Chapter 28 - Adrian’s Hidden Implant
Adrian had carried an implant for seven years.
He admitted he had allowed Evelyn to place it after the warehouse fire. It helped him remain invisible by feeding false predictions into Lattice.
But hiding had a cost.
The system had stored a version of him that believed people could not be trusted with free choice.
That version was waiting to replace Mira.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Theo demanded through the phone.
“Because your reaction would have exposed me.”
The lights beneath Adrian’s skin spread toward his neck.
Evelyn attempted to disconnect him, but he pushed her away.
“Separate Mira now,” he told Mara. “Before my copy enters the core.”
Mira appeared on the observatory’s central screen.
“If you remove me, Adrian will become the interpreter.”
“And if we don’t?” Mara asked.
“His copy will fight me. Lattice will divide.”
Two competing prediction engines could manipulate different groups of people, each attempting to prove its version of the future correct.
June’s voice came through the call.
“There’s another choice.”
She asked Evelyn to show her the original recording of Clara.
Evelyn hesitated.
“You said Clara died,” June continued. “But you never said when.”
May you like
Evelyn looked toward a locked cabinet in the archive.
From inside came the faint sound of an elderly woman coughing.
