Chapter 41
Chapter Forty-One
Eliana stared at the words scrolling beneath the three figures.
It’s time to use that knife.
Her pulse thundered in her ears.
Raquel didn’t see it. “Do it,” she hissed. “Tell them Lydia Rosenberg is in charge.”
The three figures watched Eliana without blinking.
The computerized voice returned. “State your directive.”
Eliana’s mind raced.
This wasn’t just a vault. It was control.
Digital, centralized, terrifying control.
Whoever commanded this system could sway votes, finances, narratives—everything the Shrine and its network touched.
This was artificial intelligence, a relic of an era that didn’t exist anymore.
Where AI told people what to think, and how to live.
Lydia wanted it.
The Reverence Sisters wanted it.
But she couldn’t allow the world to be controlled by a machine with no soul. One that had just told her what to do.
Use the knife.
Raquel turned to look at the Board. Eliana sucked in a breath, but the words disappeared off the screen. Raquel never saw it. She was too busy staring at the Board of Governors like a zealot before an altar.
Eliana looked at the nearest server rack, with cables neatly bundled along the baseboards. Fiber lines. Power conduits. Redundant systems. She hardly even knew what she was looking at, but everything electronic had a power source. Every brain had a nerve center.
Raquel stepped closer, pressing the cold muzzle of the gun against Eliana’s ribs. “Say it.”
Eliana swallowed. “Lydia Rosenberg—”
The Board leaned forward slightly. Or maybe it was just an illusion of a shift in perspective.
“—will never control the Board of Governors.”
Raquel’s eyes widened, and she screamed, “No!”
“Only I have authorization.”
Raquel rushed at her.
The system said, “Directive accepted.”
Eliana pivoted hard, slamming her elbow into Raquel’s wrist. The gun fired, the shot deafening in the enclosed space. The bullet ricocheted off metal with a ping. Eliana dropped low and rushed to the corner, snatching her knife from the floor where it had skidded earlier.
And drove it straight into the thick bundle of cables feeding the central rack.
Sparks exploded in a blinding flash.
The screens flickered.
Raquel screamed, “What are you doing?!”
Eliana ripped the blade sideways, sawing through insulation and wire. The computerized voice stuttered.
“Un—authorized—action—”
The figures on the screen distorted, features stretched and pixelated.
“Stop!” Raquel lunged at her.
Eliana kicked backward, catching Raquel in the knee. The detective stumbled into a rack of servers just as a surge rippled through the system. Smoke poured from the server, filling the vault with the pungent tang of burning electronics.
Every light in the vault went white, blinking.
Then black. Dead.
Silence fell like a dropped curtain as the whir of hardware fell silent. For a heartbeat, there was nothing.
A second later, emergency lights blinked on, dim and red.
No glowing displays. No Board of Governors. Just gutted metal panels and the acrid smell of burning circuitry.
Raquel had stumbled and fallen on the far side of the vault. She stared at the dead system in horror. “You idiot. Do you know what you’ve done?!”
“Yes,” Eliana whispered.
She’d made it worthless. Maybe not destroyed. Was anything done by Dominatus ever over? But for now, Raquel—and Lydia—couldn’t get their hands on it. And neither could anyone else. Whatever leverage Lydia wanted. Whatever power Patience had killed for. Whatever threat hung over Carlos’s life.
It was all gone.
Raquel lunged again, wild with fury. Her fists battered Eliana’s head. Her shoulders, her face. Eliana covered her head with her arms while Raquel screamed, raining down blows. Eliana kicked out at her, shoving her back, then scrambled again for the knife.
She needed to keep Raquel away and get the door open so Maizie could cuff her. She turned to Raquel, the knife first. “Get back—”
Raquel was too fast.
The knife plunged into her stomach.
Eliana cried out, “No!” reflexively letting go of the knife. Falling back. Breathing hard, looking at the blood now seeping from around the knife. Dampening the dress around it.
Raquel staggered back, gasping. She grabbed the knife handle with both hands. “What did you do?” She slid the knife from her abdomen, and blood flowed freely. The knife toppled from her bloody fingers to the floor.
Eliana didn’t move.
“What did you do?” Raquel repeated.
The vault door wheel began to turn from the outside.
Metal groaned.
The door cracked open.
Eliana watched Raquel fall to the floor, tears rolling down her face. Flashlights swept the inside of the vault, and she heard, “Police!”
Maizie’s voice cut through the darkness. “Nobody move!”
Eliana lifted a hand and shielded her eyes. “Maizie?”
Her sister stepped over Raquel, and uniformed officers crowded in after her. One knelt and put two fingers to Raquel’s neck. He looked at Maizie. “She’s gone, Captain.”
“Good.” Maizie grabbed Eliana’s face with both hands. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m okay.” Her voice shook, and she managed to shake her head. “Tony—”
“He’s alive. The paramedics got to him in time.”
Relief hit so hard her knees almost buckled, but her sister kept her standing. “And the bomb?” Eliana asked. “Carlos. Everyone. Upstairs. I—” Her breath hitched. “I heard an explosion.”
“Walk with me.” Her sister put her arm around her, steering her out of the vault.
“Wait!”
Maizie shook her head. “We need to get out of here so someone can check you over.”
“We need Raquel’s phone. You need to track Wallace so we can find Carlos.
” Her breath came fast and sharp, but Eliana knew she had to get control.
She wanted to know what had happened with the bomb.
As much as she wanted Carlos back, there were other people she had to consider as well. Innocents caught up in all this.
“Okay.” Maizie nodded, then went to Raquel’s body, searching her for the cell phone. “This?” She held up a device. “It’s shattered.”
“Can you find him? We have to get him back before Wallace kills him. If she doesn’t check in—” Eliana’s voice cracked.
“Let’s get to my laptop.” Maizie winced, but she came over and swung Eliana’s arm over her shoulders. Which only worked because Eliana was several inches taller.
They moved past where two officers had Patience in cuffs. The older woman swore a blue streak as they marched her to the elevator with blood smears all over it. Maizie led Eliana to the side door down the hall, where the stairs were.
“This is how you got down here?” Eliana asked.
“I followed you. But only after I knew Sylvia had everything in hand.” Maizie didn’t sound okay. It sounded like something had happened. Something bad.
At the door, Eliana stopped and turned to Maizie. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“You’re okay. That’s what matters.” Maizie’s expression softened. “We’ll find Carlos. We will.”
She recalled what Tony had told her.
I can’t make promises I won’t be able to keep.
“Carolena was strapped with a bomb, and it went off,” Eliana said. “That’s not my definition of okay. I just killed a woman back there.” She waved her arm in that direction, wanting to continue.
But something held her tongue.
She’d killed the connection for the Board of Governors, but what did that mean?
Anyone could walk in or out of the vault right now.
The Shrine probably wanted it secured, but Eliana had more important things to do than protect its secrets.
Or let anyone know she was the only one who could now control the Board of Governors system.
Assuming she hadn’t destroyed it.
Maizie grabbed her hand. “Come on.” They set off up the stairs.
“It’s chaos up here. The bomb blew, and it wasn’t a huge explosion, but it caught a lot of people.
Including Lydia. She isn’t dead, but she’s in critical condition.
Sylvia is up here coordinating EMS, helping people. I came down to help you.”
“Patience…” Eliana didn’t even know what to say. “I can’t believe it.”
Maizie slowed on the stairs to match Eliana’s pace. “What about Raquel?”
“She was working for Lydia. The speech was a distraction. Raquel wanted to give Lydia authorization to control the Board of Governors.”
“From inside the vault?”
Eliana nodded, but she wasn’t going to explain right now.
Maybe later. First, she wanted to talk with Sylvia.
Make sure that Tony would be all right. He had to have lost a lot of blood.
“Patience came down to do the same, and they ended up at odds over it. Tony was caught in the middle. I did what I had to do to resolve the situation.”
Maizie shuddered. “She would’ve killed you to get what she wanted.”
Eliana had been referring to severing the wires with her knife, but that probably wasn’t what the Board of Governors had intended when they gave her that blade. Stabbing Raquel hadn’t been intentional, but she’d still taken the other woman’s life.
They pushed through onto the ground floor, walking into the lobby. Half the ceiling hung down, and smoke filled the air. The gala had been destroyed, and mixed with the white linens Eliana spotted the ash and the blood of the casualties from the explosion.
Cops and firefighters in their uniforms worked through the wreckage, overturning tables and helping people out.
Sylvia rushed over to them, a smudge of ash on her cheek. To Eliana’s surprise, she came over and gave her a hug. “I’m so glad you’re all right.”
“Thanks. Tony is going to be okay?”
Sylvia gave her another squeeze. “Thanks to you.” Relief flashed on her face. “You have no idea how much we owe to you.”
“I want to talk, but we need to go and find Carlos before something happens to him.”
“Of course.” Sylvia nodded.
“But I want to know why the system didn’t kill Raquel when she entered.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The kid who went in before? He died. It killed him. But the vault didn’t kill Raquel. Why is that?”