Chapter 905
“Remote uplink,” Alistair said, examining the laptop. “Someone planted this.”
The large monitor on the wall flickered to life.
A face appeared. It was Celeste. But not the scarred, broken woman Skye had seen in the hospital. She wore a sleek, high-tech mask that covered the burnt half of her face, leaving only one cold blue eye visible.
“Hello, sister,” Celeste’s voice came through distorted and metallic. “Did you miss me?”
“Celeste,” Skye breathed. “Where are you?”
“Close enough to watch you bleed.” Celeste laughed softly. “Upload complete.”
“What did you do?” Skye demanded.
𝘞h𝘢𝘁 e𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺o𝗻e і𝗌 𝗋𝘦a𝖽𝗶𝘯𝗴 𝗈ո 𝗴𝘢𝗅𝘯𝗼𝘃𝘦𝘭𝗌.с𝗼𝘮
“I sent the Architect the location of the remaining gems,” Celeste said. “The Diamond, the Ruby, the Emerald. He knows where they are now.”
“Why?” Skye asked. “He destroyed you. He burned you. You helped us destroy the machine on Elysium because you hated him!”
“I hated him because he broke me,” Celeste whispered, her fingers drifting to the edge of her mask. “But the Architect made me an offer. It has medical schematics — nanotech that can rebuild tissue at the cellular level. It promised to give me my face back, Skye. My real face. All I had to do was give him the spare keys.”
“But the Sapphire is destroyed,” Skye argued. “The set is incomplete. He can’t run the core without all four.”
“The Architect is adaptable.” Celeste’s smile was chilling. “It doesn’t need the Sapphire to run the core anymore. It only needs the other three to triangulate the backup server. The Sapphire was the primary key, yes — but the others unlock the redundancy protocol. It’s a backdoor, Skye. And you just let him walk right through it.”
“It’s a lie!” Skye shouted. “He uses people, Celeste! He doesn’t fix them!”
“We’ll see,” Celeste said. Her image flickered. “Goodbye, Skye. Enjoy the fireworks.”
The screen went black.
Alistair was already at the console, scanning the logs. “She gave him the map. He knows the gems are in the safe house.”
“Then we have to move them,” Skye said. “Now.”
The convoy moved fast. Three armored SUVs tore through the rain-slicked streets of Sea City.
Skye sat in the middle vehicle, the case containing the gems handcuffed to her wrist.
“We’re exposed,” Alistair said, checking the mirrors. “This feels wrong.”
“We couldn’t leave them at Oracle,” Skye said. “Celeste compromised the security grid. The safe house is the only place with an analog vault.”
“Incoming!” Felix shouted from the lead car.
A rocket-propelled grenade streaked out of an alleyway.
It hit the lead car.
BOOM.
The SUV flipped into the air and landed in a ball of fire.
“Felix!” Skye screamed.
“Evasive maneuvers!” Alistair yanked the wheel hard.
Their SUV swerved, narrowly clearing the wreckage. Mercenaries poured out of the alleys, unleashing automatic weapons fire.
“It’s an ambush!” Alistair shouted. “Hold on!”
He drove onto the sidewalk, smashing through a bus stop. Bullets pinged off the armored glass.
“They want the gems!” Skye said, clutching the case tighter.
“They’re not getting them,” Alistair said.