Daughter of Zeus ✔

20.2

That night, Ada returned to the Moretz estate, her face expressionless. She didn't give anyone a chance to ask what happened at the hospital, though Shylar remarked on her new necklace.

She went up the winding marble staircase to collect her little sister. She and Chancelin had discussed Darcy's placement, with both women agreeing that Darcy needed someone who understood her unique abilities. Without a teacher, she might lead herself to depths unknown.

"I certainly don't want her to end up like you," Chancelin said.

Instead of being offended, Ada concurred with her stepmother. Another mentally unstable person descended from the Corentin lineage was not something the world needed.

On her way to Darcy's bedroom, Ada was blocked by Phennell in the upstairs hallway. He tapped the wristlet, commanding an outward projection. The holographic images showed a newscast relaying the details of Congressman Moretz's supposed death. Pictures flashed, telling the story of how his private jet had crashed over the Indian Ocean with Moretz and the pilot being the only lives lost. Apparently, he had been flying in a new electronically powered jet.

"Gas-powered engines have been found to be much more reliable over the years," one newscaster commented, looking regretful.

After the newscast finished, Phennell started yelling in her face. He was heaping blame down on Ada. Slut and bitch were some of the epithets she caught before silencing him. Literally. She held up a hand and sent a command to his brain. While she was in his cerebral cortex, she did a small overhaul. Nothing major.

The change took hold within him. His face flushed as warmth flooded his system. What he likely distinguished as warmth was really the movement of electrical signals being overturned, or fried, in his brain. Whatever words and actions he planned were evaporated under new impulses put in place by her.

Phennell was dazed. He deactivated his wristlet, muttered something like "never mind" and shuffled off. Even his walk was different. And all she had done was remove his cruel nature. That cruel nature had driven many of his impulses, gestures, and habits. Hel was no longer himself. He was someone new.

Ada felt a wrench of guilt she buried, knowing she would have to deal with it later. No wonder Kressick had waited years to re- wire Moretz. Once completed, there could be no denying the immorality of it. To change a person, well, killing a part of them became necessary. She could go so far as to call a re-wiring murder. Though she had come to Atlanta looking to commit that very act, she found she no longer had any taste for it.

~*~