Chapter 13 - The Wrong VictorWe drove toward the final facility without speaking.
The truth had become too large for conversation.
Victor wasn't Victor.
Christine's sister was alive.
My mother had lied.
My father had hidden the archive.
And Jake carried the key to a database containing thousands of children.
Then the question came.
"Where is Victor?"
Evelyn answered from the passenger seat.
"In the facility."
"Why?"
"Because he's the one running Harrow now."
"What does he look like?"
She handed me a photograph.
The man was older.
Gray-haired.
Scar above his eyebrow.
I stared.
"That's the same man."
"No."
Evelyn zoomed in.
"Look at the left hand."
A wedding ring.
Victor had never worn one.
"Who is he?"
"Your father's brother."
I stared.
"I have an uncle?"
"Had."
"Dead?"
"Supposedly."
Everything was supposedly.
Nothing was ever dead.
We reached the facility.
The doors opened automatically.
Too easily.
Mara looked at me.
"It's a trap."
"I know."
We entered anyway.
The central chamber contained a massive server array.
Cooling systems hummed.
Screens showed thousands of profiles.
Names.
Photographs.
Medical data.
Children.
Parents.
Families.
Jake's file was open.
I saw his face.
His bloodwork.
His entire medical history.
And one line:
ACTIVATION PENDING.
Christine stepped toward the console.
"No."
A voice came from behind us.
"Hello, Ethan."
Walter.
I turned.
He was holding a gun to Jake's head.
My son was terrified.
"Dad..."
I raised my hands.
"Let him go."
Walter smiled.
"I knew you'd come."
"You lied about everything."
"So did you."
He pointed at the server.
"You created this."
"I created the prototype."
"You created the architecture."
"I destroyed it."
"No."
Walter shook his head.
"Your father copied it before the fire."
He smiled.
"Victor improved it."
I looked at the screens.
"So this has been running all these years."
"Yes."
"Why attack Jake?"
Walter's face became serious.
"Because somebody else activated the sequence."
"What?"
"Someone entered Jake's data months ago."
Christine looked at me.
"I didn't."
"I know."
I turned.
Evelyn looked at me.
She said nothing.
"Who did it?"
Walter laughed.
"Your wife."
Christine stared.
"What?"
Walter continued.
"Christine never knew."
I looked at my wife.
"What did you do?"
She shook her head.
"I don't know."
Walter pressed the gun against Jake's head.
"Ask her what she found in your office eight years ago."
Christine's eyes widened.
"The black drive."
I remembered it.
A small device.
I had found it after Jake was born.
I had hidden it.
"Where is it?"
Christine looked at me.
"You destroyed it."
"No."
I realized.
"I destroyed the wrong one."
Walter smiled.
"Exactly."
A red light appeared on the server.
ACTIVATION INITIATED.
Evelyn whispered:
"We have three minutes."
I looked at Jake.
Then the server.
Then the gun.
For the first time in twelve years, I knew exactly what I had to do.
Not because I remembered the past.
Because I finally understood it.
I stepped toward Walter.
"You're right."
He frowned.
"About what?"
"I built the system."
I looked at the servers.
"And I built the kill switch."
Walter's face changed.
"Where?"
I smiled.
"Inside the one thing you never thought I'd sacrifice."
Jake looked at me.
I whispered:
"I'm sorry, buddy."
Then I pulled the emergency power cable.
May you like
The lights went out.
And every server began to scream.
