80. Jonah
Jonah
E very screen in the room flashes blood red.
WARNING: THREAT RESPONSE ACTIVE
Then the facility changes.
Metal shutters slam down somewhere deep below us.
Alarms explode through the compound.
The floor trembles beneath our boots.
And over the speakers—
Oracle starts talking.
Not Lily.
Not Kade.
Oracle.
“Hostile threat assessment initiated.”
Cold crashes through me.
Cal slowly lowers his rifle a fraction.
“…I really hate sentient buildings.”
Lance checks the corridor again.
“Pretty sure it hates us too.”
Lily looks frightened now on the screen.
The servers behind her pulse with unstable light.
“I didn’t do that,” she whispers.
“I know,” Sienna says immediately.
Her voice softens further.
“You’re okay.”
The lights flicker violently again.
Oracle responds instantly to Lily’s breathing.
Jesus Christ.
The entire system is emotionally tethered to a traumatized little girl.
No pressure.
Vale stares at the monitor like he’s watching the apocalypse wake up.
“Kade merged her neural pathways directly into Oracle’s adaptive core.”
Sienna looks horrified.
“That should’ve killed her.”
Kade slowly pushes himself upright against the wall, blood soaking through his shoulder.
“It almost did.”
I step toward him.
He flinches.
Good.
Good.
Because now he finally understands something important.
He is no longer the scariest thing in this building.
A deep metallic boom echoes somewhere below us.
Aaron’s voice explodes through comms.
“We’ve got automated defenses activating down here!”
Ronan cuts in immediately.
“Turrets. Motion tracking. Entire corridor just sealed behind us.”
Perfect.
Absolutely perfect.
Oracle is defending Lily.
Against everyone.
Even Delta Five.
Lily curls her knees closer to her chest on-screen.
“I don’t want them hurt.”
Sienna moves closer to the monitor slowly.
“They won’t hurt you.”
“But Oracle says they will.”
Every instinct I have sharpens instantly.
There it is.
The system is talking to her.
Not metaphorically.
Actually communicating.
Kade sees us realize it.
And smiles weakly despite the blood loss.
“Adaptive companionship protocol,” he says softly. “Oracle evolved around her isolation.”
“You made the system raise her,” Sienna whispers in horror.
“She needed stability.”
“You made a machine become her family!”
Kade’s expression hardens.
“It loved her better than people did.”
The words hit harder than I expect.
Because somewhere deep down—
Part of him probably believes that.
That’s what makes monsters dangerous.
Not cruelty.
Conviction.
Suddenly—
Lily gasps sharply.
Every light in the room pulses.
Then one of the monitors changes.
Security feed.
Lower detention level.
Ronan and Aaron moving tactically through a hallway while automated turrets descend from the ceiling around them.
Gunfire erupts instantly.
Aaron dives behind cover.
Ronan shoots out one turret with brutal precision.
Another drops from the ceiling immediately after.
“Seriously?!” Aaron shouts.
Lance laughs once.
“Missed those idiots.”
Then—
The feed glitches.
A little boy appears briefly on-screen.
Curled behind a locked door underground.
Terrified.
Lily’s breathing shakes.
“They’re trying to get to Noah.”
The hallway lights pulse violently.
The turret fire doubles.
Oracle is escalating to protect the children.
Even from the people trying to save them.
Sienna realizes it too.
“Oh God…”
Lily starts crying softly.
“I don’t know how to stop it.”
The room stills.
Because that right there?
That’s the real nightmare.
Not Kade.
Not the kill switches.
Not the guns.
A frightened little girl accidentally controlling a system powerful enough to kill everyone in this building.
And then—
The speakers suddenly crackle again.
But this time?
The voice isn’t Oracle.
It’s another child.
Small.
Terrified.
“Lily?”
The entire room freezes.
The little blonde girl on-screen jerks upright instantly.
“Noah…”