Chapter 15 - Marco collapsed.Sofia screamed.
Matteo caught him before he hit the floor.
Blood spread across Marco's shirt.
Elena turned toward the young Sofia.
“Who are you?”
The woman lowered the gun.
“I am Sofia Marino.”
The older Sofia stared at her.
“No.”
The younger woman smiled.
“You were the copy.”
Everyone froze.
The older Sofia backed away.
“You're lying.”
“I remember everything.”
“How?”
“Because I never forgot.”
Matteo looked between them.
One Sofia.
Then the other.
His entire life had been built around a woman who might not even have been real.
The younger Sofia stepped toward Elena.
“You were never supposed to survive.”
Elena raised her gun.
“Why?”
“Because you were the first.”
“The first what?”
“The first person who could override Orpheus.”
Elena's hand trembled.
The younger Sofia looked at Isabella.
“You were the insurance.”
Then Leonardo.
“You were the weapon.”
Then Matteo.
“And you…”
She smiled.
“…were the sacrifice.”
Matteo stared.
“What does that mean?”
“You were designed to take the blame.”
“For what?”
“For destroying Orpheus.”
Matteo suddenly understood.
The system needed someone to carry responsibility when everything collapsed.
Someone whose identity could be erased.
Someone no one would believe.
Him.
The man who had spent twenty-seven years believing he was Matteo De Luca had been created to die publicly while the real architects escaped.
He looked at Elena.
“They used me.”
She nodded.
“But they made one mistake.”
“What?”
“They gave you a family.”
Matteo smiled.
Then he looked toward the system.
“Can you shut it down?”
Elena and Isabella stood together.
“Yes.”
They placed their hands on the terminal.
The system activated.
FINAL AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED.
A biometric scanner appeared.
Matteo stepped forward.
“I'll do it.”
Elena shook her head.
“You don't know what it will cost.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“But I know what it will save.”
He placed his hand on the scanner.
The system recognized his blood.
Then displayed:
MATTEO DE LUCA.
The real Matteo.
He stared.
For the first time in twenty-seven years, the system had called him by that name.
A final question appeared.
DO YOU ACCEPT ORIGINAL IDENTITY TERMINATION?
Matteo understood.
If he shut down Orpheus, every synthetic record of his identity would disappear.
The legal Matteo De Luca would cease to exist.
No passport.
No accounts.
No properties.
No official history.
Nothing.
He looked at his family.
Leonardo.
Isabella.
Elena.
Sofia.
Marco, barely conscious.
Then Matteo pressed YES.
The system began shutting down.
Across the world, hidden servers went offline.
Secret accounts vanished.
Encrypted archives unlocked.
Files were released to investigators.
Politicians panicked.
Police units received evidence.
Judges opened cases.
For the first time in forty-one years, Project Orpheus stopped controlling the world.
The vault became silent.
Matteo stood in darkness.
The system spoke one final time.
GOODBYE, MATTEO.
Then everything went black.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Elena reached for his hand.
He squeezed hers.
“I am still here.”
She smiled.
Outside, sirens filled the streets.
Anna entered the vault.
“It's over.”
Matteo looked at her.
“No.”
She frowned.
“What?”
He looked toward the dead terminal.
“Not quite.”
He picked up a file.
The last file.
It wasn't labeled Elena.
Or Isabella.
Or Leonardo.
Or Sofia.
It was labeled:
PROJECT ORPHEUS: PHASE TWO.
Matteo opened it.
Inside was one photograph.
A newborn baby.
On the back was a date.
Ten years before Elena was born.
Matteo frowned.
“Who is this?”
Anna took the photograph.
Her face went pale.
“I know.”
“Who?”
She looked at Matteo.
“My father.”
Matteo stared.
Anna continued.
“He was declared dead thirty-nine years ago.”
Sofia slowly approached.
She looked at the photograph.
Then covered her mouth.
“No.”
Matteo turned.
“You know him?”
Sofia nodded.
“He was the man who started Orpheus.”
Matteo looked again at the baby.
Something was written beneath the photograph.
SUBJECT: ADRIAN RICCI.
Then a second sentence.
CURRENT STATUS: ALIVE.
Anna stepped backward.
“That can't be true.”
The lights inside the vault suddenly turned on.
A speaker crackled.
A man's voice filled the room.
Old.
Calm.
Almost amused.
“Hello, Anna.”
She froze.
Her eyes filled with terror.
The voice continued.
“I've been waiting forty-one years for you to open that file.”
Matteo slowly raised his gun.
“Who are you?”
The man laughed.
“You really want to know?”
A screen flickered to life.
An elderly man appeared.
Behind him stood dozens of people.
Men.
Women.
Children.
All wearing the same black stone ring.
The man smiled.
“Project Orpheus was never the operation.”
Matteo stared.
“It was the experiment.”
The old man leaned toward the camera.
“And now that experiment is complete.”
The screen displayed one final message.
PHASE TWO HAS BEGUN.
Then every phone in the vault rang at once.
Matteo looked at Elena.
Elena looked at Isabella.
Isabella looked at Leonardo.
Marco, still bleeding, whispered one sentence.
May you like
“Run.”
And somewhere beneath Naples, a door that had been sealed for forty-one years slowly began to open.
