Chapter 13: The Child They Could Never Own
Chapter 13: The Child They Could Never Own
The entire headquarters fell into chaos.
Gunfire echoed through the underground corridors.
Emergency lights flashed crimson across reinforced steel walls.
Smoke drifted through the ventilation system.
Marcus stood in front of Khloe's hospital bed, shielding her with his own body.
His pistol never wavered.
Rachel Kane burst into the room with two Sentinel operators.
"They're breaching the east corridor!"
Marcus looked toward Khloe.
"Can she be moved?"
The trauma surgeon quickly examined the fetal monitor.
"The baby is stable."
He hesitated.
"But another shock like the warehouse..."
He didn't finish the sentence.
Khloe understood anyway.
She slowly looked at Marcus.
"I'm slowing you down."
Marcus immediately shook his head.
"No."
"You are the mission."
Three floors below...
Arthur Sterling and Evelyn Cross hurried through a reinforced passageway.
The metal case was gone.
It no longer mattered.
Evelyn finally understood William's final decision.
"He erased every file."
Arthur looked at her.
"You mean..."
"There is no research left."
"Only Marcus's son."
Arthur stopped walking.
"William destroyed twenty-eight years of work?"
Evelyn smiled sadly.
"He destroyed the papers."
"Not the hope."
Meanwhile...
The attackers reached Security Checkpoint Three.
The blast door refused to open.
The team leader calmly removed a small electronic device.
"Breach charge."
One mercenary hesitated.
"We're losing men."
The leader never looked back.
"We're not here to fight."
"We're here to extract."
The charge detonated.
The steel door buckled inward.
The corridor beyond was clear.
Only one obstacle remained.
The Sentinel Team.
Rachel positioned her people.
"Defensive formation."
Marcus refused to leave Khloe.
"I stay."
Rachel looked at him.
"If they get past us..."
Marcus answered without hesitation.
"They won't."
Daniel Brooks sat alone in the cyber operations room.
Every monitor displayed hostile activity.
The attackers had infiltrated nearly every security subsystem.
Daniel typed faster than he ever had before.
Then...
Something appeared.
A hidden process.
One he had never noticed.
Its creator was listed as:
William Thorne
Daniel frowned.
"What is this?"
He clicked.
A single message appeared.
If this protocol activates, then Genesis has been compromised.
Daniel's heartbeat accelerated.
The screen asked only one question.
AUTHORIZE PHOENIX PROTOCOL?
Two buttons appeared.
YES
NO
Daniel reached for the phone.
He called Marcus.
Marcus answered while reloading his pistol.
"Daniel."
"I found something."
"What?"
"A security protocol your father built."
Marcus frowned.
"What does it do?"
"I don't know."
"It asks for authorization."
Marcus glanced toward Khloe.
Outside the room, another explosion shook the hallway.
He made his decision.
"Activate it."
Daniel pressed YES.
Nothing happened.
For three seconds.
Then...
Every light inside Thorne Tower went dark.
Even the emergency lighting disappeared.
The building fell into absolute darkness.
The attackers froze.
"So much for their power."
The team leader smiled.
"Night vision."
Green lenses dropped over their eyes.
They continued forward.
Then...
Heavy mechanical sounds echoed throughout the headquarters.
Steel walls began moving.
Entire corridors shifted.
Hidden doors sealed.
New passages opened.
Rachel looked around in disbelief.
"What is happening?"
Daniel's voice came through the radio.
"The building..."
"It isn't a building."
Marcus frowned.
"What?"
Daniel stared at the architectural plans now unfolding on his monitor.
"Oh my God..."
"Your father designed the headquarters as a defensive maze."
The attackers suddenly realized they were separated.
The corridor behind them disappeared beneath a descending steel wall.
Another team found themselves trapped inside an isolated hallway.
One mercenary shouted into his radio.
"We're cut off!"
No response.
Every communication channel had been jammed.
William Thorne's final security system had awakened.
At that same moment...
Far above the city...
Inside a penthouse office...
The mysterious woman calmly watched a digital map of Thorne Tower.
One by one...
The green dots representing her mercenaries disappeared.
She sighed.
"So William..."
"You still had one final trick."
The man beside her asked,
"Should we withdraw?"
She smiled.
"No."
She reached into a safe.
Removed a sealed envelope.
Across its front was written:
GENESIS SUCCESSOR
Inside...
A birth certificate.
The man's eyes widened.
"It can't be..."
The woman folded the document carefully.
"It can."
She looked toward the skyline.
"Marcus believes his unborn son is the only successful Genesis child."
She smiled coldly.
"He has no idea..."
"...there was another."
Back inside Thorne Tower...
Evelyn suddenly stopped.
Arthur nearly collided with her.
"What now?"
She stared at the birth certificate displayed on one of Daniel's recovered files.
"No..."
Arthur looked closer.
Patient:
Subject Zero
Status:
Alive
Marcus's heart seemed to stop as Daniel's voice echoed through every secure radio.
"Evelyn..."
"I found the original patient."
Silence.
Evelyn whispered,
"Impossible."
Daniel enlarged another document.
Identity verification completed.
Subject Zero had never died.
Had never disappeared.
Instead...
Someone had changed the child's identity.
Protected them.
Hidden them for twenty-two years.
Marcus asked quietly,
"Who is it?"
Daniel's fingers trembled as he opened the final page.
Then he stopped breathing.
"No..."
Marcus shouted into the radio.
"Daniel!"
The young analyst swallowed hard.
"The DNA records..."
He looked again to make sure.
"There was never one Genesis child."
"There were two."
Rachel frowned.
"What do you mean?"
Daniel answered slowly.
"William divided the research."
"Half was preserved in Subject Zero..."
"...and the other half..."
He looked toward Khloe through the security camera feed.
"...was passed to Marcus's unborn son."
Evelyn closed her eyes.
William had done the impossible.
He had made sure no single person...
No government...
No corporation...
Could ever possess Genesis completely.
Marcus whispered,
"So if they capture my son..."
Evelyn finished the sentence.
"They'll still fail."
Marcus frowned.
"Because they'll still need Subject Zero."
Silence filled every radio channel.
Then Rachel asked the question everyone feared.
"Where is Subject Zero now?"
Evelyn slowly looked up.
Her face had gone completely pale.
"I know."
Arthur turned toward her.
"Who?"
Evelyn's voice barely rose above a whisper.
"The woman leading all of this..."
A single tear rolled down her cheek.
"...is Subject Zero's mother."
At that exact moment, every screen inside the headquarters flickered back to life.
The mysterious woman appeared live on every monitor.
Elegant.
Composed.
Smiling.
She looked directly into the camera.
"Hello, Marcus."
Marcus stared at the screen.
"I've waited twenty-two years to meet you."
She held up the birth certificate.
"You've been protecting only half of Genesis."
She smiled.
"I've been raising the other half."
The transmission ended.
The countdown to the final confrontation...
May you like
Had begun.
End of Chapter 13
