Chapter 6 - The Friend at Our Table
"Put it down," Evelyn said.
Jonathan smiled.
"No."
Charles stared at him.
"You ate Christmas dinner in my house."
"Every year."
"My children called you uncle."
"I remember."
"Why?"
Jonathan's smile disappeared.
"Because proximity is useful."
Charles looked as if Jonathan had struck him.
Evelyn remained focused.
"You're rebuilding Sentinel."
"Not rebuilding."
Jonathan glanced toward Margaret.
"Completing."
Margaret's face hardened.
"You were inside the project from the beginning."
Jonathan nodded.
"I believed in what we built."
"We built an emergency safeguard."
"We built order."
Margaret shook her head.
"We built something no person should control."
Jonathan looked almost disappointed.
"That's why you never understood its potential."
Evelyn shifted slightly.
Jonathan noticed.
"Don't."
She stopped.
Daniel stood near the vault.
Jonathan motioned with the weapon.
"Open it."
"No," Margaret said.
Jonathan aimed at Charles.
Evelyn's pulse accelerated.
"Leave him out of this."
Jonathan laughed softly.
"Charles has always been in this. He just never knew."
Charles looked at Evelyn.
A strange calm settled over him.
Perhaps this was the first moment in his life when money could do absolutely nothing.
"Margaret," he said.
She looked at him.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"For thinking I knew everything."
Jonathan snapped, "Open the vault."
Margaret entered her credentials.
Charles entered his.
The lock required two authorized executives.
A green light appeared.
The heavy door opened.
Inside was not a giant supercomputer.
Just rows of secure servers.
Daniel moved toward one cabinet.
Jonathan followed.
"Slowly."
Daniel removed a black case.
Inside was a small hardware module.
Margaret removed the capsule from her necklace.
The two pieces fit together.
Jonathan's eyes lit up.
"Eighteen years."
Evelyn watched him.
He was looking at the device.
Not at her.
That was his mistake.
She moved.
One hand knocked his wrist aside.
The shot struck the ceiling.
Charles tackled Jonathan.
Daniel grabbed the weapon.
Marcus's tactical team entered seconds later.
Jonathan was forced to the floor.
Charles stood over him breathing heavily.
"You were saying something about my daughter having a desk job?"
Despite everything, Evelyn almost smiled.
Almost.
Then the server alarms activated.
Daniel looked toward the console.
"No."
"What?"
"Sentinel is connecting."
Jonathan laughed from the floor.
"You think I came alone?"
Multiple nodes appeared on the screen.
Chicago.
New York.
Virginia.
Texas.
California.
Dozens more.
Margaret rushed to the terminal.
"They triggered it remotely."
"Can you stop it?" Evelyn asked.
"Not yet."
Daniel inserted the master module.
The screen changed.
90 SECONDS TO FULL SYNCHRONIZATION.
Evelyn looked at him.
"You said ninety seconds."
"That's our window."
They had to allow enough nodes to identify themselves before issuing the shutdown command.
Too early, and hidden fragments survived.
Too late, and Sentinel became autonomous.
"How long?"
Margaret watched.
"Forty seconds."
Charles stood beside Evelyn.
"What happens if this fails?"
She didn't answer.
"That bad?"
"Yes."
Thirty seconds.
New nodes appeared.
Twenty.
Daniel watched the architecture.
"Almost."
Jonathan laughed again.
"You still don't understand."
Evelyn looked at him.
"What?"
"Sentinel doesn't need the key anymore."
Margaret froze.
"He's lying."
Jonathan smiled.
"Am I?"
Ten seconds.
A new node appeared.
Not civilian.
Military.
Evelyn recognized the identifier.
Her own command facility.
Someone inside SCD was connected.
"Daniel."
"I see it."
The countdown reached five.
Margaret shouted, "Now!"
Daniel initiated shutdown.
The screen went black.
Silence.
Then systems rebooted.
One by one, the nodes disappeared.
Chicago.
Virginia.
Texas.
California.
Gone.
Margaret exhaled.
"We did it."
Evelyn didn't move.
One node remained.
SCD COMMAND.
Daniel stared.
"Why isn't that one shutting down?"
A message appeared.
EXTERNAL SHUTDOWN REJECTED.
Evelyn's phone rang.
Secure line.
She answered.
"Mercer."
A man's voice replied.
"Colonel, report to command immediately."
Evelyn knew the voice.
General Thomas Hale.
Director of SCD.
Her commanding officer.
The man who had promoted her.
The man who had signed Daniel Cross's death certificate.
Evelyn looked at the surviving node.
Then General Hale said:
"And Colonel? Do not bring Daniel Cross."
The line disconnected.
Daniel stared at her.
"He knows I'm alive."
Evelyn slowly lowered the phone.
Daniel shook his head.
"I never told him."
Margaret whispered, "Then how does he know?"
Evelyn looked at the final active node.
A second message appeared.
May you like
WELCOME BACK, COLONEL.
And underneath it was General Hale's personal authorization code.
