Chapter 18: Fathers and Children
Reed took control of the aircraft cabin in less than ten seconds.
He freed Senator Price and forced the pilots to maintain course toward the Sovereign.
Price appeared terrified.
Whatever agreement once united their fathers had collapsed in the sons.
The live feed had no audio, but their argument was obvious.
Price pointed toward the navigation display.
Reed struck him and dragged him toward a biometric console.
He intended to force political authorization just as we had forced Adrian’s hand onto the family charter.
The Circle repeated itself endlessly.
Fathers built cages.
Children inherited keys.
Cross attempted to alter the aircraft’s landing sequence through my operational code.
Reed blocked every request.
The Sovereign prepared a helipad automatically.
“We can disable the landing deck,” Rachel said.
“The aircraft may crash,” Vanessa replied.
“Reed will not allow that.”
“Reed may sacrifice everyone aboard.”
Victor watched the feed.
“He will not sacrifice Price until authorization transfers.”
“How long does the transfer require?” I asked.
“Three minutes of continuous pulse confirmation.”
“Then we separate them after landing.”
Adrian leaned forward against his restraints.
“You will never reach Reed. The ship will lock every door between the helipad and bridge.”
Cross examined the vessel map.
“He is right.”
“Can you create an open route?”
“Temporarily.”
Victor looked toward the map.
“There is another route.”
No one trusted the offer.
He continued.
“The founder’s escape channel runs through the exhaust system. Harbinger cannot seal it because the system requires continuous cooling.”
“Where does it end?”
“Beneath the landing deck.”
I ordered Rachel to remain with Adrian and Vanessa.
Cross and I entered the exhaust channel.
Victor insisted on coming.
“You are injured,” I said.
“Reed will not transfer control while I remain alive.”
“Your family authority is gone.”
“My biometric identity still contains emergency veto.”
That was the first time he mentioned it.
“You hid another control.”
“I built redundancies.”
“You built excuses.”
Still, we needed the veto.
The exhaust channel was narrow and hot.
Victor struggled.
Cross moved ahead.
The aircraft landed above us.
Harbinger sealed the upper decks.
Reed’s men exited first.
Price followed with a restraint around his wrist.
The political-transfer countdown began.
Three minutes.
We opened a maintenance hatch beneath the deck.
Cross disabled two guards.
I reached the stairwell before it sealed.
Victor followed more slowly.
Reed dragged Price toward the command chamber.
“Thomas!” Victor shouted.
Reed stopped.
For a moment, the two men looked less like global conspirators and more like aging sons confronting the inheritance they had failed to master.
“You should have died in the convoy,” Reed said.
“You should have died beneath the pier.”
“We both disappoint easily.”
Price struggled.
“End this. The government will negotiate.”
Reed looked at him.
“The government is the reason this cannot be negotiated.”
He forced Price’s hand against the scanner.
Two minutes.
I raised my weapon.
“Release him.”
Reed smiled faintly.
“At the gala, I told Victor you had not returned alone.”
“You meant yourself.”
“I meant history.”
“You used me.”
“I gave you the opportunity to destroy the family that destroyed you.”
“You killed people to force that opportunity.”
“Adrian killed them.”
“You aimed him.”
“I revealed his father’s crimes. His choices were his own.”
“That is the excuse my father used for every person Harbinger killed.”
Victor stepped beside me.
Reed looked between us.
“You stand with him now?”
“I stand against you.”
“Then you have learned nothing.”
“No. I learned that uniforms do not make cruelty noble.”
One minute.
Cross moved toward the satellite console.
Reed fired.
The bullet struck Cross in the shoulder.
I returned fire.
Reed took cover behind Price.
Victor approached the emergency veto panel.
Reed shot him in the abdomen.
My father fell.
For one second, everything stopped.
Victor pressed his bloody hand against the veto scanner.
The system identified him.
FORMER CORPORATE AUTHORITY.
EMERGENCY CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.
Reed’s transfer paused.
He turned toward Victor.
“You always needed the final word.”
Victor smiled through pain.
“It is the only thing worth owning.”
He activated the challenge.
Harbinger required Reed and Victor to answer a founding security question.
WHAT IS THE COST OF CONTROL?
Reed entered: SACRIFICE.
Victor looked at me.
“That was Henry’s answer.”
“What is yours?”
He pressed the letters slowly.
FEAR.
The system rejected both.
Price laughed despite the gun at his head.
“You fools.”
He entered a third answer.
CONSENT.
The system accepted.
For the first time, Senator Price possessed the controlling response.
Political authority transferred to him.
Reed’s face changed.
Price pulled free and activated the weapon systems.
Every automated gun on the Sovereign turned toward Reed’s men.
“Lower your weapons,” Price ordered.
They obeyed.
He faced us.
“My father wrote that question. Neither the military nor corporations can rule openly without convincing the public to accept control.”
“You plan to keep Harbinger,” I said.
“I plan to restore order.”
Reed laughed.
“Edward always believed speeches made him superior.”
Price raised the gun toward him.
“Your father died believing admirals should rule presidents.”
“And yours died believing elections could disguise ownership.”
Victor continued bleeding beside the panel.
Cross crawled toward the satellite controls.
Price noticed.
He fired.
Vanessa stepped through the bridge door and took the bullet in her body armor.
Rachel entered behind her.
Adrian was no longer with them.
“Where is my brother?” I asked.
An alarm answered.
Adrian had reached the engine core.
He appeared on a maintenance camera beside the central reactor controls.
“If I cannot own Harbinger,” he said through the speakers, “no one will.”
He activated overload.
The Sovereign’s reactor temperature rose.
Price’s political authority could control the global system.
It could not stop the physical destruction of the ship.
Cross examined the countdown.
“Ten minutes to core breach.”
“What happens to Harbinger if the Sovereign is destroyed?” Rachel asked.
Price answered.
“Political authority transfers to every connected national system.”
The weapon would fragment permanently.
Governments around the world would gain independent control.
May you like
Adrian smiled on the screen.
“Let them all become monsters.”
