The project had been dead for twenty-two years. So why did its final file contain a photograph of her?
CHAPTER 9
The shooting lasted less than a minute.
Then silence.
Daniel led them through a hidden tunnel beneath the station.
At the end was a bunker filled with equipment.
Screens.
Servers.
Documents.
Maps.
Nora stared.
“This is Bellwether.”
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
He looked at the machines.
“This is what Bellwether became.”
The system was still operating.
Only now it was privately funded.
Its database contained millions of Americans.
Nora found names of journalists.
Judges.
Activists.
Business owners.
Politicians.
Ordinary citizens.
“Why are they monitoring all these people?”
Daniel looked at her.
“Because prediction is no longer the goal.”
“What is?”
“Prevention.”
Nora frowned.
“Prevention of what?”
“Anything they consider dangerous.”
She opened another file.
A list titled:
VARIABLES CAPABLE OF DISRUPTING PREDICTIVE CONTROL.
There were only nineteen names.
Her mother’s was number one.
Daniel’s was number two.
Nora’s was number three.
Ethan looked at the list.
“My brother.”
His name was number four.
Nora turned toward him.
Daniel nodded.
“Your brother discovered the system years after I disappeared.”
Ethan’s face hardened.
“You knew?”
“I tried to warn him.”
“Why didn’t you save him?”
Daniel looked devastated.
“Because by then, Bellwether had already predicted his death.”
Ethan stepped toward him.
“You let him die?”
“No.”
Daniel’s voice cracked.
“I tried to change the prediction.”
He pointed at the screen.
“The system predicted you would expose Bellwether.”
Ethan stared.
“And?”
Daniel looked at Nora.
“That’s why I kept looking for you.”
Nora suddenly understood.
Her entire life had been shaped by a war she didn’t know existed.
Then a new alert appeared on the screen.
SUBJECT 003 LOCATION CONFIRMED.
Nora’s blood froze.
Daniel whispered:
“They found us.”
A video automatically appeared.
Senator Richard Hale looked directly into the camera.
He smiled.
“Nora.”
She stepped closer.
Hale continued.
“You’ve spent your entire life believing your father abandoned you.”
He paused.
“He didn’t.”
“He was afraid.”
Hale leaned forward.
“But not of me.”
His smile disappeared.
“He was afraid of what you would become.”
