Chapter 14 - The Last BetrayalDaniel ran.
Through the corridor.
Up the stairs.
Across the estate.
Vanessa had taken Lily.
Again.
But this time there was no question of why.
Daniel found the front gate open.
Evan caught up behind him.
“Her car isn't here.”
“Then where?”
Evan checked his phone.
“There is a private airstrip north of the property.”
Daniel's eyes narrowed.
“Orpheus?”
“Maybe.”
They reached the airstrip.
A plane waited in the fog.
Vanessa stood on the runway holding Lily.
Daniel approached slowly.
“Give her to me.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“I can't.”
“Why?”
“Because she is the only reason they will stop.”
“Who?”
Vanessa looked toward the plane.
“The people behind Elias.”
Daniel felt cold.
“You've been working for them this whole time.”
“No.”
“Then prove it.”
Vanessa looked at Lily.
Then at Daniel.
“I was ordered to bring her here.”
“But you didn't.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“I brought her to you.”
Daniel looked confused.
“What?”
“I need you to activate the real Echo.”
“There is another?”
“Yes.”
Vanessa took out a small device.
“Elias built the false system.”
“What about the real one?”
“Your father hid it.”
“Where?”
She pointed toward Lily.
“Inside her.”
Daniel stared.
“The genetic sequence isn't the key.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“It's the map.”
Daniel's mind raced.
“Then what does Echo actually need?”
“Memory.”
Daniel frowned.
“Whose?”
“Yours.”
Suddenly the plane lights turned on.
A man stepped down the stairs.
Daniel recognized him from the old company photographs.
Elias's business partner.
The man believed dead for thirty years.
He smiled.
“Richard's son.”
Daniel raised his weapon.
The man laughed.
“You have no idea what your father stole.”
Daniel said nothing.
“The original Echo wasn't a database.”
“Then what?”
“A prediction engine.”
Daniel's eyes narrowed.
“It mapped human behavior.”
“It mapped power.”
“It can identify who will betray whom.”
Daniel looked at Lily.
“And you want her because?”
“She has the final neural key.”
Vanessa stepped closer.
“No.”
The man looked at her.
“Traitor.”
Vanessa moved.
She shoved Lily toward Daniel.
Gunfire erupted.
Daniel dropped behind the plane wheel.
Evan returned fire.
Vanessa fired at the man.
The plane engine started.
Someone inside was preparing to take off.
Daniel grabbed Lily and ran.
The man shouted.
“Don't let them reach the server!”
Daniel looked at Vanessa.
She had been shot.
She collapsed.
Daniel caught her.
“You're not dying.”
She smiled faintly.
“You always say that.”
Evan approached.
“We need to go.”
Daniel looked at Vanessa.
“Who else is controlling this?”
She reached into her coat.
Pulled out a folded photograph.
She handed it to Daniel.
It showed Elias.
Richard.
Adrian.
Vanessa.
And one more person.
Daniel stared.
The woman standing beside them was Lily's pediatrician.
The doctor who had treated Lily since birth.
Daniel's face went numb.
Vanessa whispered:
“She was the one who altered Lily's records.”
Daniel looked toward the plane.
The doctor stood beside the door.
Watching.
Smiling.
Then she raised a remote.
The runway gates locked.
Explosives appeared beneath the plane.
Daniel understood.
The pediatrician had been in Lily's life from the beginning.
The doctor pressed the button.
Daniel screamed:
“LILY, RUN!”
The plane exploded.
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Fire swallowed the runway.
And when the smoke cleared, Lily was gone.
