Operation: One percent

Chapter 57

Ace

Images and videos of her life were shown on the screen.

I was mindblown.

Betrayal blanketed my soul, but also I felt her a tragic persona. Even though her travels didn't really have anything to do with me, and everything to do with saving her daughter, I couldn't even grasp the magnitude of this secret.
However, all this time, she blamed me for all that had happened to her, even though she knew that wasn't entirely true.

"As you can see... " Alin stopped the video of her memories "I was telling the truth. "

" Then is that why you took Maryam away from her? "

"Yes, what is true is that Margaret is the reason Maryam kept dying. We have put it in the algorithm, and it seems that Margaret's presence was the reason. We are only keeping her alive because each day Lilith gives calculations on the universes where compatible AI developed. All that is crucial for our preservation.  "

"That doesn't make sense. Those were all accidents. "

"The moment she jumped from one universe to another, she carried with herself the fate she had and imprinted it into another. Her fate...no Maryam's fate was determined the moment Margaret came here and gave birth to her. If we are to jump to another universe, and if she was there, we have no idea what would happen to us because her fate can impact ours. That's why I decided it was best to keep Maryam away from her, and even if Maryam died, she wouldn't know. "

"But she was living all this time with the thought that Maryam was dead. Why didn't she travel?"

"That is something you have to ask her, but our hypothesis is that Lilith is acting as a mother hen to her. Maybe it realized that Margaret wouldn't survive another jump. Still, it's only a hypothesis that we couldn't gamble on or test it for that matter. "

"I didn't know...what to say. But how do you even know if she will do anything to us?"

"Because she tried already! Didn't you hear me? "

Then I remember our conversation about the president. She didn't just mix up a name, she mixed up the gender as well. Perhaps that's because of her travels.

How could she withhold so many secrets?

"But you, my son, have the power to change it all. To make sure that we control her and everyone else so you could be the greatest, the most influential person that ever lived.In a sense, we were lucky that Margaret did that because of her daughter and she didn't really affect us as a company, but... What happens if someone else takes such an advantage? They could jump into this universe or whatever other universe we want to go to and take everything that we and versions of ourselves have worked so hard on, just because they cause some butterfly effect with their presence.What if she turns on us again, succeeds, and brings her fate with her? "

He produced a pack of cigarettes and he offered them to me.

I took one, lit it up, and nodded.

I crushed the lenses from the hacker I held the entire time.