Backup generators kick in a second later.
Red emergency lights flood the room.
Alarms start screaming.
“She knows,” Wolf says.
“Yeah,” Marco’s voice crackles over the comms.
Calm.
Too calm.
“She just realized I was never outside.”
33
The Mother
The feed flickers.
Then dies.
My assistant stiffens beside the console.
“They’re inside.”
“Yes,” I say calmly.
“I allowed that.”
He glances at me, uncertain whether I’m joking.
I never joke.
I open my phone.
Still nothing from my son.
Interesting.
Too interesting.
I access the internal network and pull up the remaining camera feeds.
Most of them are already dark.
One flickers back for half a second.
I see the chair.
Empty.
My fingers still against the screen.
“No,” I say softly.
The door to the control room opens.
