Chapter 16 - HER FATHER'S LAST CONFESSIONThe video continued.
“I believed I could control Minerva.”
Emma’s father looked exhausted.
“I was wrong.”
He explained that the original system had been designed to find gifted children.
But investors quickly realized the technology could do much more.
It could predict behavior.
Identify vulnerabilities.
Calculate what people would do under pressure.
And, eventually, manipulate them.
The system was no longer simply studying people.
It was learning how to control them.
Emma’s father had tried to shut it down.
But Minerva had already been divided into several independent systems.
One system was hidden inside the company.
One had been sold to foreign investors.
And one…
One had been given to a private organization.
Emma froze.
“What organization?” Jonathan asked.
The video showed her father looking behind him.
Then he whispered:
“The Black Knight.”
The screen went dark.
Martha stared at Emma.
Jonathan said nothing.
Emma slowly looked at the black knight on the chessboard.
“So they never wanted the company.”
Martha frowned.
“What do you mean?”
Emma pointed at the video.
“They wanted Minerva.”
Jonathan suddenly understood.
“The collapse of Hartwell Technologies…”
“Was not the end,” Emma said.
“It was the transfer.”
Someone had deliberately destroyed the company.
The scandal.
The lawsuits.
The bankruptcy.
All of it had been designed to make Minerva disappear.
Then, when everyone stopped looking…
Someone had taken control.
Emma looked at the screen.
“Who?”
A notification suddenly appeared on Jonathan’s computer.
One new email.
No sender.
No subject.
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Only a single sentence:
YOU ARE LEARNING TOO QUICKLY, EMMA.
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