Chapter 15 - THE NAME ERASED FIRST
Ward’s guards searched the tunnels.
Mara led Jonah and the children through a ventilation passage that ended inside an airport records office.
She used an emergency terminal to contact federal authorities.
The screen rejected her credentials.
She tried again.
USER DOES NOT EXIST.
Her employment history had vanished.
Her security clearance had vanished.
Her passport number belonged to a woman who had died in 1998.
Jonah searched public records.
There was no birth certificate for Mara Quinn.
No school enrollment.
No property ownership.
No photograph of her before the age of twelve.
Orpheus had erased her in less than one minute.
The office door shook as guards struck it from outside.
Mara called the airport police chief.
“Chief Holloway, this is Mara.”
“Who?”
“Mara Quinn.”
“Mara Quinn died twenty-six years ago.”
The line disconnected.
Jonah looked at her with an expression she could not read.
“What?”
He turned his tablet around.
An archived newspaper reported that a twelve-year-old girl named Mara Quinn had died during a ferry accident.
The photograph showed Mara’s face.
“I survived that accident,” she said.
“The article says no survivors were found.”
“My father identified me at the hospital.”
“Your father also designed the first version of Orpheus.”
The door began bending inward.
Jonah removed his employee badge and handed it to Mara.
“Use mine to open the service lift.”
She looked at the badge.
The photograph was Jonah’s.
The name was not.
It read: DANIEL REED.
Status: DECEASED.
Mara looked up.
“Who are you?”
Jonah answered quietly.
May you like
“The first man your brother erased.”
Then the guards broke through the door.
