Page 54 of Protector

“Oh,” my father says as he leans over my shoulder to look at my screen. “Looks like the good Dr. Green isn’t entirely useless after all.”

“Hm?” Movement on the map displaying the AX soldiers’ location draws my attention. The four red dots seem to be shifting down a narrow street. But where to?

“He insisted he would be vital—even if he isn’t nearly as skilled as you are when it comes to the engineering aspects.‘Far easier to work with,’I believe he said.” My father chuckles and pats my shoulder. “I admit, the man has a point. I’m sure if we approached you first, we’d still be arguing about whether this was the right thing to do. Green was on board the moment he realized it’d be in his best interests. And it looks like he came through.”

Distracted, I glance up at him. “What are you talking about? Didyouorder this mission?”

“Yes, Addie, I did,” he says softly, squeezing my shoulder. His hand feels heavy, but its warmth doesn’t penetrate my clothes, beneath which icy foreboding prickles at my skin.

“I… I don’t understand,” I whisper. I stare at him, at my father—the three-star general who’s always put country before all else, even his own family. Refusing to put the sharp-edged puzzle pieces together as they finally fall into place.

He doesn’t take his eyes off the screen, nor his hand off my shoulder. “We weren’t supposed to move yet—ideally we would have waited until the election next month. But I know a distraction when I see one, and the sorry excuse they used to drag me away from your debriefing? It’s obvious someone was getting suspicious.

“Don’t worry, I don’t blame you for not coming to me with whatever you were told in that meeting. After everything you’ve been through, I don’t expect you to want much of anything except a calm life with your alpha. And we’ll get that for you, darling. I promise. We just have to get through these next few days first.”

The words coming out of his mouth don’t make sense.They don’t. They can’t.

I turn my attention back to the screen. The four red dots are moving west at a fast pace. Toward the White House.

“I’m so very sorry you got hurt in all of this, Addie,” my father says softly as we watch the screen. “It was never my intention; I hope you know that. We needed you off-site to bring you into our plans, but it turns out my old friend was more interested in money than loyalty. He has been dealt with. And, loath as I am to accept it, I suppose it was too much to ask that no one from our side would be harmed. I don’t think history has ever seen a bloodless coup.”

A coup.

On the computerized map, four dots break off into two groups. One continues southeast while the other three head directly south—Toward Capitol Hill.

“You’re… going to kill the president? And the senate?” It comes out like a wheeze, my lungs refusing to expand to their full capacity. A coup. My father is embroiled in acoup?My brain whirs to find a reasonable explanation, refusing to accept reality even as I see those four red dots move toward their targets. This has to be some kind of joke—a misunderstanding.

A large hand wraps around my shoulder as AX2 materializes at my side, undoubtedly pulled across the room by the terror in our bond. I reach up to cling to his arm—an instinctive reaction to the turmoil of fear.

“The president, yes. Most of the senate, but not all. As I said, this has been planned for decades, and we have been careful to maneuver as many of our people into positions of power as possible. Don’t worry—the AX soldiers have instructions on who to let live.”

Don’t worry?

“But… why?” I whisper. “It… makes no sense. You love your country.” I’ve sat through enough of his monologues aboutcountryandsacrificeas a child to know that my father is a devoted patriot.

He glances at me, and there is love in his gaze, but the way he pats my knee feels as patronizing as it did when I was a child, when he would tell me I wastoo youngto understand.

“It’s precisely because I love my country that I am doing this. And because I love you, and all the other bright, young citizens currently growing up in a world dominated by the stupid and the weak.”

“W-What?”

“He is removing democracy,” AX2 says, his voice soft; monotone, as if he doesn’t care one way or the other. Not that he could.

“More sochanging,”my father says mildly, eyes back on the screen where the three dots have just entered the Capitol Building. Farther east, the singular red mark is deep inside the White House. “We, the people, have regressed over these past couple of generations, and it’s only escalating. These days, any idiot with an opinion believes he must be respected simply because he’s opened his mouth. Misinformation and pseudoscience are rampant plagues on our population, and the vast majority are too stupid or to numb to realize it. Too easily manipulated.

“Just look at the president they elected—a weaker, more unfit head of state has never sat in the Oval Office. The educated part of the population, the critical thinkers, voted for his opponent. But there are more sheep than there are shepherds, and the entire country suffers as a consequence. Something had to be done before it was too late. And so we did.”

I can’t breathe. I can’tthink.If this goes through, then… then either my father will be hanged for treason, or democracy as we know it will be wiped out in a bloody massacre.

“You can’t—this can’t happen!” I grasp at AX2, frantic. “Engage remote control. Overwrite singular processing. Access unit frame. Call back all AX units immediately!”

AX2 doesn’t move.

“AX2! Engage remote control!”

“I’m afraid that won’t work,” my father says, not unkindly. He touches a hand to my cheek, then looks to AX2 with regret. “I couldn’t let you keep control of one of my best men. Not when our plan is finally coming to fruition.”

“What?”

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