Raquel cut her off. “I’ll just call Wallace right now and tell him to kill Carlos.”
“Okay!”
“Do it.” Raquel lifted her chin. “Activate it before Patience gets in here and does it for you. If that happens, we’re all dead.”
“What are you talking about?!” Eliana screamed.
She needed that security system from before, the one that had killed the young man, to activate again and kill the personwho was not supposed to be in here. But nothing had happened. Raquel was still standing in front of her, perfectly healthy, definitely not in danger of burning from the inside out.
Demanding she save Carlos’s life.
“The Board of Governors! That’s what I’m talking about,” Raquel yelled. “Just do it!”
The lights inside the vault switched off for a second, then turned back on.
Eliana heard a mechanism click into place, and the walls began to retreat back, then split into panels that rotated, opening like cupboard doors. Revealing circuitry, servers, and whirring computer hardware that Eliana couldn’t even begin to understand.
The lights on the displays flickered in different colors.
The walls retreated back between the racks of equipment as if they’d never been there. As if this wasn’t a vault, but some kind of computer room. A server. A mainframe.
Where are you, Maizie, when I need you?
Right, she was dealing with Patience—hopefully.
A computerized voice said,“State your name.”
Raquel waved the phone in her face.
Lord, help me.
She took a breath and said, “Eliana Hope Banbury Jaxton.”
What was the back wall now flickered into an LED display that looked like a giant TV. The screen displayed three figures—just a head and shoulders in office attire. Each of the faces looked airbrushed. Just a little bit too soft to be real. Just a little bit too artificial.
To the left, an older man stared at them. He blinked, pronounced eyebrows giving his forehead a top-heavy feel to his face.
In the center was a woman who looked like a younger version of her grandmother, but not quite the same. She had graystrands in her dark hair and wore a blue dress shirt. A tiny gold chain between the open top button.
On the right, the man had dark skin and dark eyes that looked like two black pools. From his eyes spread lines in his skin. But there was something timeless about him.
These were not real people.
“The Board of Governors,” Raquel breathed. She spun to Eliana. “Now tell them that Lydia Rosenberg will be giving them orders from now on. Tell them she’s in charge.”
Behind Raquel’s back, words showed on the screen, scrolling past beneath the people. A message meant for Eliana.
It’s time to use that knife.
Chapter Forty-One
Eliana stared at the words scrolling beneath the three figures.
It’s time to use that knife.
Her pulse thundered in her ears.
Raquel didn’t see it. “Do it,” she hissed. “Tell them Lydia Rosenberg is in charge.”
