Chapter 18 · Why was I seeing it through her eyes?

He didn't answer.

"Why was I seeing it through her eyes?"

"Because Blackwater linked the subjects."

"You knew that?"

"I suspected."

"You suspected my company was copying people's memories into each other, and you still let the trial happen?"

His eyes snapped up. "I tried to stop it."

"You failed."

"Yes."

The word landed harder than an excuse would have.

Ethan looked toward the console. "I found the link protocol two days before the extension. Your mother had hidden it from the ethics board. By the time I understood what it did, the subjects were already connected. If I shut down the system, their neural activity would have collapsed."

"So you watched."

"I pulled the emergency line."

"You watched."

"I called the state lab. I called federal investigators. I sent the files to three journalists. Vault buried everything."

"And then you became Diver."

"After they killed the first reporter."

Celine laughed once. It came out ugly. "Great. Very noble. You waited until everyone was dead, then made an anonymous account."

He took that without moving.

The tank knocked.

Celine spun toward it.

A pale shape floated near the bottom.

Her mother.

No. Not a body.