CHAPTER 27 #2
“You still left.”
“I had to.”
“You wanted power.”
“I wanted enough power to come back.”
“But you didn’t come back for me.”
Nesha’s voice broke.
“You came back for the key.”
Monica lowered her eyes.
That was the first honest answer she had given.
Simone motioned toward the chairs.
“Sit.”
Dymond took the first chair.
I grabbed her arm.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting closer to the system.”
“The restraints—”
“Trust me.”
Nesha sat in the second chair.
I took the third.
The silver restraints closed around our wrists.
Needles entered our arms.
Pain burned through my veins.
The original key floated from my hand and locked into the center console.
Screens surrounded us.
Names of the eleven Carter Houses appeared.
TRANSFER: 42 MINUTES
Simone stood beside Monica.
“Choose.”
Monica looked at us.
Nesha.
Her biological daughter.
Dymond.
The daughter Victor abandoned.
Me.
The woman the empire had waited forty years to find.
“I choose Keyshia,” Monica said.
My chair tightened.
The screen displayed:
GUARDIAN TRANSFER APPROVED
Nesha screamed.
“No!”
Dymond pulled against her restraints.
“Take me!”
The needles moved deeper into my arms.
My heartbeat filled the room through speakers.
Simone smiled.
“An empire needs a key.”
The system began copying my biological pattern.
Memories flashed across the screens.
My childhood.
My mother’s funeral.
The birth of Jayce.
Amaya’s first steps.
My beauty supply store opening.
The Circle wasn’t only taking my blood.
It was taking me.
I heard my children’s voices.
Not recordings.
Memories pulled directly from my mind.
“Momma, wake up.”
“Momma, are you coming?”
“You promise?”
I fought the restraints.
“Stop!”
Nesha looked at Monica.
“Undo it!”
“I can’t.”
“You chose her!”
“To save you.”
“I don’t want to be saved like this!”
The transfer reached ten percent.
Dymond’s monitor began flashing.
Her blood still carried mine.
The system couldn’t separate us.
DUPLICATE GUARDIAN PATTERN DETECTED
RESOLUTION REQUIRED
A blade extended from Dymond’s chair.
It moved toward the artery in her neck.
The system intended to eliminate the duplicate.
“Dymond!” I screamed.
She twisted away.
The blade followed.
Monica rushed toward the control panel.
Simone blocked her.
“You created the conflict.”
“Stop the blade.”
“The system requires one guardian.”
“Choose me.”
Nesha froze.
I stared at Monica.
“What?”
“Take my bloodline,” Monica said.
“You are not eligible,” Simone replied.
“I am a founder.”
“You are Reed.”
“I carried Kendrick’s daughter.”
“Carrying Carter blood does not make you Carter.”
Monica looked toward Nesha.
“No.”
Her voice changed.
“But giving birth to Carter blood makes me part of its line.”
She cut her palm and pressed it against the original key.
The machine flashed.
MATERNAL BLOODLINE DETECTED
THIRD SELECTED PATTERN AVAILABLE
The blade near Dymond stopped.
My transfer froze at thirteen percent.
Monica looked toward her daughter.
“I left you once.”
Tears ran down Nesha’s face.
“Momma, don’t.”
“I won’t do it again.”
She pressed the final command.
The restraints around Nesha and Dymond released.
Mine stayed locked.
Monica’s chair rose from the floor behind her.
Steel closed around her wrists.
The system displayed:
REPLACEMENT GUARDIAN ACCEPTED
Nesha jumped from her chair.
“No!”
Monica looked at her.
“For once, let me protect you.”
The transfer moved from my body toward hers.
My restraints opened.
I fell onto the floor.
Nesha ran toward Monica, but a glass wall rose between them.
“Stop it!” Nesha screamed.
Monica placed her hand against the glass.
Nesha matched it from the other side.
“I’m sorry,” Monica whispered.
“For what?”
“Not coming back sooner.”
The transfer reached fifty percent.
Simone’s face began flickering.
Monica’s pattern replaced hers.
Circle House One shook.
Server lights turned red.
Meech’s voice came through the original key.
“Key! I’m inside the network!”
“How?”
“Serena found a maintenance link.”
“Shut it down!”
“I can’t while the guardian transfer is active.”
“Then stop the transfer!”
“That kills Monica.”
Nesha looked at me through tears.
“Find another way.”
The remaining-house countdown continued.
34 MINUTES
Monica’s transfer reached sixty-two percent.
Simone stepped toward the console.
“If Monica becomes guardian, the Circle survives through her.”
“No,” Monica said.
Her voice now came through every speaker.
“I didn’t replace Simone to control the Circle.”
The screens changed.
Files opened across the facility.
Names.
Videos.
Locations.
Every remaining secret.
“I replaced her so the system would obey one final command.”
Simone’s artificial body rushed toward the console.
Dymond tackled her.
They crashed into the glass.
Simone struck Dymond’s wounded side.
Dymond cried out.
I grabbed the artificial woman from behind.
Her skin felt warm.
Her strength wasn’t human.
She threw me across the room.
My shoulder struck the floor.
Pain blinded me.
Simone reached for the original key.
Nesha grabbed the blade from Dymond’s chair and drove it into the base of Simone’s neck.
Sparks exploded.
The artificial body froze.
Dymond kicked her away from the console.
Simone collapsed.
Her face continued moving.
“You cannot kill what exists in every system.”
Monica answered through the speakers.
“I can.”
Her transfer reached one hundred percent.
The room went silent.
Then Monica’s voice filled Circle House One.
“Final guardian command.”
Every screen waited.
Nesha pressed both hands against the glass.
“Momma.”
Monica looked at her daughter one last time.
“Release every child.”
The eleven Carter House locations flashed.
Locks opened.
Transfer vehicles shut down.
Children’s profiles disappeared from the registry.
“Erase every heir.”
Sixty-eight remaining names vanished.
Jayce.
Amaya.
Laila.
All gone.
“Expose every Circle member.”
Files uploaded across the world.
Government officials began receiving alerts.
News stations received documents.
Foreign accounts opened.
The Circle’s final protection disappeared.
Simone screamed through the broken artificial body.
“You will destroy everything!”
Monica smiled through the glass.
“That’s what mothers do when somebody threatens their children.”
She spoke the last command.
“Terminate Circle House One.”
A countdown appeared.
10:00
The facility alarms sounded.
Employees began running.
Doors unlocked throughout the underground complex.
“Monica, open the glass!” Nesha screamed.
“I can’t leave.”
“We’ll disconnect you.”
“The guardian must remain until termination completes.”
“Then cancel it!”
“No.”
“I just got you back!”
Monica’s face broke.
“I know.”
“You don’t get to leave me again!”
“I’m not leaving you with nothing.”
“I don’t want the seven million!”
“I’m not talking about money.”
Monica placed her hand against the glass again.
“I’m leaving you sisters.”
Nesha collapsed against the wall.
Dymond pulled at the door.
I grabbed the original key.
“Serena! Meech! Find an override!”
Meech’s voice answered.
“I’m trying.”
The countdown reached nine minutes.
Monica shook her head.
“There isn’t one.”
“There is always another way.”
“Not this time.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“You don’t have to.”
She looked toward me.
“You only have to get my daughter out.”
Nesha shook her head violently.
“No.”
I wrapped my arms around her.
She fought me.
“Let me go!”
“Nesha—”
“I’m not leaving her!”
Dymond grabbed Nesha’s other arm.
Together, we pulled her toward the exit.
Monica watched us.
Tears covered her face.
The elevator doors opened.
Serena and Karen stood inside.
Karen saw her sister’s digital body on the floor.
Then Monica behind the glass.
“What happened?”
“Monica became guardian,” I said.
Serena looked at the countdown.
“She activated termination.”
“Can you stop it?”
“Not from here.”
Nesha kicked at us.
“Put me down!”
Karen helped hold her.
“I’m sorry.”
“Everybody is always sorry after they ruin my life!”
The elevator carried us upward.
The last thing I saw was Monica standing alone inside the sacrifice room.
Her hand remained pressed against the glass.
The last thing Nesha heard was her mother’s voice through the speaker.
“I loved you every day I was gone.”
The elevator doors closed.
The countdown followed us toward the surface.
07:41
Circle House One was dying.
And Monica Reed was still inside.