The Torrent (The New Agenda Series Book 4) Read Free Page B

cooperated, we could have worked together to make things right again. I needed you.”
    “Did you really think I would stand chained to your side for eternity, condoning your atrocious acts? You bred and killed off humans for centuries. Did you think I could overlook that? You wanted me to help you clean up that mess? Where to start?”
    Morray removed the silk handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his brow.
    “For someone who isn’t in an actual body, you’re sure having an actual physical reaction.” Ava chuckled at his obvious discomfort. Now maybe she could return to her memories.
    She closed her eyes and pictured Joseph. Her dear and loving husband. That first moment they met inside the city center had been engraved on her soul. Though he was an Outsider and considered a terrorist, Joseph was the one to answer the questions picking away at her since she was a child. She had always sensed something was inherently wrong inside the city center. The others teased her, saying she had a glitch, but she knew better. When Joseph gave her Lillian’s journal, exposing the truth, there was no going back to the city of lies. If he hadn’t shown up that day––just one week before graduation––she would’ve gone through with the ceremony, been crowned Queen, and then wiped from existence.
    “It’s funny, in a twisted sort of way,” Ava said.
    “That you ended up exactly where you never wanted to be? Regardless of your efforts to prevent that from happening?”
    “Something like that.”
    “Trust me, my dear. This isn’t what I had in mind by making you my eternal queen.”
    There was no denying his perceptiveness. Ava had remarkable intuition, but Morray surpassed her abilities by eons. After all, he’d been studying and designing humans for centuries. He knew what made them tick.
    He smiled, almost kindly, and her hatred for the man loosened its grip. Of course, this wasn’t what he wanted––who would want this fate? In the void, with no release date.
    She turned away, not wanting to share any more thoughts with Morray. As she tried to recount memories, visions of Morray’s past flashed across her mind. All those years searching his archive files in the mainframe meshed together with her memories. She had scanned centuries of his life, but it would always be Morray’s teen years that had made the deepest impression. There was a time of innocence and idealism, when he had only wanted to be loved and approved by his father, which proved to be an impossible task. His psychopathic father, Professor Morray, designed the Repatterning program and didn’t want anything to do with his son. Maybe it was the act of sending him away to live in an underground bunker that turned William Morray sour. His father’s betrayal crushed any seedlings of good before they had a chance to take root.
    Ava stopped herself. Was she really making excuses for Morray? He had gotten into her head again. Being vulnerable even for a second made her an easy target. She’d have to turn up the vigilance dial. There was no sympathizing with the devil. Morray was a grown man when he made his choices; he could’ve gone a different route. Instead, he made the same bad choices over and over.
    “I didn’t want it to turn out the way it did,” he said.
    She laughed, well aware of what he was doing. “Oh, Morray. Stop before you start to believe yourself. Don’t forget, I’ve seen your past––up close.”
    “You only know what you saw from my archive files. You have no way of knowing what was in my heart. You only saw my actions. My insanity.”
    That was true. The searches never revealed an emotional connection. She had only witnessed the events that cobbled together Morray’s life, from his lonely boyhood all the way through his leadership days. She didn’t know about his pain. It must have been overwhelming for him to commit such heinous acts. But still …
    “Regardless of what you were going through, I still find it impossible