Chapter 17 - The BloodEverything happened at once.
The chamber exploded.
Liquid poured across the floor.
The baby fell into my arms.
He was unbelievably light.
Voss stared in horror.
“No.”
The baby looked at me.
“Run.”
I grabbed him.
Mara shot the lights.
Darkness.
We moved through the chaos.
Dad found a side door.
We ran.
Voss shouted behind us.
“Bring me Connor alive!”
Gunfire followed.
We escaped into a maintenance tunnel.
For the first time, the baby spoke directly to me.
“They'll never stop.”
“Who?”
“Everyone.”
“Why?”
“Because of your blood.”
I looked at him.
“What does it do?”
“It remembers.”
“Remembers what?”
“Everything.”
His tiny hand touched mine.
A wave of pain struck my head.
Suddenly I saw images.
Scientists.
Laboratories.
Wars.
Medical experiments.
Thousands of people.
Not just one project.
Hundreds.
Different locations.
Different children.
All with variations of the same mutation.
I collapsed.
Mara caught me.
“What did you see?”
I couldn't answer.
The baby whispered:
“The project was never about healing.”
“Then what?”
“Adaptation.”
He looked at me.
“They wanted humans that could survive anything.”
Evan appeared beside us.
“And they found one.”
The baby nodded.
“Not one.”
He pointed at me.
“Three.”
I froze.
“Three?”
Evan stared.
“The original.”
The baby.
“The copy.”
Evan.
“And the accident.”
Me.
Three versions.
Three generations.
But there was something else.
The baby whispered:
“They're making a fourth.”
Voss's voice echoed through the tunnel.
“Correct.”
We turned.
Voss stood at the other end.
He wasn't alone.
Behind him was a woman.
My mother.
Except she wasn't crying.
She was holding a syringe.
Mom stared at her.
“No.”
The woman smiled.
She had the same face.
Same eyes.
Same voice.
Another clone.
She said:
“Hello, Sarah.”
Mom backed away.
“You aren't me.”
The clone smiled.
“No.”
She looked at me.
“But I am the version they wanted.”
Voss stepped forward.
“You thought Phase Two was about Connor and Evan?”
He laughed.
“Phase Two is about reproduction.”
He held up the syringe.
A glowing blue fluid moved inside.
“Connor's cells.”
My blood ran cold.
He looked at the cloned woman.
“And Sarah's genetic template.”
I realized what he intended.
“No.”
Voss smiled.
“Your mother was only the beginning.”
He turned toward me.
“You are the end.”
Then alarms erupted throughout the tunnel.
The cloned woman looked toward Voss.
“What is that?”
Voss frowned.
A voice came over the intercom.
“Facility compromised.”
“By whom?” Voss shouted.
A second voice answered.
“Government task force.”
Mara smiled.
“Finally.”
But the baby shook his head.
“No.”
“What?”
He looked terrified.
“Not government.”
He whispered:
“Someone worse.”
Then every screen turned on.
A symbol appeared.
The same silver circle.
May you like
And beneath it:
PROJECT GENESIS: PHASE THREE ACTIVATED.
