CHAPTER 15 #2
Victor’s voice came from the computer.
“Long enough.”
Dymond raised her weapon.
Brandon pressed his gun against Tasha’s head.
“Put it down.”
Dymond obeyed.
I did the same.
Tasha still held the flash drive.
“Center port,” Brandon ordered.
She looked at me.
I could see fear in her eyes.
But something else was there too.
A question.
I looked toward the broken display case beside her.
Then back at her face.
A tiny nod passed between us.
Tasha tossed the flash drive.
Not to Brandon.
To me.
I caught it.
Brandon turned his weapon.
Tasha grabbed a jagged piece of glass and drove it into his thigh.
He screamed.
Dymond reached her gun first.
She fired twice.
Brandon fell.
I ran toward the terminal.
Victor’s face filled the screen.
“You’re running out of time.”
I held the drive above the center port.
“Release Jayce and Laila.”
“Activate succession.”
“Children first.”
“Keyshia—”
“I’m the only person who can open this system. You kill my son, you get nothing.”
For the first time, Victor’s calm expression slipped.
He needed my blood authorization.
The key had been built for me.
The empire might have belonged to Jayce next, but it still answered to me now.
“Release them,” I repeated.
Victor leaned toward the camera.
“You believe being necessary makes you powerful.”
“It makes me powerful enough.”
Meech’s voice came through the speaker.
“Key, I’ve copied thirty-one percent. I need two more minutes.”
The countdown reached:
01:58
Victor heard him.
“Who is inside my system?”
Meech laughed.
“Somebody better than the people who built it.”
The screen flickered.
Victor disappeared.
Rows of names replaced his face.
A warning filled the center.
UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS DETECTED
SUCCESSION WILL BEGIN AUTOMATICALLY
01:00
“He changed the timer!” Dymond shouted.
“Can you stop it?” I asked.
“I can try,” Meech answered.
The screen divided into two columns.
One said:
EXECUTION
The other:
INHERITANCE
Under inheritance was Jayce’s full name.
JAYCE CARTER
Beneath his name appeared a photograph, birth date, school, medical records, and Social Security number.
Victor had collected everything.
Under execution, hundreds of names began scrolling.
Rome Carter.
Karen Carter.
My father.
Tasha.
Nesha.
Dymond.
Me.
Everybody in my family was on the list.
Then I saw two names that made my blood cold.
JAYCE CARTER
AMAYA CARTER
My children appeared in both columns.
“That doesn’t make sense,” Tasha said. “How can Jayce inherit if he’s marked for death?”
Dymond understood first.
“He was never supposed to inherit.”
“What?”
“Victor needs Keyshia to activate the program. Once the accounts transfer through Jayce’s identity, Victor kills him and takes control as administrator.”
Rome had lied.
Or Victor had lied to Rome.
Either way, my son had never been part of the future.
He was a temporary name on stolen money.
A child Victor planned to bury after using him.
The automatic countdown reached forty seconds.
“Pull the drive!” I shouted.
“If you pull it now, the local copy deletes,” Meech warned.
“I don’t care!”
“And the system may still activate.”
“What do we do?”
“Use the founder override.”
Dymond grabbed the black lock hanging from her neck.
“Will this work?”
“No. That’s a physical encryption device. The override needs a voice command and blood authorization from the founder.”
“Karen,” Tasha said.
Our mother was at the clinic with Nesha.
Too far away.
I called her.
She answered immediately.
“Key?”
“I need the founder override.”
Silence.
“Momma!”
“How did you find that terminal?”
“Victor found it first. Tell me the command.”
“It requires my blood.”
“I already gave blood in the medical van.”
Dymond’s eyes widened.
“The bag.”
“What bag?” Tasha asked.
“The doctor kept Karen’s unused blood.”
My father was still at the clinic.
I put the call on speaker.
“Dad, find Momma’s blood bag.”
“I’m in the waiting room.”
“Get to the medical van!”
The countdown reached twenty-five seconds.
My father started running.
I heard doors opening and people shouting through the phone.
“Which bag?”
“O-negative,” the doctor yelled in the background. “Label K-Carter.”
“Found it!”
“Pour it on your phone,” I said.
Everybody stared at me.
“What?” my father asked.
“Put the phone inside the bag.”
“That’ll destroy it.”
“Do it!”
The screen showed fifteen seconds.
My father tore open the blood bag.
The call became muffled.
I connected my phone to the terminal cable and pressed Karen’s call against the blood scanner.
My mother shouted through the speaker.
“Carter Founder Override. Code Seven-One-Seven-Black.”
The scanner flashed.
VOICE RECOGNIZED
BLOOD RECOGNIZED
The countdown reached five seconds.
5
4
3
A new message appeared.
CHOOSE OVERRIDE ACTION
Three options filled the screen.
CANCEL SUCCESSION
TRANSFER CONTROL
LIQUIDATE EMPIRE
“Cancel it!” Tasha yelled.
“Transfer it,” Dymond said. “Then we control the system.”
My mother screamed through the phone.
“Liquidate it!”
One second remained.
I made my choice.
The screen went black.
Silence filled the store.
Then every light turned on at once.
A message appeared.
EMPIRE LIQUIDATION AUTHORIZED
ALL EXECUTION CONTRACTS TERMINATED
FUNDS DISBURSEMENT IN PROGRESS
Dymond stared at me.
“You gave away eight hundred million dollars?”
“I burned the reason everybody was willing to kill us.”
Tasha began laughing.
It sounded half relieved and half insane.
“Where is the money going?”
The screen answered.
Dollar amounts appeared beside hundreds of names.
Families of people murdered by the Carter Empire.
Wrongfully imprisoned men.
Businesses destroyed by the Circle.
Children whose parents had disappeared.
Every victim listed in the files was receiving money.
My mother had programmed the liquidation years ago.
Not to save the empire.
To repay the people it had damaged.
The final balance dropped rapidly.
Eight hundred million.
Six hundred million.
Four hundred million.
One hundred million.
Then:
CARTER EMPIRE BALANCE: $0.00
A final message appeared.
THE EMPIRE IS DEAD
Victor’s image returned.
His calm was gone.
“You stupid bitch.”
I smiled.
“That sounds like a man who just lost everything.”
“You think money built the Circle?”
“No. Fear did.”
“And now you should be terrified.”
“You still need me alive.”
“No,” he said. “I needed you when there was an empire to unlock.”
He turned the camera toward Jayce.
The chair was empty.
The ropes lay on the floor.
Victor looked around.
“Where is he?”
Gunshots erupted through the computer speakers.
Someone fell behind him.
Rome stepped into view holding Jayce against his chest.
A gun was in his other hand.
Blood ran down the side of his face.
“Come get your son,” Rome said.
Then the screen went black.
I grabbed my gun.
“Tasha, stay with Amaya.”
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“Keyshia—”