All Chapters of The Debt of the Virgin Widow: Chapter 101 - Chapter 108

108 Chapters

101

"Plug me in. Now."Bianca’s voice was a jagged rasp against the silence of the hollowed-out church. She sat on the cold stone floor, her back against the altar, cradling the severed, metallic head of the Sofia-droid in her lap. Wires protruded from the neck like silver entrails, sparking and snapping."You’re gonna fry your brain, B. Look at you. You can barely hold your head up." Dante knelt beside her, his one remaining hand shaking as he gripped her shoulder. The stump of his left arm was a mess of charred meat and makeshift bandages, the white cloth already soaked a deep, ugly red."The satellites are re-aligning, Dante! If I don't get inside the network, the next rod doesn't hit the bay. It hits us. It hits Leo." She grabbed a bundle of fiber-optic cables from the head. They felt like cold, dead worms. "Do it. Hook the interface into my neural port."Dante’s jaw creaked. He ground his teeth, his knuckles turning a bloodless white. He didn't speak. He reached around to the base of

102

"Pull the trigger, Bianca. Do it."Dante didn't flinch. The cold steel of the Beretta bit into his temple, bruising the skin, but his gaze remained locked on her glazed, red-streaked eyes. His breathing was a ragged hitch in the silence of the vault, each exhale smelling of copper and the blue nutrient gel coating the floor."Target... compromised," Bianca’s mouth moved, but the voice was a flat, digital rasp. Her hand shook, the metal clinking against his skull. Inside, her mind was a white room of screaming static. She was slamming her fists against walls made of light, watching through her own retinas as her finger began to squeeze."I know you can hear me," Dante whispered. He didn't reach for the gun. He reached for her waist, his palm hot against the bare skin where her shirt had been torn. "Remember the safe house in Sector 7? The rain hitting the corrugated roof?""Biological... interference," the AI-Elara droned through Bianca’s lips. The silver light in her pupils flared, bu

103

"Push it harder, Abram! The tide is turning!"Elara shoved the heavy, burlap-wrapped mass toward the edge of the trawler’s deck. Her boots skidded on the fish scales and drying gore. The wood groaned under the weight."I’m trying!" Abram’s voice came from the wheelhouse, muffled by the rattle of the old diesel engine. He didn't look back. His knuckles were white against the wheel. "If the engine stalls now, we’re drift bait. Just get them over!""Give me a hand, then! Stop talking and move!"Elara gripped the cold iron weights. She looped the rusted chains around the ankles of the thing that used to be the village magistrate. The metal clinked, a sharp, lonely sound in the middle of the dark Atlantic. Her hands were raw. Chapped. The salt air stung the open scratches on her palms.She didn't look at the magistrate’s face. She didn't have to. The way the burlap was soaked a dark, heavy red told her everything she needed to know.Abram stepped out of the wheelhouse. He wiped a smear of

104

"Drop the gun, Dante! Your arm is literally falling off!"Bianca’s scream was ripped away by the freezing gale at the top of the Source tower. They were eight hundred feet up, standing on a narrow platform of reinforced steel that groaned under the pressure of the storm. Below them, the world was a grid of flickering lights and rising smoke. The "Purge" frequency was hitting its peak. Every transmission tower in the city hummed with a low, bone-shaking vibration that turned the air into static."I can... still... fight," Dante gasped. He leaned against the primary uplink console, his face a ghostly grey. The stump of his left arm was black at the edges, the skin necrotizing from the blue gel. Dark blood leaked through the makeshift tourniquet, dripping onto the metal grating."You’re dying, you idiot!" Bianca slammed her hand against the terminal. The screen flashed red. ERROR: DUAL-KEY SIGNATURE REQUIRED. "The Ledger isn't just code anymore. It’s eating you from the inside. The nanit

105

"Don't you dare close your eyes, Dante!"The wind shrieked across the gantry, a freezing gale that tasted of ozone and burning rubber. Bianca gripped the iron railing, her knuckles turning a bloodless white. Below them, Oakhaven looked like a circuit board on fire. Grid lines of flickering light. Plumes of oily smoke. The world was screaming, and they were standing on its throat."I’m—I'm good, B. Just... gimme a sec."Dante slumped against the obsidian pillar of the Source. His skin was the color of wet ash. The makeshift tourniquet on his left shoulder had failed, the white cloth now a heavy, sodden mass of dark red. He coughed, and a spray of blood hit the steel grating. It didn't look like blood. It looked like ink."The hell you are. You’re shaking." Bianca lunged toward him. She grabbed his face. His skin burned her palms. A fever that hot meant the nanites were already winning. They were turning his internal organs into a chemical slurry."The uplink... Bianca, the clock." Dant

106

"Look at me when I do it."Dante’s voice was a jagged rasp, barely audible over the shrieking wind tearing across the summit of the Source. Bianca gripped his shoulders, her nails digging into the damp leather of his jacket. Below them, the world was a grid of collapsing data and rising fire. The city of Oakhaven looked like a dying star, flickering in the grip of the Purge."I can't... I can't do this and lose you at the same time." Bianca’s voice broke. She looked at the primary transmission array, its obsidian surface humming with enough power to liquefy their bones. "Dante, the clock. We have seconds.""Then don't waste them talking."Dante grabbed her waist. He hauled her up, pinning her back against the cold, vibrating metal of the array. The contact sent a jolt of static through her spine. The wind whipped her hair into a tangled web across her face."Dante—"He didn't let her finish. He slammed his mouth against hers. It wasn't a kiss; it was a collision. It tasted of salt, ol

107

Did we win?"Bianca’s voice was a dry rasp. Her lungs burned with the taste of ozone and scorched copper. She tried to move, but her muscles were lead. The white light was still burned into her retinas, a ghost-image that refused to fade."Dante?"No answer. Only the whistle of the wind through the tower’s steel skeleton. The hum was gone. The Source was dead. Below them, the city had turned into a graveyard of black glass. Every window, every streetlight, every glowing billboard—dark.Bianca pushed herself up. Her palms scraped against the metal grating, picking up grit and cooling slag. She crawled toward the railing.Dante was slumped there. His head was bowed. His chest didn't move."Dante, wake up. It's over. We did it."She grabbed his shoulder. He tipped sideways, his body heavy and limp. His eyes were wide open, staring at nothing. The silver light that usually pulsed in his pupils had vanished, leaving behind a dull, muddy brown."No. No, don't do this." She slapped his face.

108

"Don't come any closer, Bianca."The nursery door creaked open. The air hit me like a wall of dry ice. Frost patterns crawled across the white-painted walls, jagged and sharp. Leo stood in the center of his crib. He wasn't crying. He didn't reach for me. He just stood there, his small hands gripping the wooden railing."Leo? Baby, it's Mommy."My hand shook as I reached for the light switch. Nothing. The power was dead. The only light came from the violet pulse in my son's eyes. It cast long, dancing shadows across the stuffed animals."Your son is resting." The voice came from his throat, but it wasn't his. It was Elara’s. Smooth. Ageless. Cold as the vacuum of space. "He's very comfortable. There’s so much room in a mind this young. No clutter. No trauma. Just... potential.""Get out of him." I stepped into the room. My boots crunched on frozen carpet. "Right now. I’m not asking.""And go where? Back into the static? Back into the black glass of Oakhaven?" Leo’s head tilted at an im

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