24. Sienna
Sienna
I shouldn’t have gone that deep into ORACLE.
I know that now.
The feeling still clings to me even after disconnecting—cold and invasive, like the system left fingerprints inside my head.
I can still feel it watching.
Not scanning.
Not processing.
Watching.
The bunker feels too small suddenly.
Concrete walls.
Low lights.
The faint hum of generators beneath the floor.
None of it grounds me the way it should.
Across the room, Jonah reloads magazines with calm, practiced movements while Ronan checks the perimeter feeds near the door.
Normal.
Human.
Real.
I focus on that.
Not the thing still crawling around in the back of my mind.
“They’re not just tracking anymore,” I say quietly.
Jonah’s hands still briefly over the rifle.
“Define not just tracking.”
I hesitate.
Because saying it out loud makes it real in a way thinking it doesn’t.
I zip my laptop carefully back into the case before answering.
“They’re learning priorities.”
Ronan looks over immediately. “Meaning what exactly?”
I force myself to meet Jonah’s eyes.
“Meaning they stopped asking where we are.”
A beat passes.
“Now they’re asking who matters most.”
Silence drops heavily across the bunker.
Jonah doesn’t react outwardly.
Most people would miss it.
I don’t.
His shoulders tighten slightly.
His attention sharpens.
Calculation replacing motion.
“They isolate targets,” he says quietly.
“Yes.”
“Divide pressure points.”
“Yes.”
“And eliminate leverage.”
The words settle like ice in my stomach.
I swallow hard.
“Yes.”
Ronan exhales slowly through his nose. “Awesome. Absolutely love that for us.”
Normally I’d almost smile at that.
Not tonight.
Because there’s more.
Something worse.
I tighten my grip on the laptop case until my fingers ache.
“It showed me something while I was inside.”
Jonah stills completely this time.
“What?”
The question comes softer now.
Careful.
I shake my head once.
“I don’t know if it was real.”
“Say it anyway.”
Pain tightens sharply through my chest.
Because this is the part I didn’t want to say out loud.
The part that changes everything.
“The system doesn’t know where Elizabeth is.”
That lands hard enough the room physically feels quieter afterward.
Ronan frowns first. “Who’s Elizabeth?”
I stare down at the floor for half a second before answering.
“My sister.”
The words scrape coming out.
“They took her four years ago.”
Jonah’s gaze never leaves my face.
“That’s why I stayed with HELIOS.”
Ronan straightens slowly beside the tactical table. “Wait.”
Confusion flashes across his expression.
“If ORACLE doesn’t know where she is… isn’t that good?”
“No.”
The answer comes from Jonah before I can speak.
He already understands.
Of course he does.
His voice lowers slightly when he looks back at me.
“What does it know?”
My throat tightens.
Because this is the truth I’ve been too afraid to hope for.
I hold Jonah’s gaze when I answer.
“It knows she’s alive.”
Silence detonates through the bunker.
Not loud.
Worse.
Heavy.
My pulse pounds violently in my ears while the words settle into reality around us.
Alive.
Not gone.
Not buried somewhere in the dark corners of HELIOS.
Alive.
For one terrifying second, hope cracks through me so hard it almost hurts.
Because hope is dangerous.
Hope gets people killed.
And somewhere deep inside ORACLE—
Something just handed me mine back.