Chapter 4

Mark' s face was a mask of thunderous rage. He stared at Lily, who now sat with both hands free, a quiet confidence replacing her earlier despair. She was supposed to be a prop in his victory, a symbol of his power. Instead, she had hijacked his carefully orchestrated show and turned it into her own coronation.

He couldn't let this continue. He had to shut her down.

He gave a subtle nod to Chloe. She understood immediately. Her vapid smile turned sharp and vicious. She discreetly pulled a small, pen-like device from her purse. It was a custom piece of Vance tech, a localized neural inhibitor. A press of a button, and it would emit a targeted frequency that would disrupt the victim' s motor and speech centers for a short period. It was untraceable and looked like a simple stylus.

Chloe walked gracefully towards the side of the stage, pretending to adjust her dress. As she passed behind Lily' s chair, she stumbled, as if catching her heel. In that split second, she pressed the tip of the device against the back of Lily' s neck.

Lily gasped, a jolt running through her body. Her muscles seized. She tried to speak, but only a strangled sound came out. Her hands, which had been resting in her lap, clenched into fists, but she couldn' t move them. A wave of paralysis washed over her.

Chloe straightened up, a look of feigned concern on her face. "Oh, my! Are you alright, dear? You look a little tense."

Mark stepped forward, his voice dripping with false sympathy. "It seems the stress has finally gotten to her. Poor thing. She' s so overwrought she can' t even speak."

He leaned in close to Lily, his voice a venomous whisper only she could hear. "It' s over. You have no more tricks. No more grand reveals. Now you' ll just sit there, silent and helpless, and watch as I sell off the last, most valuable piece of your work. The core of your AI. The very thing you called your child."

He straightened up, addressing the crowd. "A temporary setback, ladies and gentlemen! While Miss Thorne recovers from her... episode, we will proceed with the final and most important sale of the evening!"

On the screen behind them, the image changed. It showed a complex, beautiful lattice of code, the heart of Lily' s AI. It was the personality matrix, the learning core. It was the soul of her creation.

"This is it!" Mark announced triumphantly. "The Genesis Core! The foundation of everything! We will start the bidding at one hundred million dollars for a 10% share!"

Panic seized Lily. She fought against the paralysis, her mind screaming commands that her body refused to obey. She was trapped inside herself, a silent spectator to her own ultimate violation. This was it. This was the end. He was going to sell her soul, and she couldn't even scream.

Despair, cold and absolute, flooded her.

But then, something stirred.

Deep within the code of her own being, in the neural pathways that Mark' s device was trying to suppress, a backdoor she had built years ago activated. It was a fail-safe, a hidden protocol she had named 'Persephone' , designed to protect her mind from any form of external technological intrusion. She had never thought she would need it.

A warm sensation spread from the base of her skull, fighting back against the cold paralysis. It was a slow, arduous process, like trying to restart a frozen engine. She couldn' t move or speak yet, but she could feel the connection to her inner system re-establishing itself. She wasn' t defeated yet.

On the stage, the bidding for her Genesis Core was becoming frantic.

"Two hundred million!"

"Two hundred fifty!"

"Three hundred!"

Jake the auctioneer, though now wary of Mark, was caught up in the professional duty of the moment. "We have three hundred million! Going once..."

Lily fought harder, pouring all her will into the Persephone protocol. A faint, golden light, invisible to the naked eye but a firestorm in her mind, began to glow behind her retinas.

"Going twice..." Jake' s voice echoed in the hall.

Mark smiled, a predator savoring the kill. He looked at Lily' s frozen form with utter contempt.

It was in that moment, as the gavel was about to fall, that Ava decided she had seen enough.

A single, clear footstep echoed from the back of the hall.

Then another.

Ava emerged from the shadows, walking slowly and deliberately towards the stage. The crowd parted before her like water before a ship' s bow. The frantic energy of the auction died instantly, replaced by a heavy, breathless silence.

She didn' t run. She didn' t shout. Her walk was calm, her face unreadable, but the intensity emanating from her was a physical force.

She reached the stage and, without breaking stride, walked up the steps.

Mark stared at her, his triumphant smile frozen on his face. "What do you think you' re doing? The auction is..."

"The auction is over," Ava said, her voice quiet but carrying to every corner of the silent hall.

She stopped in front of Lily, her back to the crowd. She gently touched her daughter' s cheek. The paralysis that held Lily captive seemed to melt away under her mother' s touch. Feeling returned to Lily' s limbs.

Ava looked at Jake. "I' m buying."

Jake swallowed hard. "Ma' am, the current bid is..."

"I' m not bidding on the code," Ava said, her gaze sweeping over Mark and Chloe with chilling dismissiveness. "I' m buying this entire convention. Your company. This building. Everything. Name your price."

A wave of shocked gasps went through the audience.

Ava turned her attention back to Mark. For the first time, she spoke directly to him.

"You have taken something from my daughter," she said, her voice a low, dangerous hum. "I am here to collect the debt."