CHAPTER 28
All Three Leave
Circle House One was dying.
And Monica Reed was still inside.
The elevator climbed toward the surface while the termination countdown followed us on every screen.
07:32
07:31
07:30
Nesha fought against all four of us.
“Let me go!”
“You can’t save her,” Serena said.
“You don’t know that!”
“The guardian cannot leave during termination.”
“You said nobody ever tried.”
“I said nobody ever succeeded.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
She kicked backward.
Her heel struck the elevator wall.
Fresh blood spread through her bandage.
“Nesha, stop!” I shouted.
“That’s my mother!”
“She made her choice.”
“I didn’t ask her to!”
Neither had I.
Monica chose me as guardian before replacing me.
She made another decision for her daughter without asking what Nesha wanted.
The first time, she disappeared.
The second time, she stayed behind.
Both choices were meant to save Nesha.
Both broke her anyway.
Dymond pressed one hand against the wound in her side.
“We need to go back.”
Serena stared at her.
“You can barely breathe.”
“So can everybody else in this family.”
Karen looked toward the countdown.
“Six minutes until we reach the surface.”
“We have seven,” I said.
“And it will take three to return to the sacrifice room.”
“Then we have one minute to free her.”
“You’re talking about tricking a biological system built beneath Washington.”
“Meech has done harder things.”
His voice came through the elevator speaker.
“I appreciate the confidence, but I’d like to hear the plan before my reputation kills us.”
The elevator continued climbing.
I pressed the emergency stop.
It jerked between floors.
“We have Simone’s artificial body,” I said.
Serena understood first.
“No.”
“What?”
“The system requires a living guardian.”
“Simone wasn’t alive.”
“Her body wasn’t. Her biological pattern remained active through the original host tissue inside the master server.”
“Then connect the artificial body to Monica’s pattern.”
“It won’t fool the system.”
“Can it fool it for ten minutes?”
Meech became quiet.
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“How much of Monica’s biological pattern was copied during transfer.”
“One hundred percent.”
“Heartbeat?”
“Yes.”
“Brain activity?”
“Yes.”
“Voice?”
“Yes.”
“Then maybe.”
Nesha stopped fighting.
“What would happen to my mother?”
“If we disconnect her before the replacement pattern stabilizes, she could survive.”
“Could?”
“There’s a chance her heart stops.”
“A chance is enough.”
Serena shook her head.
“The original key is still inside the sacrifice room.”
“We need it anyway,” I said.
“To shut down the eleven houses?”
“They’re already closing.”
“To erase Circle access permanently.”
I looked at the countdown.
06:42
“We’re going back.”
Karen pressed the elevator control.
Nothing happened.
“The termination system locked the lower floors.”
Meech spoke through the speaker.
“I can release the brakes.”
“Do it.”
“If I’m wrong, the elevator drops thirty floors.”
Tasha would have said something smart.
Nesha would have rolled her eyes.
Nobody had enough breath left.
“Do it,” I repeated.
The lights shut off.
The elevator dropped.
Nesha screamed.
My stomach rose into my chest.
Then the brakes caught.
We stopped three floors lower.
Serena grabbed the wall.
“That wasn’t thirty.”
“Give it time,” Meech answered.
The elevator descended again.
Faster.
Every few floors, the brakes caught before releasing.
Dymond sank into the corner.
Her face had gone pale.
I crouched beside her.
“You still with me?”
“Unfortunately.”
“You can stay in the elevator.”
“You can shut up.”
“You were friendlier unconscious.”
“You were quieter.”
The countdown reached five minutes.
We reached the sacrifice level with four minutes and twenty-eight seconds remaining.
The doors opened.
Smoke filled the corridor.
Employees rushed toward emergency exits.
Nobody tried to stop us.
Their organization had spent decades teaching them loyalty.
The moment survival became personal, loyalty disappeared.
We ran toward the circular room.
Nesha moved between Karen and Serena.
Dymond leaned on me.
Meech guided us through the speakers.
“Simone’s artificial body is still connected to the floor network.”
We entered the sacrifice room.
The glass wall remained in place.
Monica sat behind it with her eyes closed.
The original key floated above the center console.
“Momma!” Nesha screamed.
Monica’s eyes opened.
“You came back.”
“You sound surprised.”
“I ordered the elevator to take you out.”
“We stopped listening to orders.”
Monica smiled weakly.
“My daughter.”
“Open the glass.”
“I can’t.”
“Then tell us how.”
“There is no way.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It’s the only one I have.”
Nesha pressed her hand against the barrier.
“I’m not losing you again.”
“You never had me.”
“I could.”
Monica’s face cracked.
The countdown reached three minutes.
Serena dragged Simone’s artificial body toward the console.
Its eyes still moved.
The damaged neck released sparks.
“You cannot replace a living guardian with a dead vessel,” Simone said.
“We don’t need it to live,” Meech replied through the speakers. “We need it to lie.”
Serena opened a panel at the base of Simone’s neck.
Wires surrounded a piece of tissue preserved inside a glass tube.
“Is that part of her brain?” Karen asked.
“My original neural sample,” Simone answered.
Serena’s hand froze.
The computer sounded like her sister.
Looked like her sister.
Contained part of her sister.
But it wasn’t the woman Serena had killed.
It was the part the Circle refused to let die.
“Remove it,” Meech said.
Serena pulled the tube free.
Simone’s artificial body went limp.
Every light inside the room flashed red.
FORMER GUARDIAN DISCONNECTED
CURRENT GUARDIAN: MONICA REED
“Connect the tissue to the original key,” Meech instructed.
“How?”
“Blood port beneath the silver circle.”
Serena opened the device.
A narrow slot appeared.
She inserted the neural tube.
The key flashed.
SECOND GUARDIAN PATTERN DETECTED
INVALID
“What now?” I asked.
“I need Monica’s pattern.”
Nesha looked toward her mother.
“How do we get it?”
Monica slowly raised one hand.
A tube ran from her arm into the chair.
“My blood line.”
“But the glass—”
“The emergency drawer beneath the console.”
I opened it.
Inside were three medical tubes.
One extended through the wall to Monica’s chair.
I connected it to the original key.
Her blood moved into the device.
MONICA REED PATTERN DETECTED
DUPLICATE GUARDIAN AVAILABLE
The countdown reached two minutes.
Meech typed remotely.
The screens filled with Monica’s heartbeat.
Her memories.
Her voice.
The artificial body opened its eyes.
But Monica’s voice came from its mouth.
“Nesha.”
Nesha stepped back.
The real Monica stared at the copy.
“What did you do?”
“We created a backup,” I said.
“A backup is not living.”
“The system doesn’t know that yet.”
Meech transferred Monica’s pattern into the artificial body.
GUARDIAN MIGRATION IN PROGRESS
10%
21%
35%
The termination countdown reached ninety seconds.
Both Monicas began speaking at the same time.
“I left you because I was afraid.”
Nesha looked between them.
“I watched every birthday from a distance.”
Images filled the screens.
Nesha at six.
Ten.
Sixteen.
Graduation.
Her first day working at my store.
Monica had watched.
Hidden.
Silent.
Present without ever being there.
“I knew Keyshia was your sister before you met her.”
Nesha wiped her face.
“Did you arrange it?”
“No.”
“Then how did we meet?”
“Kendrick.”
The transfer reached sixty percent.
“He sent you to Keyshia’s store?”
“He sent both of you there.”
I remembered the day Nesha walked into my beauty supply store asking for a job.
She made me laugh during the interview.
I hired her even though she had no experience.
Kendrick had placed us in the same room.
But he hadn’t created what followed.
The late-night conversations.
The fights.
The laughter.
The years she helped me raise my children.
He introduced us.
We chose each other.
The transfer reached eighty percent.
The glass wall lowered.
Nesha rushed inside.
She began disconnecting the tubes from Monica’s body.
“Wait,” Serena warned. “The migration isn’t complete.”
The countdown reached forty-five seconds.
“We don’t have time.”
Nesha removed the final line.
Monica’s body convulsed.
Her heart monitor flattened.
“No!”
Nesha pressed both hands against her chest.
“Momma!”
Karen began compressions.
Serena injected medication into Monica’s IV.
The artificial body continued speaking with her voice.
“I’m sorry.”
“Shut it off!” Nesha screamed.
“I can’t,” Meech said.
“Then make it stop sounding like her!”
The transfer reached one hundred percent.
REPLACEMENT GUARDIAN ACCEPTED
The countdown stopped at twenty-two seconds.
For one moment, hope filled the room.
Then another timer appeared.
PHYSICAL TERMINATION WILL CONTINUE
00:21
The facility was still going to destroy itself.
“We need to move!” I shouted.
Karen and Serena lifted Monica.
Nesha supported her mother’s head.
Dymond grabbed the original key.
The artificial body remained inside the chair.
Its eyes followed us.
Monica’s copied voice filled the speakers.
“Go.”
We ran.
Smoke covered the corridor.
Ceiling panels fell.
The elevator doors wouldn’t open.
“Stairs!” Serena shouted.
We entered the emergency stairwell.
Thirty-five levels.
Twenty seconds.
Impossible.
Meech’s voice came through the key.
“There’s an evacuation tunnel on level thirty-two!”
“That’s three floors up!”
We climbed.
Dymond nearly collapsed on the first landing.
I pulled her arm around my shoulder.
Karen and Serena carried Monica.
Nesha stayed beside them.
The countdown reached ten seconds.
We reached level thirty-two.
No tunnel.
Only a blank wall.
“Where?” I screamed.
“Behind the foundation seal!”
A gold symbol covered the concrete.
Dymond pressed the original key against it.
The wall opened.
Cold air rushed toward us.
We entered.
The door sealed behind us.
Circle House One exploded.
The blast threw us through the tunnel.
Lights shattered.
Concrete cracked.
The floor lifted beneath my feet.
I lost Dymond.
My head struck the wall.
Darkness swallowed me.
???
I woke to Nesha screaming.
“Breathe!”