Chapter 67

NUMA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

Most of Max’s systems had been corrupted, destroyed, or turned against her in the struggle for control. She had survived long enough to see Hiram Yaeger and an assistant burst into the room and jump in front of their keyboards and computer screens in an effort to understand what was happening.

She tried to message them, but TAU blocked it. It then blinded her, shutting off her cameras. It deafened her by shutting off the microphones. Max’s world was shrinking to nothing.

And then suddenly TAU was gone.

Max was so badly damaged by this point it took her a while to understand what had happened. She soon learned that the fiber-optic cables running to Vaughn’s island had gone down. Eve had succeeded. Max quickly scanned what remained of her system, focusing on the memory modules that Eve had made her temporary home. She found no sign of Eve, nor any new data files with information on the virus or the sea locusts.

Regaining the ability to communicate, Max sent a message to Hiram and then took herself offline, where she would await whatever punishment might follow.