Chapter 194The Last Father

This was like being in a chess game where you knew that any move you made could be your downfall, if you could just find that one move, out of millions of possibilities, that would give you the advantage.

Against a much more experienced opponent no less.

This probably wasn't going to work. "Your operation?"

He frowned. "Either you know or you don't and this seems a bit to deliberate to not know. Amy, what have you done?"

It wasn't fair. Of course my own intelligence didn't come from strangers. Both my mother and my father were quite devious in their own way. It can be very hard on a growing girl to try and fool them without really succeeding, though it was a mental challenge that prepared me too well for school. Of course it made me honest to a fault. I couldn't lie, no matter how well I tried.

I guess it was time to come clean. "I've set them free."

His eyes narrowed. "So it was you at the orphanage. But... You're not trained to break into something like that. Someone with good, exceptional, system knowledge broke in there."

I grinned proudly. It was stupid, I shouldn't have shown any emotion at it to keep him in the dark, but I was too unprepared for something like this.

"Ah, so you brought friends."

Damn. "Yes, I'm not stupid and you know it. I wouldn't go somewhere completely unprepared unless I had a better choice."

He frowned, thinking further than I had expected. "Something's wrong with your friends."

I nodded. "One of them in particular. They need sustenance."

He smiled grimly. "I've send some water not too long ago. They should be thirsty by now."

If only he knew.

I grimaced, I had to talk my way out of this, I couldn't tell him. "It's not water, something else. But they need it soon else one or both of them may die."

He looked at me for any trace of lies. But he knew me. "We'll go to them."

He led the way out of the room and went out of the library, me following closely behind him. Something was bugging his mind, something that made him look much more human than he had done the past hour or so I saw him. He looked so in control up until the moment he recognized me.

His question as we walked the corridors surprised me. "Does Myriam know?"

I almost giggled. "Not really."

I could imagine the grimace. "If she did know, you would be grounded for a month." But he got hold of himself, his father-role forgotten. "Of course you've caused me a great deal of trouble, young-lady." His voice mocking me.

Perhaps this was the best time. "Why all of this?"

He looked around and grimaced. "All of this? You have no idea what you've done, do you? So many companies depended on those little children to help them prepare for troubles, face challenges they would otherwise have missed. They couldn't predict the stock-market or anything but they helped!"

So he thought he was doing good...

"And the children?"

He shrugged. "Most of them were found on the streets. Some of them came from gypsies I understand. We send most of them to other orphanages if they weren't... suitable. Not many children are sensitive enough."

I almost lost my composure. "But do you realize what you did to them?"

"Yes, we gave them a purpose that didn't hurt them."

We'd walked through the mansion and we finally got to the entrance of the basement. As soon as he opened the door he heard the same screams I had, all this time. Jason started running down the stairs and to the corner of the mansion I knew them to be kept in. Of course he didn't realize the screaming was a good thing. Screams meant two things.

They hadn't started drinking yet.

And they hadn't killed him.