Chapter 9 - My mother sat across from me in the Pentagon's underground command center.Four security teams stood outside the room.
Two helicopters guarded the roof.
Half the building was in lockdown.
And still, I wasn't sure my mother was telling me the truth.
“You said you can explain.”
Elena nodded.
“Phoenix wasn't created by Northstar.”
“Then who created it?”
“The United States government.”
Voss sat across from her.
“The original program was designed to identify infiltrators.”
My mother continued.
“After decades, someone realized the same system could be used to create infiltrators.”
“Legacy.”
“Yes.”
“Then Phoenix?”
“A countermeasure.”
“To stop Legacy.”
“Yes.”
“Then why are people disappearing?”
“Because Phoenix was altered.”
“By whom?”
Elena looked at my father.
Robert answered.
“By me.”
I stared at him.
“You changed it?”
“I changed one part.”
“Which part?”
“Phoenix was supposed to expose infiltrators.”
“Instead?”
“It began replacing them.”
I felt sick.
“Why?”
“Because I believed I could control it.”
“You couldn't.”
“No.”
My mother placed a folder on the table.
“Phoenix requires a master identity.”
I knew the answer before she said it.
“Emily.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“You.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“Emily was the original template.”
My father added:
“But you became the anchor.”
“Because of the biometric modifications.”
“Yes.”
“So Phoenix needs me too.”
“Yes.”
I stood.
“Then why is Emily working against us?”
My mother looked down.
“She isn't.”
“What?”
“The woman you spoke to wasn't Emily.”
My skin prickled.
“Then who was she?”
Elena looked at Voss.
He slid a photograph toward me.
A woman identical to Emily.
But the name beneath it read:
PROJECT L-17.
I stared at the photograph.
“Another clone?”
“Not a clone,” my father said.
“A fabricated identity.”
“Then where is Emily?”
My mother closed her eyes.
“We don't know.”
I slammed my hands on the table.
“You've been lying to me again.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“I was protecting you.”
“I am done being protected.”
Silence.
Then an alarm sounded.
The command center doors locked.
A soldier rushed inside.
“General Voss, we've lost communications with the White House.”
“Why?”
“Every system is showing the same authorization.”
Voss looked at the screen.
A code appeared.
BENNETT-01
My code.
The system believed I had authorized it.
I hadn't.
Someone was using my identity.
Again.
“Where is the source?”
The soldier pointed.
“Inside this building.”
Voss stood.
“Lock the entire facility.”
Too late.
The lights went out.
Gunfire erupted upstairs.
I grabbed a weapon.
My father looked at me.
“Find the server.”
“Which server?”
“The original Phoenix server.”
“Where?”
“Below the memorial.”
“The Lincoln Memorial?”
He nodded.
“There is an underground facility beneath it.”
I stared.
“Of course there is.”
We moved through the service tunnels.
Voss stayed behind to hold the command center.
Maya came with us.
My mother stayed too.
My family had become a very strange military unit.
We reached the underground chamber.
The server room was enormous.
At its center stood a circular machine.
Two biometric panels.
One for me.
One for Emily.
My mother's face changed.
“She was here.”
“How do you know?”
“She built this.”
I looked at her.
“My sister built Phoenix?”
“Yes.”
A voice came from the shadows.
“Not built.”
We turned.
Emily stepped into the light.
I froze.
She looked exactly like me.
But older in the eyes.
Harder.
Tired.
She lowered her weapon.
“Modified.”
I couldn't speak.
She approached.
“I thought you'd hate me.”
“I don't know you.”
“You know more than you think.”
She looked at my father.
“You told her?”
“Everything.”
“Finally.”
She looked at me.
“I was taken at birth.”
My mother's face crumpled.
“Emily…”
“I spent twenty years being trained to become something I never chose to be.”
She pointed at the machine.
“They wanted a human key.”
“So they made you.”
“They tried.”
“What happened?”
“I escaped.”
“Then why did you disappear?”
“Because Robert asked me to.”
I stared at my father.
“You knew where she was.”
“Yes.”
“You found her.”
“Yes.”
“And you still let me believe she was dead.”
“I had to.”
Emily stepped closer.
“They were hunting both of us.”
She looked at me.
“But they found you.”
The machine activated.
A screen displayed:
TWO IDENTITIES DETECTED.
MERGE REQUIRED.
I stared.
“What does that mean?”
Emily looked terrified for the first time.
“It means Phoenix isn't trying to replace us anymore.”
“Then what?”
“It wants to combine us.”
My blood ran cold.
“Why?”
“To create a single identity that can control every system.”
“The ultimate identity.”
“Yes.”
“Can it be stopped?”
Emily looked at my mother.
Then my father.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“One of us has to die.”
Silence.
My father stepped forward.
“No.”
Emily looked at him.
“There is no other way.”
I stared at both of them.
Then at the machine.
A final countdown appeared.
01:00:00
One hour.
The system was already beginning.
Emily whispered:
“Choose.”
Then the lights behind us came on.
Victor Hale stood in the doorway.
He smiled.
“Don't worry, Charlotte.”
May you like
He raised his weapon.
“I'll choose for you.”
