CHAPTER 85 — FATHER AND DAUGHTER
Miriam and Silas now occupied the same body.
Her voice shifted between them.
“I spent my life escaping you,” Miriam said.
“And every escape returned you to me,” Silas answered through the same mouth.
She pressed the gun against her own head.
Her hand fought itself.
Claire carried Sarah toward Rebecca.
A faint pulse remained.
“She’s alive,” Rebecca said. “But we need a hospital.”
The replacement president’s emergency orders had turned most hospitals into military checkpoints.
Ward freed the real president.
“We need him on live television.”
The president looked at his identical replacement on a security feed.
“People may not believe me.”
Lily still held Sarah’s command ring.
“He will.”
She sang the first line of the lullaby into the Council communication system.
Throughout Washington, conditioned soldiers froze.
The replacement president stopped mid-sentence during his broadcast.
The real president entered the transmission room.
Both men appeared on national television.
One remained motionless.
The other addressed the country.
Ward released evidence of Gray Tide.
Records.
Facilities.
Replacement programs.
Council votes.
The public saw enough to understand that something enormous had happened, though not enough to know whom to trust.
Miriam continued fighting Silas.
“Destroy the Key system,” she told Daniel.
Silas forced her to fire at him.
Mason tackled Daniel out of the way.
Miriam ran through the Wave door.
Claire followed.
The door led to an underground river.
Miriam stood at the edge.
For one second, her own voice returned.
“I did not begin as your enemy.”
“You stole our children.”
“I was trying to build a family strong enough to kill him.”
“You became him.”
Tears filled Miriam’s eyes.
“I know.”
Silas regained control.
He jumped into the river.
Claire reached the edge too late.
No body surfaced.
Behind her, Lily screamed.
Sarah had awakened.
May you like
But she was speaking in Silas’s mechanical voice.
“Only part of me left with Miriam.”
