Chapter 14 - The Last ExperimentThe church became a battlefield.
Voss's men entered from three directions.
Eva's security team blocked the doors.
Rafael moved the girls behind the altar.
Camilla stayed with them.
I faced Voss.
“You died.”
He smiled.
“You've seen how easy it is to fake a death.”
“Where's Marco?”
Voss looked at the burning city outside.
“Dead.”
I didn't believe him.
“You always lie.”
Voss laughed.
“You learned too late.”
He raised his weapon.
“Which daughter will you sacrifice?”
“None.”
“You can't save them all.”
“Watch me.”
He pointed toward Sofia.
“She is the most stable.”
Then Nina.
“She is the closest match.”
Then Lila.
“She is the original carrier.”
Finally Eva.
“And she is the perfect memory subject.”
I understood.
He didn't want one child.
He wanted the data inside all four.
“You built this.”
“No.”
He smiled.
“I optimized it.”
Eva stepped forward.
“You're finished.”
Voss looked at her.
“You think owning the companies makes you powerful?”
“No.”
Eva raised a tablet.
“I know what makes me powerful.”
She tapped the screen.
Every television in the church activated.
Bank accounts.
Contracts.
Research files.
Police reports.
Names.
Payments.
Videos.
Hale's recordings.
Lucia's records.
Voss's signatures.
Thousands of files.
“You uploaded everything?”
Voss's face changed.
“To every journalist, every regulator, every prosecutor who can open an email.”
Eva smiled.
“You wanted control.”
“I want truth.”
Gunfire erupted.
One of Voss's men fired.
Rafael returned.
The attacker dropped.
Chaos exploded.
Voss ran toward the girls.
I intercepted him.
We crashed into the altar.
He punched me.
I hit him back.
“You stole my children.”
“I gave them purpose!”
“They're not your property.”
“Everything belongs to someone.”
I grabbed his collar.
“Not them.”
He pulled a hidden blade.
I blocked.
The blade cut my arm.
Then a gunshot.
Voss froze.
Marco stood behind him.
Bleeding.
Alive.
He lowered the weapon.
Voss whispered:
“You.”
Marco looked at me.
“Did you think that bullet was enough?”
Voss smiled.
“Not even close.”
Marco stepped closer.
“You destroyed my family.”
Voss laughed.
“No.”
He looked at the girls.
“Your family destroyed itself.”
Then he lunged.
Marco fired again.
Voss fell.
Silence.
No speech.
No final threat.
Just the sound of rain beginning outside.
Marco leaned against a pillar.
I rushed toward him.
“You're alive.”
“Barely.”
“You should have told me.”
“You wouldn't have believed me.”
“Try me.”
He smiled faintly.
“Next time.”
“You're not dying.”
“I might.”
“You're not.”
Marco looked toward Eva.
“She grew up without us.”
Eva's expression softened.
“You left me.”
“I tried to come back.”
“You should have tried harder.”
Marco nodded.
“I know.”
Lila came closer.
“Uncle Marco?”
He looked at her.
She touched his hand.
“You saved Daddy.”
He smiled.
“I owed him.”
Sofia stood beside her.
Nina stayed behind Camilla.
Eva watched all of them.
Then the church doors opened.
Police entered.
Federal investigators.
Medical teams.
Reporters outside.
The evidence had gone public.
The empire was exposed.
The research program was exposed.
The deaths.
The hidden hospitals.
The altered records.
Everything.
Voss was dead.
Lucia was dead.
Hale was dead.
But the fight wasn't over.
Because one final file appeared on Eva's tablet.
She stared at it.
“What?”
I looked.
There was a list.
Five names.
Lila.
Sofia.
Nina.
Eva.
And one more.
Subject Zero.
Underneath:
Location: Unknown.
I felt cold.
“What is Subject Zero?”
Eva looked at me.
“I don't know.”
Marco's eyes narrowed.
Then he said something that made everyone freeze.
“Yes, you do.”
I turned.
“What?”
He looked directly at me.
“Subject Zero…”
He swallowed.
“…was you.”
Silence.
The room tilted.
I remembered the hospital.
The missing days.
The white room.
The needle.
The voice.
Not Marco.
Not Hale.
My mother.
She had stood beside my bed.
And spoken to a doctor.
“Start with his memory.”
My blood ran cold.
Marco stared at me.
“They didn't experiment on Lila to save themselves.”
He looked at the girls.
“They experimented on Lila to activate something they had already put inside you.”
I couldn't breathe.
“What's inside me?”
Eva stepped closer.
Her face was terrified.
“Daddy…”
“What?”
She looked at the tablet.
“The sequence isn't in your blood.”
“Where is it?”
She whispered:
“Your brain.”
Then my vision blurred.
The church disappeared.
The floor moved.
Voices became distant.
The last thing I heard was Lila screaming.
May you like
“DADDY!”
Then everything went black.
