Chapter 11 - ADRIAN COLE RETURNSCole walked slowly into the moonlight.
He looked older than Robert remembered.
But his eyes were unchanged.
Cold.
Intelligent.
Patient.
“You really thought I died?”
Robert aimed his weapon.
“You should have.”
Cole smiled.
“You still think this is about revenge.”
“What is it about?”
“Correction.”
Cole looked at Emily.
“She was never supposed to exist.”
Robert stepped in front of her.
“She exists.”
“And that's why everything has gone wrong.”
Cole explained that Black River had originally been designed to prevent wars.
The system predicted political instability, military conflicts, terrorism, and economic collapse.
But the people who controlled it realized something.
If you could predict a threat, you could also manufacture one.
They began manipulating events.
Elections.
Contracts.
Military deployments.
Financial markets.
Cole had tried to stop them.
Robert had unknowingly stopped him.
Thomas had exposed the truth.
And Margaret had hidden Emily.
But now the system had been activated.
Cole wanted Emily alive.
Not dead.
That frightened Robert more.
“Why do you need her?”
Cole smiled.
“Because she can shut it down.”
Robert stared.
“Then why hunt her?”
“Because she can also turn it against us.”
Thomas stepped forward.
“You're lying.”
Cole looked at him.
“You always were sentimental.”
Then Victor raised his weapon.
He shot Thomas.
Emily screamed.
Robert fired back.
Chaos erupted.
Cole disappeared behind the SUVs.
Robert rushed toward his brother.
Thomas was bleeding.
“Don't let them take her.”
Robert held him.
“Stay with me.”
Thomas grabbed his arm.
“There is a second key.”
Robert frowned.
“Where?”
Thomas looked at Emily.
“She has it.”
Emily shook her head.
“I don't.”
Thomas whispered:
“You've had it since you were six.”
Then he died.
Emily collapsed.
Robert held her.
But beneath her tears, she remembered something.
May you like
A small silver pendant her mother had given her as a child.
She had never known why.
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