The three figures watched Eliana without blinking.
The computerized voice returned.“State your directive.”
Eliana’s mind raced.
This wasn’t just a vault. It was control. Digital, centralized, terrifying control. Whoever commanded this system could sway votes, finances, narratives—everything the Shrine and its network touched. This was artificial intelligence, a relic of an era that didn’t exist anymore. Where AI told people what to think, and how to live.
Lydia wanted it.
The Reverence Sisters wanted it.
But she couldn’t allow the world to be controlled by a machine with no soul. One that had just told her what to do.
Use the knife.
Raquel turned to look at the Board. Eliana sucked in a breath, but the words disappeared off the screen. Raquel neversaw it. She was too busy staring at the Board of Governors like a zealot before an altar.
Eliana looked at the nearest server rack, with cables neatly bundled along the baseboards. Fiber lines. Power conduits. Redundant systems. She hardly even knew what she was looking at, but everything electronic had a power source. Every brain had a nerve center.
Raquel stepped closer, pressing the cold muzzle of the gun against Eliana’s ribs. “Say it.”
Eliana swallowed. “Lydia Rosenberg?—”
The Board leaned forward slightly. Or maybe it was just an illusion of a shift in perspective.
“—will never control the Board of Governors.”
Raquel’s eyes widened, and she screamed, “No!”
“Only I have authorization.”
Raquel rushed at her.
The system said,“Directive accepted.”
Eliana pivoted hard, slamming her elbow into Raquel’s wrist. The gun fired, the shot deafening in the enclosed space. The bullet ricocheted off metal with a ping. Eliana dropped low and rushed to the corner, snatching her knife from the floor where it had skidded earlier.
And drove it straight into the thick bundle of cables feeding the central rack.
Sparks exploded in a blinding flash.
The screens flickered.
Raquel screamed, “What are you doing?!”
Eliana ripped the blade sideways, sawing through insulation and wire. The computerized voice stuttered.
“Un—authorized—action?—”
The figures on the screen distorted, features stretched and pixelated.
“Stop!” Raquel lunged at her.
Eliana kicked backward, catching Raquel in the knee. The detective stumbled into a rack of servers just as a surge rippled through the system. Smoke poured from the server, filling the vault with the pungent tang of burning electronics.
Every light in the vault went white, blinking.
Then black. Dead.
