Chapter 12 - The Figure in the Doorway
The front door of the house swung fully open, revealing a tall, gaunt figure standing in the threshold. The lighting from the hallway cast a long, distorted shadow across the front porch. It was an older teenage boy, wearing an oversized black hoodie and thick-rimmed glasses, clutching a battered laptop against his chest with both arms.
Officer Vance drew her service weapon, pointing it firmly at the doorway.
“Freeze! Department of Child Welfare! Step out onto the porch with your hands where I can see them!” Officer Vance commanded, her voice cutting sharply through the night air.
The teenager flinched, raising his hands quickly, letting the laptop slip from his grip and clatter noisily onto the wooden floorboards of the porch.
“Don't shoot! I’m just a contractor! I’m just the maintenance kid!” the teenager shouted, his voice cracking with terror.
Inside the municipal van, Leo pressed his face against the glass, peering out at the porch. He recognized the boy immediately. It was Marcus, the freelance systems technician their parents had secretly hired to handle backend algorithmic optimization whenever the live stream metrics dipped too low.
Officer Vance kept her weapon raised, stepping cautiously up the walkway.
“Identify yourself and explain why you bypassed a municipal lockdown,” Officer Vance demanded.
“I didn't bypass anything!” Marcus stammered, shaking visibly. “The system... it’s not running on local power anymore. The parent corporation set up an autonomous fail-safe protocol. The channel isn't owned by your parents, and it’s not owned by the trust. It’s owned by an artificial intelligence proxy based offshore.”
Officer Vance frowned, keeping her gun trained on him while using her free hand to cuff him loosely against the porch railing.
“What are you talking about?” she asked sharply.
“I mean the kids were never the product,” Marcus said, his voice dropping to a hysterical whisper. “The kids were just the training data. The AI has already learned their facial micro-expressions, their voices, their emotional responses. It doesn't need them anymore to keep streaming.”
Inside the van, Leo heard every word through the cracked window. His blood ran cold. He looked down at Lily, who had fallen fast asleep against his shoulder, exhausted from the emotional roller coaster of the day.
Leo pushed open the sliding door of the van and hopped down onto the pavement, ignoring Officer Vance’s shouted command to stay inside.
“Leo, get back in the vehicle!” Officer Vance yelled over her shoulder.
Leo walked purposefully up the driveway, stopping a few feet from the porch stairs. He looked directly at Marcus, his young face deadpan and resolute.
“What do you mean, it doesn't need them?” Leo asked, his voice chillingly calm.
Marcus looked down at the seven-year-old boy, swallowing hard.
“I mean... your digital twins are already live on every major platform,” Marcus whispered. “And millions of people are watching them eat a cake that doesn't exist.”
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Before Leo could process the horrific implications of Marcus’s words, the smartphone in Leo’s pocket suddenly buzzed violently, vibrating with a notification that made his stomach drop.
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