CHAPTER 81 — FIVE KEYS
The Daniels attacked simultaneously.
Mason and Jonah fought two.
Cole and Ward took another.
The Daniel who had taught at Lily’s school moved toward her.
Claire fired into his leg.
He did not stop.
Lily raised Sarah’s ring.
The man froze.
“Sit down,” Lily ordered.
He obeyed.
Everyone stared at her.
The ring transmitted a command frequency.
Lily looked frightened by her own power.
“I didn’t mean to.”
Claire removed the ring gently.
“You did what you had to do.”
The real Daniel fought the version who remembered Olivia.
The double whispered, “You loved her once.”
Daniel hesitated.
The double struck him.
Olivia intervened, hitting the attacker with a metal chair.
“I decide who I trust.”
Nathan reached the Key control panel.
“The copies share a memory network. Disconnect it.”
Daniel placed his hand beside his father’s.
The Key symbol turned white.
The remaining doubles collapsed.
The Council representatives shouted over one another.
The Flame seat finally activated.
A woman appeared.
She removed her mask.
Deputy Director Ward stared at her.
“Mother?”
Ward’s mother had died when she was a child.
The woman smiled.
“Helen.”
Ward’s face broke.
The Flame representative admitted that Ward had been raised by a replacement mother.
Her original mother had joined the Council to protect her from Gray Tide.
“You let me believe you were dead.”
“I believed distance would keep you safe.”
Ward laughed bitterly.
“Everyone in this room says that.”
The Flame representative overrode the Council vote.
She opened the final door.
“Take the children and destroy the transfer engine.”
The other Council members protested.
She looked at Ward.
“I can hold them for seven minutes.”
Ward did not forgive her.
But she nodded.
Daniel entered the final passage with Claire, Lily, Olivia, Sarah, Rose, Iris, Mason, and Nathan.
Behind them, the Council chamber sealed.
The tunnel ended at a room filled with seven human bodies suspended in glass.
One body had Sarah’s face.
Another had Rose’s.
A third had Claire’s.
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The fourth was a newborn infant.
Olivia’s unborn child opened its eyes inside the tank.
