Chapter 14 - Nobody spoke.Matteo stared at Elena.
“You were a baby.”
“I know.”
“How could you build anything?”
“I didn't.”
She looked toward the files.
“My other self did.”
Isabella stepped forward.
“Another copy.”
Elena shook her head.
“Not a copy.”
“What then?”
“A version of me from the future.”
The room became silent again.
Anna stared.
“That isn't possible.”
Elena pointed at the archive.
“Look.”
The files began opening automatically.
The oldest documents were dated forty-one years earlier.
The newest were dated next month.
Future dates.
Matteo stared at one.
Tomorrow.
Another.
Three days from now.
Another.
One year from now.
“This system predicts behavior.”
Elena explained.
“It creates probabilities.”
“And the copies?”
“Experiments.”
“And me?”
“You are the final model.”
Matteo stared at her.
“Final model for what?”
Elena looked at the screen.
“Choice.”
She explained that Orpheus had spent decades attempting to create a human capable of making perfect strategic decisions.
Not intelligence.
Not strength.
Choice without emotion.
But every early model failed.
The project eventually discovered that human memory could be manipulated.
That identities could be copied.
That personality could be reconstructed.
And Elena became the first successful subject.
But there was one flaw.
She developed empathy.
The system considered it a defect.
Her father considered it a weakness.
Sofia considered it salvation.
So they erased her memory.
They split her identity.
They created Isabella.
They created Leonardo.
They created Matteo as a replacement for the original.
And they waited.
But the system kept learning.
It learned from every betrayal.
Every death.
Every lie.
Until finally it predicted one outcome.
Its own destruction.
Elena looked at the screen.
“It knew someone would eventually try to kill it.”
Matteo asked:
“Who?”
Elena looked at him.
“You.”
Matteo shook his head.
“That makes no sense.”
“It does.”
She touched the glass.
“The system created you as the person most likely to rebel against it.”
Matteo stared.
“So my entire life…”
“Was engineered.”
He looked around.
Sofia.
Marco.
Isabella.
Leonardo.
Every person he had loved.
Every betrayal.
Every loss.
Every war.
All of it had been engineered.
Then Matteo smiled.
A cold smile.
“They made one mistake.”
“What?”
“They thought a prediction was a command.”
Elena smiled faintly.
“They did.”
Matteo turned to Anna.
“Can we destroy the system?”
“Yes.”
“What happens?”
“The contingency.”
Elena stepped toward the terminal.
“Not if I overwrite it.”
Anna looked worried.
“What does that mean?”
“I become the system.”
Matteo immediately shook his head.
“No.”
“If I don't, millions die.”
“We'll find another way.”
“There isn't one.”
She took his hand.
“I spent twenty-seven years believing I was a daughter.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“But I was built to be something else.”
Matteo squeezed her hand.
“You are my daughter.”
She smiled.
“That is why I can save them.”
She entered the final command.
The system asked:
CONFIRM TRANSFER?
Elena pressed YES.
A countdown began.
Matteo watched.
“Stop it.”
Elena shook her head.
“I can't.”
Leonardo looked at Isabella.
Sofia began crying.
Marco stood silently.
Then the lights flickered.
A new message appeared.
TRANSFER FAILED.
Everyone froze.
Elena stared.
“What?”
The system displayed:
SECOND SOVEREIGN DETECTED.
Matteo looked at Isabella.
She was pale.
“No.”
Isabella looked at the screen.
“I'm the second.”
Elena whispered.
“What did they do to you?”
Isabella shook her head.
“I don't know.”
The terminal began activating.
A second countdown appeared.
Matteo stepped between the sisters.
“Whatever this is, we do it together.”
Elena nodded.
Isabella reached for her hand.
The system recognized both.
A message appeared:
DUAL AUTHORIZATION ACCEPTED.
The countdown stopped.
Everyone exhaled.
Then the screen displayed one final sentence.
ORIGINAL SOVEREIGN RESTORED.
Matteo frowned.
“Which one?”
The lights went out.
A voice whispered from the darkness.
“I am.”
A figure stepped into the room.
It was Sofia.
But this time, even the real Sofia screamed.
Because the woman standing there was younger.
Twenty-seven years younger.
And she looked exactly like the Sofia from Matteo's memories.
The young Sofia smiled.
“I told you.”
She looked at Matteo.
“I never died.”
May you like
Then she raised a gun.
And shot Marco.
