Chapter 19 - MY MOTHER’S REAL VOICE
Teresa looked directly into the camera.
She had the same dark eyes I saw every morning in the mirror.
But there was nothing maternal in them now.
“Your entire life has prepared you for this moment,” she said. “Do not disappoint me by pretending you have a choice.”
Amy pulled against the restraints.
“Connor, don’t come here.”
Teresa pressed the syringe against the side of Amy’s neck.
Adrian moved closer to the laptop.
“What is in that syringe?”
Teresa’s mouth curved slightly.
“You know exactly what it is, Adrian.”
He whispered one word.
“Helix.”
I looked at him.
“What does Helix do?”
“It strengthens neural receptivity.”
“English.”
“It makes the brain vulnerable to imposed patterns.”
“Mind control?”
“No. Not exactly.”
Teresa laughed through the speakers.
“Still hiding behind technical language after all these years?”
Adrian’s hands curled against the countertop.
“Helix was unstable.”
“It was incomplete,” Teresa corrected. “Connor completed it without knowing.”
She nodded toward me.
“His trust algorithm solved the adaptive resistance problem.”
The video feed split into multiple windows.
One showed the mountain facility.
Another showed Amy’s heart rate.
A third displayed lines of software code.
My code.
Sections had been copied from the model I created to detect cascade failures in autonomous systems.
They had converted it into a neurological prediction engine.
“You used my thesis to rewrite human behavior,” I said.
Teresa smiled.
“I gave your brilliance a purpose.”
“You stole it.”
“I funded it.”
“I earned every scholarship.”
“Through foundations I created.”
My hands went cold.
The trust fund.
The anonymous grants.
The research sponsorship.
Every opportunity I believed I had fought to earn had been shaped by invisible hands.
“What do you want me to take over?” I asked.
“The Continuity Program.”
Adrian stepped in front of the camera.
“It ends tonight.”
Teresa’s expression sharpened.
“You lost the right to make that decision when you tried to destroy our work.”
“Our work was meant to heal trauma.”
“Our work was meant to free humanity from chaotic choice.”
Amy looked toward the camera.
“Connor, she needs you physically present. The system won’t activate without your biometric key.”
Teresa struck her across the face.
I moved toward the screen before remembering I could not reach her.
My mother saw the reaction and smiled.
“There he is. Subject One. Predictable through attachment.”
She ended the feed.
A countdown replaced the image.
05:59:59.
Six hours.
Adrian opened the MOUNTAIN FACILITY folder and pulled up architectural plans.
“There is an old service tunnel beneath the western ridge.”
“You’re not coming.”
“I designed the original building.”
“And Teresa knows that.”
“She believes I’m still useful.”
“She called you a failure.”
“She has called me worse.”
I looked at Amy’s empty chair on the frozen video frame.
“I need weapons.”
“You need access.”
“I need both.”
Adrian closed the laptop.
“I know someone who can give us both.”
“Who?”
He hesitated.
Then he said the last name I expected.
“Your adoptive father.”
May you like
Daniel Mercer had been dead for six years.
📖 Adrian claims the man who raised Connor may also be alive, forcing Connor to question whether anyone in his family ever truly died. 👇
