CHAPTER 65 — THE VOICE IN THE CORE
“Dad?”
The childlike voice answered.
“I remember you.”
Claire approached the glass sphere.
The smaller brain pulsed.
Thomas’s memories had been reduced to living tissue inside the network.
Margaret collapsed into a chair.
“Thomas.”
Silas spoke over him.
“His body failed, but his memory architecture remained useful.”
Claire placed her palm against the glass.
Thomas’s voice grew clearer.
“I tried to stop them.”
“I know.”
“No. You don’t.”
Images appeared around the laboratory.
Thomas entering Claire’s childhood bedroom.
Thomas placing silver stars beneath her pillow.
Thomas meeting Rose in Boston.
Thomas speaking privately with Sarah.
He had never fully escaped Gray Tide.
“I helped Miriam select Lily,” he said.
Claire stepped back.
“You gave them my daughter?”
“I believed Lily could destroy the network.”
“She was a child!”
“I was desperate.”
Silas interrupted.
“Thomas always sacrificed other people while describing himself as a hero.”
The cables tightened around the smaller brain.
Thomas cried out.
Claire raised her gun toward the sphere.
“If I destroy it, will Silas die?”
Elias shook his head.
“His consciousness is distributed through every Gray Tide site.”
“But the core controls the connection to the Anchor,” Rebecca said.
Olivia looked at the sphere.
“Then destroy it.”
Thomas’s voice stopped her.
“Wait.”
A map appeared.
One Gray Tide location flashed brighter than the others.
Washington, D.C.
“Silas has already transferred part of himself into someone inside the federal government.”
Ward’s secure phone began ringing.
Claire answered.
Deputy Director Ward appeared.
Her eyes were unfocused.
“Claire, I need you to listen carefully.”
A male voice spoke through Ward’s mouth.
Silas’s voice.
“The government is ready for Phase Two.”
Ward raised a gun toward someone off-screen.
Children began screaming behind her.
Claire realized Ward had reached the rescued Blackwater children.
Silas gave Claire a choice.
“Destroy the sphere, and Ward kills them.”
Claire lowered her weapon.
May you like
Behind the glass, Thomas whispered three words.
“Shoot me first.”
