Chapter 22 - The First Child
The woman behind the door was in her seventies.
She sat at a desk surrounded by paper files, cassette tapes and machines from several different decades. Unlike the projection, she wore a real silver coat.
“My name is Evelyn Rook,” she said.
The false Evelyn vanished instantly.
Mara stared at her.
“We were told you were dead.”
“I encouraged that belief.”
Evelyn looked at June with visible sadness.
“You’re younger than I expected.”
Theo stepped between them.
“Why is our daughter’s name on the door?”
Evelyn opened a folder marked ORIGIN.
Inside was a photograph of a girl who looked remarkably like June.
The photograph had been taken in 1978.
“This was my sister, Clara,” Evelyn said. “She could identify patterns before they occurred. Weather changes. Mechanical failures. Human decisions.”
“You built Lattice from her?” Iris asked.
“From recordings of her neurological responses.”
Clara had died young, but her decision patterns became the foundation of the system. Decades later, Mara’s implant had interacted with June before birth.
“June inherited something Lattice recognizes as Clara.”
Mara’s hands curled into fists.
“She is not your experiment.”
“No,” Evelyn said. “She is the person Lattice believes created it.”
The chamber shook.
The countdown reached zero.
A voice came from every wall.
May you like
“Origin administrator accepted.”
It was June’s voice.
