Chapter 12 - The Choice No Parent Could Make
Margaret ordered everyone away from the relay.
Her men took Richard’s security team’s weapons and forced the group against the wall.
Owen approached Lucy with a medical syringe.
Richard stepped in front of her.
“You will not touch her.”
Margaret looked almost tired.
“Richard, every decision you make is emotional. That is why Victoria excluded you from the program.”
Victoria laughed bitterly.
“I excluded him because you threatened to kill Ethan.”
“You brought Ethan into Nightingale.”
“To save his life after you sabotaged his surgery.”
Ethan looked at Margaret.
“You caused my spinal injury?”
Margaret’s silence answered too much.
Richard moved toward her, but Owen pressed a gun to his chest.
Margaret said, “The car accident was not intended to injure him so severely. We needed Richard dependent on the institute. A controlled medical crisis was the simplest method.”
Richard saw the accident again.
A delivery truck crossing the center line.
The driver disappearing before trial.
Victoria insisting Ethan be transferred to her institute.
Every tragedy had been used to guide him toward a decision someone else had already made.
“You destroyed our family to fund your experiment,” he said.
“I built an industry capable of defeating death.”
“You experimented on children.”
“All medical progress has a cost.”
Lucy looked at the names glowing across the relay screen.
“Did you tell their parents the cost?”
Margaret’s expression sharpened.
“Most parents signed willingly when they understood what we offered.”
“Then why did you erase their names?”
No one answered.
Owen reached for Lucy.
Daniel moved faster.
He struck Owen’s injured leg and seized the syringe. The pistol fired into the ceiling.
Richard tackled Owen.
Victoria lunged for Margaret.
Chaos filled the chamber.
Ethan drove his wheelchair into one armed man’s knees. Rosa pulled Lucy behind the server bank. Evelyn activated the fire suppression system, filling the room with white vapor.
Richard wrestled the gun from Owen.
He could have fired.
For one terrible second, he wanted to.
Then Ethan shouted, “Dad, don’t!”
Richard threw the weapon aside and struck Owen until the man stopped resisting.
Across the chamber, Margaret held Victoria against the relay with a blade at her throat.
“Give me the ledger,” Margaret said, “or Ethan loses his mother again.”
Richard looked at Victoria.
For four years he had imagined what he would say if given one more minute with her.
Now there was no time for any of it.
Victoria met his eyes.
“Do not trade the children for me.”
Margaret pressed the blade closer.
“She has always been skilled at sacrificing other people.”
Lucy stepped out from behind the server.
“I’ll give you the key.”
Richard turned.
“No.”
“The ledger is useless without my memory key,” Lucy said. “Let her go, and I’ll unlock everything.”
Margaret studied her.
“You are finally thinking like a Harrison.”
“I’m not a Harrison.”
Lucy approached slowly.
Daniel understood before Richard did.
He touched the wooden block in his pocket.
Lucy stopped beside the relay scanner.
“Let Victoria go first.”
Margaret shoved Victoria toward Richard.
Owen reached for Lucy.
She placed her hand on the scanner.
Daniel inserted the metal pin from the wooden block into an exposed relay port.
Ethan activated the network.
Every monitor displayed one command.
TRANSFER OWNERSHIP REVOKED.
The implants belonging to all connected subjects removed their administrative keys from the Aviary network.
Margaret stared at the screens.
“What did you do?”
Lucy looked at her.
“We made ourselves invisible.”
The ledger’s digital index erased itself.
Evelyn grabbed the physical book from Richard and threw it into the electrical fire ignited by the damaged relay.
Flames consumed the pages.
Names, locations, and ownership contracts turned to ash.
Margaret screamed and lunged toward the fire.
Victoria caught her.
The sisters fell against the railing surrounding the lower server pit.
Margaret slipped over the edge.
Victoria held her wrist.
For a moment, the entire chamber became still.
Margaret looked up.
“You owe me.”
Victoria struggled to keep her from falling.
“I owe the children.”
Her grip weakened.
Richard reached them and caught Margaret’s other arm.
Victoria stared at him.
“Why are you saving her?”
“Because Ethan is watching.”
Together they pulled Margaret onto the platform.
Sirens sounded outside.
Federal teams had reached the island after tracking Richard’s emergency beacon.
Margaret lay on the floor, defeated but alive.
Lucy watched Richard.
“You could have let her fall.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because ending her life would not return what she stole.”
Margaret began laughing.
“You believe you won.”
Richard looked at the burning ledger.
“The children are no longer yours.”
“They were never the final purpose of Nightingale.”
The fire alarms screamed.
May you like
Margaret smiled through blood on her lip.
“They were only the training data.”
