Chapter 28 - Rebecca’s Two Lost YearsRebecca sat down before answering.
After giving birth, she was told her baby died. She refused to accept it and broke into the hospital records office.
Halcyon security captured her.
Instead of killing her, Lena recognized potential.
Rebecca was placed aboard The Covenant for two years, where foundlings were trained in surveillance, identity management, and child placement operations.
“You worked for them,” Emma said.
“I was trying to find you.”
“Did you help take other babies?”
Rebecca’s tears fell.
“Yes.”
The answer silenced the room.
She assisted with records, transport schedules, and false medical files. She told herself compliance would lead her to Emma.
After two years, she learned E-117 had been placed with the Ashfords.
She escaped during a port transfer and contacted Nora.
Nora helped her enter the household as Mrs. Bell.
“Why didn’t you tell Catherine?” Emma asked.
“Because the ledger marked her as Halcyon lineage. I did not know whether she was safe.”
Catherine absorbed the accusation.
Everyone had distrusted everyone for reasons that were not entirely irrational.
Rebecca continued.
The Covenant council required seven foundlings because no single person should control the network.
That was the original ideal.
Lena later corrupted it by training loyal members and replacing dissenters.
Rebecca was once designated as the seventh council member.
When she escaped, Halcyon transferred her seat to Emma—her biological child and legal Ashford heir.
Emma inherited a position before she could speak.
“What does the council do?”
“It can open every placement archive, dissolve Halcyon contracts, or transfer the network.”
“Can I dissolve it?”
“Only if all seven members vote.”
Alexander, Vivian, Martin, Rebecca, Nora, Miriam, and Emma.
Six were currently accessible.
Miriam remained in custody.
The seventh member was Emma herself.
All could vote—unless Edward controlled the council server aboard The Covenant.
Alexander saw the path.
Reach the ship remotely, authenticate all seven, and dissolve Halcyon.
Edward expected them to come physically because he controlled the main system.
Leona believed a remote council session might be possible through the Foundling Ledger’s original terminal.
The ledger remained at the hospital under independent protection.
They moved the seven members there separately to reduce risk.
Emma insisted Grace and Noah remain nearby, though not inside the vault.
Catherine accompanied them.
The hospital was now surrounded by federal and international investigators responding to the leaked ledger.
Some officials still tried to seize it.
Public scrutiny made disappearance harder.
Inside the underground chamber, the council members placed their hands on seven readers.
Miriam smiled at Emma.
“You are very young to end a forty-year institution.”
“I’m old enough to say no.”
The system connected to The Covenant.
Edward appeared on the central screen.
“Alexander, you disappoint me.”
“I learned from a better generation.”
Edward looked at Emma.
“You could control every placement, trust, and hidden identity in the network.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Children often reject power before understanding safety.”
“That is what Lena says.”
Edward’s expression tightened.
The dissolution vote began.
Alexander: yes.
Vivian: yes.
Martin: yes.
Rebecca: yes.
Nora: yes.
Miriam hesitated.
She had spent her life as Lena’s face. Without Halcyon, she had no legal identity beyond a manufactured role.
“What happens to me?” she asked.
Emma answered.
“You get to choose a name.”
Miriam began crying.
She voted yes.
Emma placed her hand on the final reader.
Before she spoke, Grace entered the chamber.
“Wait.”
Catherine followed.
Grace had found another section in the ledger. Dissolving Halcyon would erase active command authority over emergency safe homes.
Thousands of children might be left without funding, documents, or protection overnight.
The network was criminal.
But people depended on parts of it.
Edward smiled.
“Power is rarely pure enough to destroy cleanly.”
Emma looked at Leona.
“Can we transfer safe homes to the public trust first?”
“Not without a transition period.”
“How long?”
“Six months, perhaps more.”
During that period, Edward could continue using the network.
A full immediate dissolution risked chaos.
A delayed dissolution risked more abuse.
The council split.
Vivian wanted immediate destruction.
Martin supported transition.
Rebecca feared children aboard hidden facilities could disappear if alerted.
Nora wanted archives opened first.
Miriam warned Lena’s doubles would seize local branches.
Alexander looked at Emma.
“You do not have to decide alone.”
“But my vote is last.”
“Yes.”
Emma asked for a third option.
The system displayed only preserve or dissolve.
She remembered collective authority creating a protocol that had not existed.
“What if we choose pause?”
Leona said the system had no pause.
“Then we make one.”
The seven members placed both hands together across the reader array and refused to complete either command.
The council server entered unresolved state.
Control of Halcyon froze worldwide.
Doors unlocked.
Payments paused.
Transport orders canceled.
But emergency homes retained local funds for seventy-two hours.
They had three days to build a transition.
Edward’s face vanished from the screen.
The Covenant changed course toward New York.
He was coming personally.
Then the vault announced an eighth council request.
A new member sought entry.
The identity appeared:
CATHERINE ASHFORD — FOUNDLING ZERO
Catherine stared.
“I was never on the council.”
Miriam looked terrified.
“Foundling Zero is not a member.”
“What is it?”
“The person who can override all seven.”
Catherine’s biometric device activated against her will.
A remote signal from The Covenant recognized her.
Edward had not been coming to negotiate.
May you like
He was activating Catherine as the absolute successor above the council.
👉 The council froze Halcyon for seventy-two hours, but Catherine was revealed as Foundling Zero—the hidden authority capable of overruling every vote.
