She took a step closer, her black boots splashing through a shallow puddle on the floor.

“If you give me that drive, I can trade it for his life,” she said.

“Voss wants the data.”

“He does not care about the man once he has the algorithms.”

I looked at the red laser dot still trembling on my chest.

“You expect me to believe you care about his life,” I said.

“I care about the survival of this family,” Caroline said.

“Everything I have done was to ensure we survived the choices your father made.”

“Even the conditioning?” I asked.

The word felt heavy in my mouth, tasting of old copper and dust.

“Especially the conditioning,” Caroline said.

She did not deny it.

She did not even flinch.

“You were seven years old when Voss first looked at your medical files,” she said.

“He saw your aptitude scores.”

“He saw the neural density scans your father brought home from the lab.”

“Voss wanted to put you in the first phase of the cognitive enhancement trials.”

I felt a chill spread down my arms.