“Ah, yes,” Gabriel scoffed. “Abandoning one fool’s dream for another. Tell me, Uriel, how fare your efforts with the Libertas virus? When exactly will you be raising your logika army to wipe humanity from the face of the earth?”
“We have had our successes, dear brother,” Verity replied. “More than you.”
“Just because you can utilize Libertas doesn’t mean you can replicate it,” Gabriel sneered. “The original stockpile of the virus Monrova created is all but gone. And I presume by the lack of a mechanical legion at your back, dear sister, you’ve failed to synthesize more.”
“At least we are walking forward,” Verity snapped. “While you wallow here in your human delusions. Tell me, Gabriel, if you ever do crack Myriad’s defenses and raise Grace from the grave, what then? Move to a lovely little condominium in Megopolis, perhaps? Build yourself two point five children and play the weekly lottery and pretend to be a cockroach like them? Is that your dream?”
“Don’t push me, sister,” Gabriel spat.
“Don’t threaten me, brother,” Verity replied.
Over by the window, Patience shook her head and sighed. “This is pointless.”
The lifelike scowled about the room at her siblings, then marched toward the boardroom door. Eve took a step forward, hand outstretched.
“Patience, stop.”
“You might still suffer under the delusion you’re human, deadgirl,” the lifelike replied, not breaking stride. “But you don’t tell me what to do.”
Eve leapt over the table, stood in front of Patience to block her exit. The lifelike raised her hand, ready to backhand the girl aside. All the strength and speed of her superior bioengineering turned her hand into a blur, whistling as it came, faster than a human eye could track.
And Eve blocked the slap.
Patience’s eyes widened as Eve’s fingers closed around her wrist, her knuckles turning white. The lifelike tried to snatch her hand free, but Eve held on, her grip like iron. Eve pulled her closer, their faces just a few inches apart.
“Get this straight, sister,” Eve said. “I’ve got no delusions about what I am.”
Uriel’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t understand. You were made to blend in with humanity. The Ana we took to that cell was no match for a lifelike. She was weak by design. Just as human and frail as the rest of them.”
“My name isn’t Ana. It’s Eve.”
Patience tried to break free again, and Eve finally released her grip. The lifelike looked down at her wrist, the skin already bruising. The pair locked eyes, a silent battle crackling between them. Patience finally inclined her head.
“Speak your piece, then,” she said. “Sister.”
Eve turned to the room, looking around at her siblings.
“You destroyed this Corporation,” she said. “You destroyed this city. Tens of thousands ghosted. The balance between Gnosis and Daedalus and BioMaas thrown into chaos, the country set to fall into another war. And for what?”
Uriel sighed. “If you’re trying to convince us we overstepped—”
“No,” Eve said, her voice hard as iron. “Nicholas Monrova was a man playing god. We were all born on our knees, one way or another. I’m not saying you went too far, Uriel. I’m saying you didn’t go far enough.”
She pointed to the window.
“Look at the world they created. Humanity is a failed experiment, running face-first toward its own extinction. They’re the past. We’re the future.”
Uriel leaned back in his chair, a small smile on his lips. “We appreciate the lecture, little sister. Truly. And given that you’re but newly awakened to who and what you are, I’m impressed you’ve arrived at these conclusions so quickly. But we drew them ourselves, years ago.”
“And what’ve you done since then?” Eve demanded. “As soon as you ghosted your common enemy, you turned to scrapping on each other like stray dogs. There’s nobody like us in all the world. Don’t you get it? We’re all we’ve got. And we want the same thing. Gabriel wants to create more of us. You three want to produce more of the Libertas virus. And the secret to all that’s right under our feet.”
“Gabriel has been trying to unlock the Myriad supercomputer for years,” Verity sighed, shooting a poison glance at her brother. “And he’s failed.”
“Two of the locks are broken now, thanks to me,” Eve said. “Retinal scan. Voice ident. We’re halfway home.”
“But without Monrova DNA, we cannot break the third lock,” Uriel said. “And our maker and his family are dead.”
“Not all of them,” Eve said. “Myriad told me Ana’s still alive. She was hurt bad in the explosion that ghosted Grace. Monrova put his precious baby girl on life support, created me to replace her.” Eve’s lip curled, her hands clenching to fists at the thought. “But she’s alive. Out there in a Gnosis holding facility somewhere. And nobody knew Monrova better than his precious baby girl.” She tapped her temple. “Nobody knows better than me where he might have hidden her.”
Eve looked at Gabriel. Then to Uriel.
“We find her, you all get what you want. The secret to resurrecting Grace. Raph. All of those we’ve lost. Along with the ability to make more of us. Plus, we get access to Monrova’s files on Libertas. We can replicate the virus—enough to infect every bot in the country. Think of it. An army of lifelikes and logika. Once the servants. Now the masters. Nothing will be able stop us. Nothing.”
Uriel looked about the room. Fingertips steepled under his chin once more.
“And what about you, sister?” he finally asked. “What do you want out of this?”
Eve took a deep breath, pursed her lips.
She’d wondered the very same thing.
She thought about the lies that had led her here. The hubris of creating a life for your own selfish ends. The humans who’d built her. Manipulated her. Never once stopping to ask how she felt, what she thought, what she wanted. The arrogance and greed. The cycle of war. The oceans poisoned black. The flowers all dead.
No.
That’s not it.
The voice inside her head, the echo of the girl she’d been raised to be, was screaming that this was madness, this was hubris, this was wrong wrong wrong. Like a splinter in her mind, digging deeper the more she picked at it. She was frightened of it. Infuriated by it. And she knew of only one way it would end. One way to silence the screams of protest, strangle the emotions that didn’t belong to her, erase the memories of a life that wasn’t hers. To finally, truly become Eve, and rid herself of daddy’s precious baby girl.