CHAPTER 72 — SARAH’S WARNING
Ward canceled the transmission seconds before it reached federal networks.
“Explain,” she demanded.
Sarah coughed.
Smoke drifted behind her.
“Silas designed the files to turn investigators into executioners. The frequency causes cardiac failure in anyone without Gray Tide’s modifications.”
Rebecca checked the data.
“She may be right.”
“Where are you?” Claire repeated.
Sarah ignored the question.
“Miriam is heading to Washington.”
“How do you know?”
“I’m with her.”
The camera shifted.
Miriam sat in the corner of a damaged boat.
Her hands were restrained.
Sarah had captured her after surviving the tunnel explosion.
Lily touched the screen.
“Sarah.”
Sarah’s expression softened.
“Hello, little star.”
“Come back.”
“I’m trying.”
Miriam laughed behind her.
“She cannot return. Not after what she remembers.”
Claire looked at Sarah.
“What did you remember?”
Sarah ended the call.
Ward traced the signal to a lighthouse fifty miles north.
The group traveled there by helicopter.
They found the boat abandoned near the rocks.
Blood covered the deck.
Miriam’s restraints had been cut.
Sarah’s coat lay beside the radio.
Lily found two sets of footprints leading toward the lighthouse.
One belonged to Sarah.
The other was barefoot.
Inside, a message had been carved into the wall.
MIRIAM IS NOT THE FOUNDER’S DAUGHTER.
Below it was a second sentence.
SHE IS HIS REPLACEMENT.
Elias examined the carving.
“If Miriam was created from Silas’s neural tissue, part of him may live inside her.”
Rebecca realized the danger.
“Destroying the brain at Saint Orison may have transferred the rest of Silas into Miriam.”
A sound came from the lighthouse stairs.
Sarah descended slowly.
She was holding Miriam’s white hair in one hand.
Blood covered her clothes.
Claire approached.
“Where is she?”
Sarah looked at them with unfamiliar eyes.
When she spoke, the voice was not hers.
May you like
“Sarah is resting.”
Silas smiled through her face.
