Chapter 13 - The Sister Who Learned to Predict Everyone
Anna survived surgery.
Mara disappeared again.
This time, I stopped thinking of my sister as an ally.
Anna explained what happened after Kandahar.
Mara discovered something horrifying.
ORACLE worked.
Not perfectly.
But well enough.
She became obsessed with the idea that a better version could identify wars before they began, detect terrorist cells before attacks, predict corruption, prevent massacres.
“You called that obsession once too,” Anna told me.
She was right.
The difference was that I eventually walked away.
Mara never did.
She wanted control of ORACLE because she believed only someone incorruptible should possess it.
And like every person who believes they alone are incorruptible, she stopped noticing what she was becoming.
“Did she order Lily attacked?”
Anna shook her head.
“No.”
“Who mailed the drive?”
“I gave it to someone I trusted.”
“Who?”
Before she answered, the hospital alarms sounded.
Her room locked automatically.
Smoke flooded the corridor.
Specter moved instantly.
Kane secured Lily.
Chen killed the electronic locks.
Reyes covered the stairwell.
Brooks stayed with Anna.
Then one gunshot.
When I reached the room, Brooks was on the floor.
Anna was gone.
Window open.
A climbing line hanging outside.
Brooks had been shot in the vest.
Alive.
“Who took her?”
She gasped.
“Mara.”
But camera footage showed something different.
Anna climbed willingly.
No struggle.
No weapon against her.
Another lie.
Or another alliance.
My phone rang.
Mara.
“Meet me where Specter began.”
I knew the place.
An abandoned training facility beneath Fort Halden, officially demolished fifteen years earlier.
“You have Anna?”
“She has herself.”
“What does that mean?”
“You still think there are good people and bad people in this story, Danny.”
“Lily was beaten half to death.”
“And I will make everyone responsible answer for it.”
“How?”
“By finishing ORACLE.”
I looked at my daughter.
“No.”
Mara laughed sadly.
“You already used it.”
I froze.
“The intelligence Reyes gave you. The bank links. The behavior maps. The predictions about the families. Where do you think they came from?”
I turned toward Reyes.
He looked sick.
Specter had been receiving anonymous intelligence since activation.
We thought old contacts were helping.
ORACLE had been guiding us.
Every move.
Every suspect.
Every discovery.
The machine had been telling us where to look.
And I had followed.
Mara whispered:
“You weren’t hunting ORACLE.”
“ORACLE was training you to trust it.”
Then she disconnected.
Lily stared at me.
“Dad…”
“What?”
She looked toward Reyes.
“Who activated Specter before you called?”
Silence.
Chen checked the server.
May you like
Task Force Specter’s dormant communication network had awakened four minutes before I dialed the challenge coin number.
Someone knew I was going to call before I called.
