Chapter 16 - The Offer.
Nolan let the phone ring four times before answering.
No number appeared on the screen.
No location data appeared either.
He switched to speaker.
“Price.”
A calm synthetic voice answered.
“Candidate accepted.”
Nolan looked at the others.
“I did not accept anything.”
“Candidate accepted.”
The voice repeated the phrase exactly.
Then a new message appeared on his phone.
COME TO 17 MERCER STREET.
ALONE.
Mara stared at the address.
“Seventeen again.”
Eleanor nodded.
“Voss liked using meaningful numbers as if that made him clever.”
Marcus searched the property.
“Mercer Street is an old Vale data center.”
Kane frowned.
“That site was decommissioned ten years ago.”
“Which means it is probably fully operational,” Mara said.
Adrian looked at Nolan.
“You are not going alone.”
Mara gave him a sideways look.
Adrian sighed.
“I am aware of the hypocrisy.”
Nolan put the phone down.
“If Mirror expects me alone, we use that.”
Marcus shook his head.
“No.”
Nolan looked at him.
“You just spent two hours wondering whether I was the problem.”
“I can distrust you and still object to you walking into a trap.”
“That is surprisingly touching.”
“Don't ruin it.”
Mara looked at the trust timer.
Ninety-three minutes remained.
“If Nolan ignores the invitation, what happens?”
Celeste answered.
“We don't know.”
Mara pointed at her.
“That phrase should be banned from this room.”
Eleanor moved to the window.
“The candidate stage is designed to tempt whoever believes they deserve control.”
“What would it offer?” Marcus asked.
“Protection.”
“Access.”
“Leverage.”
Eleanor looked at Adrian.
“Everything your family spent generations confusing with power.”
Adrian did not argue.
Nolan's phone displayed another message.
YOUR FATHER LEFT SOMETHING FOR YOU.
His face changed.
Marcus saw it.
“That is bait.”
“I know.”
“Good.”
“I am still going.”
“Less good.”
Mara stood.
“We all go, but Mirror sees only Nolan.”
Adrian studied her.
“You have a plan.”
“I have the beginning of one.”
“That is not reassuring.”
“Now you know how everyone else feels around you.”
Twenty minutes later, Nolan entered the Mercer Street building alone.
At least that was what the exterior cameras saw.
Marcus had looped the loading-dock feed for eleven seconds.
Adrian, Mara, and Kane entered through the rear service corridor.
Eleanor and Celeste stayed outside with the shutdown keys.
No one liked separating them.
No one had time to invent a better option.
The data center looked abandoned on the first floor.
Dust covered the reception desk.
Old company logos peeled from the walls.
The elevator, however, recognized Nolan immediately.
The doors opened before he pressed a button.
A voice came through the ceiling speaker.
“Welcome, Nolan.”
He stepped inside.
The elevator descended.
There were no basement floors on the building plan.
Adrian watched through a maintenance monitor from the service room.
Mara stood beside him.
“You're doing the jaw thing.”
“What jaw thing?”
“The one where you look like you're trying to intimidate architecture.”
He glanced at her.
“I am concerned.”
“You could say that like a normal person.”
“I just did.”
Mara almost smiled.
The elevator stopped.
Nolan entered a brightly lit server room.
At the center stood a single desk with an old computer terminal.
The screen displayed a photograph of Elias Hart.
Nolan stopped.
“Dad.”
A recorded message began.
Elias looked directly into the camera.
“If you are seeing this, then Mirror chose you.”
Nolan's eyes filled despite himself.
“That does not mean you earned it.”
Marcus listened through Nolan's open microphone from the van outside.
Elias continued.
“It means the system thinks you are vulnerable to the same thing I was.”
Nolan whispered.
“Which is?”
The recording answered as if it had heard him.
“The belief that you can control a dangerous system better than the person who had it before you.”
Nolan closed his eyes.
Elias's image changed to a diagram.
Three keys appeared.
“The candidate has two choices.”
“Assume control.”
“Or open the termination path.”
Mara leaned toward Adrian.
“That sounds too easy.”
“It is.”
The terminal showed two options.
CONTROL.
TERMINATE.
Nolan moved the cursor toward TERMINATE.
The screen flashed red.
BENEFICIARY ACTION REQUIRED FIRST.
Mara looked at the timer on her phone.
Fifty-eight minutes.
She understood.
“Mirror is waiting for my vote.”
Adrian nodded.
“And if you vote before we know what the termination path requires?”
“We lose whatever advantage we have.”
Nolan's terminal changed again.
A live video appeared.
Thomas Ellis sat in a windowless room somewhere else.
Mara stepped closer to the monitor.
“Dad.”
Thomas looked directly toward Nolan's camera.
“Tell Mara not to trust the offer.”
Mara's phone rang.
Unknown caller.
She answered.
Eleanor's voice came through.
“Mara, get out of that building.”
“What happened?”
“Celeste is gone.”
Mara's stomach dropped.
“What do you mean gone?”
“I mean she left me standing beside the car with two of the three shutdown pieces.”
Adrian turned toward her.
Eleanor continued.
“And she took the black card.”
Mara looked at the basement monitor.
Thomas's image remained on-screen.
He suddenly turned toward someone outside the camera frame.
His face changed.
A woman walked into view.
Celeste.
Mara whispered.
“Mom?”
Celeste looked into the camera.
Then she said one sentence.
May you like
“I'm sorry, Mara, but I can't let you terminate Mirror.”
THE SYNDICATE'S QUIET HOUR
