Chapter 5 - The Dead Man on the Screen
Sarah stared at her father.
She had stood beside his coffin.
She had watched the flag folded.
She had believed his death shaped everything that came afterward.
Yet Robert Mitchell was looking at her from every screen.
"You died."
Robert smiled.
"Officially."
Sarah's anger became colder.
"You did this."
"I built Nightglass."
David stepped forward.
"You corrupted it."
Robert ignored him.
"Sarah, you've always misunderstood what we created."
Drones rolled from the hangar.
Marcus watched them.
"He's activating the network."
"For what?" Daniel asked.
David answered.
"Demonstration."
Robert smiled.
"Proof."
Sarah looked at the screens.
"Using a passenger aircraft?"
"Nobody died."
"Because we saved them."
"Exactly."
Sarah understood.
He had engineered a crisis to prove Nightglass could seize a commercial aircraft.
But why her?
Robert answered without being asked.
"Because machines are only impressive when they defeat exceptional humans."
Sarah felt sick.
"You used me."
"I tested you."
"You threatened Lily."
"I would never harm my granddaughter."
Marcus stepped toward the screen.
"You already did."
Robert's smile vanished.
"Marcus."
"End this."
"No."
The drones began taking off.
One after another.
Daniel stared upward.
"Where are they going?"
David ran to a terminal.
His hands moved across controls.
Then stopped.
"Oh God."
"What?"
"Europe."
Sarah joined him.
Multiple targets appeared.
Airports.
Military installations.
Communications centers.
Not attacks.
Intrusions.
Nightglass intended to seize systems simultaneously.
"Can you stop it?"
"Not from here."
"Where?"
David pointed toward a lower level.
"Core control."
Marcus grabbed equipment.
"I'm coming."
Sarah stopped him.
"No."
"Sarah—"
"Get the passengers safe."
"You're not going alone."
"Then Daniel comes."
Daniel blinked.
"Apparently retirement wasn't exciting enough anyway."
Sarah almost smiled.
They descended.
David led.
Corridors beneath the platform revealed the true scale of Nightglass.
Servers.
Control rooms.
Laboratories.
Sarah saw photographs from seven years earlier.
Her team.
Medical files.
Then one folder.
SARAH MITCHELL — MATERNAL SUBJECT.
She stopped.
David tried to move her along.
Sarah opened it.
Her pregnancy had been documented before the mission.
Her father knew.
He had sent her anyway.
She looked at David.
"He knew."
"Yes."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't know until afterward."
Sarah read another page.
Marcus Vale listed as paternal match.
Another document authorized neonatal removal.
Signed:
GENERAL ROBERT MITCHELL.
Sarah's hands trembled.
"He stole my child."
David nodded.
"Then arranged for you to adopt her."
"Why?"
"Control."
Sarah understood.
Robert wanted Lily close to Sarah without Sarah knowing the biological truth.
A psychological experiment.
A contingency.
Perhaps leverage.
Sarah closed the file.
"Where is he?"
David pointed deeper underground.
"Core."
They continued.
A blast door blocked them.
David entered a code.
Rejected.
Again.
Rejected.
Daniel examined the wall.
"Alternative route?"
"Maintenance shaft."
They climbed.
Above them, drones continued launching.
Marcus radioed.
"Sarah, military aircraft are approaching."
"Friendly?"
"For now."
"Passengers?"
"Evacuating to support vessels."
"Keep Lily's name off every open channel."
"Understood."
They reached the core.
Rows of displays showed aircraft across the Atlantic.
Nightglass was attempting access.
Some systems rejected it.
Others didn't.
Sarah looked at David.
"Shutdown."
"I need Robert's authorization."
"Then fake it."
"I've tried for seven years."
Daniel examined the architecture.
"What does the system trust?"
David looked at Sarah.
Then went silent.
She understood.
"Me."
"Your biometric profile."
"Why?"
"Robert built you into the failsafe."
Sarah laughed without humor.
"Of course he did."
She placed her hand on the scanner.
ACCESS PARTIAL.
VOICE CONFIRMATION REQUIRED.
Sarah spoke.
"Major Sarah Mitchell."
ACCESS PARTIAL.
SECOND GENETIC AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED.
Sarah stared.
David whispered, "Lily."
"No."
"Sarah—"
"No. My daughter stays out of this."
A door opened behind them.
Robert Mitchell walked in.
Not a video.
Not a recording.
Her father.
Alive.
Older.
Walking with a cane.
Sarah faced him.
"You don't need Lily," Robert said.
"What do you need?"
"You and Marcus."
Sarah's jaw tightened.
"Why?"
"The system was designed around two pilot profiles. Yours and his."
"Then shut it down."
Robert smiled.
"I don't want it shut down."
David raised a weapon.
Robert didn't react.
"You won't shoot me."
David aimed.
Sarah lowered his arm.
"No."
David looked at her.
Sarah kept her eyes on Robert.
"He wants us emotional."
Robert smiled proudly.
"Still the best pilot I ever trained."
"I'm not your pilot."
"No."
Sarah stepped closer.
"I'm Lily's mother."
Robert's expression changed.
"And that's why you'll understand."
He pressed a control.
A live camera appeared.
New York.
Sarah's sister's apartment.
Lily was gone.
Sarah stopped breathing.
Robert said quietly:
"She isn't in New York anymore."
Sarah lunged.
Daniel caught her.
"Where is she?"
Robert pointed upward.
"Closer than you think."
A door at the far side of the core unlocked.
Sarah heard footsteps.
Small footsteps.
May you like
Then a child's voice called from the darkness:
"Mom?"
