It was that late hour when only the moon watched over you. It peeked through my bedroom in the Bernal palace while downstairs, a hundred Black Fire testers dreamt engineered dreams.

My head spun, reeling from a Black Fire high. I hadn’t seen Episode 2 until just now, but standing above Baraway and looking down from Seskone’s perspective, I couldn’t help but see the parallels in my life.

“…family was more important than anything,” the Vagrant King’s monologue had said.

That line came straight from Papa’s writing, and hearing it back in that engineered hallucination reminded me a part of him was still with me. Those words were too close to my life and situation. Papa used his characters as mouthpieces, speaking straight to me from the past.

His lesson in Seskone’s monologue was clear: stick with my mother. I took that as an indication that he knew about this operation. Was it his choice to let Mother go, then? Was it his idea in the first place? He wouldn’t have chosen to raise us alone if he wanted to. Then again, he never remarried.

I thought of what he would do in this situation, but my thoughts could only extend so far without talking to him. I would have to wait for whatever The Crest would tell me, and I would do my best to maintain that link to Papa.

I rose when Shay snored. She wheezed like a small mammal: an otter or a fox. The room was large enough to hold two beds, and Shay had taken the opposite one well out of arm’s reach.

I know what you’re thinking, and no, it did not happen. Nothing happened. I didn’t even try. Pursuing Shay further was the least of my goals now. My mind was in flight ever since the helicopter attack. I needed to be alert, even though it could be said I royally messed up the operation.

I closed the door gently and tiptoed past my mother’s room, which seemed half the size of the third floor of the palace. Its light was on. I thought I heard thumping on the other side of the door and another person talking. It was a woman’s voice.

The first-floor hallway looked up through the hollow section of the third floor. I peered down to the dimly lit table where we held many fruitful family discussions. A vigil of candles presided over the dark mansion, with two guards walking as lightly as ghosts. One looked up at me, nodded, and continued patrolling.

“Must be nice,” said Janice.

She leaned over the third-floor railings, clad in pajamas. She would have looked at home at a spa retreat, but I knew she couldn’t relax here.

“What is?” I asked her, stepping closer.

“Going out. Being free. She even lets you drive around.”

“I’ve got things to do out there.”

“And I don’t?”

“I didn’t say it wasn’t unfair. Maybe it’s cause I’m older.”

“Yeah, or maybe she just hates me. I don’t know why.”

I didn’t know why either, but I couldn’t deny Mother’s animosity towards Janice seemed unjustified. What was her problem with her daughter? “Maybe she’s just not used to you.”

“Was she like this when you first came here?”

I shook my head as more of that unfairness occurred to me. “She could just be overprotective. She’s not used to being a mother after all.”

“That’s her fault.”

Regardless, there was no sense arguing over it.

I almost turned to go and wake Shay up when I caught my sister peering down to the first floor again. She really could not leave.

“How can I text people outside?” Janice asked as if reading my thoughts. “I can’t even see my class schedules or get my files without going through Mom’s VPN. She won’t let me message my classmates or my instructors.” Her lip quivered, and she wiped her eyes. “I’ll probably fail.”

I tried to keep my face straight. What was the point of going to school anymore? “We have all the money we need right now.” I felt like I was Uncle Nestor showing off the mansion.

“Yeah, but what use is it if we can’t spend it how we want?”

Not “we,” really, just Janice.

Still, she raised a good point. How long would our family be like this? Mother had dedicated at least two decades to this operation and probably more. Did she plan to continue this her whole life?

I wasn’t thinking beyond Episode 5 of The Crest and Its Killers. That’s how long the AI engines estimated the first season would be, but it would only cover the book’s first third. Was there a need to tell the whole thing? Once Episode 5 was out, could Janice and I leave this operation quietly and return to everyday life?

More importantly, what would everyday life be like now?

“I need to take Shay back,” I told Janice and turned to leave.

“Take me with you.”

I froze. “Huh?”

“Get me out of here, Jayson.” She moved to me. “ Please! They’ll believe you.”

“I can’t,” I told her before I thought more about it. It wouldn’t be the first time I went around my mother’s supervision. She hadn’t intended for me to know Uncle Nestor’s phone number, but I got it from Ernesto the other day. It was a small gesture, and taking Janice out from under my mother’s watch would be more significant. “I’m sorry.”

Janice scowled before she said, “I saw it, too.”

I didn’t know what she was talking about at first. When I figured it out, I grabbed a hand she was hiding and found…

Nothing.

“I didn’t drop that stuff,” she said. “I just saw it on the televisions downstairs.” She looked down. “You know that was Papa talking to us, right?”

“Us,” she had just said. Not only me but the two of us.

“We are more our father’s children than our mother’s,” Janice continued. “Where would he want us to be?”

The answer to that question was obvious when asked of me now.

Papa would want us to be free.

----------------------------------------

I felt like a teenager sneaking out of their house late at night. Maybe that’s all Mother thought of Janice and me—nothing more than obligations that occasionally rebelled and messed up her life.

Mother was still inside her room with that foreign woman I knew nothing about and probably never would. She hadn’t bothered introducing us to her meaningfully, keeping us out of whatever bond they shared.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Well, we could keep her out of things, too.

I made sure to go to the garage first. If Ernesto and Quin were patrolling the mansion, they were elsewhere, so I wouldn’t have to deal with them asking pointed questions. I only found guards and staff I didn’t know the names of, and they didn’t ask questions as I perused the vehicles.

We had lost the SUV since the helicopter attack, and who knew where it was now? There was still an Infusion Motors Z2, a fully electric sedan. It was the smallest car available, but its size might prove helpful later.

Its key had already been installed on my burner phone, and the doors swung open as I approached. I climbed in, and the car hummed to life.

Then it stopped.

My phone lit up and connected to the car’s AI, automatically accepting a call. The center tablet flashed white as an app loaded.

A face appeared on it. It wore a gas mask.

“Jayson?” they asked. “What are you doing up? I thought someone broke into your mother’s garage.”

I immediately recognized Uncle Nestor’s voice, but I focused less on him and more on the machinery in the room he was standing in. It looked like a warehouse, with tall vats and pipes running from them and up the walls. Other people worked behind Uncle Nestor, wearing matching gas masks, black aprons, and gloves that looked thick enough to reach into volcanoes. A forklift beeped as it backed up. It was almost 3 AM, yet at least ten people besides my uncle were in that warehouse.

Uncle Nestor carried the phone to a different room just as it started to fog. “Are you alright, Jayson?” he asked again.

I nodded as other points hit me. “Is that where Black Fire is made?” I asked.

Uncle Nestor looked like the last thing he wanted to do was tour me around the facility. “Yeah,” he said, removing the gas mask. “We’ve got a long shift and several shipments to go. Is it urgent?”

Curiosity took control of me. This was the first glimpse I had into the operation outside of Manila. It looked busy and coordinated. It looked far more appealing than being stuck in this city.

“I…” I didn’t know how to say it, so I just did. “I don’t want Janice to stay here. I don’t want to stay here.”

“I know, Jayson. It’s just a little bit longer.”

“I want to get out.”

“You can’t. You can never ‘get out.’”

Those are the thoughts I had been dreading all this time. I could never live a normal life again. All I could do was dive in.

Uncle Nestor held the phone still. “My brother was right,” he said.

It seemed Papa had been right so often that I had lost count. “In what way?”

“That you need to prioritize your family.” He was referring to Episode 2. Who hadn’t noticed the parallel? “But,” Uncle Nestor continued, “before that, Jayson, you must be sure who your family is.”

I wanted to ask more, but Uncle Nestor seemed no longer focused on his work. “You asked me before why I’m here with your mother,” he said. “I hope you believe there is nothing between her and me.” He searched around the room and hesitated to make the next point. “I don’t think she’s the best leader out there.”

“I’ll say.”

“But she’s all we got.” Uncle Nestor looked at the camera. “Don’t tell her that I said this, alright?”

I nodded. Of course, I wouldn’t. This confidence Uncle Nestor placed in me was my first connection in a long time with my family. My true family.

Not the Bernals, but the Vargases.

“Everyone makes mistakes,” Uncle Nestor went on. He pulled the phone closer. I wasn’t sure if he was doing it for dramatic effect, but it had that result. “We have backup plans, Jayson. People will lose their heads, but you mustn’t lose yours. Understand?”

I understood more than anything I had in the last few days. A window had just opened for me, and through it, I could see the vision of a family that I had always aspired to: one that looked out for its kin and did not abandon them.

Family, I thought, to Papa. Family first.

We hung up the call then, and it seemed the right time.

I drove out of the garage with no fuss, picking up Shay and Janice at a side entrance of the mansion. The guards saw us leave, and most did not bat an eye. Some reached for their phones, but after reading messages that perhaps all of them had received, they continued their patrols.

I drove aimlessly into Manila. I was fearless, carrying the shield of my family around me. Shay slept on the passenger side while Janice stared at the passing city lights in the backseat. I could tell she was eager to return to the life she had been pulled away from.

I, on the other hand, would dive right in.

“I can’t talk to him,” Janice said later. “I can’t even send a text.” She clutched her phone, and I saw her eyes moisten.

It occurred then that Mother hadn’t even given Janice an allowance. If she had, Janice wouldn’t have hesitated to cross the street to the 7-11 just now and buy a new phone with load.

I searched through my pocket and found one of the wallets in the duffel bag Mother had given me before. By this point, I had stopped counting money.

I gave Janice most of what was in there.

She looked down at the wad of cash, and I thought I was staring at myself when Uncle Nestor offered me a bribe to stay out of this operation. “What’s this?” she asked.

“Freedom,” I told her. “Get out and don’t come back.”

Her eyes did not dry—they glimmered. “Jayson?”

“Go, Janice.” I shook the bills as my lips started to quiver.

Her hands drifted closer, but she still thought they were snakes. “What about you?”

I shook my head. “Maybe I’m just tied to this city. Either way, it’s not letting me go.” I raised the bills. “You, on the other hand, still have time.”

I didn’t wait for her to take the money; instead, I reached for her hand and closed it around the wad of cash as if it were some precious ring or family heirloom. God, it was always about money in this city. Always and forever. Money pulled you into messes, and money pulled you out. I only hoped this would be enough to spare Janice the life I was about to embark upon.

She snatched the bills and hugged me tight.

“What if I need to reach you?” she asked as she pulled away.

I shook my head, but she was my sister. If something happened to her, I would want to know.

I gave her my number. “You text me if you’re in trouble, but I won’t do the same if I’m in trouble.”

Her head dropped after she looked at me, but I attempted my hardest older brother countenance. She just nodded.

“And promise me one thing, Janice,” I said.

She nodded, rubbing her eyes. “Shoot.”

“Don’t tell anyone about Mother.”

This earned a strange look from my sister. “She hardly told me about herself. How did she get all that money anyway?”

I thought about telling her. I honestly did. In hindsight, I should have. “Nothing good.”

She nodded, maybe sensing what I did: Mother was ours despite her poor decisions.

You couldn’t choose your family.

“Alright, Jayson. If that’s what you want.”

I hugged her back, holding her a moment longer. I thought of things to say but felt drained of all emotion now. “Good luck with your interview,” I managed, “with the President. I’ll be watching.”

Janice stiffened, perhaps remembering. “Be sure you do.” She slapped my shoulder as she pulled away.

I did not look after her when she went, running down the street, turning a corner, and fading into Manila’s night.

I did not know how long I had been standing there, but my reverie collapsed when a knock came on the shotgun side door.

Shay pressed a hand to the window and rolled it down. Her eyes were wet, too. Maybe she had seen everything. “You got a call,” she said.

I recognized the number, though I hadn’t yet added it as a contact on my phone. I slid over the sedan’s hood, slumped into the driver’s seat, and put the call through the car’s speakers so Shay and I could hear.

“Andrei?” I asked. “What’s up?”

“Jayson?”

“And Shay,” I added. “Why?”

“He hasn’t come back yet,” Andrei said. “I’m getting worried.”

I looked at Shay, and it was then we knew who he was talking about.

“How long has he been gone?” I asked.

Andrei sniffed on the other side. I had never seen the man cry, but now I could picture it. “Maybe before midnight? He was supposed to come back here after a drop-off.”

“Shit,” Shay and I murmured and sunk our heads.

“Hold yourself down,” I said. “We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

I slammed the gas pedal and threw us onto the main street, fleet-mode cars dodging us as I shot between them. Capture drones collected around the vehicle, but I didn’t care.

On the other line, I could hear Andrei breathing hard.

Shay leaned in next, clutching my arm, trying her best to pull the anxiety away from me.

It didn’t work.