Chapter 13 - Matteo opened his eyes on the floor.Blood covered his shirt.
But it wasn't his.
The younger Matteo lay beside him.
Dead.
Leonardo stood over them holding the gun.
“I had to.”
Matteo breathed heavily.
“You killed him.”
Leonardo looked at the body.
“He wasn't going to stop.”
Elena knelt beside the young man's corpse.
“He remembered everything.”
Matteo sat up.
Anna approached.
“Then we're out of time.”
“Why?”
She showed him her phone.
Worldwide financial systems were collapsing.
Banks.
Stock exchanges.
Government servers.
Someone had triggered Project Orpheus's final protocol.
Matteo looked at Sofia.
“What is it?”
She whispered.
“If the network believes the original system is compromised, it activates the contingency.”
“What contingency?”
“Total destruction.”
Matteo's expression hardened.
“Of what?”
“Everything.”
Anna pulled up a map.
Hundreds of locations were marked.
Data centers.
Banks.
Police archives.
Military communication hubs.
“If these systems go down, half the country loses access to its financial and identity infrastructure.”
Matteo understood.
Orpheus wasn't just an empire.
It had become embedded in society.
And his father had built one final weapon.
A collapse.
The only problem was the activation key.
Elena.
Matteo looked at her.
“What do they need?”
“Your blood.”
Sofia shook her head.
“No.”
A second voice answered.
“Not only hers.”
Everyone turned.
Marco stood in the doorway.
His face was pale.
“They need mine too.”
Matteo stared.
“Why?”
Marco removed his ring.
Under the black stone was a small scar.
A barcode.
Matteo understood.
“Your blood was used to create the copies.”
Marco nodded.
“Your family gave them the genetic template.”
“And Sofia?”
“She was the carrier.”
Sofia looked down.
“Both pregnancies were monitored.”
Elena whispered.
“So we were never free.”
Matteo looked at his family.
“No.”
He shook his head.
“They thought we weren't.”
Anna checked the timer.
One hour.
Thirty-four minutes.
Matteo walked toward the control room.
“What happens if we destroy the system?”
Anna answered:
“The contingency activates.”
“What if we don't?”
“Same.”
Matteo looked at the screens.
Two choices.
Both catastrophic.
Then Leonardo spoke.
“What if we change the system?”
Everyone turned.
Leonardo opened a hidden panel.
“There is an override.”
“Where?”
“Inside the original vault.”
Matteo frowned.
“The Bellavita vault.”
Leonardo nodded.
“The first system wasn't digital.”
“What was it?”
Leonardo looked at Elena.
“Human.”
Matteo felt a chill.
“Explain.”
“The network requires a living decision-maker.”
“One person?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Leonardo pointed at Elena.
Matteo's face went still.
She had been the key all along.
Not because of blood.
Because she had been selected as the first living controller.
Elena stepped backward.
“No.”
Matteo took her hand.
“You don't have to.”
She shook her head.
“They will kill millions.”
“We'll find another way.”
She looked at him.
“What if there isn't?”
Matteo couldn't answer.
They returned to Bellavita.
The restaurant was surrounded by police.
The vault opened when Elena entered.
The system recognized her.
A message appeared.
WELCOME, SOVEREIGN.
Everyone froze.
Matteo stared at the screen.
“Sovereign?”
Elena looked terrified.
The system continued.
IDENTITY CONFIRMED.
MEMORY ARCHIVE AVAILABLE.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO REMEMBER?
Elena looked at Matteo.
He nodded.
She pressed YES.
The screen exploded into light.
Elena screamed.
Memories flooded back.
Fire.
The laboratory.
Her mother.
Her father.
Marco.
Isabella.
Leonardo.
And one final memory.
A man standing beside her crib.
He looked exactly like Matteo.
But he wasn't Matteo.
He leaned over her as a baby and whispered:
“If they ever ask…”
The memory shifted.
A woman answered:
“Tell them you're the original.”
Elena opened her eyes.
She looked at Matteo.
Tears ran down her face.
“Dad.”
He stepped toward her.
“What happened?”
Elena whispered:
“I know who built Orpheus.”
“Who?”
She looked at the screen.
May you like
Then at herself reflected in the glass.
“I did.”
