Page 207 - DivineSparkRising II-TheMirrorofSilenceFinal

Nicholas Boothman
Álvaro frowned. “You mean remove it.”
Sofia’s mouth made a shape that wanted to be
no and landed somewhere between. “Quiet it,” she
said. “So the world can hear itself.”
The image wavered. Henry looked away to
catch breath.
“We needed a first,” present-Sofia said. “A Zero.
Not a test subject. An origin. Serpa volunteered.”
Carolina shook her head, hard. “He would never
—”
Another memory arrived, cutting her protest:
Serpa lifting his chin, weary and luminous.
“If we do not know the cost,” he said on the
recording, “we will make others pay it
unknowingly. I won’t allow that.”
Álvaro swore in a language the machine had
never learned to honor. “I’ll do it,” he said.
Sofia touched his arm. “You need your voice. To
argue with me.”
Present-Sofia’s voice thinned.
“That is the last time I was kind in the way you
liked.”
The memory shifted: Serpa seated on the dais,
mirror before him, wires coiling like quiet snakes.
Sofia’s hands hovered above the controls, then
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