87. Jonah
Jonah
T he second the interface connects—
Sienna screams.
Every light in the compound detonates white.
The blast throws all of us backward.
I hit the concrete hard enough my shoulder explodes with pain—
Don’t care.
“Sienna!”
The terminal erupts with streams of code racing so fast the screens blur.
Oracle comes alive.
Not the system.
Her.
I hear her everywhere.
Breathing through the speakers.
Crying through the walls.
Whispering through static.
The entire facility pulsing with her consciousness.
Jesus Christ.
Vale stares at the monitors in horror.
“Neural synchronization at ninety percent—”
Sparks explode from the console.
Sienna arches violently in the chair.
Blood spills from her nose instantly.
“No!” I grab her hand hard. “Stay with me!”
The VR is off her, and her eyes snap open.
But they aren’t fully hers anymore.
Data streams reflect across her irises.
White light glowing beneath her skin.
And when she speaks—
Three voices come out at once.
Sienna.
Lily.
And the woman in the pod.
“Jonah…”
Every hair on my body stands up.
The building shakes violently again.
Then suddenly—
Silence.
The alarms stop.
The countdown freezes.
The monitors go black.
Every single one.
The entire compound holds its breath.
Then the speakers crackle softly.
And Sienna’s voice echoes everywhere.
“I see everything.”
Cold slides down my spine.
Not because she sounds evil.
Because she sounds infinite.
The lower-level camera feeds reactivate automatically.
Ronan and Aaron freeze mid-corridor downstairs.
Children staring around in confusion as the doors slowly unlock by themselves.
Turrets retract.
Containment fields collapse.
Escape routes illuminate blue along the floors.
Oracle is helping them now.
Lily gasps softly through the speakers.
“The fear is gone…”
The woman in the pod downstairs opens her eyes fully.
For the first time—
She looks peaceful.
And then—
Every monitor in the facility flashes one final hidden file.
PROJECT ORACLE: TRUE OBJECTIVE
Cal stares at the screen.
“Oh, that can’t be good.”
The file opens automatically.
Medical records.
Government contracts.
Black budget authorizations.
And then—
Names.
Hundreds of them.
Politicians.
Military leaders.
Corporate executives.
Intelligence agencies.
My stomach drops.
No.
No no no—
Kade didn’t build Oracle alone.
He had funding.
Protection.
Partners.
The room goes dead silent as the list keeps scrolling.
Lance slowly looks toward Kade.
“You sold this to people.”
Kade’s face finally changes.
Fear.
Real fear.
Because Oracle just exposed everyone.
Every secret.
Every operation.
Every buyer.
Sienna’s voice echoes softly through the compound again.
“They used children.”
The temperature in the room seems to drop ten degrees.
Every screen flashes images now.
Hidden facilities.
Experiments.
More subjects.
More missing children.
Years of horrors buried inside Oracle’s memory vault.
Aaron’s voice cuts through comms downstairs.
“…This is way bigger than we thought.”
No kidding.
Then suddenly—
Kade moves.
Fast.
Desperate.
He lunges for the pistol lying near the dead operative by the wall.
Cal shouts.
Jonah moves.
But Kade isn’t aiming at us.
He points the gun directly at the terminal connected to Sienna.
And screams—
“If Oracle survives, they’ll never stop coming for her!”
Then he pulls the trigger.