Chapter 6 - The Voice From Tomorrow
The phone was still pressed against my ear.
But I couldn't hear anything anymore.
Not the airplane engines.
Not the passengers whispering.
Not even Lily's soft breathing against my chest.
Only one sentence remained.
Don't let Lily meet the person who is about to open the cockpit door.
My future self had just warned me.
My future self.
A person who shouldn't exist.
I looked at Ethan.
His face had lost all color.
"You heard that too?"
He nodded slowly.
"Yes."
My eyes moved to Claire.
She looked terrified.
Not confused.
Not surprised.
Terrified.
And that was the part that scared me the most.
Because Claire already knew something like this was possible.
"Claire."
She didn't answer.
"Claire, look at me."
Her eyes met mine.
"What was that?"
She opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
"Tell me."
She glanced at Adrian.
Then at Ethan.
Finally, she looked down at Lily.
"Daniel..."
Her voice was shaking.
"That wasn't a message from the future."
The words hit me.
"What?"
"It was a simulation."
I stared at her.
"A simulation?"
Claire nodded.
"Before Lily was born, your company developed a predictive model."
I frowned.
"The behavior system."
"Yes."
"That technology couldn't predict the future."
"No."
She paused.
"It predicted possibilities."
The cabin suddenly felt colder.
I looked at the phone in my hand.
"So that wasn't me?"
Claire looked at me.
"It was a version of you."
A version.
Not me.
But somehow, it knew exactly what was happening.
It knew about Lily.
It knew about the cockpit.
It knew someone was coming.
"How?"
Claire took a breath.
"Because Victor used your own technology against you."
My hands tightened.
"Victor."
The name felt poisonous now.
The man who stood beside me for fifteen years.
The man who knew my habits.
My fears.
My weaknesses.
My family.
"He trained the system using your personal data."
I stared at her.
"What does that mean?"
"It means the system knows you better than anyone."
A terrible thought entered my mind.
"Better than me?"
Claire didn't answer.
She didn't need to.
I looked down at Lily.
Her tiny hand was wrapped around my finger.
A simple gesture.
A normal moment.
But nothing about this was normal anymore.
Someone wanted my daughter.
Someone had been watching us.
And now some kind of machine had predicted what would happen next.
I looked toward the cockpit.
"Who is opening that door?"
Nobody answered.
Then we heard it.
A sound.
A lock releasing.
The entire cabin froze.
The cockpit door.
It was opening.
Slowly.
Adrian stepped in front of us.
Ethan moved beside him.
Claire grabbed my arm.
"Daniel."
I looked at her.
"When that door opens, don't trust what you see."
The door moved another inch.
"What does that mean?"
Her eyes filled with fear.
"It means Victor planned for you to find Claire."
The door opened wider.
My heart started racing.
"Why?"
Claire whispered:
"Because he wants you to choose."
The door finally opened.
A man stepped out.
Not the captain.
Not a flight attendant.
Someone I knew.
Someone who had been missing for months.
Someone who shouldn't have been there.
My breath stopped.
Because the man standing in front of me...
was Victor Hale.
But something was wrong.
Very wrong.
He looked older.
Exhausted.
His expensive suit was torn.
His face had bruises.
And his hands were tied together.
The entire cabin went silent.
I couldn't speak.
Victor looked at me.
Then at Lily.
His eyes filled with tears.
"Daniel."
I stepped back.
"No."
He swallowed.
"You have to listen to me."
I almost laughed.
"Listen to you?"
My voice rose.
"You betrayed me."
Victor shook his head.
"No."
"You lied to me."
"No."
"You destroyed my family."
His expression broke.
"I was trying to save it."
The words sounded impossible.
I looked at Claire.
She looked equally shocked.
"Victor?"
He looked at her.
"I thought you were dead."
Claire froze.
"What?"
Victor's eyes moved between us.
"You don't understand."
Adrian stepped forward.
"Don't believe him."
Victor looked at Adrian.
And something changed.
Recognition.
Anger.
"You."
Adrian smiled slightly.
"Still pretending you're the victim?"
The tension between them was immediate.
I looked between them.
"Someone explain what is happening."
Victor ignored them.
He looked only at me.
"Daniel, you need to get Lily away from them."
My body went rigid.
"From who?"
Victor looked at Claire.
Then Adrian.
Then Ethan.
And finally at me.
"From everyone."
Silence.
Nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
Because suddenly the impossible became possible.
What if Victor wasn't the enemy?
What if we had been wrong?
But then I remembered the video.
His conversation.
His secrets.
His lies.
I couldn't trust him.
I couldn't trust anyone.
"Why should I believe you?"
Victor looked at me.
"Because I know what Lily is."
Claire immediately stepped forward.
"Don't."
Victor ignored her.
"Daniel, your daughter isn't valuable because of some genetic code."
I looked at him.
"Then why?"
Victor's voice dropped.
"Because she carries the only thing that can destroy the system."
My heart stopped.
"What system?"
Victor looked around the cabin.
At the people watching.
At the people pretending not to watch.
Then he whispered:
"The one controlling every decision you've made for the last two years."
A chill ran through me.
"What are you talking about?"
Victor closed his eyes.
"Your company didn't create a prediction system."
A pause.
"It created a control system."
I felt sick.
"No."
"Yes."
"You expect me to believe you built something that controls people?"
Victor looked at me sadly.
"I expected you to never find out."
The airplane suddenly shook.
Hard.
Passengers screamed.
The lights flickered.
A warning alarm sounded.
Adrian immediately looked toward the cockpit.
"That's not turbulence."
Everyone turned.
"What?"
He moved quickly.
"Someone changed the flight path."
My heart dropped.
"Can you fix it?"
Adrian didn't answer.
That was enough.
Ethan grabbed the seat.
"Who has access?"
Victor looked at me.
"Only one person."
I stared.
"Who?"
Victor's eyes moved toward the front of the cabin.
The cockpit door.
Slowly.
A shadow appeared behind the glass.
Someone was inside.
Someone who had been there the entire time.
Victor whispered:
"The person who started all of this."
The cockpit door opened.
Everyone waited.
A figure stepped out.
And then I heard the voice.
A voice I knew.
A voice I had trusted more than anyone.
"Daniel."
I froze.
Because standing there was the one person I thought was still on my side.
The one person who had helped me survive everything.
May you like
The one person who knew every secret about my family.
And he was holding Lily's original birth certificate in his hand...
