Chapter 16 - The Neural Shatter
"Sophie!" Evelyn yelled.
Without hesitation, Evelyn sprinted toward the main diagnostic console hooked directly into the glass sphere. She grabbed the two neural sensor pads intended for the system operator and slammed them onto her own temples.
"Evelyn, no! The raw feedback will fry your nervous system!" Victor shouted, firing at two approaching mercenaries as he rushed toward her.
"Do it, Thomas! Amplify the signal!" Evelyn commanded.
Thomas slammed the override switch.
A wave of blue electricity surged through Evelyn’s body. She gasped, her spine arching as the neural network flooded her brain with millions of lines of synthetic data. She saw what the children were seeing: a cold, endless digital void filled with corporate directives, binary equations, and Isabella’s commanding voice.
Isabella screamed as her own headset caught the feedback loop. "Stop her! Cut the feed!"
Inside the digital void, Evelyn forced her mind forward. She didn't broadcast code. She broadcast her memories:
The warm sunlight streaming into the tiny apartment kitchen. The smell of fresh milk. Holding Sophie close during thunderstorm nights. The soft, quiet lullaby she sang every single night before the little girl went to sleep.
"Sophie..." Evelyn’s voice echoed not through the speakers, but directly inside the minds of all five children. "Mommy is here."
In the glass sphere, Sophie’s glowing eyes blinked. The white light turned back into a deep, warm blue.
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Sophie looked up through the glass, her small voice cutting through the digital noise like a diamond: "Mommy... sing..."
The four other children—Liam, Maya, Ethan, and Lucas—suddenly gasped, their eyes clearing as the emotional surge overload cut through the cold artificial code. The neural network shattered like brittle glass.
