside.”
Voss smiled again.
“My people will shut this down before it completes.”
Nathan looked at the screen.
“They only need to cut power.”
Vivian studied the old facility plans posted on the wall.
“The backup generator is underground.”
Nathan nodded.
“West utility room.”
Ethan tossed Vivian a flashlight.
“I will hold this room.”
Vivian looked at Nathan.
“You stay with Sophie.”
Nathan stood.
“I can help.”
“You already disappeared once.”
The words stopped him.
Vivian regretted them immediately, but she did not take them back.
She ran into the corridor.
Two armed contractors entered through the loading bay.
Vivian ducked behind a concrete pillar as bullets struck the wall.
She moved through an old cable trench and reached the utility level.
At the generator door, she found Briggs waiting.
His pistol was aimed at the emergency cutoff.
He smiled.
“You really are Thomas Vale’s daughter.”
Vivian raised her weapon.
“Move away from the switch.”
“Your father thought truth would save institutions.”
“He was wrong about a lot of things.”
Briggs glanced at the upload status on his tablet.
“Eighty-two percent.”
Vivian stepped closer.
“You do not have time.”
“Neither do you.”
He fired at the generator controls.
Vivian fired at the same moment.
Briggs fell.
The control panel erupted in sparks.
The facility went black.
Vivian’s heart stopped.
Then emergency batteries engaged.
Her radio crackled with Nathan’s voice.
“Upload resumed.”
Vivian exhaled.
“Ninety-one percent.”
A second voice broke onto the channel.
Kessler.
“Vivian, get out now.”
She answered.
“Why?”
Kessler’s next words made the entire victory feel suddenly fragile.
“Voss triggered the facility purge.”
May you like
A mechanical countdown began over the speakers.
TEN MINUTES TO THERMAL DESTRUCTION.
